TIPOS DE CONTROL

Mr. Rettie demanded an appropriate remuneration for his expenses as the trials were acknowledged by the Admiralty as highly necessary and successful. He also wanted more compensation for the trials of 1845 at Woolwich for which he already

got 291. After several rejections the Admiralty finally allowed him another 40/.

Mr. Rettie denied that he came on the basis to pay for his own expenses and that such agreement ever existed.^’

On 1st January 1848 a further set of lamps was ready for delivery to

H.M.S. St. Vincent for trial on request of her Commander-in-Chief Admiral

Sir Chai'les Napier, then, November 1847, in Lisbon, through H.M.S. Terrible. A

report was announced but so far not printed.^^

Instead the argument between Mr. Rettie and the Admiralty was renewed under a different heading. The Admiralty had just sent the proposed regulation for lights to the Trinity House in Hull when Mr. Rettie five days later on 17th January 1848 claimed that this light arrangement was a paltry deviation of his invention and a direct infringement of his patent and patent rights. He awaited compensation but the Admiralty denied his accusations. Mr. Rettie sent another two letters on 22nd January and 29th January 1848. He stressed again his time and expenses, and the promise by the Admiralty that his lights would be adopted when successful and he be paid. His lights were the only night signals which were now about to be adopted through the proposed regulation by the Admiralty who had only relocated the colours to avoid the appearance of infringement. Being the only person who ever brought coloured lights for maritime purposes into discussion he described the proposed Admiralty system as meaningless which will have to be abandoned within the next six months for their

B.C., 1852 (59.), pp. 9-12, nine letters between 18th June and 29th July 1847; Ibid., pp. 12-13, six letters between 8th October 1847 and 5th January 1848;

From; Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Great Exhibition of the Works Of Industry Of All Nations. Part III. Section III.—Manufactures, Class 22.—General Hardware, Including Locks and Grates, 1851, p. 647.

4 4 9 R k t t i e , M ., & Sons, Aberdeen— M am ifiictiirors.

Patent distress sigiial-lainps, for steamers and sailing vessels in distress, invented by Robert Rettie, C.E., Lon­ don. These lamps ar e shown complete and ready for use in the cut annexed.

H ettie's P a te n t D istress S ign al-L am p s.

Patent signal-lamp, for preventing collision of vessels ;md steamers at sea.

insufficiency, and accused them of their stubbornness to introduce his lantern which resulted in many collisions.^^ He described the proposed system as “not only ridiculous in the extreme, as they never can get them carried out generally, from a variety of causes;” The system would also become too expensive and practically unmanageable. He wrote further;

nor would the Admiralty now, when they are put on their guard, tiy to force down the steam proprietors, or the shipping proprietors, to carry a number of lights without meaning. Fancy the confusion of 50-100 vessels coming up the river with 300 green, white, and red lights !! Where is the wiseacre that could make out angles out of such a galaxy of variegated lights ? The thing is so absurd that it only wants a moment’s reflection to see the futility of the scheme. In fact it is more theory, without any atom of practical knowledge.

The proposed lamps could at least be made cheaper and of a better quality. This outburst from him did happen again in a letter on 6th October 1851 which he sent from the Great Exhibition in the Crystal Palace where he exhibited his various l a m p s . H e accused Captain Henry Mangles Denham^^ of being “allowed, with others, to spoil these valuable signals by stupid alterations”. He signed this letter with, and this was his base for the claim of compensation, “The first and only original Inventor of all the Coloured Signals on Land and Sea.”^^ Mr. Rettie understood Captain Denham as appointed by the Admiralty to be an inspector of signal lights which the Admiralty rightly denied. In fact he was appointed by the Board of Trade to set up and administer the new Steam Navigation Department^^ which later on included also to be an inspector into shipping accidents and to inquire into the working of the new Admiralty light regulations of 1848.^^ The argument went on. Mr. Rettie stressed over and over again his efforts, expenses, and the injustice done to him and wanted to put this dispute before whatever jury. The Admiralty got so fed up that the secretary finally only replied that his letters were laid before the Lords

H.C., 1852 (59.), p. 14, letter of 22nd January 1848; Ibid., p. 15, letter of 29th January 1848;

Great Exhibition 1851. Official, Descriptive, and Illustrated Catalogue, Class 7.— Civil Engineering, Architecture, and Building Contrivances, No. 159, pp. 319-20; and Class 22.— General Hardware, including Locks and Grates, No. 449, p. 647;

See for his suggestions of lighting systems chapter on Modes of Exhibiting Lights as Practised and Suggested Before 1840 and chapter on Report on Shipwreck, 1843; for his role at the Admiralty see chapter on Admiralty Regulations, 1848;

H.C., 1852 (59.), p. 19; Prouty, 1957, p. 62;

See chapter on Admiralty Regulations, 1848;

Commissioners. In a last attempt Mr. Rettie referred to his other inventions as shortly explained in his above-mentioned pamphlet of 1847, regarding the preserving of food, vegetables, and fruit in the Navy. The Admiralty replied for the last time on 17th January 1852 that this plan was also laid before the Lords. Here ended the recorded communication."^^

The Times reported about another testing of lights: of red and white paddle-box lights at Woolwich Dockyard on the 15th May 1849 in the presence of Commodore Henry

Eden and others. These lamps were fitted to the steam-vessel Black Eagle and

constructed after a plan of an officer of the Life Guards. A camphine liquid produced a strong brilliant light much more powerful than the ordinary lamps. They required hardly any attention and were as good as smokeless and very clean. The flame was comparable to those of gas burners.

A Royal Letters Patent, No. 12,692, was granted to William Bush, Civil Engineer of Great Tower Street, London on 4th July 1849 for his invention of “Improvements in Lamps and in Lighting”. Two of them particularly concerned ships’ lights. The first was a signal lantern made for hoisting up to the mast-head. The invention and improvement consisted of a movable transparent or coloured glass reflector so that they could be substituted for each other. The glass was silvered or quicked from the back side. The front glass was transparent.

He did not state in his description for what purpose this light was meant to be. The Admiralty regulations came into operation a year before. This lamp had not given a light over the required ten or twenty compass points of the horizon. It could have been used for any other communication purposes (pilot, distress, steering lamp, &c.).

The other invention was meant to be a bow or quarter light. A lamp with a back reflector, of obviously no particular shape, was furnished with a conical, tube like shaped reflector of transparent or coloured glass, silvered or quicked from the outside. Mr. Bush wrote further that"^^

a clear light should be always exhibited on the starboard bow or quarter, and a coloured one on the larboard bow or quarter, or vice versa, according to the rules laid down by the

1852 (59.), pp. 16-21;

The Times, May 16, 1849;

Letters Patent No. 12,692, 1849, p. 4;

F I G . 6

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Figure 6 is a sectional plan of a ship’s signal lantern fitted with transparent and colored glass reflectors, silvered or quicked as aforesaid, but differing in this from the reflectors before described, that in this case the reflectors are moveable, which admits of a reflector of one color being readily substituted for a reflector of a different color. A is one of the reflectors; B the lamp; C, C, the frame; D, D, guides to which it is slung when hoisted to the masthead of the vessel. E is the oil cistern, and F the front glass and frame.

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Admiralty and Trinity Boards, which would clearly mark the course of the vessel to any other vessel.

His intention with this reflector is also unclear. Did he intend to throw the reflected light in a narrow, concentrated beam a-head ? However, this arrangement had not been in accordance with any Admiralty or Trinity House regulations.

Besides other claims Mr. Bush claimed to have adopted the silvering or quickening, as patented by Thomas Dray t o n , t o the back side of lamp reflectors. The specification was signed on 4th January 1850.

His Letters Patent of 4th December 1848 concerned the prevention of silvered or quicked surfaces from running at high temperatures;