Improvements in Light Apparatus for Life Buoys.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd Dec., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 16th Mar., 1892-Accepted, 16th Apr., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Light Apparatus for Life Buoys.
We, JoHN MCKIRDY, Commander Royal Naval Reserve, and SAMUEL
STEWART CARRICK, Superintendent Engineer, both of No. 34, Leadenhall Street,
in the City of London, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
Our invention relates to apparatus connected to life buoys which when these are
thrown into the water, produces a light at night time or smoke by day for indicating
the position of the buoy to the person in the water. Such apparatus generally
consists of a closed case containing chemicals of such a nature that when openings
are formed in the case respectively for allowing the water to gain access to the
chemicals and for the products to escape, combustion of these results, producing
flame and smoke.
Such apparatus have in some cases been so constructed and connected to the life
buoy that the net of releasing the life buoy from its holding and throwing it into
the water causes the openings to be automatically formed in the casing of the light
for the ingress of the water and issue of the flame.
Our invention consists in constructing the light casing for operating in this
manner as follows.
According to one arrangement we construct the casing with an opening at each
end, and into these openings fit plugs formed on external eyes, and these plugs are
connected together internally in such a manner that while on the one hand such
connecting device keeps shoulders or flanges on the eyes pressed in a water and air
tight manner against the casing round the said holes, on the other hand, a sudden
pull exerted in contrary directions upon the two eyes will cause the internal
connecting device to be severed, and the eyes to be drawn out of the holes, which
are thus free for the entrance of the water.
The connecting device which we prefer to employ for the above purpose con-
sists of a metal rod one end of which has a head that is secured in a recess in the
plug of the one eye by rivetting or wiping the metal of the plug over the head,
while the other end has a screw thread formed on it which screws into a threaded
hole in the plug of the other eye, so that by turning the first named eye and with it
the rod, the latter will draw the two eyes tightly together over the holes as above
described.
The eye to which the head of the rod is attached is suspended from any suitable
support while the other eye which hangs downwards, is connected by a lanyard to
the buoy, the loop of such lanyard being at the same time made to embrace a third
eye fixed firmly to the lower end of the casing. Thus on the buoy being thrown
into the water, the lanyard in exerting a sudden pull on the lower eye, causes the
head of the upper end of the rod to be drawn out of its fastening in the upper eye,
so that the light casing will fall away from the latter, leaving the upper opening
free, and at the same time the lower eye will also be drawn out of its opening by
the lanyard, which will however remain attached to the casing by means of the
third eye.
By preference the lower hole of the casing is formed in a screwed metal cap
which closes a larger opening in the casing, through which this is charged with the
chemicals, and the cap also serves to hold in position an internal perforated conical
metal shield which allows the water to penetrate effectually into the chemicals when
the hole in the cap is opened.
The third are is ales fired to the said screwed con

page_text: According to another arrangement we construct the opposite ends of the light
casing with portions which are either made of a less thickness than the rest of the
casing, or which are weakened by cutting circular grooves in them, or such portions
are made of a weaker.metal than the casing, and in the centre of such portions we
attach an eye by means of one of which the light is suspended from any suitable
support, so that the other eye hangs vertically downward."
To such lower end of the casing is also attached a second eye or loop, at a point
beyond the before mentioned weak portion, and the rope by which the life buoy is
attached to the casing is made with a loop embracing both such lower eyes.
The weak part of the casing to which the upper eye is attached is made some-
what stronger than the weak part at the lower end, so that when the life buoy is
thrown overboard, its impetus will first cause the rope to pull at the bottom eye
with sufficient force to tear out the lower weak part of the casing, thereby forming
the required opening, and then the rope pulling at the second strongly fixed lower
eye will drag the casing away from the upper weak part, thereby forming the second
opening.
According to another modification of this arrangement the strongly fixed eye at
the one end is dispensed with and the casing is suspended by both its eyes in a
horizontal position by means of a rope chain or other support. The rope of the
life buoy being in this case attached to the middle of the light casing, the jerk
thereof on throwing out the buoy will cause both the weak parts to be fractured as
before.
In order to protect the light from injury while suspended in either of the above
described ways it may be hung within a metal hood, which in its turn is hung from
or is, otherwise attached to a support.
Dated this 3rd day of December 1891
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Light Apparatus for Life Buoys.
We JOHN MC KIRDY, Commander Royal Naval Reserve, and SAMUEL
STEWART CARRICK, Superintendent Engineer, both of No. 34 Leadenhall Street
in the City of London 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 :-
Our invention relates to apparatus connected to life buoys which, when these are
thrown into the water, produces a light at night time or smoke by day for indicating
the position of the buoy to the person in the water. Such apparatus generally
consists of a closed case containing chemicals of such a nature that when openings
are formed in the case respectively for allowing the water to gain access to the
chemicals and for the products to escape, combustion of these results, producing
Hame and smoke.
Such apparatus have in some cases been so constructed and connected to the life
buoy that the act of releasing the life buoy from its holding and throwing it into
the water causes the openings to be automatically formed in the casing of the light
for the ingress of the water and' issue of the flame.
Our invention consists in constructing the light casing for operating in this
manner as follows.
We construct the casing with an opening at each end, and into these openings fit
plugs formed on external eyes and these plugs are connected together internally in
such a manner that while on the one hand such connecting device keeps shoulders
or flanges on the eyes pressed in a water and air tight manner against the casing
round the said holes, on the other hand, a sudden pull exerted in contrary directions
upon the two eyes will cause the internal connecting device to be severed, and the

page_text: eyes to be drawn out of the holes, which are thus free for the entrance of the
water.
The connecting device which we prefer to employ for the above purpose consists
of a metal rod, one end of which has a head that is secured in a recess in the plug
of the one eye by rivetting or wiping the metal of the plug over the head, while
the other end has a screw thread formed on it which screws into a threaded hole in
the plug of the other eye, so that by turning the first named eye and with it the
rod, the latter will draw the two eyes tightly over the holes as above described.
The eye to which the head of the rod is attached is suspended from any suitable
support while the other eye, which hangs downwards, is connected by a lanyard to
the buoy, the loop of such lanyard being at the same time made to embrace a third
eye fixed firmly to the lower end of the casing. Thus on the buoy being thrown
into the water, the lanyard in exerting a sulden pull on the lower eye, causes the
head of the upper end of the rod to be drawn out of its fastening in the upper eye-
so that the light casing will fall away from the latter, leaving the upper opening
free, and at the same time the lower eye will also be drawn out of its opening by
the lanyard, which will however remain attached to the casing by means of the
third eye.
On the accompanying drawing is shewn the construction of our improved
apparatus which we prefer to employ.
Fig. 1 shews an elevation of the same in the suspended position,
Fig. 2 shews a longitudinal section to a larger scale,
Fig. 3 shews the same section with the plugs detached by the act of throwing.
the life buoy into the water,
Fig. 4 shews the mode of securing the rod K in the plug J, and
Fig. 5 shews the light and the buoy suspended from the ship's side, ready for use..
The casing A of the life buoy light, which may be of any desired configuration,.
is charged at B with the chemicals for producing flame on coming in contact with
water, and has an air chamber C for giving it the required buoyancy in the water.
Through this chamber passes a central tube D fixed watertight to the upper end of
the casing and to the partition E, the centre part of which is of perforated metal to-
allow of the passage of the flame into the tube. In the lower end of the casing is.
fixed a perforated conical shield projecting into the chemicals so as to enable the
water to gain readily access to the chemicals when the lower plug is removed.
Surrounding the opening of this shield is an internally screwed ring F brazed to
the casing, and into this is screwed a cap G having a central hole into which is
fitted a flanged plug H the flange of which is made to fit water tight against the
outer surface of the cap G, thereby effectually closing the entrance to the chemicals.
The plug H is formed with an eye H' and the cap G has a strong loop G'. The
upper end of the casing has a hole into which is fitted a bush I having a plug J
with an eye J' and a flange that fits watertight against the bush I. Into the inner
end of the plug is fixed the end of a rod K that passes right through the casing and
screws with its other end into a screwed hole in the plug H, so that on passing the
rod through the casing and screwing upon it the plug H, the flanges of the two
plugs are pressed water tight against the casing, so as to effectually close this
against ingress of water.
The fixing of the rod K to the plug J may be effected in any manner that will
afford sufficient strength to the joint to resist any moderate dead pull to which,it
may be subjected, so that the water tight closure will be insured while the light is
being handled or suspended from the ship's side. By preference however we employ
the method of fixing shewn on the drawing.
The end of the plug is made with a square recess as shewn at Fig. 4, and its
outer surface is formed with four corresponding chamfers so as to form thin edges
to the sides of the recess. The head of the rod, having a corresponding square
form, is introduced into the recess, and then by means of a die the sides of the latter
are pressed down so as to hold the head tightly between them as shewn at Fig. 2.
The joint thus made will be found to withstand a considerable dead pull, but when

page_text: subjected to the momentum of the falling life buoy to which the light is attached
by a cord secured through the eye H¹ and loop G', the head will be drawn out of
the plug J, and the light in losing its support will be drawn away from the plug J,
thus opening the top of the light, while at the same time the cord will draw the
plug Hout of its hole thus opening the bottom of the light, as shown at Fig. 3, the
cord still remaining attached to the loop G, and consequently keeping the light
attached to the life buoy when in the water.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is:
1. In light apparatus for life buoys, effecting the closure of the two ends of the
casing containing the chemicals by means of two plugs fitting water tight over the
holes in each end of the casing and secured together by a rod that is screwed into
the one plug and is fixed in the other one in such manner as to be separable there-
from when subject to the jerk exercised by the falling life buoy, so that by such
separation the two plugs are removed from the holes of the life buoy, substantially
as described.
2. In light apparatus for life buoys such as referred to in the preceding claim,
securing the rod to the one plug by forming the latter with a rectangular recess
into which a corresponding rectangular head on the rod is placed and which is
retained therein by rivetting the metal of the plug over the head of the rod,
substantially as described.
3. In light apparatus for life buoys such as referred to in the first claim, con-
structing the two plugs with eyes of which the upper one serves for the suspension
of the light, while the lower one serves for attachment of the life buoy rope, and
providing a third eye or loop fixed to the lower end of the casing that is also
embraced by the rope, so that on the plugs becoming detached from the casing of
the light by the jerk on the life buoy, the casing still remains attached to the rope
by the said third eye or loop, substantially as described.
4. In light apparatus for life buoys, the combination with the casing A of
plugs H and J with eyes H¹ and J' closing holes in the upper and lower ends
thereof, a rod K connecting the two plugs together in such manner as to be separable
from one of them by the jerk exercised by the life buoy in falling, and an eye or
loop G' fixed to the lower end of the casing or on a screw cap G thereof, sub-
stantially as and for the purpose described.
Dated this 16th day of March 1892.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.