IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WAREHOUSING PETROLEUM, MINERAL OR ESSENTIAL OILS, AND OTHER LIQUIDS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ignace Matheï, of Anvers, Belgium, Merchant,
for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WAREHOUSING PETROLEUM,
MINERAL OR ESSENTIAL OILS, AND OTHER LIQUIDS.""
Sealed the 28th October 1868, and dated the 4th May 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ignace Matheï at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th May 1868.
I, IGNACE MATHEÏ, of Anvers, Belgium, Merchant, do hereby declare.
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WARE..
HOUSING PETROLEUM, MINERAL OR ESSENTIAL OILS, AND OTHER LIQUIDS," to be as
follows:-
The inflammability of mineral oils and essences is very dangerous, and
the best way of warehousing or storing them is to immerse in water.
the barrels or casks in which they are contained...

page_text: The ap
casks being placed in water, of their being put therein readily and
without knocks, of arranging them therein methodically, of keeping
them therein notwithstanding the upward pressure of the water, and of
taking them out as required.
In a basin of a depth and extent varying with the nature of the soil
and the number of casks to be stored I arrange rows of piles or
uprights of wood, metal, or masonry sufficiently sunk in the ground
and connected together to resist the greatest pressure they can receive;
they are arranged so as to allow of the passage of the casks to be
stored in the longitudinal sense of the apparatus and to form at one
end a well by which the casks are introduced. The distance longi-
tudinally of the piles depends upon the resistance to be overcome; they
are attached by cross pieces to inclined planks, which form a series of
consecutive and superposed inclined planes. The degree of inclination
of these planks will vary according to the density of the liquid to be
stored; their distance will vary according to the size of the casks.
Longitudinal pieces attached to the piles prevent the casks deviating
laterally. To facilitate the passage of the casks from one inclined plane
to another I arrange semicircles at each end of the apparatns. The well
or entrance to the apparatus is provided with a catch to keep in the
immersed casks. The outlet for the casks is likewise provided with a
catch for the same purpose. The entrance and the outlet are each
provided with a door or gate arranged so that by raising them the well
or entrance can be lengthened.
The action is as follows:-The basin being filled with water the
doors or gates are opened so as to form a sort of prolongation of the well,
and the casks are raised to this level. The casks are put in one above
another, so that the pile of non-immersed casks pushes those immersed
to the bottom of the well. There they enter below the lowest inclined
plane, and owing to the difference in density between the liquid in the
casks and the water they travel in a zig-zag manner under the con-
secutive inclined planes and round the ends of the same until they reach
the outlet at the top, where they are stopped by the catch before
mentioned. As the casks cannot pass each other, nor deviate in their
travel, they arrange themselves one behind another until the apparatus

page_text: has received as many as it can contain. The casks which remain in
the well up to the top thereof cannot rise, for they are held by the
catch. The supplementary unimmersed barrels which have given the
necessary weight for pushing down the others are removed, the doors
are lowered, and the operation of storing or warehousing is thus finished.
The same principle which causes the rise of the casks along the inclined
planes will cause them to rise from the apparatus when the outlet
door is opened and the catch removed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Ignace Matheï in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 31st October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, IGNACE
MATHEI, of Anvers, Belgium, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Ignace Mathei, Her special licence
that I, the said Ignace Mathei, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Ignace Mathei, 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 "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR WAREHOUSING
PETROLEUM, MINERAL OR ESSENTIAL OILS, AND OTHER LIQUIDS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Ignace Mathei, my exccutors
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.

page_text: NOW KNOW IE, that I, the said Ignace Mathel, do hereby declare
the nature of my 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, reference being had to the Drawings here-
unto annexed, that is to say :-
The inflammability of mineral oils and essences is very dangerous,
and the best way of warehousing or storing them is to immerse in
water the barrels or casks in which they are contained. The apparatus
which forms the subject of my Invention allows of the casks being
placed in water, of their being put therein readily and without knocks,
of arranging them therein methodically, of keeping them therein not-
withstanding the upward pressure of the water, and of taking them out
as required.
Figure 1 is an elevation and Figure 2 a plan of apparatus con-
structed according to my Invention. In a basin of a depth and extent
varying with the nature of the soil, and the number of casks to be
stored, I arrange rows of piles or uprights P, P, of wood, metal, or
masonry sufficiently sunk in the ground and connected together to
resist the greatest pressure they can receive; they are arranged so
as to allow of the passage of the casks B to be stored in the longitudinal
sense of the apparatus, and to form at one end a well A. by which the
casks are introduced; the distance longitudinally of the piles P depends
upon the resistance to be overcome; they are attached by cross picces T
to inclined planks M, which form a series of consecutive and superposed
inclined planes. The degree of inclination of these planks will vary
according to the density of the liquid to be stored; their distance
will vary according to the size of the casks. Longitudinal pieces L, L,
attached to the piles P prevent the casks deviating laterally. To
facilitate the passage of the casks B from one inclined plane to another
I arrange semicircles C at cach end of the apparatus. The well or
entrance A to the apparatus is provided with a catch X to keep in the
immersed casks; the outlet A' for the casks is likewise provided with
a catch for the same purpose. The entrance and the outlet are
each provided with a door or gate O arranged so that by raising them
the well or entrance can be.lengthened.
The action is as follows:-The basin being filled with water, the doors

page_text: or gates O are opened so as to form a sort of prolongation of the well A,
and the casks are raised to this level. The casks are put in one above
another, so that the pile of non-immersed casks pushes those immersed
to the bottom of the well A; there they enter below the lowest
inclined plane, and owing to the difference in density between the liquid
in the casks and the water they travel in a zig-zag manner under the
consecutive inclined planes and round the ends of the same until they
reach the outlet A¹ at the top, where they are stopped by the catch X';
as the casks cannot pass each other nor deviate in their travel they
arrange themselves one behind another until the apparatus has received
as many as it can contain. The casks which remain in the well up
to the top thereof cannot rise, for they are held by the catch X. The
supplementary unimmersed barrels which have given the necessary
weight for pushing down the others are removed, the doors are lowered
and the operation of storing or warehousing is thus finished. The
same principle which causes the rise of the casks along the inclined
planes will cause them to rise from the apparatus when the outlet door
is opened and the catch X' removed.
The characteristic features of my Invention are, firstly, the utilization
of the upward force of water upon lighter bodies, and especially on
casks enclosing petroleum or other liquids lighter than water, in order
to apply this pressure of the water due to the difference of density
to cause the said casks to run automatically along inclined passages
arranged in a body of water.
And, secondly. The carrying out of this principle by apparatus con-
structed substantially as herein-before described, in which the casks
run automatically along inclined planes so that-petroleum and other
oils and liquids are stored or warehoused free of danger from fire.
The entrance and outlet for the casks may be at the same end or at
opposite ends of the apparatus; the inclination of the inclined passages
may be varied at will, and the apparatus may be supported by walls,
piles, or columns.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,
5 the apparatus constructed and arranged substantially as herein-before

page_text: described and represented in the accompanying Drawings for ware-
housing petroleum, mineral or essential oils, and other liquids.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ignace Matthei, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Tenth day of October, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-eight.
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD,
Civil Engineer,
23, B. Strasbourg,
à Paris.
IGNACE MATHEI. (L.S.)