AN INVENTION CALLED THE NAUTILUS, OR PORTABLE LIVE PRESERVER AND SWIMMING BELT
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WILLIAM SPICER, of Portman. Square, in the County, of Middlesex, Esquire,
send. greeting..:
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-eighth day of March, in the seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles William Spicer, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Charles William
Spicer, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Charles
William Spicer, my exors, adiñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter, during the term
of years. therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within that part of Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN INVENTION CALLED THE NAUTILUS,
OR PORTABLE LIVE PRESERVER AND SWIMMING BELT;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that I, the said Charles William Spicer,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, under my hand. and seal,
to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately. after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear..
i

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles William Spicer, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the present Specification thereof, refe-
rence being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
Figure 1 of the said Drawings is a view of the Nautilus when in its com-
plete and portable state ready for use.
Figure 2 is a view of it, when distended by the means to be herein-after
described.
Figure 3 is a skeleton view of it with the covering removed.
Figures 4 and 5 are separate views of the end pieces on an enlarged scale.
A, A, is an elastic spiral frame of metal, the two terminal coils of which
are rivetted to the inside of two broad metallic rings B¹,B. C, C, are pieces
of tape (two, three, or more) of the utmost length to which the belt is meant
to be distended when in use, which are attached at the two ends to the rings
B1, B2, and intermediately to each of the coils of the spiral frame, as shewn
in the skeleton view Figure 3, so that the elastic spiral frame can be drawn
out no further than the tapes will allow, and its coils, when under distention,
are kept by the tapes at about an equal distance from one another. D is an
exterior covering of caoutchouc, or any other sort of waterproof cloth, which
is drawn loosely over the spiral frame and doubled at the two ends over upon
the rings B1, B2, where they are hooked on to the screwed studs 3, 3, 5, 8, (see
Figures 4 and 5). E, E, are two external valve plates of the shape of the
rings B, B2, and with holes in them to correspond with the projecting studs
8, 8, 8, 8, which being slipped upon these studs atop of the overlapping ends
of the cover, are brought tight up and made fast by the nuts t, t, t, t, which
fit into recesses countersunk for the purpose in the plates E1, E2, in order that
they may come flush with the general surface of these plates. (These plates
may consist either of wood covered on the outside with metal, as represented
in the Drawings, or wholly of metal, and instead of screwed studs as repre-
sented, plain studs may be used and the ends burred up. F, F, are orifices
in the plates E¹³, E, and G, G, valves adapted to these orifices, the latter
being attached to spring levers fixed to the under rings B¹, B. The position
and office of these valves are particularly shewn in the Drawings, Figures
4 and 5, the former of which is an outside view of the under plate E', and
the latter an under view of that plate and of the ring B2, when the two are
made fast together in the manner before explained. When it is desired to
distend the belt the party using it lays hold of it by the two ends, and presses
by his thumbs the valves G, G, inwards, which admitting the air into the

page_text: inside enables him to draw out the belt to its full extent. On removing his
thumbs the valves spring immediately back into their place, and the included
air having then no sufficient means of escape the belt remains in its distended
state, and is in that state to be fastened round the body by means of the
spring catch H' at the one end and the hasp H at the other. When the belt
has rendered the service required of it, it can be readily restored to its original
portable size, by opening the valves G, G, and pressing out the air.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim as new
the employment of a waterproof case or belt distended with air, as a means
of enabling persons to swim or to prevent them from drowning, being well
aware that many such contrivances, all more or less imperfect, have been
before used. But that what I claim is, the employment of waterproof air
cases or belts constructed in the particular manner before described, whereby
they can be compressed within so small a compass as to be conveniently port-
able, and can be almost instantaneously inflated for use by such manual
exertion as persons under all circumstances can readily apply. I claim also
the employment of elastic spiral frames in articles adapted to the said purposes,
whether the same consist of one continuous spiral only, such as before described,
or of two or more such spirals.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Twenty-sixth day of September, One thousand eight hundred and
forty-four.