GB787907A - Improvements in and relating to apparatus for training operators to work from unstable positions - Google Patents

Abstract

787,907. Exhibitions, scenic and spectacular. KELVIN & HUGHES, Ltd. Nov. 4, 1955 [Nov. 8, 1954], No. 32317/54. Class 132(1) Apparatus for training operators to work from unstable platforms, e.g. on a ship such as a whaler, comprises mechanical means for producing small rocking movements of a platform which is coupled to optical means arranged to give the operator the impression of increased platform movement, the optical means comprising a light source which projects on to a screen the image of a scene e.g. a seascape, portrayed on a light transmitting body, the body being light reflecting so that the image of an object projected by another light source on the body is reflected on to the screen, the optical axes of the light rays from the two sources being coincident between the body and the screen. The opeartor stands in a cabin comprising a platform 10, opaque walls 11, 12, 13. and roof 14 and windows 15, 16, 17 and manipulates apparatus 19. The cabin is mounted on three pins 20 each of which is mounted in a ball bearing in a bearing block 23 connected to a further block 24 by rods 25. An eccentric 26 in block 24 is mounted on shaft 27 journalled in a frame 28 rigidly fixed to the floor of a room in which the apparatus is to be used. Each shaft 27 is driven by an independent electric motor 29 through gearing 30. Blocks 24 are connected, by wires 32, 33 and 34 running over pulleys, with the arms of a spider 35 from which is suspended a tube 44 accommodating a high pressure mercury vapour point light source 45 so that it illuminates screen 31 over an arc of about 180 degrees. A translucent drum 46 having an opaque bottom plate 49 is rotatably mounted on tube 44 and is rotated through gearing by an electric motor 50. The drum encircles light source 45 and a scene painted thereon is projected on to screen 31. A silhouette 54 of parts of a ship is mounted on roof 14 so that a shadow thereof is cast on screen 31 by light source 45. The silhouette is mounted on rollers running on tracks 56 and is connected, at one end. by a string 57 passing through an aperture in screen 31 and over a pulley to a weight tending to pull the silhouette to the right, Fig. 1. The other end of the silhouette is connected by a string 58 to a lever 59 pivoted to the roof 14 and connected by a string 61 to screen 31. An image e.g. of a "blow wake" is also produced on the screen by means of an optical system 66 comprising a light source the rays of which, under control of a shutter, are reflected from the surface of drum 46 on to screen 31. The system 66 is carried on the end of a counterweighted arm 62 which is mounted on tube 44 and is rotated through gearing 65 by electric motor 64. The electric supply for the system 66 is fed through a slip-ring device 81. Motors 50 and 64 and system 66 may be operated from a computer to which information representing the action taken by the operator on apparatus 19 may be sent.