MEANS FOR INDICATING THE PROXIMITY OF ICEBERGS
Year: 1857

page_text: IMPROVED
LETTERS PATENT to Nicholas Marshall Cummins, of Annmount, in the
County of Cork, Ireland, Esquire, for the Invention of
MEANS FOR INDICATING THE PROXIMITY OF ICEBERGS."-A communication
from Lieutenant-Colonel John Swate Cummins, of Robinson, near
Montreal, Canada East.
Sealed the 29th October 1857, and dated the 8th July 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Nicholas Marshall.
Cummins, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 8th July 1857.
I, NICHOLAS MARSHALL CUMMINS, of Annmount, in the County of Cork,
Ireland, Esquire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVED MEANS FOR INDICATING THE PROXIMITY OF ICEBERGS," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to indicate to navigators the proximity of
floating icebergs, when, either from the foggy state of the weather or from
darkness, such objects are not discernible. It is well known that the presence
of icebergs materially reduces not merely the temperature of the surrounding
atmosphere but also of the sea, and it is the latter fact that I avail myself of
to attain the required indication. In the fore part of the ship, below the line.

page_text: of flotation, I fit a trumpet-mouth pipe which projects downwards into the
water, and is intended to receive water from near the keel of the vessel, and
discharge it into the ship below the load water line upon the face of a
thermometer. By this means the temperature of the water will be continually
indicated on the thermometer, and if desired the fall of the column of mercury
--can be caused to set an alarum in action and attract the attention of the
master of the ship.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Nicholas Marshall Cummins in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 8th January 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, NICHOLAS
MARSHALL CUMMINS, of Annmount, in the County of Cork, Ireland, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first-year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Nicholas Marshall Cummins, Her special license that I, the said Nicholas
Marshall Cummins, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Nicholas Marshall Cummins, 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 IMPROVED MEANS FOR INDICATING THE PROXIMITY OF ICEBERGS,"
being a communication from Lieutenant-Colonel John Swate: Cunimins,
of. Robinson, near Montreal, Canada East, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Nicholas Marshall Cummins, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what 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 Nicholas Marshall Cummins, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the sanic is

page_text: to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
The object of this Invention is to indicate to navigators the proximity of floating
icebergs, when, from the foggy state of the weather or darkness of the night,
such objects are not discernible, and thereby to remove the risk of collision
with these floating islands attendant on traversing the North Atlantic and
other seas at certain periods of the year. It is well known that the presence
of icebergs effects not merely a material reduction of the temperature of the
surrounding atmosphere but also of the water in which they float, and it is the
latter fact of which I avail myself, in common with the navigators of ice-
burdened seas, to attain the required indication.
As the specific gravity of ice is about one-ninth less than that of water, it
follows that an iceberg floats eight parts immersed for one above the water;
it is therefore scarcely affected by winds, but it is carried along by the currents
of the occan, the consequence of which is that the water a little below the
surface, where it is not agitated by winds, is stationary as respects the iceberg,
and its temperature becomes so reduced to a distance varying between two
and four miles in every direction, as to allord seamen a reliable means of
ascertaining the presence of icebergs within a large circuit. Thus it is
commonly the practice of cautious seamen, when danger from proximity to ice
is apprehended, to heave the vessel to at frequent intervals for the purpose of
drawing up water from a given depth below the surface and testing its
temperature with the mercurial thermometer.
This practice, so indispensable to safety, is at all times attended with delay
and great labour to the crew in sailing ships, frequently rendering it necessary
to call all hands on deck, which is so grievous a hardship, when often repeated
in cold and wet weather, that the humane officer is constantly in the dilemma
of choosing between the disregard of his strict duty and the certainty of
rendering his crew discontented, and too often (with fatal consequence it is to
be feared) leans to the former course.
Now, in order to avoid the inconveniences attendant on the mode of testing
the situation of the ship with respect to icebergs, and to enable the officer in
charge of the ship to ascertain at all times the temperature of the water,
I adapt a self-indicating apparatus to any convenient part of the ship, and
conduct the water thereto in a continuous stream, so that, either on inspection
or by an audible signal, the dangerous proximity of icebergs will be made
known.

page_text: In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 shews a portion of the hull of a ship
fitted with a self-acting ice indicator, constructed on the principle of my
Invention; Fig. 2 shews, in longitudinal elevation, the same apparatus
detaclied and ou au enlarged scale, with the details of the alarum apparatus;
and Fig. 3 is an elevation taken at right angles to the same.
In the fore part (or it may be any other convenient part) of the ship below
the line of flotation a trumpet-mouthed pipe A is fitted, which projects down-
wards into the water, and is intended to receive water from near the keel of
the vessel and conduct it to the thermometer mounted in the ship below the
load water line. This thermometer may be of any approved construction, but
I prefer to employ such as will act upon an adjacent alarum, and thereby
give instant notice of approaching danger. The thermometer shown at
Figures 1 and 2 is provided with a metal bar or rod, which expands or
contracts according to the variations of temperature to which it is exposed,
but I also propose to employ a column of mercury, the fall of which will
cause an alarum to be set in action, and thus attract the attention of the
master of the ship. Or, in place of either of these arrangements, or in
conjunction with them as a check test, a common mercurial thermometer
'may be used.
The metallic thermometer shewn at Fig. 2 consists of a bar or rod a
inserted in a tube b, which forms the continuation of the pipe A, Fig. 1;
'communication from which is cut off when required by a cock *. The inner
end of the rod a is secured by a pin c to the tube b, and the other or free end
projects beyond the end of the tube, and is jointed to the short arm of a rock
lever d, carried by a frame e, on which also the index and alarumi apparatus
either or both are mounted. The upper end of the lever d, when an alarum
is used, as indicated in the Drawing, is formed so as to retain a hammer and
prevent it from acting (under the impulsive force of a coiled spring contained
in a barrel f) upon the bell g, and sounding an alarum. And the same lever
may also be employed to operate through any suitable connection an index or
pointer h, and cause it to indicate on the face of a dial the temperature of the
water admitted to the thermometer. The water in this arrangement will. flow
up the pipe A along the tube b, and escape at the opposite end. tlicreof: into
a suitable receptacle i, from which it is discharged out. of the ship into the
sea. As the water passes along the tube b. it will impart its own temperature
(whatever that may be) to, the bar a, and cause it to 'contract ór.expand
according as that temperature varies. Thus, on the vessel. approaching an
iceberg, the reduced temperature of the water in its neighbourhood will.cause

page_text: the contraction of the rod a, when, by reason of the free end of the rod being
jointed to the lever d, that lever will be rocked on its fulcrum, and caused to
set free the hammer of the alarum or move round the index hand, or both, as
the case may be, and thereby afford a visible or an audible signal, or botli,
denoting the near approach of the ship to icebergs.
Fig. 4 shows a Diagram of another arrangement of self-indicating thermo-
meter, in which a column of mercury is employed to set in action an alarum
apparatus. The mercury is adapted to complete the circuit of an electric
battery, into which circuit an electro-magnet is introduced, and which, so long
as the electric current 'is maintained, will retain in a raised position an
armature forming a portion of an alarum apparatus, and prevent it from
acting; but when the circuit is broken, the attractive power of the electro-
magnet will cease, and the armature will consequently fall away, and thereby
produce an audible signal. Into the glass tube a of the thermometer (which
is brought under the action of a stream of water admitted to the ship) a con-
ducting wire b is introduced at a height denoting on the adjacent scale forty-
five degrees Fahrenheit or thereabouts, and into the bulb of the thermometer
a second wire c is also introduced. These wires are connected to the opposite
poles of a galvanic battery d, a horse-shoe electro-magnet e being placed, as
before stated, within the circuit. As long, therefore, as the column of
mercury stands high enough to remain in contact with the wire b, a current
of electricity will continue to traverse the coils of the electro-magnet e, which
retaining its attractive power will hold up the armature f; but as soon as the
mercury falls to a point indicating danger (viz, forty-five degrees) the circuit
will be broken. the armature will then fall from the electro-magnet, and the
alarum will be free to act. In cases where it is not thought requisite to
employ an alarum or a self-acting indicating apparatus, I propose to insert a
common portable thermometer in the stream of water admitted to the ship,
and thus by const int reference thereto when danger is apprehended to obtain
the desired assurance of distance from or proximity to icebergs.
Having thus set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improved Means
for Indicating the Proximity of Icebergs," as communicated to me from
abroad, and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it
to be understood that I do not limit myself to the use of the thermometers
constructed as above explained, neither do I claim their use apart from the
object above set forth, and I would further remark, that any of the suitable
well-known arrangements of alaruni apparatus may be brought into connection
with the thermometer for the purpose of producing an audible signal, all of

page_text: which will be well understood by persons competent to construct such
apparatus; what I claim under the above in part recited Letters Patent is,
obtaining on shipboard visible and audible signs indicating the proximity of
icebergs through a thermometer brought into contact with a stream of water,
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Nicholas Marshall Cummins, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Fifth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
WH. WENWICH,
12, Bishop St., Cork.
N. M. CUMMINS. (L.S.)