US413585A - Hungary - Google Patents

Description

(No Model a Shegts-Sheet 1.

' "ADOLP GRA F VON BUONACOORSI DI PISTOJA.

AUTO-MOBILE TORPEDO. I

1' No. 413,585.. Patented 0015.22, 188

(No Model.) a Sheets-Shet 2.

ADOLF GRAF VON BUONAGGORSI DI PISTOJA. AUTO-MOBILE TORPBIDO. No. 413,585. Patented'oct. 22', 1889.

ray 2 N. PETERS. Photo-HW Wlhilblk D-C- .(No Model.) I a sheets-g ee: 3. ADOLF GRAP VON BUONACGORSI DI PISTOJA.

' AUTO-MOBILE TORPEDO.

No. 413,585. I Patented Oct. 22, 1889.

PETERS. Phaimlflhngnaher. wmimwfmc,

1 UNITED STATES Y PATE T OFFICE.

ADOLF GRAF VON BUONACCORSI DI PISTOJA, OF VIENNA, AUSTRlA- HUNGARY.

AUTO=MOBILETORPEDO.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 413,585, dated October 22, 1889.

Application filed November 15, 1888. $erial No. 290,966. (No model.) Patented in Germany February 24,1888, No. 49,125; in 'fE'ranoe February 24,1888, No. 188,945: in Belgium March 12, 1888, No. 81,003; in England March 20, 1888, No. 4,297,- in Italy March 31, 1888, XXII, 23,135, XLV, 4:31; in Portugal Mayl'7, 1888, No.1,244; in Norway May 28, 1888,151'0. 934;

in Austria-Hungary June 26, 1888, No. 8,093 and No.

To alltultom it 11mg concern:

Be it known that I, ADOLF GRAF VON BUO- NACCORSI n1 PISTOJA, a subject of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, residing at Vienna, in the Province of Lower Austria, in theEmpire of Austria-Hungary, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Self-Propelling 'lorpedoes, (for whichlhave obtained Letters.Patent in Austria-Hungary, No. 8,093 and No. 21,102, dated'lune '26, 1888; in Germany, No. 49,125, dated February 24, 1888; in France, No; 188,945, dated February 24, 1888; in Belgium, No. 81,003, dated March 12, 1888; in Italy, Vol. XXII, No. 23,135, andVol. XLV, N0. 431, dated March 31, 1888; in Spain, No. 8,035, dated June 30, 1888; in Portugal, No. 1,244, dated May 17, 1888; in England, No. 4,297, dated March 20, 1888; in .Norway, No. 934:, dated May 28, 1888 and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying d rawings, and to letters or figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part 'of this specification. v v

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical sectional and more or less schematic View of a torpedo, showing its general construction and arrangement. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal axial section of the chambers in rear of the ballast or sinking chamber, illusof the chamber immediately in rear of the 21,102, and in Spainllune 30, 1888,110. 8,035.v I

ballast or sinking chamber, illustrating the connections between the tubular bearing for the propeller shaft and the air-main, and showing, also,a portion of the mechanism for imparting longitudinal motion to the pro peller-shaft; and Fig. 5 shows sections on lines w w and y 'y, Fig. 3, the hexagonal head of the tubular bearing for the propeller-shaftclusively by means of compressed air utilized in the same manner as steam is-that is to say, by admitting the air to a piston cylinder or cylinders to drivea piston or pistons by r the expansive power of the air, the reciprocating motion of the piston orpisto'ns being converted into a rotarymotion by connection of the piston-rod to a crank-shaft, the motion of the latter being transmitted by suitable gearing to the propeller-shafts in such manner as .to cause the propellers to revolve in reverse.

directions.

ernors, the slide-valves that control theoperations of the pistons, and for the gearing be tween the driving and propeller shafts, a comparatively great amount of power being necessary to overcome the inertia of these mechanisms. There are, however, still further losses of power, due to various causes-as, for instance, to frictional resistance to the flow This mode of propulsion presents; great disadvantages, in that. considerable space is required for the aceommodationlof the piston-cylinders, the connections between. their pistons and the driving-shafts, the gova of the compressed air through the line-pipes, I

both when admitting the air to or exhausting it from the piston-cylinders, thus limiting the speed of the torpedo accordingly.

By the application of the principles of the Barker reaction-wheel to the propulsion of the torpedo, the air engines, their controlling valves andgovernors, the crankshafts, the connections between said shafts and] the power-pistons, and the gearing between the crank and propeller shafts are dispensed with, a single shaft carrying both propellers and serving at the same time as a conduit for the motive fluid being employed, and this shaft is connected directly with the compressed-air reservoir, which occupies nearly one-half the length. of the shell of the torpedo.

The principle involved in the novel application of power, whereby the mechanism referred to can be dispensed with, consists in applying the power directly to the propellers, so that the live force, instead of the static pressure of the compressed air, is made available and utilized, and in admitting the compressed air in the form of jets of great velocity and density to the points where the power is to be applied, the air acting by aerodynamic impact upon the blades of the screW-pro peller. It is evident that by such an application of the motive fluid the range of speed of the torpedo is very materially increased, while the inner space of the torpedo can be utilized to greater advantage, in that all the operating mechanisms may be arranged or contained within the torpedo-shell, instead of having to locatea great portion of such mechanism on the outside of such shell, as has been the case heretofore.

Inasmuch as the propeller-shaft is a nonrotatingone, the said shaft may itself be used as a duet for the motive fluid, as above stated,

. both to the propellers as well as to other mechanisn1s.as, for example, the mechanism or intermediate mechanism that governs or 0011- trols the depth of immersion of the torpedo and automatic cutoff devices, there being sufficient space left for the use of a plurality of sinking or immersing valves inst-cad of a single one, as has been the case heretofore, and such valves maybe operated directly instead of indirectly, thereby increasing the efficiency of the mechanism employed for sinking the torpedo in case it should miss its aim, and such mechanism may be made to operate automatically and at the proper time, while the time required for filling the ballast or sinking chamber is materially shortened.

As a means for controlling the depth of immersion of the torpedo during its course through the water, I utilize the hydrostatic pressure of the ambient water, so that any variation in the depth of immersion will cause the correspondingly varying hydrostatic pressure to operate the immersing-rudder to maintain the torpedo at agiven depth during its course through the water This mechanism I do not, however, claim herein; but it is shown, described, and claimed in my application for patent, Serial No. 271,0l7, filed April 18, 1888.

In the choice of the outlines of the torpedo it is the aim to preserve thatform which presents the least resistance to motion through the water and has the least tendency to the formation of eddies, and at the same time to give to the compressed-air chamber a perfectly symmetrical form and to locate the same as near the bow or head of the torpedo as possible, thereby reducing the labor and cost of the construction of the air-chamber and facilitating the distribution of the weight of the entire structure and its contained mechanism, so that the persistence of the torpedo in its course through the water, which depends chiefly upon a perfect equalization or distribution of weight, is greatly increased.

In order that the invention may be better understood I will describe the same in detail, referring to the accompanying drawings.

In the construction of the torpedo I divide the hull or shell thereof as follows, referring to Fig. 1:

O is the chamber for the charge of explosive, located at the bow of the torpedo; D, a chamber open to the ambient water, to one of the walls of which is secured a diaphragm influenced by the hydrostatic pressure in said chamber.

E is a chamber containing the mechanism that is controlled by the diaphragm and the mechanism for returning the diaphragm into its normal position when moved out of it by the hydrostatic pressure in chamber D. The reservoir for the compressed air is indicated by E, and F is the chamber that contains the devices for operating the admission-valve to admit the compressed air from the reservoir to the distributing-pipe, and also the intermediate mechanism that controls the immersing-rudder or horizontal fin.

G is the sinking orballast chamber; II, the chamber that contains the mechanism for, operating the sinking-valves and for imparting a longitudinal motion to the tiller or operating-rod of the immersing-rudder, and Iis the chamber in which is contained the mechanism that controls the operating devices of the V sinking-valves.

Although I prefer to employ all of the above-described mechanisms for more effectually controlling the movements and operations of the torpedo, yet some or all of them may be dispensed with and others employed; and as all of these mechanisms form subjectmatter of separate applications for patents I have deemed it unnecessary to describe them in detail, except in so far as such description is necessary to the full comprehension of this invention. The motive fluid (air) is compressed to from seventy to ninety atmospheres within a cylindrical chamber or reservoir E, Fig. 1, having dome-shaped heads or ends 8 8 respectively. To the head a is connected the distributing-pipe, which is preferably composed of three sections 2', p and IIO p. The section zis connected with the head e The section 12 is so connected with the section 2 as to adapt it to revolve for purposes presently explained, while the section 19 is rigidly connected with pipe-section p by means of a coupling-head formed thereon or secured thereto, and a stuffing-box gland p ,'as shown in Fig. 4. The pipe 5 is closed at its outer end and serves asabearing for the tubular propeller-shaft q. On the propeller-shaft q are mounted two screw-propellers A and B,"so as to rotate freely on said shaft, said propellers having their blades curved in opposite directions, the blades of the propeller'A being, for instance, portions" of right-hand screw-threads, while those of Rare portions of left-hand screw-threads. In the hub of each propeller is formed an axial chamber A andB', respectively, that has the form of a truncated cone in longitudinal-section, and through whi'ch'the shaft q'passes, and into which the compressed air is ad mitted through ports 19' and and q" and qZformed in pipe p and shaft g, respectively, said ports p p registeringiwith those q g respectively, and- With theaxial chambers'A B in the pro-' peller-hubs A B, which" chambers here 'per-' form the function of auxiliaryreservoirs', and

which jointly with the moment of inertia of the revolving propellers regulate the speed of the torpedo,the air 'fiowing out through passages N'A B B Figs. 3 andr3 formed in the bladesof the propellers. The aero- C Clynamic'impact Of rapidl3"mdvingmole' miles upon'the' opposite elements of the sides of the passages, as well as the recoil exerted ina direction the'reverse of that of the movement of thesaid molecules, causes 1 the screw propellers to 'revolve'in the-direction" of the curvatureof their helical blades.

' In'this mode of rotating the p ropeller-blades,

which is based upon the principles involved in the Barker reaction-wheeh the speed of onepropelle'r is rendered quiteindependent peller upon the'course' of a torpedo is well known," and to compensate this act-ionin part' a second propell-erfr'otating in a reverse direction and at the same speed has been used, the direction of motion being maintained throughthe agency of vertical rudders. The unequal action of two propellersywhich has heretofore been regarded" as a disturbing factor in the direction of the torp edo, is by my invention made available as a factor for direct ing 'or maintaining the torpedo in its course. Since the deviating or diverting action or ef'-' fect of the propellers increases or' decreases in thesame'rat-io as their speed of revolution,'I found that by providing 'prope "means" this difference in the deviating action of the propellers may be made sufficiently great, so

that the action of one will compensate th'e actiontof the other propeller, as Well as other deviating influences exerted on the torpedo and as the speed of-rotation'of propellers depends upon the volume of air actingdr' rectly upon them, or, in other words, upon the area of theports that admit the air to the propellers, it is obvious that by a proper adj ustment of these areas relatively to each other a corresponding steering action will be exerted upon the torpedo. The variation in or adjustment of the area of the admissionports p q p (1 is accomplished by simply revolving the pipep within the shaft q so as to more or less cover the ports'q' 4.1 These ports q q are only one-half the diameter of the ports 19 19 and are formed by longitudi- 'nalslots that do not lie" in the same longitudinal' plane relatively to each other, so that by properly positioning the pipe 19 the area of the ports, and consequently the volume' of air admitted tothe propeller-chainbers, may be regulated at will. As shown in Figs..3 and 3, these ports communicate" w-ith'the passages- A 13 of the propeller-j blades through the annular conical cham- 1 her A" in the hubs of the propellers A and B, sothat the volume of compressed air admitteddirectly to the said chambers and passages. Consequently the speed at whichth'e propellers rotate will depend-upon the ad-' justinent of the port-areas; and that the propeller A- may be rotated at a greater speed than the propeller B,'or vice versa. The

adjustment of the tube pwithin the shaft'q is efiected by means ofa key or Wrench ap'--' plied to the angular head p ,Figs.'2 and 4,"

at the inner end of the pipe p,whose outer end is closed,as well as the outer-end ofthe shaft q, as above stated, and, asshownjthe outer end of shaft 'q'is closed by a screwplug to which the horizontal rudder isjc'on- I Figs. 3a'and '5 vthat by a partial rotation of the h ead p of pipe 1) (shown in dotted lines" nected. It will be seen by an inspection *of in Fig-[5 an'd'infull lines in 2 and -in the direction of arrow 1 the ports 1') q. in

pipe-grand shaft q will cease to registeigtheair being cut-off from the'propeller-chamber A, while the ports p will still fully register with the ports g thus applyi-ngthe'full 1no-" tiv'e power to the propeller B. A partial rotation of the pipe 10 in a reverse'direction,or

of a key or Wrench, as stated above.

' In trial-launching to determine the speed of the torpedo andin order to regulate the relative speed of the two propellers,-so"that" "r20 that of arrows 2, will produce a reverse re-' t 5 thetorpedo-shell, Fig. 4, for the introduction the deviating action thereof may be counteracted, it is necessary to ascertain the number of revolutions of the propellers under given pressures of air. To this end I provide a registering mechanism that comprises a graduated dial 1, revoluble on a fixed arbor that carries an index t as shown in Figs. 3 and 3.

I have stated hereinbefore that the pro peller-shaft is connected to the immersing or steering rudder T, and consequently also performs the function of tiller.

As the means for impartinglongitudinal motion to the propeller-shaft q foroperating the rudder T have been fully described and claimed in an application for Letters. Patent filed April 18, 1888, Serial No. 271,047, it will. not be necessary to again describe themhere.

It will, however, be obvious that the saidrudder may be operated by any other means and that the propeller-shaft q I may be connected with or mounted on the pipe 17 as not to. move longitudinally. In fact, the propeller-shaft may be connected directly to the compressedair reservoir, and other means than those shown maybe employed for adj ust-ingthe portareas to impart to the propellers auniform ora variable speed.as, for instance, a, short cylinder adapted to be partly revolved in shaft q and provided with delivery ports. p 11 may be inserted in shaft g from. the rear end and adjusted from that end.

Any suitable means. may be employed to admit the compressed air to and cut it off from the distributiug-main-as, for instance, a suitable valve or stop-cock may be interposed in the pipe 2, or the propeller-shaft q, when said shaft is connected directly with the compressed-air reservoir. I prefer, however, to employ the valve mechanism fully shown and described in my application for.

patent filed November 15,1888, Serial No. 200,968, whether such mechanism is applied as therein shown or whether it is applied to the propeller-shaft q where, said shaft is 0011- nected directly with the compressed-air res-.

ervoir, such changes in the arrangement of the devices referred to being within the province of the skilled mechanic.

I-Iavingdescribed my inventiou ,what Iclaim 1. In a. torpedo, the combination of a nonrotary supply-pipe for conveying the motive power under pressure, having outlet-ports,

with a screw-propeller provided with outletducts through its blades and formed with a.

pellers. having their blades curved in opposite directions, and curvedchannels terminating in openings in the lineof said curves and communicating with. the said. side ports in both the said pipes, substantially as described, for the purpose specified.

In a torpedo, the combination, with the compressed-air reservoir, the supply-pipe 19, having two separate rows of side dischargeports and conveying the motive fluid under pressure, and the tubular propeller-shaft q, having two corresponding rows of side discharge-ports, of two independent screw-propellers having. their blades curved in opposite directions, and curved channels terminating in openings in the lines of said curves and having chambered hubs, into the chambers whereof the ports of both pipes open, and into which chambers the said curved channels open, whereby the said propeller-chambers serve as auxiliary reservoirs for the motive fluid which operates the propellers.

4. In a torpedo, the combination of a supply-pipe for conveying the motive fluidunder pressure and provided with deliveryports,

a tubular shaft upon said pi e, having means for being moved longitudina 1y upon the. same and having ports of greater longitudinal area than those of the supply-pipe and registering. therewith, a. screw-propeller journaled upon.

said shaft and having hollow blades communicating with said ports, and an immersingrudder controlled by the longitudinal motion of said'shaft, substantially as described.

5. The combination, with the SCI'GIV-PI'Os pellers A and B, the blades whereof are curved in reverse directions, said propellers having chambered hubs and an open pas-.

sage formed in the blades thereof, of a tubu lar shaft connected with a source of motive. fluid under pressure, on which shaft said pro-. pellers are loosely mounted, provided with deliveryports registering with the propellerhubs, and a tubular valve revoluble in the propellershaft and provided with ports adapted to register with the shaft -ports, whereby the area of the shaft-ports may be adjusted, substantially as and for the purposes. specified.

6. The combination, with the screw-propellers A and B, the blades whereof are curved in reverse directions, said propellers having chambered hubs, and an open passage formed in said blades, of a tubular shaft connected with a source of motive fluid un-.

der pressure, on which shaft said propellers are loosely mounted, provided with ports arranged in different longitudinal planes and registering with the propeller-hubs, and a tubular valve arranged within the propellershaft and having ports of greater area than the shaft-ports, arranged in the same longitudinal plane and adapted to register with the shaftports, whereby the relative area of the shaft-ports may be variedto. vary the relative speed of the propellers, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

7. In a torpedo, the combination, with the propeller or propellers and the horizontal or ports being of less area than and adapted to register with the ports p and reactionpropellers A B, loosely mounted on shaft q,

substantially as and for the purposes specified.

' 9; The combination, with the pipe 19, closed atone end and connected at the other with a source of; motive fluid under pressure, said pipe being revoluble'and provided with ports 19' 19 arranged in the same longitudinal plane, of the tubular shaft 'q, mounted and movable longitudinally on pipe 10, said shaft being provided with ports q g arranged in different longitudinal planes and of less transverse area and of greater longitudinal area than the ports p p of pipe 19, reactionpropellers A B, loosely mounted on shaft q, and a horizontal or immersion rudder con: trolled by said shaft, substantially as and for the purposes specified.

10. In a torpedo, the combination, With the compressed-air reservoir and the supply-pipe conveying the motive fluid under pressure, of two independent screw-propellers mounted loosely upon the same shaft, revolving in opposite directions and provided with worms upon their hubs, a registering device for each propeller having gearing engaged by said worms, and means, substantially such as described, for regulating the volume of air admitted to the propellers and the relative speed thereof, whereby the deviating or di verting action or effect of one propeller in relation to the other is ascertained and counteracted or compensated.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses. V

ADOLF GRAB VON BUONAOCORSI DI PISTOJA. Witnesses:

OTTO ScH FrEn, OTTO MAAS.

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