IMPROVEMENTS IN BUOYS, AND IN GIVING BUOYANCY TO BUOYS
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARTHUR
HOWE HOLDSWORTH, of Brookhill, Dartmouth, in the County of Devon,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of
August, One thousand eight hundred and forty-six, in the tenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Arthur Howe Holdsworth, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Arthur Howe
Holdsworth, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Arthur Howe Holdsworth, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BUOYS, AND IN GIVING BUOYANCY TO BUOYS;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Arthur
Howe Holdsworth, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my
said. Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Arthur Howe Holdsworth, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, that is to say:―
My Invention consists of the application of india-rubber (caoutchouc) which
has been so chemically treated as to retain its elasticity and pliability under
varying temperatures of extreme heat and cold, such descriptions of india-
rubber when used for such purposes being made into tubes, vessels, or hollow
apparatus capable of retaining air therein. And I would at the outset state
that I am aware that it has before been proposed to use india-rubber in the
construction of buoys and for giving buoyancy to boats, and various efforts
have been made to employ such material in the natural state, but the same
have failed in practice, owing to the circumstance, as I believe, that india-
rubber will not sustain the usage to which such matter is put when employed
for such purposes; and I have discovered after numerous experiments that by
applying india-rubber of the description herein mentioned in constructing
apparatus for giving buoyancy to vessels to be used as buoys and for giving
buoyancy to boats, I am enabled to produce very valuable results, owing to
the greater tenacity and strength of such india-rubber, and also owing to the
circumstance of such india-rubber not being liable to become hard by cold nor
injured by the heat it may be subjected to when employed according to my
Invention.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
The manufacture of india-rubber so as to prevent it being liable to become
so hard as when in the natural state by cold, and to prevent it being in-
juriously acted on by comparatively high temperatures, and in doing so to
improve the strength, elasticity, and quality of india-rubber, being now well
known, and as the same is manufactured and sold by Messieurs Mackintosh
and Company, under Letters Patent respectively granted to Mr. Thomas
Hancock and Mr. Alexander Parkes, and as the same may be purchased in
su:h forms as may be desired, it will not be necessary to describe in this my
Specification the processes resorted to for manufacturing such description of
india rubber.
In constructing "life huous I uso vossols such as are horain described f

page_text: boats, and each tube described for boats when separately in the water will be
itself a "life buoy," and if cords be fixed to it, a man when fatigued with
holding it may attach it to his body and he cannot sink. The shape of
a vessel when for a life buoy may be varied.
In constructing "watching buoys," I make them of any desired form, but
I prefer that of a globe, or that of a tube with semicircular ends; but of
whatever shape or size they may be, I enclose them in a net made of strong
cords, the opening of which I bring together and secure to a metal ring, to
which the buoy rope or mooring chain would be attached, so that the strain
may be entirely upon the net within which the buoy would be retained. And
it should be stated that each tube or vessel used for a life buoy or for
a watching buoy is to have an instrument fixed, so as to allow of the vessel
being filled with air, and the air retained, as is well understood when making
other flexible air vessels.
I will now proceed to describe my Invention in respect to giving buoyancy
to boats. I prefer the apparatus to be of the tubular form, and I attach such
apparatus by cords or nittles to the raisings under the thwarts, from the head
to the stern of the boat, taking care that these are so disposed as to cause the
boat when full of water to swim as evenly as possible. These may be made of
such length and diameter when filled with air as will best suit the purpose
for which the boat is intended; or I place such tubes across the boat under the
thwarts, to which I attach them with cords or nittles. I cause apertures of
about five inches long and three inches wide to be made in the sides of a boat,
the bottoms of such apertures to be even with the thwarts of an ordinary
boat, but I vary their positions according to circumstances of form of boat,
and the purposes of intended use. Each such aperture I provide with a
shutter, which I prefer to be a valve or door, so hung that it will open out-
wards, and that when closed water cannot flow into the boat through it. For
example:-To fit a quarter boat of a large ship I would make four apertures
with valves, as before described, and would attach to each side of the boat six
tubes, of six feet in length, and of six inches in diameter when filled with air;
four of these I would secure in the manner before described to the raisings
below the thwarts, and two such tubes also to the raisings above the thwarts, the
chief support being so placed as to keep the boat on an even keel when filled
with water, each of such tubes being capable of supporting from seventy-four
to eighty pounds weight when immersed in the water. My reason for pre-
ferring to place the tubes at the side rather than across the boat is, that she
may be the more readily restored to an even keel, if, from lowering down from
the ship, or any other circumstance, the boat be thrown on her side, and

page_text: suddenly caused to fill. If the boat is filled with water, the tendency of the
tubes to raise the boat at once cause the water to flow out through the
apertures until the gunwale of the boat be raised as high above the surface
of the sea as is the difference or height between the apertures and the gun-
wale, when the crew would easily throw out the rest of the water. For boats
intended to be used entirely as life boats I have six or eight such apertures,
and in addition to the ordinary raisings or rail under the thwarts, I have one
or two more below it for the purpose of attaching additional tubes, in the
mode before described. A boat thus fitted cannot sink, if full of men, with
her bottom stove in; the passengers would have their bodies immersed, but
would be safe as long as they would keep their seats. Such boat may be built
of such form and size as can be most conveniently moved on the shore, and
most easily propelled through the peculiar seas of the coast for which she is
intended; the tubes being elastic, and so easily attached to a boat, can be
accommodated to any description of boat that may best suit local circum-
stances, and the habits of the men who are to be employed in her.
I would state that I do not confine myself to the cylindrical form of the
vessels, but I prefer that shape. The vessels have a mouthpiece, or apparatus
suitable for allowing them to be filled with air; and for retaining the air, and
to prevent such apparatus from being touched after the vessel is full, I cover
over the apparatus, as is shown in the Drawing, and the vessels may be
enclosed in net work or canvass, if desired. For these purposes I use india-
rubber, such as is herein described, of about one-eighth of an inch thick.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a cross section of a boat arranged according to my Inven-
tion. a, a, are the external side and bottom planks; b, are the ribs; c is one
of the thwarts; and d, the knees of the thwarts; e, e, are the internal bottom
boards; f, are raisings or rails under thwarts, and there are other rails g, to
which tubular vessels h, h, according to my Invention, are attached; i, shows
one of the tubes applied under one of the thwarts c, by cords, for which
purpose the additional rails k, k, are applied, as shewn; n, n, are valves, one
of which is shown on a larger scale at Figure 2, and which may be of such
size and form, and may be used in such positions and numbers, as may best
accord with the purposes of the owner of the boat; o is a frame forming a
stop for the inside of the valve, the opening of which forms an aperture for
the water to escape when the boat fills. The valve n has a weight n¹ to cause
it to close freely; it turns upon a hinge n², and may be secured in its seat by a
cord n³. p is an air-tight screw valve to the tubes; this screw when closed may