Electric Apparatus for Working the Elevating and Training Gear of Guns and the Lifts for their Ammunition.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 5th Aug., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 3rd May, 1893-Accepted, 17th June, 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Electric Apparatus for Working the Elevating and Training Gear
of Guns and the Lifts for their Ammunition.
1, GEORGE SYLVESTER GRIMSTON, of Claremont, Glenluce Road, Westcombe
Park, in the County of Kent, Electrical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to means of working electrically the elevating and training
gear of guns and the lifts for hoisting their ammunition. the principal object in
view being to cause automatic stoppage of the motor which performs the work
when the movement has attained definite limits. For this purpose a hand switch
is arranged to close a circuit for an electrical motor in either of two ways so that
the motor is made to move in the one direction or the other according as the handle
of the switch is moved to the one side or the other. The switch is also preferably
provided with series of successive contacts connected with suitable resistances Bo
that by moving the handle more or less in either direction a greater or less number
of these resistances is short circuited and consequently the motor moves with
greater or less rapidity. Besides this hand switch there are two spring switches
arranged in such positions that when a moving part of the gun or hoist gear attains
either limit of its movement a tappet acts on the one or the other of the switches
opening the circuit of the motor which accordingly stops, and cannot be again put
in motion except in the opposite direction by reversal of the hand switch. When
the tappet is thus made to move away from the switch on which it had acted, that
switch is brought back by a spring or weight into position for again closing the
circuit which had been opened by its movement.
Dated this 5th day of August 1892.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Electric Apparatus for Working the Elevating and Training Gear
of Guns and the Lifts for their Ammunition.
I, GEORGE SYLVESTER GRIMSTON, of Claremont, Glenluce Road, Westcombe
Park, in the County of Kent, Electrical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to means of working electrically the elevating and training
gear of guns and the lifts for hoisting their ammunition, the principal object in
view being to cause automatic stoppage of the motor which performs the work
when the movement has attained definite limits. For this purpose, a hand switch
is arranged to close a circuit for an electrical motor in either of two ways, so that
the motor is made to move in the one direction or the other, according as the handle
of the switch is moved to the one side or the other. The switch is also preferably
provided with a series of successive contacts connected with suitable resistances so
that by moving the handle more or less in either direction a greater or less number
of these resistances is short circuited and consequently the motor moves with
greater or less rapidity. Besides this hand switch there are two spring switches
arranged in such positions that when a moving part of the gun or hoist gear attains
either limit of its movement a tappet acts on the one or the other of the switches
opening the circuit of the motor which accordingly stops, and cannot be again put
Pl

page_text: in motion except in the opposite direction by reversal of the hand switch. When
the tappet thus is made to move away from the switch on which it had acted, that
switch is brought back by a spring or weight into position for again closing the
circuit which had been opened by its movement.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is a diagram showing apparatus according
to my invention and its electrical connections.
Fig. 2 shews separately the arrangement of the conducting segments of the switch.
M M are the magnet coils of an electromotor arranged to revolve in either
direction, on the commutator C of which bear the brushes B B. A hand lever H
pivotted at has a toothed segment h¹ gearing with a pinion P on the axis of
which is fixed a cross bar carrying at its opposite ends insulated brushes or
rubbers R R¹. One of these rubbers R' extends over two insulated annular metal
segments, the outer A connected to lead L and occupying nearly half a circum-
ference, the inner consisting of A¹ connected by L' to B and occupying nearly
half a circumference, and of A' A' occupying each nearly a quarter of a
circumference.
The half outer circumference, not occupied by A, is nearly occupied by two
sets of insulated contacts A* A* annularly arranged, which are connected through
a number of resistances O in series to the lead L¹. S S' are two spring switches
which will be presently described, but which, as shewn, are in position keeping
carbons S S' in contact. The rubbers R R' in the position shewn in Fig. 1 are
over insulated parts between A'A' on the one side and A'A' on the other side,
and therefore they make no electrical connection to A'A' or A°. On moving the
lever H more or less down, the rubbers R R arc moved into a line such as rr, and
in this case, a current from a suitable battery or electrical generator passes from +
through coil M, lead L to segment A, through R' to A' thence by L' to B, through
the motor G to B', by L' and contacts s and lead L' to A', through rubber R to a
one of the contacts A³, thence through several of the resistances O, lead L' and
coil M' to the terminal.
If the lever H were moved up instead of down the rubbers R R' would be
brought to some position such as, then the course of the current would
be +, M, L, A, R³, A², L³, s', L³, B' through G, B, L, A', R, to a', resistance O,
lead L', coil M¹ to -. The current in this case has a direction, in the armature
of the motor, the reverse of the former, while it is in the same direction in the
field magnet coils, consequently the revolution of the motor would be in the
opposite direction. Thus the motor is made to revolve in the one or the other
direction according as the lever H is moved down or up. When it is moved
fully up or down, the rubber R is brought over the last of the contacts A*A*,.
so that the current does not pass through any of the resistances O, but when
the lever H is moved only a little way from its middle position in either direction,
the rubber R is brought over one of the contacts A' A' which is connected
through a number of the serial resistances 0 to L', and thus, according as the
lever H is moved more or less towards either extreme of its stroke, the greater
is the speed of the motor.
In what has preceded it has been assumed that there is contact at s and .
Of each pair of these contact pieces, which are preferably carbons, the one is
stationary, the other is fixed on a radial arm E, a pin e on which is connected
by a spring to a pin F on one arm of a bell crank lever which arm is strained
by a spring. The other arm K of the bell crank is in the path of some lever, arm
or other part attached to the gun or to the hoist which is raised or lowered by the
motor. When this is raised by a current taking its course through S and Lit
pushes K upwards, and as soon as the pin F is thus made to move a little beyond
the line passing from e through the centre of the lever, the spring connecting e to F
causes the arm E to make a rapid stroke to the right, separating the carbons sand
thus causing the motor to stop. As long as the contacts at s are thus kept separate,
the motor cannot be started in the same direction as before, but, as the carbous
at s' are in contact, it can be started in the opposite direction, causing descent of

page_text: the lever or part attached to the gun or hoist, thus permitting the carbons s to
meet again. The contacts at are separated by an action such as is above
described, the switch S¹ being arranged similarly to the switch S.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim in respect of electric apparatus for working the elevating and training gear
of guns and the lifts for their ammunition, is :-
1. The combination of electromotor, switch and lever, the rubbers moved thereby
over insulated annular segments and contacts, the serial resistances connected to
the contacts, and the conducting leads, arranged and operating substantially as
described.
2. In combination with the apparatus above referred to, the spring switches SS¹
for automatic stoppage of the motor when the part moved by it attains each
extreme of its course, substantially as described.
D
1
1000
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.