US26219A - Floating battery - Google Patents

Description

UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEioE.

EPENETUS A. WILLIS, OF COLD SPRING, NEW YORK.

FLOATING BATTERY.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 26,219, dated November 22, 1859.

To all whom 'it 'may concern:

Be it known that I, EPENETUsA. IVILLIS, of Cold S ring, in the county of Queens and State of Tew York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Floating Batteries; -and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1, is a central vertical section of a battery constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2, is a horizontal section of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in both figures.

My invention consists in constructing a ioating battery of circular form with a central upright shaft by which it is capable of being anchored in a tide-way and around which it is capable of revolving while at anchor, to bring all of its circular series of guns in succession to bear on any object, and providing the same with a certain arrangement of screw propellers in the circular battery whereby provision is made for giving it a rotary motion about its central shaft when at anchor or for propelling and steering it from place to place.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A, is the circular hull or float made with a flat bottom and with its sides of the form of an inverted frustum of a cone, that balls striking it may glance off in a downward direction.

B, is the deck on which the guns are placed.

C, C, are the bulwarks made of conical form that balls striking them may glance off in an upward direction, and D, is the roof made of conical or convex form externally and supported on the bulwarks C, C. The hull or oat and bulwarks should meet as nearly as possible in a sharp edge all around. The deck B, is on a level with the junction of the hull or iioat.

E, E, are the guns arranged at equal distances apart all around the battery opposite to port holes a, a, provided in the bulwarks, and mounted and worked in the same way as ships guns or in any other suitable manner.

F, is a chimney in the center of the Vroof serving to carry off the smoke and for ventilation generally.

This hull or fioat, and its bulwarks and roof, may be built of timber sheathed all over with iron or steel plate or in any other manner best calculated to resist theaction of cannon balls or other projectiles employed in warfare.

G, is the central upright shaft fitted to work loosely through a water-tight well-hole I), in the center of the hull. This shaft is of circular form except at the lower part which is of square or other angular form and pointed that it may stick in the mud or sand at the bottom of a harbor, bay or river, and be prevented from turning easily. The head of this shaft is fitted with a cross-head or yoke I-I, which is capable of turning easily upon it and of suspending and lifting it when necessary, and the said cross-head or yoke has two upright screws I, I, fitted to it on opposite sides of the shaft G, the shafts of said screws passing down through the deck and being worked by any suitable machinery within the hull or float for the pur pose of raising and lowering the shaft, which may be heavy enough to sink into the bottom of the harbor, bay or river by its own weight or be driven down into the said bottom by the screws.

J, J, are the screw propellers carried by two shafts K, K, which are arranged parallel with each other tangential to the same circle described from the center of the battery. These shafts pass through stuiiing boxes in the hull and are to be driven by steam engines or other motive power within the hull, and must be capable of being driven both in the same direction or in opposite directions.

By driving both screw propellers to exert their propulsive effect in similar direct-ions the battery is propelled from place to place, the central shaft Gr, during such operation being held up by the screws I, I, and crosshead I-I, as shown in black outline in Fig. 1, so that it does not project or projects very little, through the bottom of the well hole. To steer the vessel, the speed of one of the screw propellers is to be slackened or it may be stopped or backed, and for this purpose the valve gear of the 'engines or other controlling apparatus may be under the control of the pilot or steersman. The guns may be fired While the battery is moving from place to place or stationary; but the great advantage of the invention Vconsists in the facility With which the several guns may be successively brought to bear on a given point or object when the battery is anchored by the dropping or depression of the central shaft Gr, into the bottom of a harbor, river, bay or other moderately Shoal Water, as shown in red outline in Fig. l. The revo-lving mot-ion of the battery about the central shaft G, is effected by driving the propellers in opposite directions, and the velocity at which it is thus driven may be such that it makes one revolution during the time occupied in loadaaai@ ing a gun, so that every gun may be fired every time it arrives in a given position.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Tlie combination of the central upright shaft so applied that it may serve to anchor the battery and that the battery may revolve around it, and a system of propellers by which the battery may be either caused to revolve aro-und the said central shaft- While at anchor or propelled from place to place When the said central shaft is elevated Substantially as herein described.

E. A. VILLIS.

VitnesseS GEORGE WV. DEvoR, JAMES M. BURTis.

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