A DIVING MACHINE OR APPARATUS UPON AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
FULLARTON, Surgeon in His Majestey's Navy, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Ninth day of February,
in the forty-fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said James
Fullarton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence that
I, the said James Fullarton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during
the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "A DIVING MACHINE OR APPARATUS UPON AN IMPROVED
CONSTRUCTION APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said James Fullarton, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within one calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said

page_text: James Fullarton, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described and
ascertained by the above Drawings and description thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Fullarton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and five.
The diver is to be provided with a head piece of copper (a section of which
you see above), to which is to be attached a leather dress perfectly air and
water tight; and when it is intended that he shall descend to any considerable
depth, this dress is to be formed on a frame of strong spiral wire. The action
of the lungs is to be farther preserved from the pressure of the encumbent
fluid by a broad hoop similar to the barrel of a drum, over which the junction
of the upper and lower parts of the dress is to be properly secured, and the
hazard of this defensive coat giving way will be materially diminished by
throwing in a large quantity of condenced air previous to descending. Thus
accoutred he is to take his place in the receiver A, Fig. 1, which is a strong
copper vessel coated (as well as head piece) with tin, and of a capacity to
contain from five to twenty gallons of any fluid independant of the cavity
which admits the diver. B is a flexible tube (of spiral wire covered with
leather) that forms a communication between the head piece and receiver.
C is another of the same kind to convey the exhausted air to the pneumatic
instrument D. This consists of a metal cylinder equally divided and secured
to the receiver. The upper division is provided with a box E, which has a
valve opening downwards. F is a piston with a valve also. In the inferior
portion are likewise a box G, and piston H, with valves opening in the same
direction, and immediately under G is a pipe that enters the receiver. Both
pistons, it is observed, have a common spear or rod, on which is a rack or
cogs to meet and be acted upon by those of the wheel which has a winch to
work by. I is a tube, the lower part of which may be of metal, that near
the surface of spiral wire covered with leather. The lower extremity of this
tube is to be inserted into the inferior division of the cylinder, the piston rod
of which is to be worked in a leather collar to exclude the access of water,
the admission of which is immaterial in the other; the superior extremity of
this tube passes through and projects several inches beyond the hollow vessel
K, on the surface, to which is also secured a line to regulate his depth and
enable him to ascend at pleasure. The diver and receiver are to be so loaded
as to bring their specific gravity nearly on an equality with the water, and
when placed in it, the line is let loose, and the weight L is precipitated to the

page_text: bottom; the limbs having free scope to act, the line is hauled upon, and he
descends to the required depth, where ho is sustained between the weight at
the bottom and suspending vessel ön the surface; but when he has occasion
to change his position, he pulls upon the superior part of the line, by which
the weight will lose its hold of the ground. He will then drop with the tide,
or by using Fig. 8, he may advance or incline to the right or left as circum-
stances may require. In the meantime the air in the head piece is occasionally
renewed by working the pneumatic instrument D, which operates at the same
time both as a condensing and exhausting syringe. Should the air, however,
by respiration, be rarified and increase in volume so as to affect the relative
proportions of what is received and discharged, in that event it will be
necessary at due intervals to turn the cock M, by which that inconvenience
will be readily remedied. With an apparatus of this kind the diver may
continue under water for many hours in any depth; but with the following
alteration in it's construction, he may in shoal water and a firm bottom remain
a consideráble time and move in any direction without any communication
whatever with the surface. For that purpose let D, together with I, and the
suspending vessel K, of Fig. 1, be removed from the receiver A, and Fig. 2
applied in its place, into which the extremity of C is introduced and secured.
This is exactly similar, and acts on the same principle as the upper división
of D (only it reconducts the exhausted air to the receiver), and is worked in
the same manner. The receiver A is now to be occupied by super-oxygenated
atmospheric air strongly condensed, and a quantity is also to be thrown into
the head piece previous to descending. On being placed in the water lie
descends by means of the weight and line as before, the air in the head piece
possessing a greater portion of the vivifying principle than common atmosphere
air, and being also of considerable quantity from its state of condensation,
suffices for some time; but the moment it is exhausted of that property, he
receives a supply by turning the cock N, and that which has become noxious
is conveyed through the tube C, by working the winch; but this, though
now unfit for respiratión, is not without farther use, for by being reconducted'
to the receiver (which it enters through the pipe of Fig. 2, that has a valve
as seen at the pressure of the incumbent fluid exceeds the resistance of the
condensed air within)' it preserves the original levity of the apparatus, same
time is kept separate from the respirable portion by a loose leather case which
lines the cavity of the receiver. This circulation enables the diver to ascend
to the surface whenever it is judged expédient, either by using Fig. 3 or
letting loose the line of the balance weight.
Fig. 8 is a square box without ends of from six to twelve inches diameter;

page_text: secured on a pole; in the middle is a thin board of the same diameter moveable
on a hinge. This box, on being pushed forwards, meets with little resistance,
as the board gives way, but the moment it is is drawn back it assumes a
vertical position, and is there retained by a ledge at bottom, consequently a
volume of water of equal diameter opposes its return. The reaction of this
resistence will afford a powerful impulse to the movements of the diver, and
enable him to ascend or descend, and incline to the right or left, as circum-
stances may require.
Fig. 4. In the common or Spalding's improved diving bell the supply of
air, except what he carries down with him, depends solely on the assistance
and co-operation of others on the surface. To obviate the danger and disad-
vantage that attends such dependance, let an air-pump, as delineated on Fig. 4,
be secured in the bell. This acts on the principle of a common hydraulic
pump. The glolulous Fig. A, is a hollow vessel to support the tube in the
water; the flexible pipo above admits the rise or descent of the bell without
any assistance from the surface. The joint of the tube near its insertion, as in
Fig. 1, being secured in a leather hose, permits it to take a horizontal position
when on the surface, but as the bell or receiver descends it of course becomes
gradually perpendicular. The bell is also to be provided with Fig. 3, the
pole of which is bent nearly to a right angle. This, when the bell is suspended,
will enable the diver or divers to change their position in any direction it may
be found necessary without assistance or co-operation with the surface.
Fig. 5 is a strong vessel of wood or copper, of a capacity to contain four or
more gallons of any fluid, on which is a globe of glass (properly defended) to
receive a lamp, and sufficiently strong and secure to resist the pressure or
entrance of the water when lowered to a considerable depth. This barrel or
vessel is to be filled with pure dephlogisticated air to support the flame of the
lamp in the globe, with which it communicates by a pipe C. A, A, A, are
apertures with valves opening internally, by which the gas is introduced and
the water admitted as the air diminishes by combustion. The vivid light which
this affords will illuminate a circle of considerable magnitude, and enable the
diver to recover property which would not otherwise be distinguished at the
bottom, or in wrecks of vessels. The purposes to which an apparatus of the.
preceding description may be applied are various and important. In cases of
shipwreck, ascertaining and sometimes repairing the damages a vessel may
have sustained under water, cleansing ships' bottoms, laying the foundation of
piers, bridges, &c., &c., this new mode of diving possesses many obvious
advantages, and the improvements applied to the common diving bell will also
add essentially to it's general utility.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Second day of March,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid James Fullarton came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
in that case made and provided.