IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR RAISING AND SUPPORTING SHIPS AND VESSELS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Rose and Thomas Crowder, of Gun Dock,
Wapping, Shipwrights, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED FOR RAISING AND SUPPORTING SHIPS AND VESSELS."
Sealed the 22nd August 1861, and dated the 28th February 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Rose and
Thomas Crowder, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 28th February 1861.
We, WILLIAM ROSE and THOMAS CROWDER, of Gun Dock, Wapping.
Shipwrights, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR RAISING AND SUPPORTING SHIPS AND VESSELS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus employed for
raising and supporting ships and vessels. For these purposes a hollow plat-
form is employed, divided into separate chambers or compartments, having
openings and valves for admitting water to flow into and from the several'
chambers or compartments; provision is also made for forcing air into the
several chambers or compartments, so as to force the water therefrom when it
is desired to float the platform and vessel thereon. On the upper surface of
the platform a suitable cradle and apparatus is constructed, all which is similar
to what has before been employed; but according to this Invention suitable
mechanism is applied to insure the platform sinking and rising horizontally or

page_text: parallel to the surface of the water, however unequally the platform may be
loaded. The arrangement of the mechanism for this purpose may be varied;
it is, however, preferred to employ in combination with such platform, and on
either side and end thereof apparatus similar to what is employed in con-
structing a parallel rule, and such apparatus in each case consists of a bar, by
preference of wood, though it may be of iron or other metal, in which case it
is preferred to be hollow, and capable of floating. To the under surface of
this bar several links or rods are attached at intervals by pin joints, and the
lower ends of such links or rods are fixed to the bottom of the dock or other
place, and as such links are all of the same length, such bar will at all times be
parallel with the surface of the water. On the upper side of the bar there are
other similar links attached by pin joints, their upper ends being attached by
pin joints to the platform; and as such an arrangement of apparatus is applied
as above stated, on each of the two sides and at each of the two ends, the plat-
form when sinking, and also when rising in the water, will be caused to sink
and rise parallel to the water's surface. It is not essential that the lower ends
of the parallel rods or links should be fixed to the bottom of the dock or other
place, or that the upper ends should be attached to the platform, as their
upper ends may be attached to the upper parts of piles or any suitable
structure above the water, and the lower ends of the parallel rods or links may
be attached to the platform; provision may be made for allowing the platform,
when it has come to the surface, to be detached, so that it may be floated with
a ship or vessel thereon to shallow water, so that the dock or other place con-
taining the deeper water may be again and again used with other similar
platforms to raise other ships or vessels out of the water.
It is not essential that each arrangement of mechanism should consist of
two sets of parallel links or rods and an intermediate bar, as a single set of
such parallel rods or links might be used on two opposite sides of the platform,
but in such case provision must be made for the platform moving endwise in
place of rising and sinking perpendicularly. In place of using parallel links
or rods, as above explained, a series of endless chains may be employed, each
chain passing round two chain wheels on parallel axes, the one axis being at
or near the bottom of the water and the other above the water, so that one
chain cannot move faster than the other chain, and by using two such axes
with their chain wheels and chains at each side and at each end of the plat-
form, the same may be caused to sink and rise parallel with the level of the
water.
By thus applying mechanical apparatus to a floating platform, whatever be
the varying load on the different parts of the surface of the platform, it may

page_text: be caused to rise and sink in a horizontal position, all tendency to incline over
to one side or end being counteracted by the parallel and uniform action of
the apparatus applied to the platform to insure its rising and sinking parallel
to the water's surface. The platform may be constructed in separate sections,
capable of being joined and used together, or the sections may be used
separately, the mechanism applied thereto for obtaining the parallel action
being varied accordingly.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Rose and Thomas Crowder in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th August 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
ROSE and THOMAS CROWDER, of Gun Dock, Wapping, Shipwrights, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said William Rose and Thomas Crowder, Her-special licence that we, the said
William Rose and Thomas Crowder, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said William Rose and Thomas Crowder, our
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR
RAISING AND SUPPORTING SHIPS AND VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said William Rose and Thomas Crowder, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands
and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, should parti-
cularly 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Crowder, on behalf of myself
and the said William Rose, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly

page_text: described and ascertained' in and by the following statement thereof, that
is to say:
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus employed for
raising and supporting ships and vessels. For these purposes a hollow plat-
form is employed, divided into separate chambers' or compartments having
openings and valves for admitting water to flow into and from the several
chambers or compartments; provision is also made for forcing air into the
several chambers or compartments, so as to force the water therefrom when it
is desired to float the platform and vessel thereon. On the upper surface of the
platform a suitable cradle and apparatus is, constructed, all of which is similar
to what has before been employed; but according to this Invention suitable
mechanism is applied to insure the platform sinking and rising horizontally, or
parallel to the surface of the water, however unequally the platform may be
loaded. The arrangement of the mechanism for this purpose may be varied;
it is, however, preferred to employ in combination with such platform and on
either side and end thereof apparatus similar to what is employed in con-
structing a parallel rule; and such apparatus in each case consists of a bar; by
preference of wood, though it may be of iron or other metal, in which case it
is preferred to be hollow, and capable of floating. To the under surface of
this bar several links or rods are attached at intervals by pin joints, and the
lower ends of such links or rods are fixed to the bottom of the dock or other
place, and as such links are all of the same length such bar will at all times
be parallel with the surface of the water; on the upper side of the bar there
are other similar links attached by pin joints, their upper ends being attached
by pin joints to the platform, and as such an arrangement of apparatus is
applied as above stated, on each of the two sides and at each of the two ends,
the platform when sinking, and also when rising in the water, will be caused to
sink and rise parallel to the water's surface. It is not essential that the lower
ends of the parallel rods or links should be fixed to the bottom of the dock or
other place, or that the upper ends should be attached to the platform, as their
upper ends may be attached to the upper parts of piles or any suitable
structure above the water, and the lower ends of the parallel rods or links may
be attached to the platform. Provision may be made for allowing the plat-
form when it has come to the surface to be detached, so that it
may be
floated with a ship or vessel thereon to shallow water, so that the dock or
other place containing the deeper water may be again and again used with
other similar platforms to raise other ships or vessels out of the water.
It is not essential that each arrangement of mechanism should consist of
two sets of parallel links or rods and an intermediate bar, as a single set of

page_text: such parallel rods or links might be used on two opposite sides of the plat--
form, but in such case provision must be made for the platform moving
endwise in place of rising and sinking perpendicularly. In place of using
parallel links or rods, as above explained, a series of endless chains may be
employed, each chain passing round two chain wheels on parallel axes, the
one axis being at or near the bottom of the water, and the other above the
water, so that one chain cannot move faster than the other chain, and by
using two such axes with their chain wheels and chains at each side and at
each end of the platform the same may be caused to sink and rise parallel with
the level of the water.
By thus applying mechanical apparatus to a floating platform, whatever be ⚫
the varying load on the different parts of the surface of the platform it may
bé caused to rise and sink in a horizontal position, all tendency to incline over.
to one side or end being counteracted by the parallel and uniform action of
the apparatus applied to the platform to insure its rising and sinking parallel *
to the water's surface. The platform may be constructed in separate sections;
capable of being joined and used together, or the sections may be used
separately, the mechanism applied thereto for obtaining the parallel action
being varied accordingly.
Having thus stated the nature of our said Invention; we will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a side elevation of apparatus arranged or combined
according to our Invention; Figure 2 shews an end elevation thereof, when
the hollow platform is submerged to admit of a ship or vessel being floated
over it; and Figure 3 shews an end elevation where the hollow platform is.
floating on the surface of the water, it having raised the ship or vessel out of
the water.
The floating platform A is made of iron plates and suitable framing of angle -
iron, so as in each case to present dimensions and strength suitable for raising -
and carrying the largest ship or vessel which is intended to be raised by the
particular apparatus, and it is to be constructed and arranged in a-suitable
manner to be readily submerged in the water by receiving water into its
several interior compartments, which water when the platform is to be again
floated is to be forced or removed out, as is well understood, and separately
such platform is not of our Invention, but is similar in construction to what
has before been suggested or employed for raising ships and vessels...
The peculiarity of our Invention consists in applying or combining therewith:
:

page_text: apparatus, as is hereafter explained, in order to insure that such a platform
shall when a ship or vessel is on it, rise in a horizontal position, and parallel
with the water's surface, however unequally the surface of the platform may
be loaded. B, B, are bars of wood, or it may be of metal, and if so by
preference hollow to obtain stiffness and lightness in the water; one such bar B
is used on each side of the platform and also at each end; C, C, are several
links or connecting rods which are pin-jointed at their lower ends to the fixed
floor or framing D, and their upper ends are pin-jointed to the bars B, so that
such bar may be able to rise and fall parallel to the floor or lower framing;
E, E, are several links or connecting rods, which at their lower ends are pin-
jointed to the bars B, and at their upper ends to the sides of the platform A;
hence the platform A is constrained to rise and fall parallel to the surface of
the water and to the floor or lower framing, and by reason of using the two
sets of links or connecting rods C and E on each side, together with the side
bars B, and also by reason of using a similar arrangement of apparatus at
each end of the platform, the platform in rising and falling will not move
endwise, which is the arrangement of apparatus preferred to be used by us.
It will be evident that the manner of using the links or connecting rods C
and E, and the bars B may be varied, and yet produce a similar result.
We would remark that where endway motion of the platform when it is
rising and falling is not objected to, then the construction and arrangement of
the apparatus may be varied so as not to require both sets of links or con-
necting rods C and E.
If desired, the apparatus by which parallel motion is obtained (to the plat-
form A, when it is rising and falling) may be constructed in such manner as
to admit of the platform when floating being detached and floated
away with
the ship or vessel thereon, and another platform may then be floated into
its place and attached to the apparatus, and be controlled and governed
thereby when being submerged and when again rising to the surface of the
water. In place of the whole length of a platform being of one structure
a long platform may be constructed in sections, and each section may
have apparatus applied thereto in order that it may rise and fall correctly, and
such sections may be used separately, or when desired two or more of such
sections and their apparatus may be combined together and used for raising a
ship or vessel.
Although we prefer to employ links or connecting rods, as herein described,
in combination with a platform, in order to insure that the platform may
rise and fall in a horizontal position, notwithstanding that the parts of the
surface are unequally loaded, we can in place thereof employ a series of endless

page_text: chains and chain wheels on pairs of parallel axes on each side and at each end
of a floating platform one of each of such pairs of axes turning in bearings
fixed below the water and the other of each of such pair of axes above the
water. The chains are all to be fixed to the platform, and the axes simul-
taneously driven, by which the floating platform will be controlled to move
up and down in a horizontal position, and parallel with the surface of the
water.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we make no claim to
any of the mechanical parts separately; but what we claim is, the combination
of apparatus consisting of links or connecting rods and bars, with a hollow
platform, as herein described, and we also claim the combination of axes, chain
wheels, and chains with a hollow platform, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Crowder, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
THOMAS CROWDER. (L.s.)