US1151607A - Protection against torpedoes, &c. - Google Patents

Description

H. B. NEWHALL, 1n. E. N. HESCOCK.

PROTECTION AGAINST TORPEDOES, c.

APPLICATION man APR. 1o. 1915.

Patented Aug. 31, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET HORE LINE H. B. NEWHALL, Ia. & E. N. HESCOCK.

PROTECTION AGAINST TORPEDOES, c.

APPLICATION FILED APR. I0, 1915.

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2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Henz'y. Newha/, Jr., arm' l sacarse HENRY B. NEWHALL, JR., F PLAINFIELD,

NEW JERSEY, Ann n'rnsn N. nEsCocK, or

` BROOKLYN, NEW YORK; SAID HESCOCK ASSIGNOR TO GARWOOD COMPANY, 0F GAR- WOOD, NEVI JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

FROTECTION AGAINST TORPEDOES, @coi Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 10, 1915. Serial No. 20,494.

To all l107mm it 'may conce/'71.

Be it known that we, HENRY B. NEWHALL, Jr., and Erin-sn N. Hnscock, citizens of the United States of America, and residing at Plainfield, Union county, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, Kings county, New York, respec tively, have invented new and useful Improvements in Protection Against Torpedoes, ttc., ot' which the following is a specification.

This invention relates particularly to the protection of ships, harbors, fortifications, etc., against submarine torpedo atta k.

rihe objects ot the invention are to provide a simple and effect-ive protection which can be readily handled and suited to various requirements, which is inexpensive and v which can be readily made up as required.

special object is to provide protective means which will stop attacking submarines as well as torpedoes.

in the carrying out of the invention we provide a barrier which may be in one or two parts which may be used alone or in combination. @ne part is in the form of a network constructed to tirst yield to the impact of a torpedo or submarine and to then hold the saine or else entangle it to such an extent as to destroy its etiiciency. This barrier may be made up of fiexiblestrands of material freely suspended so as to act as tentacle-like streamers and intertwining to such Y an extent or close enough together to constitu te a practical network. rhese streamers may be made of strands of hemp or Manila rope or lnarline, wire or the iike and they serve by entanglement with the propeller, rudders, etc., of a torpedo or submarine to disable the same to the`extent of stopping it y or at least throwing it so farA o its course as to render it ineffective.

lin conjunction with the entanglement network we may employ, as disclosed herein, a network made up of exible connected trame sections of a size and suiiicient strength to stop a submarine and carrying grillework of a size and strength to stop a torpedo. rihe entanglement may be suspended from the heavier trarne network or be used separately. in 'some cases double protection may be provided by placing one barrier in front of another. For instance a network of the entanglement elements may be proyidedas an inner defense and a traine network or combination frame and entanglement network as an outer defense.

Various other features and details of con'- struction will appear as the specification proceeds.

The accompanying drawings illustrate a preferred construction and application of our invention lout it'will be 'understood that changes and modifications may be made without departure from the true spirit and scope of the invention. Figure l, is a diagrammatic perspective View illustrating the application of the invention to the de'ense of a harbor; Fig'. Q, is a detail enlarged view of one of the entangling devices. Fig. 3, is an enlarged broken front view of two of the frame sections ot the net. Fig. 4, is a side view ot' the inner griliework section of one of the frames. Fig. 5, is a broken front elevation of a somewhat sinipier form of inner grille. Fig. G, is a broken detail view ot a joint between a frame bar and a hexagonal form ot grille. Fig. 7, is a similar view of a joint for the meeting corners oit three hexagonal units in this torni of grillework. Fig. 8, is a detail. View of a form or hull-piercing lug which may be used with the net.

lin the general view, Fig. i, 2O designates a harbor protected by our invention. 21 designates an inner entanglement constituting Patented Ang. i915.

an inner line of defense and 22 yan outer nctwork constituting an outer line of defense. The inner entanglement here comprises a series of devices suspended in spaced apart relation from a horizontal cable 23 which may be suitably supported at the proper height, as by means of buoys The entanglement devices each consist of a multitude of outstanding flexible strands 3() ot' rope, wire, or the like carriedby a core or hanger 3l connected'at its upper end to the cable 23 or other support. These hangers ina-y be weighted as indicated at 32 to cause them to stand substantially vertical with the strands standing out thereon like streamers or tentacles. The hangers may be connected together by connections such as indicated at 33. These connections hold the entanglement elements properly spaced and form. in conjunction with the hangers, a meshwork or network providing further means of entanglement. 'ilhe outer network shown, is made up of connected frame sections 4G, supnected at the corners by means of shacklesv dat corner rings 45. rl`he frame so pro-- vided is preferably made large enough and Thus the corner strong enough to receive and stop a sumarine and within such frame there is preferably suspended agrillework capable of stopping torpedoes, mines and the like. In Figs. 3 and 4 this grillework consists of an inner rectangular frame 46 connected to the corner rings by shackles 47 and carrying rearwardly extending converging bars 48 which t'orm between them tapering pockets or cells 49. The number ot cells thus provided will depend upon the size of the structure and the size of the cells determined upon. ln some cases theremay be only a single cell to each frame. ln the illustration there are two cells to each frame,y the iframe being divided into upper and lower halves by transverse bars 50 to which the lower bars i8 of the upper pocket and the upper bars of" the lower pocket are attached. 'llhc converging bars forming the pockets may be bracedy by connecting together the rearward ends of apair ot the oppositely dis.- posed hars as at 5l and by connecting the uj'iper and the lo rows ci? bars together by cross hraces The runework may' be built uJ section cy section to meet various require as to length and depth, one section .h le; added to another i'or instance by sl a ,f the corner rings together or as indicated in f iig. El. by using one ring as a common connection for adjoining sections. ring do in thisrase serves common center to which is connected the trame har +552 andthe griliework ot an adjoining section and shackles all and 47 are shown by which the traine bars and grilleworlr of the upper frame sections may be joined.

The construction and shape of the grillework may vary, that shown in Fig. 5 taking the form simply ot an inner frame carrying intersecting bars 61 forming a meshwork of a size and strength to intercept and hold torpedoes and the like.

The grillework maybe made up in circular-or in various angular forms. Thus in Figs. (i and 7 there is indicated a hexagonal type or" construction. llore the side bars 7() and radius bars 7l oi a hexagonal shaped unit are connected together by a plate 72 which is connected by a bolt TBto one of the main trame bars Several of such heX- agonal units may be joined together at a common center by the joint shown in Fig.

l. This joint is provided by a plate 74 to which the sides and radius bars-7l of three hexagonal shaped units are bolted or otherwise suitably secured.

`Means 'forvfurther disabling an attacking I the hull of a vessel entering the frame.

inthe illustration a submarine is indicated discharging a. torpedo at a vessel located behind the inner network defense. This torpedo will ordinarily become caught either in the frame network or in the entanglement networkl of the outer defense, depending upon the course and the level at which the projectile is fired. If the torpedo is fired at a relatively shallow depth it will drive int'o the frame network, the grillage yielding under the impact, slowing down the torpedo and holding it in its meshes. The grillage is made of a large enough mesh, consistent with the holding of the torpedo, to reduce the possibility of the torpedo striking head-on and exploding and the frame will ordinarily be so yieldable as to prevent an impact suiiicient for eniploding.` lt the torpedo is lired low, it encounters the entanglement. The outstanding strands or streamers of this entanglement, being freely suspended automatically wrap themselves about the propeller, rudders and other parts of the torpedo and either bring it to a full stop or else disable it to such an extent as to throw it oli' its course. lt', in the case illustrated, the torpedo should get through the outer defense it will practically always be stopped by the innernetwork for considerable energy will have been dissipated before it freed itself from the first network and but =comparatively slight resistancewill then be necessary to stop it entirely. The disabling effect of the entanglement devices is increased by making the strands in looped form as indicated at 90 in Fig. 2, these looped or doubled strands having a much greater catching and holding effect than the single strands. lf the submarine should attempt to penetrate the network the el'ect will be practically Vthe same as with the torpedo. In this case though the grillework might be carried away by the torce of the submarine, allowing it to bring up into the main or outer frame. The yielding characeinem ter of the network causes it to slow down and then hold the submarine and by the time the submarine has fully brought up into the frame, one or more of the puncturing lugs will probably have penetrated'the hull. By pointing these'lugs toward the rear as indicated, they may be caused to trap and hold the hull Which they have punctured. if the submarine should attempt to penetrate the entanglement network the strands thereof Will become entangled with the propeller, rudders, periscope and other parts of the vessel and either stop it entirely or disable it.

The invention is simply constructed and is of sucha nature that it can be quickly made up as the demand arises from materials at hand and to any desired shapes and sizes.v

What We claim is:-

l. A torpedo guard comprising, a ieXible frame of a size and strength to stop a submarine, grillework flexibly supported in said frame of a size and strength to stop a torpedo and a flexible network of streamer-like torpedo stopping entanglements suspended from said frame.

2. A torpedo guard comprising, a network entanglement made up of freely suspended relatively closely adjoining streamers.

3. A torpedo guard comprising, an entanglement made up of substantially vertical hangersy and iexible streamers dependent therefrom.

4. A torpedo guard comprising, a `relatively horizontal support, spaced hangers dependent therefrom and streamers dependent from said spaced hangers.

5. A torpedo guard comprising, a relatively horizontal support, spaced hangers 40 dependent therefrom, streamers dependent from said spaced hangers and means tying said hangers together,

G. A torpedo guard comprising, a relatively horizontal support, spaced hangers dependent therefrom, streamers dependent from said spaced hangers and Weights holding said hangers substantially vertical.

7. A torpedo guard comprising, a relatively horizontal support, spaced hangers dependent therefrom and looped strands dependent from said hangers and constituting streamer-s.

. 8. A torpedo guard comprising, a series of flexibly connected and yieldingly supportedvessel-stopping frames and giille- Work carried by said frames.

9. A torpedo guard comprising, a iexible frame and grillework flexibly suspended in said frame.

'10. A torpedo guard comprising, corner rings, frame bars shackled to said rings and a grille received within the frame provided by said frame bars and shackled to said corner rings.

HENRY B. NEVHALL, JR. ETHAN N. HESCOCK. 7 `Witnessesz A. M. 1Vi/vrnnraMs,

R. RWIN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner or" Patents` Washington, D. C.

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