US690215A

US690215A - Recreation submarine boat of boat-vehicle.

Info

Publication number: US690215A
Application number: US6492900A
Authority: US
Inventors: John Wilson
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1900-10-22
Filing date: 1900-10-22
Publication date: 1901-12-31
Anticipated expiration: 1918-12-31

Description

IQOI,

Patented Dec. 3|, J. WILSON.

RECREATION SUBMARINE BOAT 0R BOAT VEHICLE.

3 Sheets S heei 1.

(Application filed Oct. 22, 1900. -Renewed June 17, 1901.)

(No Model.)

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" I BY IAT.TORNEY N4"). 690,25. Patented Dec, 3|, I901.

" J. WILSON.

REGBEATIONSUBMARINE BOAT 0R BOAT VEHICLE;

lpplicm icm filed Out. 22, 1900. Renewed June 17, 1901.) (No Model.) 3 Sheets-sheaf 2.

m In' HI I Y BY 0% 6/2 020 S ATTORNEY m: Nonms vzyzas cu..,imo-umo.. wAsumaYon. 11s,:

Patented Dec. 3!, I90L.

.1. WILSON. BEGREATIDN SUBMARINE BOAT 0R BOAT VEHICLE.

(Application filed Oct. 22, 1900. Renewed June 17, 1901.)

3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

(No Model.)

; I INVENTO v BY g S ATTORNEY WITNESSES UNITED STATES 'ATENT O FICE.

JOHN WILSON, OF PERTH AMBOY, NEW JERSEY.

RECREATION SUBMARINE BOAT OR BOAT-VEHICLE.

SPECIFICATION forming, part of Letters Patent No. 690,215, dated December 3 1901- Application filed October 22,1900. Renewed J'une 1'7I 1901. Serial No. 64,929. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN WILSON, a citizen of the United States, residing in Perth Amboy, county of Middlesex, and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Recreation Submarine Boats or Boat-Vehicles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the class of devices employed for amusement and recreation and usually found at popular summer resorts; and the object of the invention is to provide a means whereby those whodesire it may experience the novel sensation of diving in a water-tight submarine boat, making a trip under water, and coming to the surface again at the landing-place.

In carrying out the invention it will be obvious that the details of construction and operation may be varied almostindefinitely, and I do not limit myself to any special construction or means of control or propulsion, the only essentials being awaterway deep enough to submerge the boat, a track of some kind laid therein, a boat or passenger-holding vehicle mounted to move along said track and water-tight, so that it may not leak or fill, and some means of propelling said boat or diving it from the place where the passengers come on board to where they are landed. Obviously the track may be endless and the boat make a circuit, so that the passengers can get on and off at the same point, and the track may be elevated at this point, so that the deck of the boat rises above thewater-level, this elevated portion of the track being connected to the main portion thereof by inclines. The motive power may be on the boat, so that it becomes a locomotor, or it may be drawn by a cable driven from astationary motor. The boat may be of almost any shape, but preferably it will have the cigar-like form of the known submarine boat; but this is merely for the purpose of simulating the real submarine torpedo-boat. The waterway may be also of any suitable form or contour.

In the accompanying drawings the device is represented in a simple form, the vehicle-' boat being mounted on a submerged endless track, which rises by inclines at the landingplace. The boat or boat-vehicle is propelled first in one direction and then in the other by a reversing-cable along the track.

In the drawings, Figure l is a plan of the device, showing the mechanism in the powerhouse. Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section taken at the plane indicated by the line 00 in Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is substantially a section at 00 in Fig. 2, showing the landing-place in side elevation. These views are all on a small scale. Fig. 4 is a sectional view in substantially the same plane as Fig. 2, but on a larger scale and illustrating the automatic stopping device; and Fig. 5 is a view of the same as seen from the left in Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a longitudinal vertical section of the boat on a relatively large scale. Fig. 7 is an underside view of the main hatch, showing the fastening; and Fig. Sis a sectional view of the same on the same scale as Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is an under side view of the telescoping hatch. Fig. 10 is a plan view of the track at the landingplace.

Referring to the drawings, a designates the waterway, which may be a deepoblong channel with a shallower central portion included within said channel. The only object of this construction is to reduce the quantity of water required for an artificial waterway. In this oblong channel is laid a track or railway b, which is elevated at the landing-place 0, so that the boat 01 will be elevated at the landing-place sufiiciently to cause its upper surface or deck to emerge. The boat is drawn by a cable a along the track and the cable is driven from a stationary motor or engine.

The passengers having been taken on board through a hatchway f, the cable is set in motion. The boat dives down the incline until submerged and then moves around the circuit of the track and up again to the landing-place from the other direction. The hatch is now opened and the passengers landed. Other passengers are now taken on board and the boat moves around the circuit of the track in the opposite direction to the landing-place.

The details of the construction will now be described, premising that these may be varied or changed without departing from my inventiou.

In the power-house g is an engine or motor h, which may be, for example, a steam-enerence a telescoping hatch 7".

gine. This engine drives a Windlass-drum i, there being an intermediate reversing-gear j, whereby the engineer may reverse the direction of rotation of said Windlass-drum. The ends of the cable 6 wind in opposite directions on the drum 1', so that the cable can be driven in opposite directions by merely'reversing the motion of the drum. The cable extends about suitable guide-sheaves to the track at the landing-place c and thence about guide-sheaves 7t" about the track between the rails. On the boat d, which has wheels m, which run on the track-rails, is a clutch-link 07, for securing the boat to the moving cable. The boat should be pointed at both ends and be provided with seats for the passengers, and it may have windows 0 in its sides to admitlightthroughthesubmergingwater. The boat will be of course water-tight and be ballasted, so as to sink in the water. The entrance will be by hatchway, the cover or hatch. fof which will be hinged to the coaming f on the deck and provided with a packinggasket and means fordrawing down the hatch and securing it on the inside. Preferably this fastening device will be a pivoted harp, Fig. 7, on the inner face of the hatch adapted when the latter is down in place to be turned to bear on inclined bearers g on the inner margins of the hatch-coamings, so that it will draw the hatch down snugly on the gasket.

In order to supply air or permit the passengers to leave the boat in case of an accident to the diving mechanism while the boat is submerged, the latter will have by pref- As here shown, this device is a tube adaptedto slide in a packing ring or gasket about an aperture in the deck of the boat and provided on its outer or upper end with a hinged hatch or cover 4" and means for securing the same similar to that for the hatch f. As the deck of the boat need never be very much below the surfacesay two feet as a maximumthe tube of the hatch need only be so long that when pushed upward to the full extent the cover 1" will be above the water-level. When this is done, the cover r may be raised to admit air.

Fig. 9 shows the under side of the telescoping hatch r and the means for drawing itdown and securing it. About the upper end of the tube 0" is a flange s, which projects inward, and on this flange are the inclines s for the pivoted arm 15 to bear on. As the flange s is circular, parts of it are cut away at s, so as to permit the ends of the disengaged arm t to pass when the cover r is elevated. No mechanism has been shown for pushing the telescoping hatch upward, and it is thought such will not be required; but my invention is not limited in this respect. If desired, a light ladder (not shown) may be set up to the hatch and the passengers be taken out in that way.

In order that the cable may be stopped automatically as the boat reaches the landingp1ace coming from either direction,the device illustrated in Figs. 4: and 5 may be employed. Mounted in or alongside of one of the track-rails, so that a wheel m of the boat will depress it, is a weighted lever a, which bears when depressed on one arm of a long lever '11, the other arm of which is coupled to an upright guided rod w. In the steam-pipe 50, which supplies the engine h, is a throttlevalve a2, provided with an operating crossarm 00'. The rod w takes under one branch of this cross-arm, which branch will be depressed'when the steam is on. As the boat arrives at the landing-place where the lover a is situated, a wheel at thereof depresses said lever, rocks the long lever o, and presses upward the rod to, thus raising the 'cross-arm 0: to a level position and cutting off the steam. This stops the further progress of the boat. The wheel m may pass over the lever to, and thus allow its weight to act on it and return it to its normal position. In starting back again the engineer first shifts the reversing-gear and then depresses the other branch of the cross-arm :20", thus opening the valve to admit steam tothe engine. The boat moves back and around in the other direction, and on arriving at the landing-place from'the other side it operates a lever device precisely like that before described to shut ol'1 the steam. This device comprises a weighted lever it at the track-rail, a long lever 1;, and an upright rod 10, which latter takes under the depressed opposite branch of the'cross-arm m" and elevates it, thus shutting off the steam.

It will be understood that the boat d is mounted on wheels m merely that it may be propelled or drawn more easily over or along the track; but I do not limit myself to the use of wheels, as other means may be employed which will suftice to reduce the friction. It should be borne in mind that being submerged the boat may be made to rest very lightly on the track and the water itself is a lubricant. The track as to its main portion need not be level. It mayrise and fall or be undulating, for example. By cable, also referring to the element or part 6, is meant any flexible carrier-as a chain or wire, for example. Cable is the common designation of these devices, although they maynot always be cables, properly so called.

I am well aware that it is not broadly new to mount a submarine boat on wheels in order that it may move about over the oceanbottom, and I do not claim this. My device includes as an essential a submerged track or way on which the submergible water-tight boat travels always over a predetermined route in a special waterway. I am also well aware that it has been proposed to place a railway-track under water and run on the same a train of cars simulating a sea-serpent,

submerged that the boat-like vehicle, which is a water-tight inclosure, will be wholly submerged and hidden entirely from view. In fact my object is to give to those in the boatlike vehicle the experience of a trip under the water. The wheeled vehicle is made to simulate a submarine boat, although it is not in the true sense a boat, as it does not float in a liquid.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 1. In a device for recreation purposes, the combination with a submergible, water-tight, boat-like vehicle provided with wheels to run on a track, and means for propelling said vehicle, of a track on which the latter runs, the major portion of said track being submerged to such a depth as to wholly submerge the vehicle running thereon, substantially as set forth.

2. In a device for recreation purposes, the combination with a submergible, water-tight, boat-like vehicle provided with wheels to run on a track, and means for propelling said vehicle, of a closed, endless track on which the latter runs, the major portion of said track being submerged to such a depth as to Wholly submerge the vehicle running thereon, substantially as set forth.

3. In a device for recreation purposes, the combination with a submergible, water-tight, boat-like vehicle provided with wheels to run on a track, and means for propelling said vehicle, of a track on which the latter runs,- the major portion of said track being submerged to such a depth as to Wholly submerge the vehicle and being elevated at a point inits length to form a landing-place whereat only the lower part of the vehicle is submerged, substantially as set forth.

4. In a device for recreation purposes, the combination with a submerged track, of a water-tight, submarine-boat-like vehicle mount ed on and adapted to travel along said track, a cable extending along said track and-connected to said vehicle, and means for driving said cable.

5. In a device for recreation purposes, the combination with a submergible, water-tight, boat-like vehicle provided with wheels to run on a track, and means for propelling the same along the track, of a receptacle to contain water of such. depth as to wholly submerge said vehicle, and a track in said receptacle on which said submerged vehicle runs, substantially as set forth.

6. In a device for recreation purposes, the combination with a submergible, water-tight, boat-like vehicle having wheels to run on a track, and having an entrance in its top provided with a Water-tight cover, of a track on which said vehicle runs, the major portion of said track being submerged to a depth sufficient to entirely submerge the said vehicle, and means for-propelling said vehicle on said track, substantially as set forth.

7. In a device for the purpose specified, the combination with a track submerged in a Waterway and having an elevation at a point called the landing-place, a water-tight, submarine-boat-like vehicle on said track and movable therealong, means for moving the vehicle along said track, and automatic means at the landing-place and actuated by the ve= hicle, for stopping the same at that point.

8. In a device for the purpose specified, the combination with a submerged track, a part of which is elevated and connected with the main part by inclines, of a water-tight submarine-boatlike vehicle mounted on and m'ov= able along said track, means for propelling said vehicle along the track, and automatic means actuated by the vehicle for stopping it at said elevated point.

9. In a device for the purpose specified, the combination with a deeply-submerged track, and a water-tight vehicle having the form of a submarine boat, provided with Wheels so that it may run wholly submerged on said track, and means exterior .to the said vehicle for propelling it along said track, substantially as set forth.

7 In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name, this 19th day of October, 1900, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHN WILSON.

Witnesses:

HENRY CONNETT, PETER A. Ross.