A MACHINE FOR THE PURPOSE OF CLEANSING RIVERS, CREEKS, HARBOURS, OR BARS OF HARBOURS AND SAND BANKS, OR OTHER SHOALS AT SEA, BY THE POWER OF THE TIDE OR CURRENT
Year: 1799

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEPHEN
HOOPER, of Margate, in the Isle of Thanet, and County of Kent, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of June, in the thirty-ninth
year of His reign, give. and grant unto me, the said Stephen Hooper,
His especial licence that I, the said Stephen Hooper, during the term
of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "A MACHINE FOR THE PURPOSE OF CLEANSING RIVERS, CREEKS,
HARBOURS, OR BARS OF HARBOURS AND SAND BANKS, OR OTHER SHOALS AT SEA, BY
THE POWER OF THE TIDE OR CURRENT;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said Stephen Hooper, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one
calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Stephen Hooper, do hereby declare that my said "Invention is described in the
above Drawings and description thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said Stephen Hooper, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day. of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine.
STEPHEN HOOPER.: (L.S.).

page_text: Fig. 1A, A, A, A, the frame in which the boards or shutters work.
B, the boards or shutters, working in the frame, by pevots or spindles in the
centre, at the top and bottom; the boards or shutters are to be so close to
each other that the edges may nearly meet when standing flatways. E, a
long gudgeon at the upper end of one of the shutters, with a socket at the
top to fix a lever in, by which the boards or shutters are opened and shut.
G, G, a bridle, by chain or rope fastened to each corner of the lower part of
the frame, the middle part of which is fastened to the end of a rope or
cable H. I, I, another bridle, by chain or rope fastened at the upper corners
of the frame, and the middle part to rope or cable H, a little longer than the
bridle G, G, to admit the upper part of the frame to fall back a little beyond
the lower part. By this means, the tide running against the sluice, and the
rope or cable H being kept fast, will confine the sluice to the ground. To
'work this sluice across the tide, being fixed square against the tide, as Fig. 1,
the lower part of the frame must be within about 4 inches, of the bottom,
then, by two lines fastened to the ends of the lever fixed at the end of
gudgeon E, pull one of the lines, in order to fix the boards or shutters on an
angle of sufficient strength to force the frame to one side of the river, then
pull the opposite line to reverse the angle of the boards or shutters, which
will immediately drive the sluice on the opposite side of the river; every time
the cable or rope H should be veered away to let the sluice go back in such
proportions as the ground or soil is driven away. This, by the assistance of a
rake, pikes, &c., fixed at the bottom of the frame G, G, to plow up the
ground, will, with the quickness of the tide occasioned by the sluice, force the
soil away with the current of water.
To move different soils will require different assistances at the bottom, such
as plows, &c. Fig. 2, C is a knee or strut, fixed on the upper end of the shutter
B, with one arm standing off, with a point or gudgeon turned up at the outer
end for a lever with sockets to work on, by which the boards or shutters are
moved. Fig. 3 is a lever extended from the outer end of one strut to the outer
end of the other, with a socket at each end and fixed on the gudgeons together,
so that by moving one the whole are made to open and shut, like Venetian
blinds, which could not be clearly shewn in Fig. 1. Fig. 4, A, a sluice made
by boards, or any close body. B, B, a bridle, by rope or chain fastened at the
top and bottom at one end, with the middle fastened to a rope C. D, D, a
bridle, by rope or chain fastened to the other end of the sluice at the top and
bottom, the middle to a rope E. By these ropes the sluice is to be confined

page_text: F, F, a bridle at the
the bridle to a rope G,
square against the tide, as Fig. 1, then, by veering away one rope sufficient
to share the sluice to one side of the river, then veer away the other rope in
the same proportion, which will share it on the opposite side, the ground to be
forced away as Fig. 1. Fig. 5, A, a sluice, made by canvas, or any other
fit material, fastened to yards B, B, separated by two sprits or poles C, C,
with a bridle D, D, fastened to the two yardarms at one side of the sluice,
and the middle of the bridle fastened to a rope E.
other end, fastened to the yardarms, and the middle of
and to be fixed square against the tide, and worked as sluice Fig. 4. These
sluices may also be applied to the widening of rivers or streams by means of
plows, rakes, &c., to turn the ground from the side into the bed of the river,
by making a rope fast to the bridles of the sluice about 10 or 15 fathom
long, the other end to be fastened to the plow, rake, &c., to work by;
then close the boards or shutters on the angle to keep the
stream, which will give power to carry forward the works. Rope H, in
Fig. 1, to which the bridles are fixed, may be made fast on board a lighter or
vessel riding at an anchor for that purpose, and to be veered away occasionally,
as directed above. The ropes to which the bridles are fixed in Fig. 4 and 5 may
be made fast on board a lighter or vessel riding at an anchor for that purpose,
and veered away as directed. These sluices may likewise be fixed with a
bridle of rope or chain fixed to the centres at the top and bottom, and the
middle part of the bridle fastened to a rope or cable, the other part of the rope
or cable to be made fast on board a lighter or vessel to confine the sluice
against the tide, in which case the bridles at the ends will be at liberty to
brace the sluice by veering away one and pulling in the other.
sluice in the
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-seventh day of
June, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Stephen Hooper came before
our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of July, in the year above written.