IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR TELE- GRAPHING ON BOARD SHIP, AND INDICATING THE POSITION OF THE RUDDER
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Eduard Adrianus Caminada, of Delft, Netherlands, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR TELE-
GRAPHING ON BOARD SHIP, AND INDICATING THE POSITION OF THE RUDDER."
Sealed the 17th January 1879, and dated the 21st September 1878.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Eduard Adrianus Caminada at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st September 1878.
EDUARD ADRIANUS CAMINADA, of Delft, Netherlands. " IMPROVEMENTS IN
MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR TELEGRAPHING ON BOARD SHIP, AND INDICATING the
POSITION OF THE RUDDER."
Telegraphing on board ships from one place to another or to several places simul-
taneously, and the indication of the position of the rudder on one place of the ship
or on several places simultaneously, lias heretofore principally been done by mechan-
ical apparatus. Mechanical apparatus does not however generally give satisfactory
results.
For this reason I have directed my attention to electricity, and after experi-
menting with instruments of different construction and principle I have come to
the following result. I use the following for the purposes above described:-On
the periphery of the half of a brass ring E, shewn in Figure A of the Drawings, are
placed thirteen electro-magnets B. Fig. B, E, shews the section of E and B (in
Fig. A). Above each of these electro-magnets is placed an armature C, provided
on one end with a hand D, and a flat spring a on the other, which spring is fixed
to E' at b.
It is evident that the action of the spring will move the armature in the position
shewn by C and D¹, and arrested by F, which is a strip of brass bent in the shape
of a semicircle, and placed over the hands D in such a manner that the armatures
cannot move beyond a certain distance from the electro-magnets. G is the dial of
the instrument.

page_text: Figure C shews the outer appearance of an instrument constructed for the purpose
of indicating the motion of the rudder.
The dial in this instrument is divided to indicate a motion of the rudder of
30 degrees to the right and 30 degrees to the left, at intervals of 5 degrees. Each
hand Ď of the instrument is to correspond with a division of the dial. The whole
is covered with a metal casing H, the front part of which is made to cover the
hands when their corresponding armatures are not attracted by their corresponding
electro-magnets.
In order to have this instrument operate automatically by the rudder it is
necessary to fix a strip of metal to the rudder shaft (place where the tiller is fixed
to the rudder), which will revolve with the rudder, and is called a contact inaker.
On a board is placed a segment of metal 1 of a circle (being 60 degrees), which is
cut into 13 parts of the same size, without altering the shape and size of the
segment (these parts are called contacts). This board is fixed to the bottom of
the ship, and at such a height underneath the contact maker that the same
(contact maker) will slide over the contacts when the position of the rudder is
altered.
It must be understood that these contacts (being all small segments of a circle)
have the same centre as the rudder, and that the contact maker and contacts are
placed and fixed in such a manner that the contact maker will rest upon the middle
or seventh contact when the rudder is at an angle of 0° with the ship. The con-
sequence is when the rudder has made 5° right or left, the contact maker will rest
upon the next contact. When it has moved to 30° it will rest upon the sixth contact
from the middle one.
In order to make the motion of the rudder visible on the indicator it is necessary
to connect the middle contact with the middle electro-magnet of the indicator, the
next contact right and left with the next electro-magnet right and left, going on
connecting in the same manner till at the sixth contact right and left with the
sixth electro-magnet right and left, the fourteenth binding post I' (scen in the
Drawing, Fig. C) receives one wire of every electro-magnet, and one wire of a pole
of a galvanic battery, while the other battery pole is connected with the contact
maker. The contact maker will slide over the contacts (when the rudder is being
moved, their (the contacts) corresponding electro-magnets in the indicator will attract
their corresponding armatures, and the hands will become visible on the dial until
the rudder is in the required position, which is shewn on the indicator, when a
hand will remain visible until the rudder is removed again.
It will be very easy to understand that this system is adapted for telegraphing
generally on board ships, that is, to make orders known from one place to another,
or to several places simultaneously (on board ships), and that it is simply necessary
to know the number of orders desired to be given, and to have these painted or
marked on the dial or dials, and the indicators to be constructed with the given
number of electro-magnets and hands to indicate to have them suit the purpose.
The transmitters (sending apparatus) for these telegraphing instruments are con-
structed on the same principle as the contact arrangement described for the rudder,
with a difference of motive power, it being the rudder with one case and the human
hand in the other.
As before stated I have experimented with instruments of different principles
and construction for the purpose of inventing a new mode or system of telegraphing
and rudder motion indication on board ships, and I have come to the following
conclusion-In order to have a reliable system of rudder motion indication and
telegraphing on board ships it is necessary to adopt the above-described arrange-
ments and principle.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature and object of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed or carried out in
practice, I hereby declare that I claim as my Invention, the construction of an
electrical rudder-motion indicator and electrical telegraph for use on board ships,

page_text: and the construction of the transmitters or contact makers belonging to them,
based on the following principles and conditions, videlicet:-
(a.) That the same circuit cannot be used but to transmit one and the same
signal to one indicator or to several indicators simultaneously, and to complete as
many separate circuits as there are signals or orders to be given from one trans-
mitter, one indicator, or to several indicators simultaneously, this to be effected by
one and the same contact maker, that is to say, that the one contact maker used to
complète one electrical circuit must be adapted to create them all in one set of
instruments.
And (b.). The use of a separate circuit for every separate signal, for the pur-
pose of constructing electrical motion indicators or electrical telegraphs on board
ships.
In witness whereof, I, the said Eduard Adrianus Caminada, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
E. A. CAMINADA. (L.S.)