US1295732A

US1295732A - Steering apparatus for vessels.

Info

Publication number: US1295732A
Application number: US22770918A
Authority: US
Inventors: John Sisson Graham
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1918-04-10
Filing date: 1918-04-10
Publication date: 1919-02-25
Anticipated expiration: 1936-02-25

Description

1. s. GRAHAM.

STEERING APPARATUS FOR VESSELS.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 1-0: I918.

f 1,395,732, Patented Feb. 1919.

2 SHEETSSHEET I.

. 1.,3. GRAHAM. STEERING APPARATUS FDR VESSELS. APPLICATIQN FILED APR-.1 0, 19w.

Patentd Feb. 25, 19l9.

,ZSHEETS-SHEET 2 JOHN srssoncnnneivn or THE UNITED STATES NAVY.

'purposes of lubrication, inspection, or reppair.

My lnvention Wlll be STEERING APPARATUS FOR VESSELS.

Specification of Letters Patent; Patented 25,1919.

. Applicati'onfiled April 10, 1918. Seria1No'.227,709.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN S. GRAHAM,

-United States Navy, ;a citizen of the United States, stationed on board'U. S. S. Vicksburg, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Steering Apparatus for Vessels; andI do hereby declarethe following to be a full, clear, andexact description ofthe invention, such as'will enable others skilled in theart to'which it appertains to 1 -make and use the same.

.1.1My invention relates to improvements in steering apparatus for mar1nevessels and it is intended more partlcularly to provide "instead of the ordinary vertically disposed steeringrudder now generally used for such purposes a pair of independently operable rudders located on opposite sides of the vessel preferably near the stern, and so arranged-that either or bothof the rudders may be swung from the inert to'the opera- :tive position, or vice versa and in which .the bearings for the rudder are located within the interiorv of thevessel so that they may be at all times readily accessible-for 7 more fully understood after reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a diagram showing one side of the'stern of a vessel with the rudder on that sideshown in full lines in the inert position, and in dotted lines in the full-rudder position.

a section along theline 2'-2 of Fig. 1, but showing both rudders in full lines in the inert position, and one of the rudders in "dotted'lines in the full rudder position.

. Fig- 3 shows a section along thebroken line 3-3 of Fig. 2, and looking in the direction of the arrows.

- Fig. 4 shows a section along the line -l4 of .Fig. 3, andlooking'in the direction of Y the shipsdynsimos and the arrows. i

Fig. 5 is a detail showlng a perspective ofone "of the rudderspartly broken away; oWs:-

and

l' to 4- iAf'representsthe-hull of a vessel, and B --r}epresents a propeller mounted on=the oro v:Fig. 2 shows a similardiagram showing peller shaft *C As 'my invention has noth i-ng', tofdo with; propelling mechanism, I have shown thee-propeller in the simplest form, but one or more propellers may be used and they. may be arranged in any desiredor convenient way since the location -and-operat1on of thepropeller does not materiaIIy-afi'ectthe functioning of the steering rudders. Y

The rudders D and D have theirblades d mounted at any suitable angle on the shaft d, thesblades of the opposite rudders being rever'sely disposed as shown in Figs. 2and 4.

-I have shown the rudder blades as made integral with the rudder shafts, but the bladesmay be rigidly attached thereto if.

- desired.

The rudder; shafts (Z are i journaled in suitable bearings E mounted inside of the .vessel ata suitablejdistanc'e below the water line. ,The-bearings may ;be .partof or secured to any suitable bed plate, such as F,

whereby a strongand rigid support for said bearings-is. secured.

The rudder shafts 03 may be turned in any 1 ently operated-mechanism for rotating the rudder shaft. Since it will only be necesoutmechanism for-automatically cutting 0H theelectriccurrent when the worm sector G is'turned from the position i for throwing the rudder to the inert [position to that for throwing the rudder to the full rudder position such out-off mechanism'being indicated diagrammatically at L in Figs 3, the electric circuit being shown at -M controlled by the A'SWltCh N.

This electric-circuit may be connectedto cut-out may be ,used.

The operation o -Qthe device as fol- I Referring first .to 'Figs. 1 to 4, in which convenient Way, as by means ofthe Worm segment G' engaging the worm H, on the shaft 1, =dri-ven-by the electric motor K.' Each rudder-should have its own-independany suitable; electric f then-rudder when in the inert position is raisedwith :its, longitudinal axis in the a vertical plane, :and yvhen in the full; ,rudder positionhas its :longitudinal iaxis in the horizontal =pl2t1'18,'it Wlllfb6 seen that when in the raised pQsi-tion the pressure of the water i depending upon the inert position. ever,

will act on the edge of the rudder and very little turning efiect will be produced; while if the rudder be swung to the full rudder position, shown in dotted lines in Figs. 1 and 2, the front surface of the blade will engage the. water with the result that there will be considerable turning effect.

To use what is known as a smaller helm the rudder may be turned to some intermediate position; the fineness of the helm the nearness with which the rudder approaches the inert position shown in full lines in Figs. 1 and 2.

If desired, both rudders may be thrown to the full rudder, or any other operative position, in which case the two would serve as more or less'of a brake, tending to retard the speed of the vessel and will be'of assistance in stopping the vessel in a shorter lengththan would be practicable with the stern rudder now generally in use. The rudders may be set at any desired angle to the rudder shaft, but it may be more convenient to make this angle conform as nearly as practicable to the sides of the ship so that the rudder may be as much as possible out of the way when in Some clearness, howwill be "desired since when the rudder turns, its longitudinal axis follows the surface of' a cone, while the portions at each side of such axis are also swung forward or away from the vessel side, according to the direction of movement.

To avoid as much as practicable the protrusion of the rudders when in the inert position, part of they are preferably located at that the stern of the vessel where the hull slopes forward and outward, as shown in Fig. 2.

If the rudder shaft d is arranged so that it could be rotated through 360 there would be two inert'positions for the rudder, 180 apart, and two positions for full rudder, also 180 apart, and each 90 from the position for the inert rudder; but since the maximum is secured by rotation of 90 only, it would only be necessary to provide for the rotation of the rudder shaft d through 90, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 2.

I prefer to have the rudder elevated when 'in the inert position because the weight of the rudder will tend to help the steering engine in moving the rudder to the operative position; and to restore the rudder to the inert position the pressure of the water will tend to assist the steering engine to overcome the weight of the rudder.

If, however, it be found more convenient or desirable to arrange the apparatus so that the rudder-shall be in the inert position when lowered, and in the operative position when raised, the parts may be arranged as shown' in Fig. 6, in which the rudder is shown in the lowered and inert a street car.

hull of the vessel instead of in rear thereof, 7

they will not be so apt to be wrenched from their bearings, or injured by heavy seas striking the vessel transversely. Thus the principal cause of injury to the steering mechanism of vessels will be in alarge measure avoided. Furthermore the bearings for the rudder shaft and the mechanism for operating the samewill all be located inside of the vessel andcan be read ily inspected at any time and kept properly lubricated, or may be accessible for repairs whenever the same become necessar It will also be evident that it wil not re- 7 quire the same power'to swing the rudder about its pivot, as is thecase with the ordinary stern rudder of a ship.- Furthermore, as-has already been referred to, the weight of the ruddermay be caused to assist the engine to throw the rudder from the inert positlon to the operative position, while the pressure of the water will tend to assist the engine to restore the rudder to the initial or raised position. Again, the stern of the vessel will not be kicked laterally as'occurs at present when the rudder is put over sharply.

There should preferably be apparatus for controlling the rudders located on the bridge of the ship as well as the control for each motor or group of motors on each side of the ship. I do not claim any particular invention in this electric control, for many well known apparati might be used for this purpose, such, for instance, as the control system on a motormans platform of It will be obvious also that signaling apparatus should be provided to indicate on the bridge the position'of the rudder or rudders, but electric signaling apparatus are well known and I'do'not claim such apparatus as a part of my present invention.

By the use of the herein described construction a cheaper and stronger steering apparatus is secured which is less apt to be injured by the force of the waves," and in which the operative part-s can be more conveniently overhauled, than with the steering mechanism now generally in use.-

It will be obvious that various modifications -1night be made in the heroin described apparatus, and in the construction, combination and arrangement of parts which could be used without departing from the spirit of my invention, and I do not mean to limit the invention to such details unless particularly pointed out in the claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. Steering apparatus for marine vessels, comprising a pair of shafts journaled 'in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, a rudder blade securely mounted on each shaft at an angle thereto, rigid bearings carried by the vessel for said shafts, and means for independently rotating each of said rudder shafts in said bearings, substantially as described.

2. Steering apparatus for marine vessels, comprising a pair of shafts j ournaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, a rudder blade securelymounted on each shaft at an angle thereto, rigid bearings carried by the vessel for said shafts, a pair of electric motors, and gearing driven by each motor for independently rotating the corresponding rudder shaft, substantially as described.

3. Steering apparatus for marine vessels, comprising a pair of shafts j ournaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, a rudder blade securely mounted on each shaft, the blades on opposite shafts being outwardly inclined in reverse directions, rigid bearings carried by the vessel for said shafts, and means for independently rotating each of said rudder shafts in said bearings, substantially as described.

4. Steering apparatus for marine vessels, comprising a pair of shafts journaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, a rudder blade securely mounted on each shaft, the blades on opposite shafts being outwardly inclined in reverse directions, rigid bearings carried by the vessel for said shafts, a pair of electric motors, and gearing driven by each motor for independently rotating the corresponding rudder shaft, substantially as described.

5. Steering apparatus for marine vessels, comprising a pair of shafts journaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, a rudder blade securely mounted on each shaft at an angle thereto, rigid bearings carried by the vessel for said shafts, a pair of electric motors, and gearing driven by each motor for independently rotating the corresponding rudder shaft with an automatic cut-out controlled by the rotation of each rudder shaft for cutting ofl the electric current when said rudder shaft has been turned through a predetermined angle, substantially as described. 1

6. Steering apparatus for marine Vessels, comprising a pair of shafts journaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, a rudder blade securely mounted. on each shaft, the blades on opposite shafts being outwardly inclined in reverse directions, rigid bearings carried by the vessel for said shafts, a pair of electric motors, and gearing driven by each motor for independently rotating the corresponding rudder shaft, with an automatic cut-out controlled by the rotation of each rudder shaft for cutting off the electric current when said rudder shaft has been turned through a predetermined angle, substantially as described.

7. Steering apparatus for'marine vessels, comprising a plurality of oppositely disposed shafts journaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, a rudder blade securely mounted on each shaft at an angle thereto, rigid bearings carried by the vessel for said shafts, and means for independently rotating each of said rudder shafts in said bearings, substantially as described.

8. Steering apparatus for marine vessels,

comprising a plurality of oppositely dis-f posed shafts journaled in the hull of the vessel and projecting outward therefrom, a rudder blade securely mounted on each shaft at an angle thereto, rigid bearings carried by the vessel for said shafts, a pair of electrio motors, and gearing driven by each motor for independently rotating the corresponding rudder shaft, substantially as de.- scribed.

9. Steering apparatus for marine vessels, comprising a pair of shafts journaled in the hull of the vessel and having their axesin a vertical plane transverse to the longitudinal axis of the vessel, a rudder blade securely mounted on each shaft at an angle thereto, rigid bearings carried by the vessel for said shaft, and means for independently rotating each of said rudder shafts in said bearings, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

JOHN SISSON GRAHAM.

Copies 01 this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.