US1339647A - Boat-launching apparatus - Google Patents

Description

C. H. FULLER.

BOAT LAUNCHING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 30. 1915 1,339,647, Patented May 11, 1920.

' 2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

. a. J 1 ///I n 11 161 8 14 C. H. FULLER.

BOAT LAUNCHING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION HLED JUNE 30. 1916.

" Patented May 11, 1920.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

ATTK

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES H. FULLER, OF PORTLAND, OREGON, ASSIGNOR TO FULLER QDAVIT COM- PANY, OF PORTLAND, OREGON,' A CORPORATION OF OREGON.

BOAT-LAUNGHING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 11,. 1920.

Application fi1edJune'30, 1916. Serial No. 106,989.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. FULLER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of Portland, county of Multnomah, State of Oregon, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Boat-Launching Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates generally to boat launching apparatus of the class commonly used by ships for launching life-boats.

Many sea disasters have resulted from insufficient working of life-boat launching ap paratus, and one of the main objects of my invention is to provide an improved form of this class of apparatus which will work more efiiciently than others hitherto promulgated. To accomplish this object of my invention I provide an apparatus which will be capable of simple operation, which will be built of few parts, and contain no sensitive mechanism.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is-an elevation of the right end of the boat launching apparatus as viewed from inboard;

Fig. 2 is a sectional detail of the reversing gear mechanism; and

Fig. 3 is a left-end elevation of the parts shown in Fig. 1, the broken lines indicating a movement of the davit arms.

(L represents the deck of a ship on which my apparatus is mounted. The opposite ends of the apparatus are similar, so I shall describe only one end, as illustrated in the drawings.

I), c are parallel standards rigidly mounted on the deck, said standards being braced by the transverse members (3. The inner standard 6 has ri idly mounted thereon a vertical channel-iron post 6, which is provided on its upper end with a cap 7', which forms a bearing for the free running fairleader sheaves g, h. The sheaves g are rotatable in a vertical plane longitudinal with respect to the boat, and the sheaves h rotate in a transverse vertical plane. A shaft 71 is rigidly mounted in bearings j, on the upper ends of the standards, and a fair-leader sheave 70 runs loosely on and along said shaft. A shaft Z is also rigidly mounted between the standards, parallel and in the same vertical plane with the shaft 2'. A winding drum m is rotatably mounted on the shaft Z, and is adapted to wind andunwind the boat-fall a, which runs over the fair-leader sheaves in, 9, 7t. 'Saiddrum is provided with an integral spur-gear 0, which is driven through a gear train, as follows: A rotatable'shaft 2 has fixed-thereon a spur gear 9, and one end of said shaft is adapted to receive a crank handle 4". A second rotatable shaft 3 "has fixed thereon the spur gears t, a, a ratchet o and brake drum 10. The gear MS in engagement with and driven by the gear 1, and the gear a is in engagement vith and adapted to drive the gear 0. A gravity pawl 00 cooperates with 'the'ratchet 1) so as to normally look the shaft 8, and thus the drum on, against unwindin A brake-lever is indicated by g and a brake band by z, and said brake is adapted to control the unwinding of the drum when the pawl and-ratchet look is disengaged.

A worm-gear segment 9. is rotatably mounted on the projecting-end of the shaft Z, and carries a rigid davit arm 3, braced by tensionrods '21. Thedavit arm 3'has on its outer end a cap 1, which forms a bearing for free running fair leader sheaves 5, which are rotatable in the plane of the sheaves 7L. I

A life-boat is represented by 6, and the boat-falls n connect the boat with the winding drums m, as indicated in the drawings. WVith this arrangement of fair-leaders, the boat-falls will never foul regardless of the positions of the davit arms.

A worm 7 is fixed on a shaft 8, which is mounted in bearings 9 on the side of the standard Z). Said shaft has also fixed thereon a bevel gear 10. A hollow shaft 11 is rotatably mounted between the standards 6, c. A spur gear 12, fixed on said shaft, is in engagement with and driven by the gear 25. Reversing bevel gears 13 are loosely mounted on a projecting end of the shaft 11. The bevel gears 13 are provided on their opposed sides with square-j aw clutch-faces 14, and a clutch sleeve 15, longitudinally movable between the gears 13, is adapted to be engaged with either one of said gears. The hollow shaft 11 is slotted, as indicated by 16 in Fig. 2, and a solid shaft 17, longitudinally and rotatably mounted in the hollow shaft 11, is provided with a pin 18, which extends through the slots 16 and the clutch sleeve 15. The outer end of the shaft 17 is provided with a swivel head 19, which is pivoted to a shifting lever 20. Operation of this lever will place the reversing gear in neutral or in either of its active positions.

The general operation of my device is as follows:

By means of the shifting lever 20, the clutches controlling the bevel-gears 13 may be positioned for placing either of said bevel-gears into operative contact with bevel-gear 10 onthe shaft of the worm 7, for swinging the davit-arms in either direction. IVhen said clutch is placed in its neutral position, the davit-arms will be held in the position in which they are at the time.

In launching life-boats, the davit arms are first swung inboard to the proper position over the boat, and the falls fastened to the latter. The boat is then elevated and the davit arms swung outboard till the life-boat clears the side of the ship. The position to which the arms are swung will depend upon the list of the ship. The gear connections are so sized that when the davit arms are swung inboard or outboard, boat-falls will wind or unwind, so as to cause the lifeboat to travel in substantially a horizontal plane.

The reverse operation of my device, in shipping a boat, is obvious.

I claim:

1. In a boat launching apparatus of the character described, parallel segment gears rotatable on a horizontal axis, davit-arms carried by such gears, means for controlling the rotation of said davit-arms through the medium of said gears, sheaves carried by the free-ends of said davit-arms, rotating in a plane transverse to the axis of rotation of said davit-arms, a fixed post adjacent each davit-arm, sheaves at the top of the post, such sheaves rotating in the same plane as the sheaves carried by the davit-arms and overlying the latter sheaves, a winding drum, boat-falls winding thereon, means for guiding the boat-falls over the top of said posts and to said sheaves carried by the latter, and means for rotating said drums.

2. In a boat launching apparatus of the character described, parallel segment gears rotatable on a horizontal axis, davit-arms,

carried by such gears, means for controlling I connections between the latter means and the means for controlling the rotation of said dav1t-arms.

CHARLES H. FULLER.

Images