GB510849A - Improvements in devices for the self-mooring of mines and buoys - Google Patents

Abstract

510,849. Submarine mines. OLMO, E. Jan. 13, 1939, No. 1175. Convention date, Jan. 15, 1938. [Class 9 (ii)] A mine or buoy is anchored in floating position or submerged to any required depth by a sinker comprising a fixed drum from which the mooring cable is paid out by a revolving arm located below the drum. The sinker a, when launched with the mine t, descends, leaving the mine on the surface of the water, the mooring cable, coiled on a fixed drum b, being paid out by an arm tr which revolves as the sinker descends. When a plummet s carried by a line fs, of any required length, from the end of a lever 1 touches bottom, the lever swings upwards under the influence of a spring m thereby lifting a plate pi linked by bars i to the lever into such position that jaws G carried by the plate are wedged by a cone M in the sinker to grip the cable and lock it to the sinker, after which the sinker descends carrying the mine with it. Bars as pivoted to arms bi secured to the arm tr, and urged towards the drum axis by springs mo, prevent the coils from slipping from the drum. In a modification, the plummet, on striking bottom, releases a lever e, Fig. 3, which arrests a toothed disc d supporting the jaws G by a plate pi and pins p. The continued rotation of the cone M raises the disc d by the action of the screw thread fh, thereby forcing the jaws G to grip the cable and lock it to the sinker. According to a further modification, the arrest of the toothed disc d, Fig. 5, by the release of the lever e when the plummet touches bottom, allows pins q carried by the cone M to align with vertical slots r in a sleeve n carried by the disc d, whereupon the sleeve is forced upwards by a spring v thereby causing the jaws G to grip the cable. Specification 383,178 is referred to.