Specification of John Henry Johnson : apparatus for preventing sea sickness.

  • Johnson, John Henry.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of John Henry Johnson : apparatus for preventing sea sickness. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    3 Johnson’s Improvements in Apparatus for Preventing Sea Sickness. Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent. NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per- 5 formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :— The said Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of apparatus to be fitted on board ship for the use of voyagers subject to sea sick- 10 ness, and consists in the employment of a supporting platform or cradle suspended by means of springs some distance above the deck to allow for the vertical movement of the ship, the springs allowing for the pitching of the ship without imparting motion to the suspended platform; these suspensory springs are secured to the masts or to special supports. Other springs disposed horizontally 15 or nearly so, and attached to the sides of the platform and to the masts or other suitable fixed points, serve to prevent any oscillating motion of the platform during the rolling of the ship. The platform may either be suspended above the deck line, in which case a flight of steps and a gangway also supported by springs are required to gain access to the platform, or the floor of the platform may 20 be level with the deck, a well or cavity being made in the deck beneath the same to allow of vertical play. These suspended platforms may be roofed in or left open, and provided with seats, beds, and other conveniences for voyagers. And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now 25 proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed. Figure 1 of the Drawings is a Diagram showing the principle of the arrangement of spring for suspending the platform. A, A, A, is a flexible elastic spring or thin blade of metal; b, c, is a cord or rod attached to one end 30 of the spring blade at b, guided at the other end c, and terminating in a ring or hook, the same arrangement being adopted for the rod or cord d, e, which is attached to the opposite end of the spring blade A. By superposing a number of these blade springs connected one with another a sufficient vertical elasticity will be obtained, but such an arrangement would 55 be in many respects inconvenient by reason of the great altitude to which such series of springs would have to be carried to afford the requisite amount of vertical play, as the extension afforded by the fluxure of each spring would not be more than about one-third of the length of such spring when in a state