US1291458A

US1291458A - Apparatus for submarines.

Info

Publication number: US1291458A
Application number: US20456417A
Authority: US
Inventors: Reginald A Fessenden
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1917-11-30
Filing date: 1917-11-30
Publication date: 1919-01-14
Anticipated expiration: 1936-01-14

Description

R. A, FESSENDEN. APPARATUS FOR SUBMARINES.

APPLlCATlON. EILEIYNOV. 30. I917.

Patented Jan. 14, 1919.

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REGINALD A..FESSEND EN, OF BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS.

APPARATUS For, sunmmmns.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 14., 1919.

Application filed November 30, 1917. Serial No. 204,564.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, REGINALD A. Fr s- SENDEN, Of Brookline, in the county of Norfolk and State of Massachusetts, a citizen of the United States, have 1nvented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Submarine and other Anaeroergic Operatlons, ofwhich the following is a specification.

The invention has for its object an increased efficiency of operation of submarine, torpedoes and other apparatus, prnnarily for military but also for commerc al purposes, for example to enable submarine merchant vessels to operate between the north shore of Russia and the North Sea and in Hudson Bay and from to Europe, or for railway operation through lon tunnels. 4

pellers tric-drive method, well known in the art drawing illustrates,

e accompanying suitable methods diagrammatically and a description of which as applied to the U. S. collier Jupiterfwill be found in the Journal of the American Society of Ncwal Engineers for August, 1912.

14 is the admission receiver, 15, 15 the exhaust receivers and 18, 18 the exhaust pipes.

In operation air or oxygen or a mixture of air and oxygen is stored in the

air bottles

20, 20. Two sets of bottles are shown, one set to feed each one of the engines, and the operation of ea set is identical. A is a pipe which connects the bottles 20 with the pipe 22 by means of the valve 44 and with the coils 16 by means of the valve 43.

Valves '0 connect each bottle with the pipe A and preferably the bottles areemptied one at a time and after each bottle is emptied its valve'o is closed and the valve 1; of a full bottle is opened. These bottles 20 are also used when emptied to receive Japan and Alaska out the inVen-' and store the exhaust gases. For this purpose a pipe B is provided which is also connected with the

bottles

20, 20 by valves cc, w. The pipe B connects with the ex haust compressor 28 and it is best made to have the same volume as one of the bottles 20, which are all of the same capacity. Thus the valves '21.. being closed, the pipe B can easily hold the exhaust gases resulting from the use of the contents of one of the bottles 20. When a bottle 20 is emptied the valve o of the said bottle is closed and the valve w being opened,

the contents of the pipe B fills the said bottle, after which the valve 10 is closed, and the pipe B then becomes an exhaust gas receiver again. until the next bottle 20 is empty. If the pipe B has not sufficient capacity an extra bottle S is attached thereto by a valve w, which is kept open while the first bottle 20 is being exhausted so that the exhaust gases are compressed in the bottle S until the firstbottle 20 is ex hausted or until the bottle S is filled, when the valve w of the bottle S is closed and the valve on of the exhausted bottle is opened, its valve 4) being first closed. In the opera: tion of the engine the two sets of bottles are used simultaneously. On opening the valves 44, 44 this air passes through the.

v pipes

22, 22 to the

spray injectors

28, 23, 1,

and sprays the oil passing from the

tanks

25, 25 through the

pipes

24, 24 into the engine cylinders, in the well known way. I

If desired, high pressure steam maybe used instead of the air for injecting the oil, and this may be generated by the heat of the exhaust.

On opening the valves 43, 43, the compressed air passes through the

heating coils

16, 16 where the air is heated by the exhaust gases, and thence into the air turbine 27, where it helps to drive the compressor 28, and thence through the pipe 36 and valve 37 into the admission receiver of the engine, and thence into the engine cylinders in'the well known way, where it is compressed, burns the injected oil, expands and then passes out of the exhaust ports into the

exhaust receivers

15, 15, and thence through the

pipes

18, 18 where after heating the air in the

coils

16, 16 it is itself cooled by the sea water circulating in the coils 17, 17. Thence after this cooling, it

the gas turbine or combined 30 into the compressor 28 (its volume being now only approximately 97% of the orig inal volume, owing to the fact that exhaust gases occupy'lessvolume than the original air) and is recompressed and passes into the pipe 13 and

bottles

20, 20 as above described.

The cooling water for the coils 17, 17 is derived from the

pipes

41, 41, passing through the

sides

39, 39. ofthe vessel, and is circulated by the

pumps

33, 33, and passes out again through the pipes 40, 40.

The power furnished by the air turbine 27 is not sutlicient to compress the exhaust gases, by the electric motor 34

mos

13, 13 through the

leads

35, 35, etc.

This method is used when it is desired to run below the surface without showing any part projecting above the water surface, or leaving any air bubble track or oil track.

When it is unnecessary to run without air bubble track, the

valves

30, 30 are closed and the

valves

32, 32 opened. The engine then exhausts overboard through the

fine copper pipes

42, 42, etc., passing through the side of the vessel. In this case 34 acts as a genera tor and supplies power to the circuit 'to which itand the

other dynamos

13, 13 are connected.

passes by tl driven by the dyna- When it is unnecessary to run without any part projecting, the valve 37 may also be closed. and the air taken into the admission receiver through the valve 38 which is opened for the purpose, and which puts the admission receiver into communication with the body of the ship. Air is admitted into the body of the ship in any convenient way, for example, as is well known in the art. through one of the periscope tubes or a separate tube emerging above the surface.

It is of course well known to operate sub marines by stored air, and the Fulton and Nordenfeldt submarines were so operated. in the one case the air being furnished to the motive .power (human) and in the other case to the motive power generator (steam boiler). It is also .well known to supply it to burn fuel used in driving internal combustion engines, as for example in torpedoes. where compressed air is used to burn alcohol which heats the air and, expanding it, drives gas andair turbinev which turns the propellers.

But until the present invention this.

method had the following disadvantages which have prevented it from coming into use for submarines, or for enabling torpedoes to have the desired long range and speed i. e.

1. It left a bubble track which disclosed the position of the submarine'and made much noise.

2. The weight per H. P. hour was too large. I

1e pipes 29 through the valves 30,

and the balance needed is furnished,

memes 3. The space per H. P. hour was too'large.

4. They could not be run at any considerable depth on acCOllnt of the back pressure of the water, and even at moderate depths were very ineilicient.

hile storage batteries have been practically universally used for under water power, they have the following disadvantages, 2'. e.

-a. They are dangerous, the sulfuric acid ones from the generation of chlorin, and the alkaline ones from the generation of hydrogen.

7). They deteriorated rapidly in use.

'0. The weight per H. P. hour was too great.

(Z. The space per H. P. hour was too great.

By applicants invention these defects are removed, 2'. e.

A. There is no back pressure when run ning submerged at any depth.

B. There is no bubble track.

The method is absolutely safe, and in addition prm 'idesa very large storage capacity of air 01 accident, sutiicient to last D. The weight per H. P. hour is only a fraction of that of storage batteries.

E. The space per H. P. hour is only a fraction of that of storage batteries.

F. The operation is more noiseless than that of storage batteries. as alternating current generators and motors may be used for driving the screw propellers, and thu. all commutator noise eliminated.

The following figures show the comparati ve weights and volumes occupied by appli cants apparatus as compared with those of the present storage batteries.

In the tables, Method A is where applicant used compressed air; Method B is where applicant used compressed oxygen, of approximately 95% purity, such as is readily obtained from "any oxygen plant without too much trouble, or by electrolysis. The figures are taken from a memorandum forwarded to the U. S. Navy Department in 1915, and so far as they relate to Navy apparatus have been checked by the Department.

Method A.

lbs.) 24. 4 0. ft This we 274 lbs. The 0 M r 57. 7117s The weight of oilit will burn is At 0.4 lb. oil per H. P. hour this gives 42 The work done by the air in e Total work is 62 H. P his Work lost in recompr 30 H. P hrs N( available work 32 H. P hrs Weight of tanks. air and oil, total 1, 540 lbs. Weight per H. P. hour, Method A 50 lbs. Weight per H. P. hour, storage batteries (1 hour discharge rate. Navy standard) not including accessories 340 lbs. Volume per H. P. hour, Method A 0. 8 0. ft. Volume per H. P. hour, storage batteries (Navy standard rate, 1 hour discharge,

not including battery accessories).. 1. 5 c. ft. Saving in weight by Method A 85% Saving in space by Method A 45% bubble track is suppressed,

Method B.

Oxygen in tank weighs 280 lbs. Weight of 011 this will buru 82 lbs. Cost of production of oxygen g2. 80 At 0.25 lb. per H. P. hour this g1ves 3 8 H. P. hrs Work done by oxygen in expanding 20 H. P. hrs. Total work 348 H. P hrs.

New work available, after subtracting 30 H. P. hours for recompressing exhaust wasgamma;1:111:11; Space per H. P. hour Saving in weight by Method B Saving in space by Method B As applied to torpedoes, where a bubble track is permitted, Method A gives three times the power, and Method B sixteen times the ower. If the ethod A gives 50% more power, and Method B fifteen times the power.

'To prevent an oil track from forming from oil leaking out of the propeller tube and risingto the surface, I use a lubricant formed of a metallic soap, as stearate of calcium or oleate of calcium or oleate of lead or a heavily chlorinated but neutral oil, so that on creeping out of the propeller tube'it will sink and not rise to the surface. Inusing Method B, e., oxygen storage, I prefer to use the exhaust gases to dilute the oxygen in the cylinder. I may do this by mixing them before passing into the admission receiver, or by not scavenging per- 318 H. P. hrs.

5 lbs.

7 fectly, 'i. (3., only scavenging out about 20% of the exhaust gases and adding to the 80% remaining in the cylinder about 20% of oxygen. In this way only about one fifth as much exhaust gas per H. P. hour has to be recompressed as when air is used. 7

When exhausting overboard it is very advantageous to cool the exhaust gases first as shown, by the coils 17, 17, as in this way the back pressure is reduced and the volume diminished about 7 5%, and thus less .work is done in exhausting when running deep, though it is true that as a rule this is not important as when running deep it is generally desired to have no bubble track.

While this invention has been described as applied to submarines in particular, it is applicable to other purposes such as torpedoes and also for railway o eration through long tunnels where the exhaust gases will foul the atmosphere of the tunnel. Moreover, so far as I know, the recompressing and storage of the used gases is new with me, and the necessary apparatus therefor may be applied to other internal combustion engines than that described in my patent. I have shown the apparatus in diagrammatic form only in the drawings, as the elements are all old and well known and need no elaboration to those skilled in the art. In

it will be seen that said engine and adapted to store gas at a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure, means connected to said engine and connectible to each of said tanks in turn whereby the exhaust gases may be recompressed and stored in each of said tanks when it is empty, and means to cool said exhaust gases located between said engine and said compressing means.

3. An internal combustion engine comprising a tank to store gas under pressure greater than atmospheric pressure, means whereby fuel is supplied to said engine, connections .whereby said gas is also supplied to said engine to furnish a means of combustion, and means operable by said engine to recompress the gaseous products of combusing one or more tanks adapted to store gas under pressure greater than atmospheric pressure, means comprising connections between each of said tanks in turn and said engine whereby gas is supplied to said engine and connections between said engine and each of said tanks whereby the exhaust gases from said engine may be stored in each of said tanks when empty including gas-compressing means located between said engine and said tanks.

5. An internal combustion engine, means comprislng a series of tanks conhected .with

the engine and adapted to store gas for use with said engine under a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure, and an additional similar tank normally empty, and

means connected to said engine and connectible to each of said tanks in turn whereby the exhaust ases may be recompressed and stored in said filled tanks when empty and in said normally empt tank before any one of said gas-storage tan s becomes empty.

REGINALD A. FESSENDEN.