Ax IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING THE BANKS OF RIVERS AND WATERCOURSES, OR OTHER EMBANKMENTS FROM CORROSION OR WASTING
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th
November 1866.-A communication from abroad by Charles Nicoli, of
Casatisma, near Pavia, Italy, Lawyer.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of
No. 23, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Ax
IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING THE BANKS OF RIVERS AND
WATERCOURSES, OR OTHER EMBANKMENTS FROM CORROSION OR WASTING," (a com-
munication to me from abroad by Charles Nicoli, of Casatisına, near Pavia,
Italy, Lawyer,) to be as follows:-
j
All the methods hitherto employed to prevent embankments or the banks
of streams, torrents, or large rivers from corrosion or crumbling or wearing
away are open to two great objections, firstly, the enormous cost which they
entail; secondly, their inefficiency in nearly every case, especially for water-
courses with an irregular current winding and changing at each rise, eating
into and carrying away the earth first in one place then in another, and
sometimes depositing it a little lower down on an opposite shore often
covering the bordering fields with sterile gravel, sand, and shingle.
The method, the subject of this Invention, avoids this double objection,
inasmuch that it is very economical, and that it may be applied with great
facility as well to large rivers and the most impetuous torrents as to the
smallest watercourses.

page_text: This Invention consists in an apparatus composed of bricks or artificial or
natural stone forming oblong cubes of about 20 inches long by 10 inches in
breadth, and varying from 2 to 6 inches in thickness, tied together by iron
rings so as to form a network with which the part of the bank which is to be
preserved is covered to preserve it from corrosion.
To apply this network to the banks it is necessary, firstly, to form or cut
these latter to a gentle incline, regular, and uniform; the network is then applied
in the following manner, by commencing each transversal pile or row, section or
series, or whatever it may be termed at the top and finishing it at the bottom
at the water's edge when at the lowest. Each section or file row or series is
fixed or attached to stakes or piles driven into the earth both on the side
touching the water and on the raised side or top of the bank, as well as at the
commencement and end of each longitudinal row by means of iron rings, so
that the network when entirely finished is fixed all round. The bricks or
stones of rectangular form are arranged in parallel lines both in the direction
of the length and breadth, so that they are side to side and end to end with
more or less space between them, but on an average about an inch. The
bricks or stones are then tied together both at the ends and sides by iron
rings, so as to make a network of a length and breadth regulated by require-
ment, taking for point of departure the highest level attained by the waters.
The various parts composing the network may be prepared elsewhere than on
the bank itself, but it need scarcely be observed that the said network must
be put together on the spot or bank to be protected, as its weight would not
permit its being transported in a complete block; the transverse rows or
sections might however be prepared elsewhere and be carried to the bank,
where it would then only be requisite to tie the transverse sections together
until the attainment of the desired length. The bricks or stones may be
arranged in two directions for the transverse rows, either in that of their
length or their breadth, and they may also be-tied together by a single or
several rings in form of chain or following each other, and these rings may be
galvanized if desired.
Willows or other bushes may be planted in the interstices between the
bricks and form an additional support to the network, and as their roots
eventually spread and tie the bank together if the network were then removed
the bank would be safe from corrosion.