The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

MARINE REVIEW. [August 22, MECHANISM FOR CLOSING SHIP'S BULKHEAD DOORS. Messrs, J. Stone & Co., Deptford, England, have introduced a mech- anism for closing ship's bulkhead doors, which is illustrated herewith. The principal feature of the mechanism is that the valve which controls the application of hydraulic power for closing each door may be opened automatically by the lifting of a float, owing to the raising of the water level within the compartment, in the event of there being accidentally made an ingress for the sea; while at the same time the mechanism may be actuated from hydraulic leads controlled by valves on the bridge and other stations in the ship, or by a hand lever on the upper deck or along- at G, which is connected to a small cock on the bridge and other stations of the ship shown at M on the general arrangement (Fig. 1). The open- ing of this cock results in the valves of all the bulkhead doors being closed in the same way as by the action of the float. The rod to the upper deck. L, it will be seen, is connected to the top of the valve spindle by! a lever. There are thus provided four methods of closing the door by the same hydraulic cylinder--automatically through the float; by the non-return valve through the lead from the bridge and other stations on the ship; alongside the door by a lever for lowering the valve spindle, and by a lever and rod from the upper deck, also connecting with the valve spindle lever. The whole arrangement has been well worked out. aly Fig.2. 4 ey Shee Mite i CICTICIET ACT / 6 é gl 2 lo O ° Oo Ofo 3° °O i s 5 ,| eect | -- » | . Q--t: | QO. oO Oy O1o QO oO (8 Opening of Door 5-6 26° Horigontal Sleding Door (WTA side the bulkhead. Fig. 1 shows the general arrangement for longitudinal and athwartship bulkheads, with doors opening vertically in the machin- ery department of a ship. Fig. 2 illustrates the gearing for a door work- ing horizontally, while Fig. 3 is a section through the controlling valve, with the various connections. As to the general arrangement, N is a steam reservoir with steam pipe O connections from the boilers, so that the doors may be closed by steam as well as by hydraulic power. The hydraulic leads from the pumps are marked P, while those for actuating the valves from various stations in the ship--from the bridge, etc.--are indicated by the letter Q. The valve (Fig. 3) is of the simple central spindle type, the inlet from the pumps -being at A, while B is a connection to one end of an hydraulic cylinder placed above the door, and C to the other end. Within the cylinder, shown in Figs. 1 and 2, is a rod with piston at either end: and as the pressure is admitted at one end of the cylinder, the piston rod within the cylinder is driven forward, gearing on the rod engaging in a pinion secured to the vertical shaft. This shaft, thus rotated, closes the door by direct gearing, as shown on Fig. 2, or by bevel gear, if more con- venient. Admission of water pressure to the opposite end of the cylinder causes the piston and its geared rod to travel in the opposite direction; thus the door is opened or closed. To operate the valve by hand, the lever K. being raised, depresses the main spindle E, allowing the water pressure to pass through the port to the connection B to the cylinder for opening the door, the water from the other end of the cylinder escaping through the exhaust D. This is the position of the valve shown in section (Fig. 3). By depressing the han- dle, the spindle is raised and the port to C opened, and that to B con- nessed to the exhaust D; the result being the closing of the bulkhead oor, The action of the float is equally simple. The rise in the water level in the compartment lifting the float, opens the valve H, admitting pressure water from the pump lead at A through ports to the chamber J, forces the valve spindle upwards, and thus admits the pressure through C for actuating the cylinder to close the bulkhead door. Should it happen that, when the door has thus. been automatically closed in emergency, someone is left in the compartment, the prisoner can, by depressing the lever Ke overcome the effect of the float, thus reopening the door for a sufficient G6, sonia escape; but the door will again be automatically closed by the float. The only remaining point to explain is that there is a non-return valve mg wuly perforoated --"* bottom for protection of Valve Antomatic Action from Bridge to close Door : | : Connection for Opening oi EA : v Closing Doors from any we Pressure tet to Valve. position in Ship VA Fig. 3. NV ' Valve Si A B Pressure to Ne ) N N J bd Exhaust f [ULLAL Lom Aulomatic action from Ze =i Bridge to close Door. ee es Za . ( --_&z cdi x -- = = Automatic Float astigry to close Doors by water uv Bulkhead