IMPROVEMENTS IN LIFE BELTS A PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS APPLICABLE TO OTHER OBJECTS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Maurice Bauer at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 6th July 1883 communicated to him by
Adolphe Harivel a person resident at Lisieux Republique de France
MAURICE BAUER of the firm of M. Bauer and Company of Paris in the
Republic of France Civil Engineers "IMPROVEMENTS IN LIFE BELTS A PART OF
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS APPLICABLE TO OTHER OBJECTS "
[communicated .to him
by Adolphe Harivel a person resident at Lisieux Republique de France]
This invention consists in constructing life belts as hereinafter described.
According to this Invention the said belts are composed of one or several folds
or layers of india rubber cloth or of india, rubber vulcanized or not. In both cases
the material must be impermeable to air and water and must possess sufficient
solidity and strength to support the required weight and to resist the pressure of
the air enclosed within it when the belts are inflated and to secure them from
injury by contact with a hard body when in the water at the same time being
supple and elastic. The said India rubber cloth consists of linen or other suitable
material rendered impermeable by means of india rubber.
The cloth belt is made by sewing together pieces of the material hereinbefore
referred to the seams being covered over with a layer of india rubber gum to stop
up the holes of the sewing and with a double band of impermeable cloth
cemented over each side of the seam. The edges of the seams are doubled over
inwards so as to be imperceptible from without and protected from injury
The india rubber belt is inade of pieces of india rubber secured together at the
joints and strengthened at these joints when required. The india rubber is then
vulcanized or cured in a sulphide of earbon and chloride of sulphur bath to
increase its resistance and enable it to withstand higher temperatures whilst
remaining extremely elastic and supple.
Belts manufactured in either of the ways bereinbefore described are easily
portable and in no way impede the movements being placed around the waist.
The said belts also give good support in the water in whatever position they are
placed.
The belt is provided with a mouth piece having in its interior a conical cavity in
which is a ball of india rubber or other suitable material which ball acts as a
valve the passage of air to and from the interior of the belt being governed by
D

page_text: the position of the said ball which is guided in its motion to open or close the air
passage by a rod working in a guide or guides. The action of the said valve is as
follows: When the mouthpiece is blown into the ball is forced to the widest
part of the hollow cone so that the air blown therein passes all round and enters
the belt. As soon as blowing in ceases the air already blown into the belt forces
the ball into the narrow part of the hollow cone and thus closes the tube so that
the air blown in cannot escape. Upon blowing in afresh in order to further
inflate the belt the ball re descends into the wider part allows air to enter and
then opposes its outlet by reascending (under the impulsion of the air blown in)
into the narrow part of the mouth piece and so, on successively for each inflation
until the belt is sufficiently inflated with air.
To provide for the inflation of the belt beneath the surface of water a tube of
suitable flexible and impermeable material is secured over the mouthpiece herein-
before described by means of a screw or a bayonet fastening or by other suitable
means which tube is or may be provided at its free end with a valve of the kind
bereinbefore described or of other suitable construction.
When after inflating it is desired to disinflate the belt the ball is pressed inward
in order to cause it to descend to the wider part and the air then finds a passage
around the said ball and escapes so long as pressure is applied until the belt is
completely disinflated.
The valve herein before described is applicable to all other objects where air
blown in and gases and all kinds of liquids, injected have to be securely held.,