US823976A - Ship's course-recorder. - Google Patents

Description

No. 823,976 PATENTED JUNE 19, 1906.

E. O. TIBBETTS. SHIPS COURSE RECORDER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 17. 1905.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

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PATENTED JUNE 19, 1906.

F.O. TIBBETTS. SHIPS COURSE RECORDER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY17. 1905' 3 $HEETSSHEET 2.

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PATENTED JUNE 19, 1906.

F. O. TIBBETTS.

SHIPS COURSE RECORDER.

I APPLIGATION FILED MAY 17. 1905 '3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SHI PS COURSE-RECORDER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 19, 1908.

Application filed May 17, 1905. Serial No. 260,862.

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRED O. TIBBETTS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Pontiac, county of Livingston, State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ships Course-Recorders, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has reference to improvements in ships course-recorders of the kind in which the position of the compass-needle with reference to the axis of the ship is recorded upon a traveling sheet of paper continuously and with relation to the time during which the ship is maintained in its different courses. The record thus obtained forms a true ships log which displays every movement of the ship during a certain elapsed time.

In the accompanying drawings, which Fig. 3 is a plan view of the compass and of the parts with which it immediately cooper ates. Fig. 4 is a plan view of the top of the device. Fig. 5 is a perspective View of the traveling armature with the marker mounted thereon, and Fig. 6 is a diagram of the record sheet or chart with a nine -hours record marked thereon.

Like numerals of reference indicate like parts all throughout the drawings.

The main body or-casing of the device is in the form of a cylinder 1, the lower end of which is closed by a disk 2 and a semiglobular bowl 3. The disk 2 is secured to the lower flange 5 of the casing 1 by screws or bolts, (not shown,) and the bowl 3 is secured to the lower end of the casing by bolts and nuts 4, passing through the flanges 5 6 and through-the disk 2. I

The casing 1 is supported upon standards 7 7 through the intermediary of the gimbaljoint rings 8. I have shown four such rings, the outer one being journaled directly on the standards 7 7, and the succeeding inner ones are each journaled on the next preceding outer ring, and finally the casing 1 is journaled on the innermost ring, all in a manner well understood. This mounting renders the casing 1 independent of the pitching and rolling of the ship and enables it to maintain a vertical position. If necessary, some weight may be placed in the bottom of the bowl 3 to insure the position of the centerof gravity of the casing and its contents to be a considerable distance below the plane of the gimbal-joint rings.

l/Vithin the casing 1 and in the line of the diameter of the disk 2 there are mounted upon thelatter three standards 9 10 11, the standard 9 being mounted on the center of the disk 2 and the standards 10 and 11 at equal dis tances from the central standard. These three standards support the box 12, containing a train of gears. From the upper face of the box 12 the standards are continued, as indicated at 9 10 11, and they project a short distance above the upper edge of the casing 1 and are there braced 'by the hinged bar 12 and the latch 13. The bar 12 has three longitudinal slots, which when the bar is brought down upon the edge of the casing pass over the standards 9 10 11. The latch is pivoted to the bar 12 and has three lateral notches, so that when the latch is thrown over the bar 12 these notches embrace the standards 9 10 11, and in this manner the upper standards are securely braced. A thumb-screw 14, passing loosely through the free ends of the bar 12 and latch 13 and through a nut in the bracket 15, secures these parts together and to the casing.

Within the casing 1 is the chart or recordcylinder 16, which surrounds the box 12 and has on two diametrically opposite sides secured to its inner face the two rack-bars 17 17, which rack-bars engage the pinions 18 18 of the train of gears within the box 12, and which train of gears is so adjusted andprovided with the common retarding devices that the record-cylinder 16, acting upon it as a driving-weight, will drop through its whole length in a certain predetermined number of hours. Each rack-bar is longitudinally grooved on its two sides, and there are guidebrackets 19, one on each side of each of the pinions 18, secured to the box 12 and taking with their free edges into the grooves formed in the rackbars. In this manner the recordcylinder is guided during its descent from the position indicated in Fig. 1 until it has reached its lowest position on or near the disk 2. Two

circular guide-tracks 20 21, one above the other, are arranged to surround the recordcylinder and are mounted upon brackets 22, which are fast to themnerwall of the casing 1 and mounted on these tracks is a magnetic body 23, provided with grooved rollers 24, which engage the tracks, so that this magnetic body, like a little carriage, can freely roll all around the two tracks, with its inner face 25 toward the record-cylinder 16, and on this face 25 is mounted a fountain-pen 26 or any other marking device with its markingpoint projecting toward the record-cylinder 16 and in light contact with the surface of a record-sheet or chart 27, which is wrapped around the record-cylinder and is there temporarily held in the manner usually practiced with chronographs or other like recording instruments.

To the inner surface of the casing 1, surrounding the boX 12, is secured a ring 28, which serves as a support for'an annular se ries of electromagnets 29, of which a few only are shown in the drawings and which may be horseshoe-magnets, as shown, with their yokes secured to the ring 28 and with their poles in operative proximity to the outer face of the carriage 23 in any one of its positions. With this construction, supposing that the carriage 23 faces the poles of any one of the electromagnets and supposing that this electromagnet be deenergized and then the next succeeding one be energized, the carriage acting as an armature to the electromagnets will at once be drawn along the tracks 20 21 to face the electromagnet which has now been energized, and in this manner by successively denergizing and energizing successive electromagnets the carriage can be made to rotate step by step all around the tracks, and the fountain-pen or other marker will thus trace upon the record-sheet a circular line, provided that the record-cylinder is stationary. If, however, the record-cylinder descends by gravity, as it will always do, the marker will draw various lines upon the record-sheet, according to the various positions which the carriage assumes when the electromagnets are variously energized, in a manner which will hereinafter more fully appear.

In the bowl 3 is fixed a platform 30, upon which is mounted the compass-box 31, with its compass-needle 32 mounted in the usual manner. This compass-needle may be a single bar, as indicated in Fig. 3, or it may consist, as is frequently the case, of a number of parallel bars joined to the under side of a compass-card 33, and the points of the compass may be marked inside the boX in the usual manner. In order to observe this compass and to adjust it in coincidence with the steering-compass of the ship, an opening may be cut in the bowl, and this opening may be closed either by a door or by a pane of glass. Such opening is indicated in dotted lines.

Upon the platform 30 are also mounted standards 34 and 35, the former supporting a commutator-ring 36 and the latter a continuous metallic ring 37, both concentric with the compass-box, as shown. The commutatorring is divided into as many conducting-segments 36 as there are equally-spaced electromagnets arranged in the casing 1. These conducting-segments are separated from each other by narrow non-conducting segments 36 in the usual manner of constructing commutators. Upon the compass-needle are carried two pins 38, to which is fixed a copper strip 39, which extends diametrically over the compass-box and is provided at one end tact-brush 41, bearing upon the continuous conducting-ring 37.

Within the casing 1 at any point below the series of electromagnets is arranged a metal ring 42, mounted upon brackets 43. The electrical connections are made as follows: From one pole of a battery 44 the circuit eX tends by the wire 45 through the casing 1 and to the ring 42. From this ring a separate conductor 46 leads to each of the electromagnets, and the other terminals of the windings of these electromagnets are carried by wires 47 through protecting-tubes 48 and through the disk 2 each to one of the segments of the commutator. Then the circuit continues from a segment of the commutator by the brush 40, copper strip 39, contact-brush 41, ring 37, and conductor 49, back to the battery. It will be seen from this that as the compass-needle turns, so as to cause thebrush 40 to bear upon different conducting-segments of the commutator, a different one of the electromagnets will be placed in the circuit of the battery, and consequently the carriage 23, with its marker 26, will be moved on the tracks 20 21 to a correspondingly differ ent position, and the line marked on the chart will be different for each different position of' the compass. When during the movement of the compass-needle the brush 4O happens to bridge over the non-conducting segment between two conducting-segments, there will be two adjacent electromagnets energized simultaneously, and the carriage will take a position midway between two consecutive magnets, so that the markings on the chart corresponding to a number of consecutive different positions of the compass-needle while still angular will not be as abruptly angular as they would be if one electromagnet were cut out of circuit before the neXt succeeding one is put in the circuit.

By the operation of this device the course taken by the ship on which it-is carried is accuratelydelineated upon the chart and can be readily read and interpreted. The chart may take the form illustrated in Fig. 6, on which the vertical lines mark the different with a contact-brush 40, bearing upon the j commutator, and at the other end with a 0011-.

points of the compass and subdivisions thereof, while the horizontal lines mark off time intervals of fifteen minutes each. Such a chart being wound on and temporarily fastened to the cylinder 16, the latter will gradually drop down past the marker, and if the course of the ship should remain unaltered during the whole time occupied by the descent of the cylinder the record on the chart would be a simple vertical line; but if the course of the ship is altered at any time during the descent of the cylinder the line traced upon the chart will be angular or devious, according to the changes of direction of the ship. A record of the latter kind is indicated in Fig. 6 by a heavy line. The number of electromagnets used will depend upon the number of points of the compass of which the chart is to be an accurate record, and there need only be half as many electromagnets as there are points of the compass to be taken notice of. Thus, for instance, if thirty-two points of the compass are to be recorded there need only be sixteen electromagnets, each electromagnet corresponding in that case to the first, third, fifth, seventh, &c., point of the compass, while the conjoint actions of two adjacent electromagnets when the commutator-brush bridges two successive conducting-segments of the commutator correspond to the second, the fourth, the sixth, 860., points of the compass.

From the foregoing description it will be understood that the series of electromagnets controlled by the commutator, which in turn is controlled by the compassneedle, in combination with the rolling carriage which carries the marker, constitutes, in effect, an elec tric motor of which the rolling carriage is the neutral field-magnet and of which the annular series of electromagnets is the stationary armature, for it will be clear that if the compass-needle be rotated by hand or otherwise the carriage will rotate on its tracks around the record-cylinder with the same speed as the needle rotates and in the same direction.

In the construction shown the electromagnets need not be energized strongly to actuate the rolling carriage. A single cell of battery is quite sufiicient, and the magnets being at a considerable distance above the compass-needle do not react perceptibly to disturb that needle; but if in some cases a stronger current should be required, which might cause the electroma nets to disturb the compass-needle, such isturbances can be prevented by interposing between the magnets and the needle a magnetic shield of any kind. Thus, for instance, the disk 2 mi ht be made of iron.

f am not limited to the exact details of construction herein shown, since these may be variously modified without departing from the principle of my invention. Thus,

for instance, the mounting of the compassneedle is shown in the drawings in a rather conventional manner, and in practice it will be mounted in any well-known or improved manner, and proper compensation will be made for variations of declination and for dip and for the effect upon the needle of the current which passes through the copper strip 39. This effect may be entirely avoided by mounting the brushes 40 41 near one end of the needle, so that the current passing between the two has a direction practical y at right angles to the magnetic axis of the same.

What I claim is 1. A ships course-recorder,comprising a compass, an electric motor, means control ed by the compass for shifting the polar line of the motor in accordance with the variations of the course of the ship, and a chronographic recorder the marker of which is carried by the movable part of the motor, substantially as described.

2. A ships course-recorder, comprising an electric motor, a chronographic recorder the marker of which is carried by the movable part of the motor, and a compass the needle of which carries the brush bearing upon the commutator of the electric motor, substantially as described.

3. A ships course-recorder, comprising a chronographic recording cylinder having axial movement by its own weight, a marker movable circumferentially with reference to the cylinder, and a compass the needle of which controls the movement of the marker, substantially as described.

4. A ships course-recorder comprising a movable chart-carrier, a magnetic body carrying a marking implement adapted to move over said chart, a series of electroma nets in operative relation to said magnetic ody, a compass-needle, and means controlled by the same for energizing said magnets in the order of the varying indications of said compass-needle, substantially as described.

5. A ships course-recorder comprising a vertical chronographic cylinder axially movable by its own weight, a marking implement adapted to revolve around the cylinder, a compass-needle and means controlled by the same for moving the marking implement in accordance with the varying indications of said needle, substantially as described.

6. A ships course-recorder comprising a cylindrical axially-movable chart, a marking implement adapted to move circumferentially around the chart, a compass-needle and means for moving the marking implement in accordance with the variations of the indications of the needle, substantially as described.

7. A ships course-recorder comprising a compass, an electic motor and a source of current for the same, the commutator of the motor having a number of segments equal to half the number of the points of the compass, In testimony whereof I have signed my a commutator-brush carried by the compassname to this specification in the presence of IO needle for shifting the polar line of the motor two subseribing witnesses.

in accordance With the Varyin indications of the needle, and a chronograp ic recorder, FRED TIBBETTS' the marker of Which is carried by the mov- Witnesses:

able part of the motor, substantially as de- J. A. CARoTHERs,

scribed. FRED. A. LUCAS.

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