IMPROVED METHOD OP AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING BREAKWATERS AND FOUNDATIONS FOR PIERS, BUILDINGS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES, MORE ESPECIALLY IN SANDBANKS AND SANDY SOIL, AND FOR RECLAIMING LANDS FROM THE SEA
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Bancroft Cooke and William
Phillips Thompson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 15th June 1875.
We, BANCROFT COOKE, of Claughton, in the County of Chester, Cotton
Broker, and WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, of 6, Lord St., Liverpool, in
the County of Lancaster, Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED METHOD
OP AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING BREAKWATERS AND FOUNDATIONS FOR PIERS,
BUILDINGS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES, MORE ESPECIALLY IN SANDBANKS AND SANDY
SOIL, AND FOR RECLAIMING LANDS FROM THE SEA," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the formation of a solid foundation
for piers, lighthouses, et cetera, more especially in places where the
shifting sand is an obstacle in the way of ordinary arrangements.
To accomplish this object we drive into the sand a series of perforated
pipes or hollow piles, and then inject into the said pipes or piles certain
chemicals, which combining with the sand, form a solid artificial stone.
There are various modes of effecting this operation depending upon
the situation. In driving a range of piles on a sand bank in the sea,

page_text: covered at high water, we prefer either wooden piles with iron pipes
enclosed in their sides, or better, hollow cylindrical iron pipes. In the
latter case when very large we sometimes cast them with a series of
annular chambers inside connected to the upper part with pipes, the
pipes are only perforated at these annular chambers, the perforations
being small, numerous, and radially outward. When the piles are
driven we inject under pressure (gradually increasing as we descend)
a solution, by preference, of silicate of soda into each chamber in
succession, beginning with the uppermost that is already covered by
sand; afterwards we inject a solution of chloride of calcium, which by
double decomposition with the other salt forms silicate of calcium, which
firmly binds together the sand into a solid rock, and chloride of sodium
which gradually dissolves out or remains in the pores of the stone. In
piles of smaller diameter and wrought-iron pipes we perforate them
the whole way up (with small perforations) to near the point where they
project above the sand, above which the perforations are stopped up.
Inside the bore of the pipo, which (if not tolerably true as in wrought
iron pipes, we bore out, we place a piston having on its edge an annular
ring turned out, but firmly packed above and below the ring. The
piston rod is hollow and is connected by a channel with the hollow ring,
another channel not connected with these goes right through the piston
vertically so that water can freely pass through the piston without
communicating with the hollow ring and piston rod. When the pile is
driven and the sand consolidated round it we press down the piston to
below the surface of the surrounding soil, and then inject the chemicals
as before, moving the piston down or up as required so as to saturate all
the sand et cetera surrounding.
It is usually best to convert the top layer first into artificial stone
before going on with the lower portion.
To prevent the chemicals from forcing their way upward along the
outside skin of the pile it is sometimes desirable to construct the pile
with flanges or protuberances at intervals. In reclaiming lands from
the sea where strong currents exist, carrying sand, et cetera, we construct
a line of piles, and as the sand is carried against them by the current
we inject chemicals into it through the piles and thus convert it into stone
until it rises above the surface of the sea. In this way an island or

page_text: Goodwin Sands, et cetera; or breakwaters constructed on the bars at river
mouths, causing the water to pass only in the channels, and thus keep
them open. Of course other chemicals beside silicate of soda and
chlorido of calcium will do, but these are the cheapest and most
convenient.
In some waters the chlorides of calcium and magnesium may be so
abundant as to almost obviate the necessity of chloride of calcium at all.
We also do not bind ourselves to any particular order of precedure for
injecting the fluids, as it may frequently be. desirable to inject at the
bottom and top or even at the bottom only.