US1296689A - Disappearing tower for submarines. - Google Patents

Description

APPLICATION FILED 050.13. i9l6.

Patented Mar. 11,1919.

Fllllllflllll lllel llllllllll TYNTTE ins nrnnr carton ROBERT S. NOAH, OF ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR TO HENRY B. REINHARDT, TRUSTEE, OF ROLAND PARK, MARYLAND.

DISAPPEARING TOWER- FOR SUBMARINES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 13, 1916. Serial No. 136,792.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, ROBERT S. NOAH, a citizen of the United States, residing at A11- napolis, in the county of Anne Arundel and State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Disappearing Towers for Submarines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in sea-going vessels of the submersible or submarine type, and has particular reference to providing such vessels with one or more towers movable upwardly above the deck.

Such a tower will be a substitute for the ordinary conning tower now used and may be constructed to serve various purposes each of which will increase the efficiency of submarines.

The present invention shows the inventive idea in the form of a tower that will enable several persons who are aboard the submersible to be elevated at the same time, without raising the vessel itself, in order to bring the eyesight of such persons above the sea-level and afiord all the persons a view of any vessels that may be afloat in that vicinity. T

The new form of vertically-movable tower may also be used to effect an air-ventilation of the submarine vessel without raising the vessel to the surface so that its upper deck shall be exposed above the waters surface.

The invention is illustrated in the annexed drawing, in which is shown a vertical section of a portion of a submarine hull.

Referring now to the drawing by designating numerals, 6, designates the exterior bottom of the hull; on top at the highest part of the hull is an upper deck, 9, and next below is a ceiling, 11, and the space between said upper deck, 9, and the ceiling, 11, constitutes an air-chamber, 10, formed within the top of the hull.

The lowermost deck, 19, is also the floor of the engine room, and an intermediate deck, 18, which is the ceiling of the engine room separates the lower compartments, 16, from the upper compartments, 17; between the lower deck, 19, and the bottom, 6, of the hull is the space, 20, for ballast water, and for the reception of sea-water that is required to cause the vessel to submerge. Of course the bulkheads, decks, and other ordinary interior construction of the hull, may

be planned by the constructor in any different way from that here shown.

Coming now to describe one form of the embodied invention, a vertical cylinder, 12, of any preferred construction is provided, and the same has fixed position within the hull and extends through the decks of, the submarine vessel. This cylinder has a closed lower end, 13, and its upper end 14, and the packing seat, 29, in the upper end, in the present instance, is flush with the top of the upper deck.

The circular wall of the cylinder has openings, 21, 22, which may communicate with lower and upper compartments, 16, and 17, respectively; doors, 23 are provided to close said cylinder openings.

A hollow circular tower, 24, fits like a piston movably within said vertical cylinder, 12, and this tower is provided on its exterior with circumferential packing rings, 25, that contact with the inner surface of said cylinder. The hollow movable tower, 24, has a.

closed bottom, 26, and a closed top, 27, and a flange, 28, around the top projects horizontally and when this tower is in the lowered position, as shown 1n the drawing, said top flange, 28, contacts with the packing seat, 29, positioned atthe top end of the cylinder. The packing seat, 29, and the flange, 28, pressing down upon it makes a tight joint that excludes sea-water.

It will be understood that when the tower 24, has this down position in the hull it will have disappeared from the view of any person afloat on any vessel that may be in the vicinity of this submarine.

The broken line, 8 8, extending horizontally, indicates the position of the surface of the sea-water, when the vessel is afloat.

The vertically-movable tower, 24, is provided in its wall with doors, 30 and 31, which coincide with the doors, 23, in the wall of the cylinder, 12, when the tower is down. A. floor, 32, is approximately in the middle of the vertically-movable tower, and forms a lower and an upper chamber, 33 and 34, each high enough to permit an ordinary man to stand upright therein. A ladder, 35, may be carried in the lower chamber and the same extends to the floor, 32, of the upper chamber, and this ladder enables persons who enter the lower charnber to ascend to the upper chamber. When V the tower is raised the position its upper part takes ris indicated by broken lines. It

will be understood that persons in the upper chamber, '34, of the tower when the latter is raised will be at an' elevation entirely above the hull and the top deck, *9, of the sub- 7 marine during the time the tower occupies the raised position, and that such elevation i of the tower willafiord those persons a range of observation that has inotxbeenobtainable on submarines as heretofore constructed.

V The upper chamber this upwardly- V movable tower may also carry a'periscope;

'7 pump is 'an' attached pipe, one of whichis designated, 38,-and'the other, 89; these two pipes'pass through the lower deck -19- 'and open into the storage-water, or bilge-water, space, 20; Each of these pipes has a cut-01f valve, 40. ,Attached also to oppositesides of the pump, 37, is a pipe designated atone side tl, and at the other sidedesignated,42.

These last Inamed pipes pass through the lower "deck and extend along thej-water jspace,'20,-and then pass iipward through :the bottom, 13, of the cylinderjbelowthe closed lower en'd, 4 5, ot-the movable piston 24. Each pipe-or" the two lastnamed, has

the several cut-off valves the piston, turret V and gun maybe raised or lowered by the "p mp l I Copies transpare t may be obtained for"jfive cents ah, byaddressing the Commissioner ef Patents, r Y i Washington,D.C. r r

n in the-presence of twoawitnesses; a -cut-ofl' valve,43. By manuaHy b ei-afing V I 7 Having described my invention what i claim and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent is," '7 i .r v

A submarine vessel having a' hull provided with an incloseduppermost deck, an inclosed lowermostrdeck, and an inclosed intermediate deck which form 'lower and upper compartments; a hollow vertical cylinder in fixed position and extending from the lowermost deckup through the intermediate deck and with its upper open end of the cylinder flush" with the'top surface of the upper deckthe walls of this cylinder being provided with a door opening-communicating into said lower compartment and a sectower .movable like .a piston within said fixed cylinder and the "Walls of the movable tower having twodoor-openings and doors which are positionedrelativelyitothe 7 said two door-openings in the fixed cylinder so as to coincide with the latter when the movable tower has its disappeared. position,

and'when the movable towerhasits elevated position one-of its-said door-openings will coincide with the doorfopen'ingqini the fixed cylinderthat communicates with said .upper compartment while the other door-opening of the tower at the same time will be above the, upper deck' and exposed to the .atmosv phere." 1 Y Y .7 In testimony whereofl aflixmy signature o I ROBERT Witnesses: Q 7 Louis C. KLERLEIN,

IZVELLA E. BAGLE Y s. NOAH;

0nd door-opening communicating into said Q upper compartment; anda hollow cylindric

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