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 9th
May 1866. A communication from abroad by Charles Nicoli, of Casa-
tisma, 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 Casatisma, near Pavia,
Italy, Lawyer, to be as follows:-
All the methods hitherto employed to prevent embankments or the banks
of streams, torrents, or large rivers from corrosion, 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.

page_text: 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.
This Invention consists of an apparatus, composed of bricks or artificial or
natural stone, forming oblong cubes of about 20 inches long by about 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 file 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 half 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 requirement, taking for point of departure the highest level attained by the
waters.
This improved apparatus is shewn Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying Sheet
of Drawing, forming part of this Provisional Specification. 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 carried to the bank, where it would
then only be requisite to tie the transverse sections together until the attain-
ment 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
Willows or other
each other, and these rings may be galvanized if desired.

page_text: 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.