US1094963A - Mechanism for firing torpedoes. - Google Patents

Description

T. S. BAILEY.

MECHANISM FOR FIRING TORPEDOBS. APPLIOATION FILED 00T.26, 1910.

1,094,963. Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

IIIIIIIII:A\\\\\\\ H H I i W H l I NESSES' INVENTOR %iJWe/mfl ATTORNEY$ alt/7 T. S. BAILEY.

MECHANISM FOR FIRING TORPEDOBS. APPLICATION FILED 001.25, 1910.

1,094,963. Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

6 fiHEETS-QHEET 2.

WITNESSES: INVENTOR ATTORNEYS T. s. BAILEY.

MECHANISM FOR FIRING TORPBDOES.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 25, 1910. 1,094,963. Patented Apr. 28, 191

6 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

ITNE v T. S. BAILEY.

MECHANISM FOR FIRING TORPEDOES.

APPLICATION FILED 0013.26, 1910.

LGQhQfiS Patented Apr. 28, 1914:. 77/ I 6 $HEETS-SHEET 4. 5W;

ATTORNEYS WINESSES:

T. S. BAILEY.

MECHANISM FOR FIRING TORPEDOES.

APPLICATION FILED OOT.25,1910.

Patented Apr. 28, 1914.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

.i/I1ii W A 4. a L 6 5 3 M 3 Hi a L7 3 L7 I 11 v 5 fi w 4 w fi A w 7 i A M 3 u "a m A 7 hw INVENTOR ATTORNEY;

T. S. BAILEY.

MECHANISM FOR FIRING TORPEDOES.

APPLICATION FILED 0GT.25,1910.

Patented Apr, 28, 1914.

6 SHEETSSHEET 6.

[TA/E8858 INVENTOH ATTORNEYS rnnoponns s. BAILEY, or QUINCY,- mnssnonnsnr'rs.

MECHANISM FOR FIRING TORPEDOES.

Specification of Lett'ers Patent Patented Apr. 28,1914.

Application filed October 25,. 1910'. Serial no. status:-

i it is desired that the firing of the torpedoes may be controlled from one or more distant stations, and in which the torpedoes are discharged by admitting into the discharge tube, back of the torpedo, air or other suitable fluid under pressure.

The particular nature and specific object of. the invention Will best be understood from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings,

' whichillustrate the preferred form of the invention applied to a torpedo tube installation of well known character, such as is now commonly used in submarine boats of the United States Navy.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a front elevation of a set of four torpedoftubes ar,- ranged in the end of a submarine boat, the tubes being equipped with improved firing and controlling mechanism in accordance with the present invention; Fig. 2 shows in side elevation one pair of the torpedo tubes and the associated controlling and firing mechanism, as well as mechanism of standard type for turning the torpedo tube cap to open and close the tubes; Fig. 3 illustrates a control station, and in this case shows the arrangement of control valves in proximity to the lower end of the periscopetube of a submarine boat, the control valves bein within easy reach of an observer stan ing at the eye-piece of the periscope; Fig. 4-is a front elevation, partly in section, showing the expulsion valve, and the distributing valve in their relation to the upper torpedo tube of each set, the main air supply pipe with its two branches and controlling valves being removed, to simplify the illustration; Figs. 5 and 6 were spectively'a central vertical section and a' plan view of-the expulsion valve and asso ciated piston valve for removing the stopboltfrom the path of the torpedo; Fig. 7 is a central vertical section of one of the control valves located at the control station; Fi 8 is a central vertical section of a distri uting valve, the gearing whereby the distributing valve is actuated from the shaft of the torpedo tube cap being shown in elevatio'n; Fig. 9 is a section on the line 99 of Fig. 8; Fig. 10 is a central vertical section, partly broken away, of. a submarine boat, showing in a diagrammatic manner the relation of the apparatus of the'present. invention to the torpedo installation and observation periscope of a submarine boat; and Fig. 11 is an end view of the rotary torpedo-tube cap.

The arrangement of the four torpedo tubes, as shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 10 is according to the standard practice of the United States Navy, and since this arrangement forms no part of the present invention, it is unnecessary to describe it further than to point out that the forward ends of the torpedo tubes are opened and closed by means of a rotatable cap. 76 actuated by the shaft 1 7 5, substantially as shown and described in United States Letters Patents to Hugo E. Grieshaber, No. 820,925, of May 15, 1906.

i The cap operating shaft 75 is centrally'located with respect to the four tubes, 1, 2, 3, and 4, and carries a gear segment 5, which is adapted to be turned, by means of the :handle 6 and pinion 7, so as to bring the passages 77 in the cap into registry With and v to thereby open tubes 1 and 4 or 2 and 3,

depending upon the direction in'which the cap is turned. The upstanding arm 8, and its actuating mechanism including the handwheel 9, seen in Fig. 2, are provided for the purpose of giving fore and aft motion to the cap, thus enabllng it to be drawn up tightly on the askets around the outboard ends of the tuhe. The air or other compressed fiuid comes'fr om the pressure tank (not shown) to the two sets of torpedo tubes through the pipe 10, elbow. 11, and the branch conduits 12 controlled by valves 13.

into the valve chambers of 'the four expulsion valves. This construction will best be understood from Figs. 1, 2, i and 6, it being remembered that in Figs. 4 and 6 the main air supply pipe with its two branches and valves 13 are removed. From these. figures it will beseen that the elbows 11 with their branch conduits 12, stand upon the Hat flanges 15 which surround the passage to the valve chamber 14 of the expulsion valve. There are four expulsion valves, one for each of the torpedo tubes,and though all four of them are mounted on the upper surfaces of the two upper torpedo tubes, each one is secured to a box-like casing 16, the two cas-\ ings on the inner sides of the torpedo tubes 1 and 3 communicating directly with those tubes, and the two outer casings communicating respectively with the tubes 2 and 4 through the conduits 17 (see Figs. 1', 2 and 5).

The particular form of expulsion valve shown in the drawings forms no part of the present invention, but is of the type disclosed and claimed in the United States patent to Gregory G. Davison, Number- 1,003,993, and the construction will be und erstood from Figs. 5 and 6, which show this art of-the mechanism in detail.

. Within the casing 14 of each expulsion valve is a stem 18 carrying at one end the main valve 19, which controls the passage to the torpedo tube, and at the other end a differential element such as a diaphragm or piston 20, so that the air or other fluid under pressure is admitted to the valve chamber between the main valve 19 and the differential piston. The exposed area of the differential piston is preferably somewhat larger than the exposed area of the valve 19, so that the pressure from the main reservoir tends to hold the valve 19 to its seat. It is, however, convenient .to provide, for the purpose of assisting in this efl'ect, a coiled spring 21 surrounding the valve stem and tending to seat the main valve19.. Above the jexpulsion valve, and in a casing which maybe formed in the same casting, 1s a pistonvalve 22, normally spring pressed by the spring 23 into the position shown inFig. 5

of the drawing. This piston valve controls the, duct 24 which leads to the valve casing 14 at the rear of the differential piston 20, and its stem 25 isconnected throughthe rod 26 with the mechanism commonly employed in connection with torpedo tube firing mechanism for withdrawing from the path of the torpedo a stop bolt which projects into the torpedo tube and lies in the path of the torpedo. Stop bolts of this character are widely used and are fully illustrated and described in U. S. Letters Patentto Lawrence Y. Spear,'No. 871 ,453,

of November 19, 1907, for example, and, as will be understood by those skilled in the art, it is necessary to remove such stop from the path of the torpedo before the torpedo is discharged.

Associated with the above described apparatus and adapted to determine the movements of the piston valves 22, to thereby control the firing of the torpedoes, is a system of pressure pipes leading to the distant control station or stations. It will be obor other served that tapped into the head of the easing of each of the piston valves 22, is a small pressure pipe, these pipes being numbered 27, 28, 29 and 30 on the drawing. It would-be feasible to lead each of said pipes directly to the distant control station, and provide each of them, at that station, or at each of the distant stations, with a control valve, and such an arrangement is, broadly considered, within the scope of the present invention. For the purpose of simplifying the system and adding to the safety thereof, however, I provide two distributing cocks 31 and 32, together with mechanism for actuating said cocks from the cap actuating shaft, in a manner which will be hereinafter described more in detail, and lead the two pressure pipes 27 and 28 to one of the cocks and the two pressure pipes 29 and 30 to the other cock. From each of the cooks there extends to the distant control station or stations, a pressure pipe, those pipes being indicated by the reference numerals 33 and 34 on the drawings. A distant control station-at the eye-piece of the periscope tube is indicated in Fig. 10, and shown in detail in Fig. 3, and it will be observed thateach of the pipes 33 and 34 leads to a separate control valve 35 and 36 respectively. Each'of the control valves is connected by the pipe 37, to a source of air fluid under pressure, such a source being always available on a submarine boat 7 or wherever torpedoes are to be discharged by such fluid. The pipe 37 is preferably provided with a shut-off cook 38 adapted to control the connection with the source of pressure. The valves 35 and 36 are of iden- ..tical construction, and one of them is shown in detailin Fig. 7, from which it will be seen that thevalve is supported on a plate about the lower end of the periscope tube, and which forms part of the sup ort for said tube. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, many types of valves are suitable for this purpose, but the particular one illustrated comprises a piston 59 sliding in a short pipe section 39, and normally pressed by the spring 40 into the closed position as illustrated in Fig. 7. The stem 41 0f the valve extends upwardly through a gland 42 and is connected by the pin 43 to the lever arm 44 pivoted at 45 on the upstahding'bracket 46. Connected to the outer end of the lever arm '44 is a pull rod 47 passing down through the plate on which the valve is supported and terminating in -a handle 48 in position to be conveniently manipulated by the observer at the periscope tube. The periscope here shown is of the binocular type which is now in use in the United States Navy and is mounted for rotation in the manner indicated in Fig. 3, from which it will be seen that the periscope tube 60 passes through the plate 01, which supports the control valves 35 and 36 and the tube has below the plate theordinary eye-piece portion 62, together with an annular gear 63 surrounding the tube and fixed to the plate 61. The eye-piece portion carries a bearing sleeve 64 for a stub shaft which has at its upper end a pinion 65 and at its lower end a hand-wheel 66, so that by turning the hand-Wheel the periscope tube may be rotated. This type of periscope tube is shown and described in United States Letters Patent to G. G. Davison, No. 97 0431, dated Sept. 13, 1910, and is used in connection with a direction indicator so constructed that when the axis of the boat coincides 'Wlllh the direction in which the torpedois to be fired, an alarm is sounded as an indication of the instant when the torpedo should be fired.

The details of the distributing cocks will be understood from Figs. 8 and 9 which show in detail'one of the cooks and its actuating mechanism. Each of these devices comprises a conical plug 49 fitted into a casing 50 and spring pressed to its seat by the coiled spring 51. The shaft of the plug extends through the hub of a gear segment 52, which is splined to the shaft, and then through a bearing in the bracket 53. Fixed to the end of the shaft is a quadrant meshing with inion 56 on the shaft of the cap actuating andle 6 (see Figs. 2, 4 and 8.)v The plug 49 contains a duct 57 which, in the position indicated in Fig. 9, which corresponds to the closed position'of the cap, is out of communication with all of the- pipes 27, 28 and 33 which are tapped into the easing 50. When the handle 6 is rotated to turn the cap. in one direction or the other, segment 55 is caused to rotate by pinion 56, and the middle gear of train 58 being keyed to the segment shaft is also caused to turn, thus imparting circular motion through the other gears of train 58 to the quadrants 52, which are keyed to\the plug shafts. (See Fig. 4.) If the handle 6 is turned in a clockwise direction, as seen in Fig. 1, the gear segment 5 is turned totheleft. This movement turns 'the gear segment 55, and the shaft to which it is keyed, to the right, as viewed in Fig. 4, and through the intermediate gear of the train 58, and the two idle gears, turns both segments 52 in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in that figure.

This turns the plugs of cocks 31 and 32in a.

counter-clockwise direction as viewed in Fig. 4, and will put pipe 28 into communication with pipe 33, and pipe 30 into com iunication with pipe 34, the ducts in the plugs of cocks 31 and 32 being properly arran ed for that purpose. It will be seen that y this construction the control valves 35 and 36 are automatically put into communication with those torpedo tubes which are open and readyfor firing. If the handle 6 had been rotated in the other direction the tubes 2 and 3 would have been opened and the plugs of cocks 31 and 32 moved in such direction as to put the pipes 33 and 34 into communication with the pipes 27 and 29 respectively. It Will be understood that'when this opening of the cap has been effected, and the valves 13 have been opened, two ofthe tubes are ready for firing, one of them being under the control of the control valve 35 and the other under the control of the control valve 36. The man at the observing station has .now complete control of the firing of the ,bolt and opening the passage 24, whereupon the pressure fluid flows into the valve chamber of the expulsion valve back of the differential piston 20, and forces valve stem 18 to the right and valve 19 olf its seat, thereby admitting the pressure in chamber 14 to the torpedo tube and discharging the torpedo.

It will be observed that the installation above described embodies many details of construction which in themselves are capable of considerable mechanical variation, and though the preferred form embodies an arrangement in which the control is elfected by means of air or other fluid under-pressure, nevertheless it is broadly new,-so fa. as I am aware, to provide a connection between the tube-opening means and the firing mechanism of a plurality of torpedoes such that the movement of the tube-opening means automatically renders inoperative the controlling mechanism for those firing devices associated with the closed tor edo tubes, and simultaneously renders effective the c0ntrolling devices of the firing mechanism of those torpedo tubes which have been opened. Obviously such connection isapplicable whether the firing-control is effected by means of fluid ressure or otherwise. I also believe it to be roadly new to associate controlling devices for a plurality of torpedo firin means With the periscope of a submarine boat, in such manner that the controlling devices may be conveniently manipulated by the observer at the periscope.

Having thus described my invention what I'claim'is:

l. A torpedo tube installation comprising &

firing mechanism, such that-the actuation ofa plurality of tubes having tube opening mechanism and firing mechanism associated therewith, in combination with a firing control device common to a plurality of the firing mechanisms and connections between the tube opening mechanism and said firing I control device, such that the actuation of the tube opening mechanism automatically connects the firing control to. the open tube; substantially as described.

3. In mechanism. for firing torpedoes from any one of a plurality of tubes hav-' ing cap-operating means adapted to open less than the whole number of tubes, an expulsion valve for each tube, in combination with controlling mechanism for said valves, and connections between the cap-operating means and the controlling mechanism adapted to automatically disconnect the controlling mechanism from the closed: tubes and connect it with the open tube or tubes; substantially as described.

t. A torpedo tube installation comprising a plurality of tubes having tube opening mechanism and firing mechanism associated therewith, in combination with a plurality ofv firing control devices located at a distant station and of less number than the number of tubes and intermediate .connections responsive to the movement of the tube opening mechanism and adapted to automatically connect a distant firing control device to the firing mechanism of each open tube; substantially as described.

5.1m mechanism for firing torpedoes from any one of a plurality of tubes having means adapted to open-less than the whole number of tubes, an expulsion valve for each tube, controlling means therefor located at a distant station, and connections between said means and the expulsion valves, said connections including mechanism responsive to the movement of the tube-opening means and adapted to auto- '"matically disconnect the controlling means from the closed tubes and connect itxwith the open tube or tubes; substantially as de scribed.

6. In mechanism for firing tor edoes from any one of a plurality of tubes aving cap-operating means adapted to open less than the whole number of tubes, an expulsion valve for each tube, a control valve and connections betweenthe control valve and the "expulsion valves, said connections including a distributing valve connected to the cap operating means and adapted to automatically connect the control valve with the open tube and disconnect it from the remainder of said tubes; substantially as described.

7. In mechanism Ior firing torpedoes from any one of a plurality of tubes, having a. cap-operating means adapted to open less than the whole number of tubes, an expulsion valve for each tube, connections for ac- .tuating the expulsion valves including a distributing valve connected to the cap-operating means and controlling the connections to a plurality of tubes, a pressure pipe extending from the distributing valve to a distantstation-and a control valve for said pipe at the distant station, said distributing valve being so connected as to automatically connect the control valve to the open tube and disconnect it from the remainder of said tubes; substantially as described.

8. In mechanism for firin torpedoes from any one of a plurality 0% tubes haviiig means adapted to open less than the whole number of'tubes, an expulsion valve for each tube having a main valve controlling communication with the tube, an equalizing element connected to the stem of said valve, {and connections for admitting fluid under pressure between the main valve and the equalizing element, in combination with connections for admitting fluid under pressure to the other side of each of the several equalizing elements to open the main valves, said last named connections including control pipes extendingto a distant control station, valves at said station for admitting pressure fluid to said pipes, and connections between the tube-opening'means and said pipes adapted to automatically connect the control pipes to the valves of the open tubes; substantially as described.

9. In a mechanism. for firing torpedoes from any one of a plurality of tubes having cap-operating means adapted to open less than the whole number of tubes, an expulsion valve for each tube having a main valve contrglling communication with the torpedo tube anequalizing element connected to the stem of said'valve, and connections for admitting fluid under pressure between the main valve and the equalizing element, in combination with connections for admitting fluid under pressure to the other side of each of the several equalizing elements to open the main valves, said connections including control pipescxtending to a distant control station, valves at said station for admitting pressure fluid to said pipes, and connections between the cap operating means and said'pipes adapted to automatically shut ofl' connection between the control pipes and the valves of the closed tubes and open connection between the said pipes and the valves of the open tubes; substantially as described.

10. In mechanism for releasing and firing a torpedo from its tube, an expulsion valve ing a piston adapted to be Connected to for the tube having a main valve controlthe torpedo stop-releasing mechanism, and ling communication with the tube, an equala control valve in said last-named connecizing element. connected to thestem of..said tions; substantially as described. 5 valve, connections for admitting fluid under Intestimony whereof I aflix my signature, 15 7 pressure between the main valve and the in presence of two witnesses.

equalizin element, connections for ad- I THEODORUS BAILEY. mltting uid under pressure to the other Witnesses: sideof said 1 equalizing element to'open F. L. BRAKE,

10 the main valve, said connect-ions includ- J. E. FITZGERALD, Jr.

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