IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR FACILITATING THE SINKING OF SHAFTS, PITS OR BORINGS IN AQUEOUS STRATA OR UNDER WATER
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel of N° 28 Southampton Buildings
Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex for an Invention of IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES FOR FACILITATING
THE SINKING OF SHAFTS, PITS OR BORINGS IN AQUEOUS STRATA OR UNDER
WATER communicated to him from abroad by Friedrich Hermann Poetsch
of Aschersleben in the German Empire
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th May 1883.
CHARLES DENTON ABEL of N° 28 Southampton Buildings Chancery Lane in the
County of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS OR
APPLIANCES FOR FACILITATING THE SINKING OF SHAFTS, PITS OR BORINGS IN
"
AQUEOUS STRATA OR UNDER WATER [communicated to him from abroad by
Friedrich Hermann Poetsch of Aschersleben in the German Empire]
According to the present invention shafts, pits, or borings are enabled to be sunk
in aqueous strata, or even under water, by effecting the freezing of the said strata
or water so as to form a solid wall round the part in which the shaft, pit or boring
is to be sunk, so that the excavation or boring of such part can be effected as though
it were enclosed by a watertight coffer-dam or casing.
For this purpose, a series of pipes or tubes closed at the lower end are lowered
to any requisite depth in the strata, and through them is made to circulate air or
liquid reduced to a very low temperature by a refrigerating machine, the distance
apart of the said pipes being such that the refrigerating effect of the circulating
medium will cause the part of strata or water immediately surrounding the
pipes and situated between them to freeze to a solid mass. For effecting the
proper circulation of the refrigerating medium through the pipes or tubes, these
may have internal tubes connected at the upper end with the refrigerating machine,
and open at bottom, so as to discharge the medium into the outer tube from the
upper end of which the medium flows back to the machine, the discharge openings
of the tubes being, if necessary, connected to one main tube for this purpose.
In applying this invention to a simple boring, the rod of the boring tool is made
hollow and the refrigerating medium is made to circulate through it so as to freeze
the part of the strata immediately surrounding the boring rod, so that, when this is
withdrawn, the borehole will be prevented from becoming filled up again.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th November 1883.
CHARLES DENTON ABEL of N° 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the
county of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS OR
APPLIANCES FOR FACILITATING THE SINKING OF SHAFTS, PITS OR BORINGS IN
AQUEOUS STRATA OR UNDER WATER A communication to me from abroad by
Friedrich Hermann Poetsch of Aschersleben in the German Empire
According to the present invention, shafts, pits or borings are enabled to be
sunk in aqueous strata, or even under water, by effecting the freezing of the said
strata or water, so as to form a solid wall round the part in which the shaft, pit or
boring is to be sunk, so that the excavation or boring of such part can be effected
as though it were enclosed by a watertight coffer dam or casing. For this
purpose, a series of pipes or tubes, closed at the lower end, are lowered to any
requisite depth in the strata, and through them is made to circulate air or
liquid reduced to a very low temperature, by a refrigerating machine, the distance
apart of the said pipes being such that the refrigerating effect of the circulating
medium will cause the part of strata or water immediately surrounding the pipes
and situated between them to freeze to a solid mass. For effecting the proper
circulation of the refrigerating medium through the pipes or tubes, these may have
internal tubes connected at the upper end with the refrigerating machine and open
at bottom, so as to discharge the medium into the outer tube from the upper end
of which the medium flows back to the machine, the discharge openings of the
tubes being, if necessary, connected to one main tube for this purpose.
In applying this invention to a simple boring, the rod of the boring tool is made
hollow, and the refrigerating medium is made to circulate through it, so as to freeze
the part of the strata immediately surrounding the boring rod, so that, when this
is withdrawn, the bore hole will be prevented from becoming filled up again.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings shews a diagrammatic elevation, and fig. 2
a plan of one arrangement of the above described invention as applied to the
forming of a solid circular wall through aqueous strata. It consists of a number of
tubes A A by preference of copper or iron, arranged in two circles, sunk into the
ground through the various water bearing strata B CD E, into the stratum F of
coal or other mineral to which it is desired to gain access. These tubes are closed
at bottom and have passing down them pipes G which lead to receptacles H supplied
with refrigerating fluid from a refrigerating machine of any suitable construction,
so that such fluid is made to pass down to the bottom of the tubes A, and after
rising up again, is conducted back to the refrigerating machine through a pipe I,
each tube A being being made to communicate by a branch A¹ with a circular pipe K,
which consequently receives the discharge fluid from all the tubes, and with which
the pipe I communicates.
The circulation of the refrigerating medium through the tubes A having been
continued for a sufficient length of time, the aqueous mass surrounding the tubes
will become frozen to a more or less solid condition, thus forming a solid circular
wall surrounding the central portion which remains in a more or less aqueous
condition and which can be readily excavated to the desired depth.
The number of the tubes A employed, their distance apart, as also their arrangement
in two or more circles or in rectangular or other form will, of course, vary according
to the nature of the aqueous bearing strata, the depth to which the excavation is

page_text: to be carried, and consequently, the external pressure which the frozen wall will
have to withstand. It will be readily understood that this method of "operating
may be applied not only at the surface of the ground, as shewn, but also at any
depth below the same, in excavations already carried to such depth in the ordinary
manner, where such water bearing strata may occur.
Having thus described the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, I
claim -
First The herein described method of forming solid enclosures through water
or water bearing strata by freezing the water or aqueous strata by means of tubes
or equivalent appliances through which a fluid refrigerating medium is made to
circulate, such tubes being so arranged in the water or strata as to freeze the mass
into a solid continuous wall.
Second-The use, for forming solid enclosures through water or aqueous strata,
of tubes, through which a refrigerating medium is made to circulate and which are
so arranged as to freeze the water or mass in which they are immersed or imbedded
into a solid continuous wall.
In witness whereof I the said Charles Denton Abel have hereunto set my
hand and seal this twenty eighth day of November in the year of our Lord, one
thousand eight hundred and eighty three.
ATTS