US1560428A - Driving means for ships' gyroscopes - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 3, 1925. 1,560,428

. S. G. MYERS DRIVING IEANS FOR SHIP S GYROSCOPES Filed Sent.'11. 1922 F0 sAMr-r 719.1,

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WWW V Patented Nov. 3, 1925..

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SHIERFIELI) G. MYERS, 0F FREEPORT, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE SPERRY- GYRO- SCOPE COMPANY,.OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

DRIVING MEANS FOR SHIPS GYROSCOPES.

Application filed September 11, 1922. Serial No. 587,351.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, SI-IIEERFIELD G. MYnRs, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Freeport, Long Island, in the county of Nassau and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Driving Means for Ships Gyroscopes, of which the following is a specification. V

This invention relates to gyroscopes for ships of the type shown in Patent No. 1232619, dated July 10th, 1917, to Elmer A. Sperry for ship stabilizing and rolling apparatus. As set forth in said patents, gyroscopes of this type may be used either for stabilizing a ship or for rolling it. In such apparatus the precessional movement of the main gyroscope is controlled by a precession engine or auxiliary gyroscope. When the main gyroscope is employed as a stabilizer, its natural precessional movement is accelerated and retarded at proper times by the precession motor. However, when the main gyroscope is employed to roll the ship, it must be precessed in the opposite direction, that is, against its normal precession-a1 movement, due to the ships roll. It is obvious that with the main gyroscope running at the same high speed, it would require a great deal more power to roll the ship than to stabilize it. In fact, it has not heretofore been found practical to precess the main gyroscope oppositely to roll the ship while the main gyroscope was running at its high speed, owing to the large power required by the precession motor. It is also the present practice to supply power for both the spinning motor and the precession motor by a single turbo-generator set, so that in order to obtain full voltage for the precession motor, when rolling the ship, full voltage would also be supplied the spinning motor. In the past, thiscondition has been met in a manner by opening the circuit of the spinning motor for the main gyro rotor, and permitting the rotor to coast, and after its speed has reduced somewhat, precessing it by means of the precessional motorf It is of course understood that the main gyroscope rotor commences to decelerate from the moment the spinning motor circuit is opened, but this deceleration is further ac celerated by the unnatural precessional movement of the main gyroscope when rolling the ship, in which case it is, of course, performing the necessary work to roll the ship, in other words, the rotoris being retarded by its own gyroscopic forces. In practice, it is found that these factors, to gether with the bearing losses, reduce the rotor speed several hundred R. P. M. in a very short time. The result is that in view of the decreasing speed of the main gyroscope rotor, an uneven rolling is obtained, also, the speed of the rotor may be reduced beyond the necessary or desired limit. The period during which the main gyromay so operate is therefore limited, and it may be necessary to again close the rotor circuit to accelerate the rotor, thereby again varying the periodicity of the ships rolling. While an even roll is highly desirable in all classes of marine vessels, it is essential for naval vessels equipped with. modern gun-fire control, in which system the angle through which the ship rolls is a factor considered in aiming the guns, and their firing is timed to take place at certain angles. In addition to these undesirable results, a further loss in power and time is experienced when it is desired to again operate the main gyroscope at high speed as a stabilizer.

In order to overcome these objections, I have provlded the main gyroscope wlth a multiple speed alternating current inductionmotor, in which while normally the high speed is employed, either of the speeds may be employed for stabilizing the ship and the low speed is employed for rolling the ship. In the latter case, a fraction of the full speed is preferably employed, say or thereof.

hen supplying power to the system-described by an alternating current turbo-generator, which is the most efficient means and that generally employed, it is imperative that the turbo-generator be operated at three-quarters to full speed, preferably, the

latter, in order that the generator, which also supplies power for precession, shall deliver current at full voltage to the precession motor. By the arrangement outlined, current at full voltage may at all times be supplied to the precessionmotor, and at the same time, the same current and voltage, or a fraction thereof may be supplied to the main gyroscope spinning motor.

This arrangement also permits the fractional speed to be employed when starting the main gyro, an obvious advantage.

My invention further permits the use of the main gyroscope rotor. flyawheel effect in averaging the load on the turbine during precession. At the instant the precession motor starts, the heavy starting current will cause a reduction in the alteri iatin current to the spinning motor, and at the end ot the rrecessie i vement t pr ss mete may be used a dynamic brake, which will increase the current to the spinning motor, h s I e pl the n r y. ut l ed in brakb ing the precession ot' the gyroscope when operated to roll the ship to, assistin driving the rotor of the main gyroscope, and further utilize the energy of said rotor to aid the precession motorwheneyer the peal; load on the motor occurs, This of ccri rse was not P sib e her tof he h apparatu s used to roll the ship, since the. ci'rcttit to the main gyroscope spinning motor was open at such tlmes.

My invention will be better anderstood from the tollowing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, and its scope will be pointed out in the ap pended claims.

I the drawings, illustrating what I now consider a preferred form of my invention, 1 shows the several units of the sys tem, in elevation,- with parts indicated in dash lines, in operative relation and a wiring diagram of the, several connections and control devices therefor, and

Fig. 2 is a wiring diagram of one type of the main gyroscope spinning motor.

Referrmg 1 represents generator, 2

now to the. drawings in which an alternating current turbothe main gyro, 3 the precessionalmotor and 1 the auxiliary or control gyro diagrammatically illustrated. The main gyro 2, is provided with a spinning motor, diagrammatically indicated by dash lines, 5 in 1, having two, sets of windings 6, 7, diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 2. These windings arerespectivelyarranged to give the. spinning .motor two speeds, a high and a low speed both of which may be employed to. spinthe main gyro rotor when it is beingv used as a stabilizer, and the latter of which is employed to spin said rotor when thezmain gyro is employed to roll the ship. It is of course. understood that the main. gyro is mountedin prop er supports crosswise on the ship. as indicated by the arrow representing the. fore: and aft line of the ship, The twlo speed spinning motor may be of any conventional type, and is not illustrated in detail since this type. of motor is welllrnown in the art. The

windings 6 and 7 may bear any desired rela tion to each other. Preferably the high speed winding 6 has a small number of poles, say 4:, and the low speed winding 7 has 30114 times that number, say 12 or 16, in order that the winding 7 may give a speed of or 4 of the speed given by winding 6. I

The circuit from the turbo-generator 1 to the spinning motor 5 is through leads 8 to a double throw switch 9, arranged to connect leads 8 with eitherconductors 10, leading to high speed windings 6 of the spinning motor 5 or with conductors, 11, leading to the low speed windings 7 of said motor. Qurrent is supplied to the precession motor 3 from the turbo-generator through a circuit comprising leads 8 and conductor-s 12, which circuit is controlled by a pair of relays 13, 14; forrclosing and reversing said circuit respectively. The relays 13, 1A., are respectively operated by theenergization of oppositely wound coils 18, 14, which are both connected at one end to the positive side 15v of a suitable source of direct current, At their opposite ends the coils 13, 14 are connected to the negative side 16 of said source, through a circuit controlled by the auxiliary gyrcscope 4. This gyro is. diagrammatically illustrated, the construction and operation of such a device nowbeing well known and shown in the. patents above referred to. The circuit of said coils is further controlled by a reversing switch 9,. The switches 9 and 9, are arranged to be latched to, each other. by a latch 9 sox that they may be operated as a single unit or individually. This type of switch is well known and further description of its construction is not believed to be necessary.

The precession motor 3. is provided with a suitable train of gears 17, 1b, 19 the latter driving a segmental gear 20 on the main 2. The motor drives said gears through a clutch 2-1, controlled by an electromagnet 22, connected across the conductors 12 by conductors 23, 24. The circuit compr sing conductor 23, electromagnet 21 and conductor 24 is controlled by a relay 25, which in turn is controlled by the auxiliary gyro 4;. The construction of the precession motor 3 which is of the A. C. induction type, is not shown in detail, as it is well known in the art.

Having described the principle elements of my invention, its operation will be readily understood from a brief description.

Assuming that it is desired to start the main gyro rotor, theswitch 9 will; be thrown to connect conductors 8 and 11, in which case the low speed windings 7 are connected. to the source and the rotor is started at low speed. The switch may now be thrown to, connect conductors 8 with 10, in which case thehigh speed windingsfi of the ill) with turbogenerator 1, as the may be,

and the switch 9 is thrown upwardly to close the cir u'it controlled by the auxiliary gyro l for stabilizing. Of course, the switch 26 is now also closed since the main gyro rotor when stabilizing is normally run at high speed and it is found desi able to connect the auxiliary gyro st for stabilizing simultaneously with the starting of the main gyro rotor, the switches 9 and 9 are latched 1 to each other so that by one :inovement they may be thrown upwardly simultaneously to close the circuit of the high speed winding of the spinning motor 5 and. to close the circuit of the auxiliary gyro l for stabilizing. Assuming that the roll of the ship is such as to preress the gyroscopes to the right. In this case, the auxiliary gyro 4; closes the circuit of coil 13 thereby actuating relay 13 to close the circuit from the turbo-generator to precession motor 3, which drives the gear 19 anti-clock-wise to accelerate the procession of gyroscope 2. It is un derstood that the relay has been closed by the procession of the auxiliary gyro l, thereby energizing magnet 22 to operate the clutch 21, in a well known manner. As the ship tends to roll in the opposite direction, the control gyro at will process to the left, thereby opening the circuits of relays 13 and and clutch 21 is released. Continuing; its precession to the left, the auxiliar" gyro d closes the circuits ot' relays l t and The latter relay again closes the circuit of magnet 22 to actuate rlutch as in the pre vious case, however, the relay l lreverses the circuit from the turbo-generator to precession motor 3, which now operates to accelerate the precession of the main gyroscope 2 in the opposite direction. This cycle of operations is repeated so long as the main gyroscope 2 is operated as a stabilir/ier and as previously stated, it may b so operated while the rotor is running at either its high or low speed.

Should it hodesired to employ the apparatus described to roll the ship, the main gyroscope must be p'ecessed oppositely to its normal precession due to the rolling of the ship, that is, the precession motor 3 must now precess the main gyroscope exactly op posite to the direction in which it processed wl'ien used as a stabilizer. In the latter case, since the procession motor was precessing the main gyroscope in its normal direction of travel, the load on the precession motor was not so great, and itcould operate with the main gyro rotor running at full speed. .lut in the present case, since the precession motor must overcome the gyroscopic forces, it is necessary to reduce the speed of the rotor, and it is accordingly run at its low speet. co the precession motor 3 must now ope e in operating oi rela' 123 and 1 4 is reversed, through the rev rsing switch 10. The switches 9 and QQmay be thrown downwardly simultaneously by a single operation to reverse the circuit controlled by the aura iliary gyro dand to close the low speed circuit ot the main gyro. The switches 9 and 9' having thus been moved to make the neocssary onnections for rolling the ship, the operation. the several relays and auxiliar gyro is similar to that describe c. tor stabilizing the ship. Shouldthe ship be in stable equilibrium, the rolling operation may be commenced by m imally precessing the auxiliary gyro i. it will be observed that,'during the rolling operation, while a traction of the current is continuously supplied to the main gyro, the full current is simultaneously supplied to the precession motor 3, which now operating under its greatest load. lVhen the precession motor starts, the heavy starting current causes a reduction in the current to the spinning motor, without perceptibly affecting the rotor which continues to spin as a ily-wheeh rat the end of the precession movement or the main gyii'o 2, the precession motor may be used as a dynamic brake, thereby increasing the current to the spinning motor.

li hile I have described my invention as embodied in concrete form in accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, it should be understood that I do not limit my invention thereto, since various modili- :ations thereof will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of my invention, the scope of which is set forth in the sun XGCl claims.

Having described my invention, what i: claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a gyroscopic stabilizer tor ships, the combination with the rotor o'l the gyroscope, of a multiple speed alternating current induction motor for spinning said rotor at multiple speeds and means whereby the rotor may be driven continuously at one speed for rolling the ship and at a dixi ercnt speed for stabilizing the ship.

2. In a gyroscope the combination with the rotor, of a multiple speed induction motor for spinning the same, means for starting said rotor on a low speed winding and means for running said rotor on a high speed winding.

3. In combination, a source of electric the opposite direction, the

energy, a gyroscope driven thereby, means whereby said gyroscopemay be driven at different speeds, a precession motor driven by said source for precessing said gyroscope, and means whereby said gyroscope may be driven at either of its speeds While the precession motor is driven at full voltage.

i. The combination with a ship, of power means, a gyroscope driven thereby, means whereby said gyroscope mi be driven at different speeds, a motor driven by said power mes. for precessing sai'd gyroscope either to stabilize or roll the ship, and means whereby said gyroscope may be dri.en at either of its speeds while said motor is driven at full speed.

In combination with power means, a gyroscope driven thereby and means whereby said gyroscope may be driven at different speeds, a motor driven by said power means for accelerating the normal precession of said gyroscope or for processing said gyroscope oppositely to its normal precession, and means intermediate said power means and said gyroscope whereby said gyro driving means may be controlled.

6. In combination, a gyroscope having a multiple speed induction motor, a source of alternating current therefor, a motor for precessing said gyroscope driven by said source, and means intermediate said source for controlling the direction of said latter motor and operating it at full speed while said multiple speed motor is operated at any of its speeds.

7. A rolling device for ships comprising in combination a gyroscope having a multiple speed spinning motor mounted on said ship, a motor for processing said gyroscope, a source of alternating current for said motors, an auxiliary control gyroscope, and means intermediate said second motor and said source of current controlled by saic auxiliary gyroscope whereby said second motor may be run in either direction at full voltage while said spinning motor is run at either of its speeds.

8. A rolling device for ships comprising in combination a main gyroscope having a high and low speed spinning motor, a motor for precessing said gyroscope, a source of current for said motors, an auxiliary control gyroscope, and means controlled by said auxiliary gyroscope whereby said second motor will move the main gyroscope in a direction to roll the ship while its spinning motor is running at low speed.

9. In combination, a gyroscope having a multiple speed induction motor, a source of alternating current therefor, a motor for precessing said gyroscope driven by said source and means for simultaneously controlling the connection between said motors and said source.

10. In combination, a gyroscope having a high and low speed spinning inotQ a source of alternating current therefor, a mo tor for processing said gyroscope driven by said source and means for simultaneously closing the high speed circuit of said spinning motor and the circuit of said precession motor.

11. In combination, a gyroscope having a high and low speed spinning motor, a source of alternating current therefor; a motor for precessingsaid gyroscope driven by said source and means for simultaneously closing the low speed circuitof said spinning motor and reversingthe circuit of said precession motor.

12. In combination, a gyroscope having a high and a lowspeed spinning motor, a source of alternating current therefor, a motor for processing said gyroscope driven by said source and means for simultaneously closing the high speed circuit of said spinning motor and the circuit of said precession motorin one position, and simultaneously closing the low speed circuit of said spinning motor and reversing the circuit of said precession motor in another position. i

13. The combination with a ship of power means, a g'yIOSCOPQ driven thereby, means whereby said gyroscope may be driven at different speeds, a motor driven by said power means for precessing said gyroscope either to stabilize or to roll the ship and means for simultaneously controlling both of said motors to stabilize the ship or to roll the ship.

14. The combination with a ship of a gyroscope for stabilizing or rolling the same having a high and low speed spinning motor, a source of alternating current therefor, a motor for processing said gyroscope driven by said source and means for simultaneously connecting the high speed winding of said first motor and the precession motor to said source in one position to stabilize the ship, and in another position connecting the low speed winding of said first motor and reversing the circuit of the precession motor to roll the ship.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature.

SHIERFIELD Gm, MYERS.

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