The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-10-10

based upon alleged new disabilities waa
overruled by the Harrison administration
in the interest of meritorious applicants.
The old doctrine of estoppal in pension
claims is set aside by the present admins
tration." The secretary rewrote the de.
cision, eliminating therefrom the objec-
tionabls language. This morning the
secretary made inquiries as to the author
of the unsigned decision, which resulted
in the prompt dismissal of George Baber,
. member of the board of pension appeals
in the Office Of Assistant Secretary Bussey.
COLLAPsABLE CYLINDERS.
How Grant Brothers Discovered Their
Method for Raising Sunken Vessels.
TACOMA, Oct. Especial. IA boat load
OF horses, drowned years ago in the Ohio
river, is now credited with suggesting one
of tho most valuable inventions in the
world. The invention consists Of simple
collapsable cylinders, which, being placed
inside of sunken vessel and inflated with
air, raise it to the surface. Then it may
be foated hundreds or thousands of miles
to dry dock for repairs.
A close corporation, composed of. thres
Grant brothers-John, Joseph and Jesse
and four Tacomans, own the patents COW
ering this device. and have applied for
patents in all countries where obtainable
and where there are shipping interests.
Until today the workings of the device
have been known only to the members of
the close corporation owning the patents.
Repeated public exhibitions have been
given of the way sunken scows and ships
are raised by the mysterious agency en-
ployed, but none of the hundreds of spec
tators was the wiser after witnessing the
operation. All of the patents have not yet
been secured, but owing to alleged baiks
on the part of the Grant boys, whose
heads. it is claimed, have been 'sswelled"
by this bonanza, one of the joint owners of
the patents today, while expressing dis
pleasure at their action, told how the de-
vice was operated.
Several years ago, about two weeks after
. boat load of horses sunk on the Ohio
river, it came to the surface ami floated.
People thought it strange that this boat
should come up after sinking. The Grant
boys are Yankees, and they investigated.
They found that the bodies of the drowned
horses had bloated in the commonplace
way. and in SO doing expelled the water,
or enough Of it, from the hulk to allow it
to float. That was all there was to it.
Finally the boys came to this coast and
found many sunken vessels. together with
reports of many others elsewhere, some of
which were to be raised at an expense of
100000 and upwards. but the bulk of
which could never be recovered owing to
the enormous cost of raising them accord
ing to all known methods. The boys eked
out hand to mouth existence until they
demonstrated that sunken vessels could be
raised by their coliapsable cylinder de-
vice.
No sooner had they explained the trick,
then capital flowed in q stream into their
pockets. Jacob Ralph, of this city, who
secured few shares of stock, will not sell
1t for 1900. 900. He bought for the COM
pany sunken sailing vessel. the Fern
dale, off Gray's Harbor,, for upwards OF
$500, which can be raised in a day by the
collapsible cylinder process, and is worth
when afloat 100000.
Some Of the other stockholders charge
that the So 900 which was paid the Grant
boys for half interest turned their heads !;
that they have each since bought pianos
and sealskin sacks for their wives, and
otherwise spent their money on useless
luxuries and tribes. At present there is a
hitch in going ahead to raise one of many
sunken vessels near at hand. The neces-
sary apparatus has been purchased and
stored behind bars and bolts, but the
Grant boys gave contract to ask for no
more money until they raised vesse! and
were paid for that service. Some more
money is required for equipment. The
Grant boys are said not to have any, and
hence the hitch. They stipulated at the
outset not to let go . controlling inter-
est in the company. A day or two
ago they are supposed to have raised 50, 900
on collateral thought to be the stock of the
patent wrecking apparatus. The Grant
boys are outnumbered three to four on the
board Of trustees, and it is expected that
further delay in raising vessels will not be
tolerated. Considerable unpleasantness
has resulted from the delays caused by the
three brothers in not encouraging imme-
diate action.
Records of sunken vessels kept by the
company show that many millions Of dol
lars can be realized in raising them. Yes
terday's record shows three vessels sunk.
The apparatus is. considering the profit,
almost without cost. It consists simply
of large or small canvas sacks or cylinders
rendered air-tight by the application of q
mixture of beeswax and rosin. These
sacks will stand an air pressure of 400
pounds to the square inch in the open air.
Under water the pressure, If necessary,
can be greatly increased. The claim is
made that any vessel which fioated before
holes were stove into it, and it sank, can
be fioated by means of placing these sacks
inside of the hulk and then pumping air
into them. By this means the water in
the hulk is expelled and replaced by air
sufficient to raise it.
The application Of this air cylinder idea
is new. Before the Grant boys saw the
boat load of horses come up and float
away. the air cylinder process had been
used in attempts to raise the hulk. water
and all. In this way the deck could be
torn of the vessel, but it could not be
raised on account Of the great quantity of
water IN the hold.
Nearly s2o0. 900 has been spent by the
Southern Pacific railread in attempting to
raise the hulk of the San Pedro, which
stranded on the rocks off Victoria. In less
than twelve hours the Grant brothers de-