IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GIVING MOTION TO THE REVOLVING LIGHTS OF LIGHT- HOUSES.
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Hopkinson, junior, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR GIVING MOTION TO THE REVOLVING LIGHTS OF LIGHT-
HOUSES.
"
Scaled the 24th December 1872, and dated the 20th July 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Hopkinson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th July 1872.
I, JOHN HOPKINSON, junior, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR GIVIVG MOTION TO THE REVOLVING LIGHTS
OF LIGHTHOUSES," to be as follows:-
It is of importance that the motion of the apparatus of revolving
lights should be perfectly regular, accurate, and continuous. This end
is usually attained by driving the apparatus by means of a clock
regulated by rapidly revolving fans, which are so adjusted that the time
of revolution is that required.

page_text: In my improved apparatus the regulation is by means of a pendulum
instead of fans, the improvement consisting in the introduction of a
spring as the communication between the escapement wheel and the
shaft on which it revolves, or if more convenient any elastic connexion
may be introduced between the escapement and apparatus, whereby
the mechanical connexion ceases to be rigid, and permits the pendulum
to regulate the velocity of revolution without causing its beats to be felt
as jerks in the apparatus.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said John Hopkinson, in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 20th January 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HOPKINSON, junior, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth. day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Hopkinson, junior, Her special licence
that I, the said John Hopkinson, junior, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Hopkinson, junior, 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 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR GIVING MOTION TO THE REVOLVING LIGHTS OF LIGHTHOUSES,'
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Hopkinson,
junior, 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
""

page_text: 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 John Hopkinson, junior, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement (that is to say):-
It is of importance that the motion of the apparatus of revolving
lights should be perfectly regular, accurate, and continuous. This end
is usually attained by driving the apparatus by means of a clock
regulated by rapidly revolving fans, which are so adjusted that the time
of revolution is that required.
In my improved apparatus the regulation is by means of a pendulum
instead of fans, the improvement consisting in the introduction of a
spring as the communication between the escapement wheel and the
shaft on which it revolves, or if more convenient any elastic connection
may be introduced between the escapement and apparatus, whereby the
mechanical connection ceases to be rigid, and permits the pendulum to
regulate the velocity of revolution without causing its beats to be felt as
ianka in the annexativa

page_text: end of the spring J, the other end of which is fixed to the shaft G;
this spring forms an elastic connection between the escapement
wheel and the shaft on which it is mounted, whereby the mechanical
connection ceases to be rigid, and permits the pendulum to regulate the
velocity of revolution without causing its beats to be felt as jerks in the
apparatus.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, and described a
convenient manner of carrying the same into operation, I wish it to be
understood that I do not limit myself to the details given as my
Invention is applicable to any suitable form of escapement, and any
other suitable elastic connection for masking the discontinuity of motion
in the escapement may be used; and I claim as my Invention the use
of a spring as the connection between the escapement wheel and the
shaft on which it is mounted, as shewn and described, or any elastic
connection between the escapement and the apparatus by which the
lights are caused to revolve.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Hopkinson, junior, have hereto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of January, One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
JOHN HOPKINSON, JUNIOR. (L.S.)