IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND IN THE MEANS EMPLOYED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH POR RAISING SUNKEN SHIPS AND OTHER SUBMERGED BODIES, AND FOR CONDUCTING OTHER SUBMARINE OPERATIONS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Thomas Parlour at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th December 1869.
I, JOSEPH THOMAS PARLOUR, of Brooklyn, New York, United States
of America, now of No. 8, Trinity Terrace, Grosvenor Road, Pimlico, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY AND IN THE MEANS EMPLOYED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH POR RAISING
SUNKEN SHIPS AND OTHER SUBMERGED BODIES, AND FOR CONDUCTING OTHER
SUBMARINE OPERATIONS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the raising and supporting ships or other
submerged bodies.
The said Invention consists, first, chiefly in the peculiar construction
and arrangement of the several parts or sections and the novel means for
adjusting and securing the same in any desired position under the vessel.
It can be adapted to vessels of various dimensions when sunk or
embedded in the sand.
My Invention, consists, secondly, in the peculiar construction and
arrangement of bridges or archways made in parts or sections, and in

page_text: the novel means for adjusting and securing the same in any desired
position, which bridges are held in chains or rods of iron and work on
centre pins, which are fastened to the deck; they are also fastened to
standards or uprights, which are fastened to the deck and sides of the
vessel used for the support of the bridges, thus allowing the bridges to
swing into the centre of the vessel, which bridges then lie fore and aft of
the vessel. These bridges when at work are swung out over the side of
the vessel and coupled together with cramps and logs of timber or with
iron beams or chains or screws to hold the bridges in the required
position. On the said bridges I arrange boxes for guides to work into,
also pivots for the boxes to work on, and slots or shoots or tracks for the
same to slide freely thereon; these boxes are made to slide into the
centre or to any desired position on the bridges. The said boxes are
made of cast or wrought iron. In these boxes I arrange guides with
frames made of wood, or iron bars, or rods or chains, which chains are
kept rigid by bars of iron made of any desired length, and fastened to or
between the links of the chains. The frame is provided with guides,
which extend downward to the sides of the ship or other body which is to
be raised. These guides can be made of any required length to go down
into any depth of water; and I can raise from one to ten thousand tons
with the same apparatus. The bottom part of the guides or frames is
made semicircular, and pivoted to the centre guides or shafts, which
guides or shafts are made to be set or drawn down into the sand or mud
to embrace the bottom of the vessel or other body. The lower parts of
the guides or shafts are made to work on a pivot on the centre shaft or
guide, and are drawn together by means of chains or screws toward the
vessel's bottom, and are kept there by chains or by left and right handed
screws, which screws are worked by chains on the top part of the bridge
by windlasses and cranks. The chain wheels may be operated by steam
or hydraulic power. The lower part of the guides is made with steel
spikes, so as to penetrate metal as well as wood, also to keep the guides
from slipping out from under the bottom of the vessel. These steel
spikes are also put on logs of timber, which logs lie fore and aft of the
vessel's side, and are fastened to the guides so as to keep them together.
The said guides when at work are drawn down with chains or set down
with toothed wheels and shafts, which wheels work in a tooth rack or
ratchet bar arranged upon the face of the guides; they can also be set
down with screws worked by chains and set down to any depth, and by
means of the lateral guides they are kept in a vertical plane as they are

page_text: raised or lowered. At the lower ends of these guides I arrange pulleys,
over which chains pass to a windlass on the bridges, whereby the adjust-
ment of the lower part of the guides is effected in any desired manner.
On the upper part of the boxes is pivoted a pawl; this pawl is made to
engage with the toothed rack or ratchet bar to hold the parts of the
guides in any required position. I also arrange on the side of the
vessels which are used for supporting the bridges one or more sets of
telescopic tubing with large open mouth pieces for the purpose of
enabling persons to go down under water without wearing a diver's
dress. The tubing can be made of any length and lined with tin or zinc
or any suitable material for the purpose of the reflecting light down the
tubing. A lime or other light may be used at the bottom of the tubing
to illuminate the space immediately surrounding the same. The men
when working are supplied with air by means of a fan wheel or chains
with buckets fastened to them, which chains pass over toothed wheels
attached to the top and bottom of the tubing, and are drawn down
through an air-tight tube. I attach also to the bottom part of these
guides rubber piping, through which air is forced down underneath the
vessel to overcome the suction by allowing water to go underneath the
bottom of the vessel, thus taking off a large amount of weight from my
apparatus. I use chains on the bottom of the shafts fitted with buckets
which revolve on a frame from one shaft to the other for the purpose of
removing the sand or other substance from the sides and bottom, thus
allowing the frame and shafts to embrace the bottom of the submerged
vessel.