IMPROVED MEANS OB APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING AND GUIDING THE MOVEMENTS OF TORPEDO BOATS, RAMS, AND OTHER SIMILAR VESSELS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas James Smith, of the Firm of Robertson,
Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agents, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MEANS OB
APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING AND GUIDING THE MOVEMENTS OF TORPEDO
BOATS, RAMS, AND OTHER SIMILAR VESSELS."-A communication from
abroad by John Archibald Ballard, of Bombay, India, Colonel in
the Royal Engineers.
•
"
Sealed the 14th June 1870, and dated the 9th February 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas James Smith
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 9th February 1870.
I, THOMAS JAMES. SMITH, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS
OR APPARATUS FOR.CONTROLLING AND GUIDING THE MOVEMENTS OF TORPEDO BOATS,
RAMS, AND OTHER SIMILAR_VESSELS," to be as follows:
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The main object of my Invention is to establish a systèm of con-
trolling and guiding the movements of torpedo boats, rams, and other

page_text: similar apparatus by currents of electricity, so that they may travel
towards a given spot or place with certainty and there be exploded for
the purpose of destroying the object desired.
One way in which I propose to carry my system into effect is by
means of a telegraph cable or wire carried upon a reel or in a tank on
or in the torpedo boat itself, which cable can be unwound from the reel
or from the tank as the boat proceeds. The boat is to be provided with
steam or other power to propel it through the water, either on the surface
or submerged. One of the ends of one of the wires of the cable is to
be in connection with magnets placed close to the handle or lever of
the steam valve, so that it may be opened and closed to suit the desired
movement of the boat. The other wires of the cable may be in con-
nection with other valves or appliances connected with the boat. I
propose that the other ends of the wires should be in contact with a
battery, and the necessary current should be established by simply
acting upon a button or key from a vessel or from the shore wherever
the operator is situated. By this means a torpedo boat may be guided
under or against an enemy's vessel or fort with unerring certainty, and
there fired by means of an electric current sent through one of the
cable wires.
I do not wish to confine myself to any special mode of effecting what
I propose, but in the accompanying Drawings I have shown one way
of accomplishing the object above referred to.
In Figure 1, I have shown a portion of a cylinder A into which steam,
compressed air, or gases from a boiler or power reservoir is free to pass
when the valve is opened in the proper direction. This boiler or
reservoir is fitted on board the torpedo boat in such a manner that it is
protected from the injurious action of surrounding bodies. There is a
pipe B leading from the boiler or reservoir to the cylinder, tho pipe
being fitted with a valve box and valve C. The valve is drawn up and
down or sideways by its rod D being acted upon by the lever E. The
movement is governed by means of a current of electricity conveyed to the
pole of the magnet F, so that the plate or armature G which is attached
to the lever can be lifted or drawn to one side and held in that position
for any longth of time according to the will of the operator. I prefer
that the lever should be lifted in order that when the current is broken
the lever shall fall by its own weight and thus close or open the valve
port either to the supply or to the exhaust as the case may be. The

page_text: apparatus hero referred to may be considered as part of the steering
appliance, and by its aid sufficient power may be obtained to move the
rudder over to the desired angle. A valve on the main steam pipe
which starts and stops the engine and would not require to be often
opened and shut might have a different action as follows, see Fig. 2 :-
R is the valve rod with a short arm h; w, a wheel which turns round
with a spring in the direction of the arrow; b₁, b, are buttons which
catch the arm and lift the valve rod; f₁ƒfƒ, are also buttons on
the periphery of the wheel E; M a magnet lifting a detent A which
catches fff, f. At present the wheel is held in position by fi;
suppose a momentary current sent through the wires the detent rises
and falls and the spring carries the wheel round a quarter of a revolution,
here it is stopped by f₂ catching the detent. The button b, as it goes
round lifts the valve rod and the valve remains open. If a second
momentary current is sent round the magnet the detent again rises and
falls, and the wheel goes round another quarter revolution, the button b
slips past the arm ½, and the valve falls, the button b. has come round
and is ready to lift the valvo rod. I propose usually to send light
currents through the cable from a battery on shore, and by the ordinary
system of "relay" to cause powerful currents from batteries on board
the torpedo boat to circulate round the wires of the magnets which. lift
the valve. The operator has finger keys or any ordinary signalling
apparatus for connecting and disconnecting the poles of the shore
batteries and sending or stopping the currents through the wires of tlic
cable.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas James Smith in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 9th August 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
JAMES SMITH, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of
166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and

page_text: grant unto me, the said Thomas James Smith, Her special licence that I,
the said Thomas James Smith, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Thomas James Smith, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein 5
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS OR Apparatus
FOR CONTROLLING AND GUIDING THE MOVEMENTS OF TORPEDO BOATS, RAMS, AND
OTHER SIMILAR VESSELS," (a communication to me from abroad by John 1
Archibald Ballard, of Bombay, India, Colonel in the Royal Engineers,)
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas James
Smith, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what 1
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas James Smith, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the 2
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
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I propose to apply electricity to the purpose of manœuvring vessels,
but more especially to torpedo boats or rams from a distance, so that 2
the operator may be able to bring such vessels into the proximity of an
enemy but not himself be injured by the explosion or concussion. The
torpedo boats would be moveable by steam, compressed air, or similar
methods.
I propose that the person guiding the vessel should send electric 3
currents to it either through a telegraph submarino cable or suspended
wires, and that these currents should in the way hereafter described
magnetise the cores of electro-magnets on board; and I propose to
apply the power obtained by alternately mgnetising and demagnctising
the cores of the magnets to the purpose of opening and shutting steam g
valves and of putting machinery into and out of gearing, and generally
of closing such work as is necessary for guiding and manoeuvring the
vessel.

page_text: The cable would be placed in a tank or wound round a reel on board
the torpedo in such a manner that it could run out easily as the boat
advanced; one end would be fixed near the operator. With a pliant.
light cable the vessel's motion would be but little affected, and so long
as there. remains any cable on the reel the torpedo boat is free to move
in any direction, nothing retards it but the slight friction of the cable
running off the reel. In a strong tide way the cable would form a
bight and run out more rapidly, but there would be no additional drag
on the boat except that caused by the reel making a few more revolutions
per minute. In less water than fifteen or twenty fathoms the cable
would fall to the bottom and could be subsequently recovered. For
deep water it might be made of buoyant material, but it would then
be much exposed to injury from an enemy. The cable would not come
over the stern but run out through a pipe in the bottom of the boat.
The smallest size of torpedo for short ranges need be no longer than
a canoc. The larger torpedoes are made the more easily they could
be guided, so there is no limit to their size except convenience 'and
expense.
(the
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The method by which the steam valves would be opened' and shut
can be casily understood by a reference to Figure 1. E, M, is an electro-
magnet, that is, a horse-shoe shaped piece of iron
core") with
an insulated copper wire wrapped round it. If an electric current is
sent through the wire the horse-shoe becomes a magnet which will
attract ordinary iron. A piece of soft iron A, A, (the "armature") is
placed at a short distance from the electro-magnet, so that when a
current is sent round the wire the armature is strongly attracted and.
rising adheres to the magnet. This armature A, A, is attached to a
lever lifting the valve rod r. If now an operator sent a current
through the wire the magnet instantly attracts the armature and raises
the valve rod; when the current ceases the valve drops.
The vessel may be guided by a steam steering apparatus, one way of
applying which is shewn in Figure II. C, C, is a cylinder whose piston
rod R is twice the length of the cylinder and projects on either side; to
the extremities of R are attached ropes which move the helm H. P is
a steam pipe dividing into two smaller branches p', p², on which are
valves V, V; when these valves are down the steam passes to the
cylinder which is kept constantly filled, but if either valve is lifted the
steam passes out by the exhaust pipes c', e³, and the pressure on the

page_text: piston is relieved, hence it will move in the direction of the valve which
has been lifted, bringing the helm over.
Each valve has one or more electro-magnets to lift it in the way
before described. The electric currents to magnetise the cores of the
electro-magnets are provided by a battery on board; three or four
"Grove's" cells would usually suffice. The poles would be connected
or disconnected by a "relay" worked through the cable by the operator ;
any ordinary system of relay would answer, those used for train signalling
are generally simple and strong. I give an illustration of one kind of
relay in Figure II.
The line or cable wire through which the operator sends currents is
connected with the straight electro-magnets 10¹, w³, whose opposite poles
face each other; between these poles the north pole of a permanent.
magnet Y swings on a vertical axis. When there is no current passing
through the wire it is unaffected and kept stationery in the centre by a 1
spring, but it moves to w¹ with a direct current, and to 20% with the
reverse current. The battery to work the relay may be ashore or on
board. The local battery on board to work the large electro-magnets
is placed in any safe part of the boat. The zinc pole is connected by a
wire with Y. A wire from one end of the coil of each electro-magnet
passes to the copper pole and a wire from the other, and to the points
a², a², respectively; when Y is deflected by a line current it completes
the local circuit by touching a¹ or a³, and the cores of the large magnets
being magnetised the valves are lifted. If the operator wishes to put
the helm to starboard he sends a direct current along the cable wire;
this deflects the 8 pole of Y towards a³ and completes the circuit round
the electro-magnet which opens the valve o³. The stamp escapes at e³
and the pressure on that side of the piston being relieved it draws the
helm to starboard.
Another way in which I propose to use the magnetic force is by :
applying it to put different parts of machinery into and out of gearing
with each other; this is illustrated in Figuro III. Supposo it is desired
to have the power of putting the screw propeller shaft into and out of
gearing with a shaft constantly moving and thus to start or stop the
boat. Let B be the shaft in motion and C the screw shaft; on B is an ;
ordinary clutch F carried round by a pin 9 in a slot, on F is the
projection which when E is pushed forward catches the pin / on the
shaft C and causes C to revolve. The armature A when attracted by

page_text: the electro-magnet pulls back one end of the lever moving on the
fulcrum D, the other end pushes forward F and puts the shaft in gearing.
When the armature is released a spring & pushes back the clutch and
disconnects the shafts, or the clutch can be made self-disconnecting by
slipping off the points of contact between it and C.
This action may
of course be reversed, the two shafts may be always in gearing and the
vessel in motion unless the armature is pulled back by the electro-
magnet, which would be simply placed on the other side of the lever
and push the clutch back. This system may be applied to steering the
boat in various ways, for instance, the periphery of the steering wheel
might be cogged and the wheel turned by an endless screw. This screw
might receive direct motion by being geared by one electro-magnet and
clutch with a shaft revolving from right to left, and it might receive a
reverse motion by another electro-magnet and clutch putting it in
gear with a shaft revolving from left to right. Whether I uso the
electro-magnet to open a valve or to push a clutch backward and
forward the principle is the same. It is known that the magnetic.
force in itself could not conveniently be applied direct to pulling the
helm to one side or another, for it only acts at short distances and with
2 comparatively small power. But the force required to lift an equi-
librium valve or to push forward a clutch is as nothing compared to the
power possessed by the flow of steam which issues through the valve
when open, or to the force with which the clutch pulls round the
machinery into which it gears. By thus applying the magnetic force I
obtain as much power as the flow of steam or the revolutions of an
engine can give. It is not absolutely necessary that the signalling wiro
should be insulated or rolled up on board the boat and uncoil from that
side. If not insulated it must of course bo kept above the water. In
most cases, however, the best arrangement seems to be to roll up an
insulated cable on board and let it pay out in the way a submarine
telegraph cable is laid. I consider it doubtful if any relay yet invented
could be trusted to perform with absolute certainty more complicated
work than a right and left movement such as I have described. If it is
merely desired to guide the torpedo boat or to guide a ram one wire and
one relay will suffice. Another wire and relay could give the additional
power of starting and stopping the boat with one movement, and of
firing the charge on board the torpedo by another movement. It would
always be safer, however, to have a separate wire for the charge. In the
case of small boats when it may be an object to save the weight of extra

page_text: .
wires a relay of a more complicated nature, such as a dial instrument,
might be used and worked through a single wire, but a small steam
launch could easily carry a three wire cable. Three wires of small
guage could be well insulated by a cable % inch diameter, and if the
wires are well annealed the cable would be quite pliant. Hooper's 5
insulating material is very suitable for this purpose.
The shape of the torpedo boat or ram or the manner of firing the
explosive material have nothing to do with this Invention, which is
applicable to all kinds of vessels, and merely relates to a method of
manoeuvring them from a distance by means of electricity. For instance ]
this Invention might be applied to guiding steam launches from the
shore to vessels in distress when boats with persons on board could not
venture to put to sea. Or it might be used to guide a steamer
dragging an enemy's channel for stationary torpedoes.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in 1
what manner the same is to be performed, I claim as this Invention,
the employment of electrical power for controlling and guiding the
movements of torpedoe boats, rams, and other similar vessels in the
manner substantially as herein-before described and shewn in the
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas James Smith, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.