GB191011894A - Improvements in Automatic Balancing Apparatus for Aerial Machines and Vessels, and the like. - Google Patents

Abstract

11,894. Galea, J. May 13. [Addition to 9805/09.] Planes, construction of; balancing. - In a device for balancing automatically an aerial machine as described in the parent Specification, the efficiency of the balancing-planes is increased by forming them with the upper surface corrugated or providing them with louvres which are opened when the plane is inclined. The devices for operating the planes are also modified. A series of planes 2, Fig. 2, are hinged to the frame 1 as described in the parent Specification referred to, and are formed with corrugations on the upper surface, or the plane is formed of louvres 2<a>, Fig. 4, connected by a cord 35 which passes around a pulley 36 on a shaft 38 geared to the shaft 4 carrying the plane 2 and the operating-pulley 5. The plane is inclined by a cord 6 actuated by an electromagnet 10 and passing around the pulley 5. The controlling-device comprises a wind vane 20, Fig. 7, which sets itself in the direction of the air current and is provided with means for automatically determining the selection of the circuits independently of the pendulum 19. The spindle 21 of the vane carries a pair of insulated spring fingers arranged parallel to the vane 20 and moving over a series of pairs of contacts 18 on the bottom of the switch-box 16. Each pair of contacts is connected with a solenoid for actuating one of the planes, and the circuit to be closed is selected by the windvane. Two rings 25 are arranged around the box 16, and, when the pendulum 19 swings in the guide 22 attached to the upper end of the spindle 21, the electric circuit of the solenoid b for actuating one of the controlling-planes is closed. In another form, a short pendulum 19, Fig. 1, is carried by the spindle of the upper of two gear-wheels 27 mounted in a frame carried by the spindle 21. The lower wheel is provided with an arm 28, adapted to be moved by the swing of the pendulum 19 against the ring 25, to close the circuit of the solenoid b. The arm may be dispensed with, and the pinions 27, Figs. 11 and 12, formed of insulating-material with a sector 27<a> of conducting-material. The pendulum 19 is secured to a spindle 19<a> carrying a sector 19<b>, which gears with a pinion 26<a> on the shaft of the upper wheel 27. The conducting sectors 27<a> of the wheels 27 are normally out of contact, but the movement of the pendulum in one direction brings the sectors into gear and completes the circuit of the operating-solenoid b. In another form, the method of mounting the pendulum and gearwheels, shown in Fig. 12, may be combined with an arm 28 and contact circle 25 as shown in Fig. 9, the gear wheels being made of metal. The vane may be formed of two blades set at an angle of 30 degrees to one another.