AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPLIANCES FOR RAISING SUNKEN SHIPS AND OTHER ESSELS.
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Pullar, of Little Love Lane, in the City
of London, Merchant, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OF AND APPLIANCES FOR RAISING SUNKEN SHIPS AND OTHER
ESSELS.
"
Sealed the 21st January 1873, and dated the 27th July 1872.,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Pullar at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the .
27th July 1872.
I, JAMES PULLAR, of Little Love Lane, in the City of London, Mer-
chant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPLIANCES FOR RAISING SUNKEN SHIPS AND OTHER
VESSELS," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention consists in making sunken ships and other vessels
buoyant by means of gutta percha and india-rubber bags applied
internally and externally, and afterwards inflated from the surface (by
means of air pumps) with air, or gas, or gas and air together. The bags a
are used separately, or in connection with each other, and are inflated
separately, or simultaneously, being fitted with valves and connecting
pipes or tubes for that purpose.

page_text: I make the pipes or tubes by which the bags are inflated with spiral
steel wire covered with gutta percha or india-rubber, or both combined,
or they may be made of gutta percha, or india-rubber, or both. They
are fitted at the end next to the air pump with valves, to indicate the
pressure of the air, and also with other valves to stop the escape of air
from the bags, and at the other end with a stop cock.
To carry my Invention into practice the bags to be applied inside the
ship are placed in every available space, such as the cabins, the hold (if
necessary), the engine room (if any), and the outlets thereto are closed
in such a manner, by the placing of planks, or the crossing of ropes or
chains, as to prevent the displacement of the bags either in the process
of or after inflation.
The bags to be attached or placed on the outside of the ship are
enclosed in a strong corded netting, with a strong rope or iron edging,
to which is fixed iron rings, to and through which rings ropes or chains
are passed from the edge of the keel underneath the ship, and over the
deck to corresponding rings in the edge of the top of the bags on the
bulwarks, and also by means of ropes or chains passing round the ship
from stem to stern through rings inserted in the network.
'
The bags which are placed on deck are fixed by means of ropes or
chains passed from bulwark to bulwark, or from stem to stern, or part
thereof, or both.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Pullar in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th January 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
PULLAR, of Little Love Lane, in the City of London, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-fifth

page_text: year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said James Pullar, Her special license that I, the
said James Pullar, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said James Pullar, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for " AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND
APPLIANCES FOR RAISING SUNKEN SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said James Pullar, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Pullar, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists in raising wrecks or sunken vessels to the
surface of the water by means of air-tight bags constructed, arranged,
and inflated as herein-after described. The said bags are constructed of
vulcanized india-rubber, or what are known as waterproof fabrics, that
is, alternate layers of canvas or other similar material and india-rubber
firmly united, or of other suitable materials, and are furnished with pipes,
valves, and other appliances, as herein-after described, and are attached
to or enclosed in the wreck to be lifted, and are inflated with air forced
in by means of an air pump, or in any other suitable manner, until the
displacement of water so gained is sufficient to raise the wreck.
Each bag is provided with an air inlet, to which inlet is preferably
affixed a stop valve opening inwards, to which a pipe is attached, through
which pipe the supply of air to fill the bag is forced from a barge or
vessel, on the surface of which is mounted an air pump; or the supply
of air may be forced from a pump on the shore.
จ
I prefer to use as air pipes india-rubber hose with spiral wire

page_text: The pipes from all the bags may be brought to an air chamber con-
nected with the air pump, and a pressure gauge should be connected to
this chamber to enable the pressure of the air to be ascertained, or each
bag may, if desired, be connected separately to the pump.
To prevent bursting of the bags from excessive pressure of air they 5
are provided with safety valves of any suitable construction, opening
outwards so as to allow of the escape of some of the air should the
pressure within the bag become too high.
I prefer to construct the bags of alternate layers of canvas and india-
rubber of sufficient strength to withstand the maximum strain to which 1
they can be subjected. This strain is limited by the pressure at which
the safety valve will allow the air to escape.
°
The mode in which the bags are attached to the wreck will vary with
the particular circumstances.
I prefer to apply as many as possible in any available open spaces in 1
the wreck, for instance, in below-deck cabins, in the engine room, or in
the hold. These bags will simply need to be securely lashed in position,
since their lifting power will be exerted on the under side of the deck
below which they are placed. I enclose the said bags, as well as those
subsequently described, in a netting of rope to diminish the strain on
the fabric of which they are made.
D
The bags which are applied outside the vessel 'should also be enclosed
in a strong netting of rope, and the lifting power of the said bags must
be applied by attaching this netting to the wreck.
I prefer to make this attachment either by attaching the separate
ropes forming the netting, or some of them, to a shackle or ring of iron,
and attaching this ring in any suitable way, for instance, by means of
chains or bolts to the wreck, or by attaching the separate ropes forming
the netting, or some of them, to a bar of iron. of suitable length, and
attaching this bar of iron by one or more rings, or chains, or bolts to
the wreck.
In order to facilitate this attachment it is desirable to pass chains
under the keel of the wreck, or to pass a chain around the vessel from
stem to stern, and to attach the rings or bars above mentioned to one or
more of these chains.

page_text: .
:
Having now described the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to
describe the manner in which the same is to be performed, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon. The same letters indicate the same parts in all
the Figures.
Figure 1 represents in side elevation à sunken vessel or wreck, and
the barge carrying the air pumps for inflating the bags. A, A, is the
wreck lying at the bottom of the seà; B, B, is the water line or level of
the surface of the water; C, C, are any available open spaces' (indicated
in dotted lines) in the interior of the vessel, such as cabins, engine room,
or hold; D, D, are the hatchways by which access is gained to these
open spaces; E, E, is a chain passed round the vessel from stem to
stern, and securely attached and tightened; F, F, are chains passed
under the keel of the vessel and brought up on each side; G, G, are the
bags by means of which the lifting is to be effected, which bags are
represented as inflated as they would be in the act of lifting the wreck;
H is the safety valve, which valve is represented separately on a larger
scale in Figures 4 and 5; J is the barge 'carrying the air pump K and
necessary appliances; k³, k', are the pipes leading from the air pump to
the bags, which pipes are provided with stop cocks at k², k..
Figures 2 and 3 are side elevations of bags, showing the modes of
attaching the said bags to the ship, and the arrangement of their safety
valves. L, L, are those ropes of the netting which are attached to the
ring M, Figure 2, or to the bar N, Figure 3, this bar being provided
with one or more chains, shackles, or rings O, Figure 3.
Figures 4 and 5 show, in plan and vertical section respectively, on a
larger scale the construction of a suitable safety valve, and the mode of
affixing it to the bag. P, P, is a portion of the bag through which a
hole has been cut large enough to receive the screwed ring H', which
has at its lower part a flange H2, which flange, when the valve is fixed,
is in contact with the inner side of the substance of the bag. H³ is a
washer, between which and the flange H² the portion P of the bag is
firmly held, the said washer being pressed against the said portion P by
a screwed ring H*; H³ is the socket in which slides the spindle H° of the
valve H', which valve rests on the seating H³. The requisite pressure is
applied to the valve by the spiral spring H, the said pressure being
adjusted by means of the nut H".

page_text: The actual mode of raising a wreck is as follows.:-Chains are securely
attached to the wreck by divers, either by being passed under the keel
from side to side, as at F, F, Figure 1, or round the vessel from stem to
stern, as at E, E, Figure 1, or both, or through any holes which may
exist in the vessel, in order that some of the bags may be securely
'attached' to these chains, and so exert their lifting power on the
vessel.
Before the bags are used the safety valves must be adjusted to the
proper pressure, which must be such as to allow of the escape of any
excess of air which may be pumped in after the bag has been inflated to
its full size when in position below water. The actual amount of this
pressure will vary with the shape and size and mode of attachment of
the bags; but in the case of a cylindrical bag with hemispherical ends,
such bag being 10 feet long and 5 feet diameter, and attached as repre-
sented in Figures 2 and 3, the pressure may amount to about 2 lbs. per
square inch. The safety valve should be adjusted to a very slight excess,
say, one ounce per square inch, over this pressure. The safety valve
herein-before described with reference to Figures 4 and 5 is well adapted
for this purpose, on account of the facility with which the pressure can
be regulated; but any other suitable form of valve may be used. This
adjustment having been made, one of the pipes k¹, k¹, is affixed to each
bag. The bags in an empty or collapsed state are then applied and
attached to the vessel, as herein-before described, by a diver.
In the case of the chains F a bag is attached on each side of the
vessel to each end of each chain.
°
In the case of the bags applied internally, as at C, C, they are passed
through the hatchways D, D, into their position in the interior of the
vessel, and securely lashed or fixed. A sufficient number of bags must
be applied to give the requisite lifting power, and they should be so dis-
posed as to distribute such power in proportion to the relative weights
of the different parts of the vessel.
For ordinary use I prefer bags of from 200 to 300 cubic feet capacity,
giving an available lifting power of from 5 to 8 tons per bag, and I
prefer to make them of cylindrical form, with approximately hemi-
spherical ends.
The necessary number of bags having been attached to the wreck the
pipes leading from them are connected to the air pump, and air is

page_text: pumped in at a pressure equal to the working pressure of the bags, in
addition to the pressure due to the depth of water in which the wreck
lies, until the bags are fully inflated.
All the bags may, if desired, be inflated simultaneously, but I prefer
to leave three or four until the last, in order to enable a diver to examine
the bags and attachments before the wreck actually rises. The last
three or four bags must then be carefully inflated, and as soon as the
displacement of water is sufficient the wreck will rise.
I am aware that some previous attempts have been made to raise
sunken vessels in a similar though not identical manner, that is to say,
by means of air-tight inflated bags attached to the sunken vessel; but
some at least of these attempts have failed, from the omission of the
safety valves, herein-before described, which are important in the actual
raising, for this reason, that as the wreck rises the pressure of the water
on the exterior of the bag diminishes, and the contained air expanding
under this diminished external pressure will burst the bag unless a
portion of such air be immediately allowed to escape by a safety valve.
For this reason the valve is adjusted to a pressure very slightly in excess
of the working pressure of the bag, and as the valve is attached to the
bag the pressure of the superincumbent water will act equally on both
the bag and the valve.
In other cases the attempts have failed because the bags used were
not protected by a netting, and consequently when the said bags were
tried, after having been filled with air at a pressure equal to the pressure
of the water in which they were placed, in addition to the working
pressure, then as soon as the bags began to rise the pressure of water on
the exterior of the bags being diminished, and the elasticity of the air in
the interior expanding the said bags increased their displacement and
lifting power, thus bringing the sunken body to the surface at a high
speed, and bursting the bags by the sudden strain.
It is also evident that unless a netting be applied the strain on the
bag, caused by the weight to be lifted, would not be uniformly dis-
tributed over its surface, and since the working pressure of air required
in the bag to lift the same weight would be in the inverse proportion of
the surface over which this weight was distributed, it follows that the
use of netting will greatly diminish the working pressure, and therefore
the strain on the bags.

page_text: Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
I do not claim the principle of raising wrecks by means of bags inflated
with air or gas, but I claim as my said Invention,-
Firstly. The application to air-tight bags used, for raising wrecks or
sunken vessels of safety valves, essentially as and for the purpose described.
Secondly. Raising wrecks or sunken vessels by means of inflated air-
tight bags provided with safety valves and covered with netting,
attached to the vessel, essentially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Pullar, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.
Witness,
H. H. MURDOCH,
.
7, Staple Inn,
London.
JAMES PULLAR.
(L.S.)