GB521094A - Improvements in submarine mines - Google Patents

Abstract

521,094. Submarine mines. TAILLEFERRE, H., and BLAISE,ÀL. M. Sept. 10, 1938, No. 26494. Convention date, Oct. 22, 1937. [Class 9 (ii)] A mine, whether anchored or free, is provided with means which cause it to oscillate up and down to vary its depth of submersion. The mine 3 comprises a lower chamber 26 for ballast water which communicates with an upper chamber 24 through a tube 25. A liquefied gas, e.g., ammonia, in a vessel 15 is liberated by a valve actuated by a hydrostatic device in a chamber 7 when the mine descends, and the gas passes by a pipe 22 to the upper chamber 24. It thereupon exerts pressure on the ballast water and expels some of it through an escape valve in a bell 35. The mine then rises and the hydrostat projects a jet of water through a pipe 23 into the chamber 24 and dissolves the ammonia gas. The internal pressure being thus relieved, external water passes into the mine through the bell 35 and the mine again begins to sink. The ammonia gas is prevented from absorption by the ballast water by a film of oil A on the surface thereof. The rate of oscillation of the mine may be controlled by regulation of the size of the ports in the bell 35 and by a spring brake applied to a stem on the hydrostat piston. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 describes also a metal lattice attachment 1, Fig. 1 (Cancelled), extending above and below the mine and, somewhat obscurely, a magnetic firing device which does not admit of satisfactory abridgment. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.