IMPROVEMENTS IN DIVING APPARATUS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jacques Marie Edouard Masson, of the Rue des
Fossés, St. Thomas, at Evreux (Eure), in the Empire of France,
Householder, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DIVING APPARATUS."
Sealed the 26th October 1858, and dated the 10th May 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jacques Marie Edouard
Masson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 10th May 1858.
I, JACQUES MARIE EDOUARD MASSON, of the Rue des Fossés, St. Thomas,
at Evreux (Eure), in the Empire of France, Householder, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DIVING APPARATUS," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in diving apparatus. For
this purpose, in place of the diver being supplied with air by means of
flexible pipes from above the surface of the water, as heretofore, the diver or
divers descend with a frame to which reservoirs of compressed air are attached,
and from which the diver or divers are supplied with air. The frame is com-
posed of two rectangular gratings, connected together at a distance apart, so
that the diver may walk between them. The reservoirs of air are attached to
the upper grating, and in order that the diver may be supplied with air at the
same pressure as the column of water under which he is working, reservoirs

page_text: may
be
of air are placed in communication, by means of pipes furnished with cocks,
with two cylinders placed perpendicularly between the two gratings, and open
at the bottom, the quantity of air admitted into the cylinders being regulated
by means of the cocks, which may be acted on by floats, so that the quantity
of air admitted varies with the pressure of the water, or the cocks
acted on by the diver. The air from these cylinders is transmitted by means of
two air pumps (one in each cylinder) through a flexible pipe to the helmet or
dress of the diver, and the air passes away from the dress of the diver through
another flexible pipe into an apparatus, where it is purified by passing through
finely divided shower of a solution of soda, and from there back into the
cylinders in which the air pumps work, to be again used. The two air pumps
are worked by means of two cranks on the same axis, and on this axis there
is a toothed wheel which takes into another toothed wheel, which is put in
motion by the diver or by a weight attached to a rope wound around its axis.
Between the two gratings is another cylinder closed at both ends; this
cylinder is connected by a pipe furnished with a cock with one of the upright
air cylinders; it can also be put in communication with the surrounding water
by two taps, one placed at its top and the other at its bottom. By filling
this cylinder entirely with air, or partly or entirely with water, the apparatus
may be caused to float or sink more or less rapidly. Between the two
gratings, and near to each of the four corners, there is a cylinder placed
vertically, the bottom of which is open, and the top placed in communication,
by a tube furnished with a cock, with the reservoirs of compressed air, so that
one or other of these cylinders, which are filled with water when the apparatus
is floating on the surface, may be filled at pleasure, more or less, with com-
pressed air by the divers, whether for raising any matters from the bottom of
the water, or for causing the apparatus to rise. more quickly, or for regulating
its balance if it should become deranged. The balance of the apparatus is
established before it is caused to descend by means of weights placed on the
lower grating.
SPECIFICATION. in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jacques Marie Edouard Masson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACQUES
MARIE EDOUARD MASSON, of the Rue des Fossés, St. Thomas, at Evreux
(Eure), in the Empire of France, Householder, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Jacques Marie Edouard Masson, Her special licence that I, the said Jacques
Marie Edouard Masson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Jacques Marie Edouard Masson, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 DIVING APPARATUS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Jacques Marie Edouard Masson, my.
executors 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Jacques Marie Edouard Masson, do
hereby declare the nature of the 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, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in diving apparatus. For
this purpose, in place of the diver being supplied with air by means of flexible
pipes from above the surface of the water, as heretofore, the diver or divers
descend with a frame to which reservoirs of compressed air are attached, and
from which the diver or divers are supplied with air. The frame is composed
of two rectangular gratings, connected together at a distance apart, so that
the diver may walk between them. The reservoirs of air are attached to the
upper grating, and in order that the diver may be supplied with air at the
same pressure as the column of water under which he is working, the reservoirs
of air are placed in communication by means of pipes furnished with cocks
with two cylinders placed perpendicularly between the two gratings, and open
at the bottom, the quantity of air admitted into the cylinders being regulated
by means of the cocks, which may be acted on by floats, so that the quantity
of air admitted varies with the pressure of the water, or the cocks may be
acted on by the diver. The air from these cylinders is transmitted by means
of two air pumps (one in each cylinder) through a flexible pipe to the helmet

page_text: or dress of the diver, and the air passes away from the dress of the diver
through another flexible pipe into an apparatus, where it is purified by passing
through a finely divided shower of a solution of soda, and from there back into
the cylinders in which the air pumps work, to be again used. The two air
pumps are worked by means of two cranks on the same axis, and on this axis
there is a toothed wheel which takes into another toothed wheel, which is put
in motion by the diver, or by a weight attached to a rope wound around its
axis. Between the two gratings is another cylinder closed at both ends;
this cylinder is connected by a pipe furnished with a cock with one of the
upright air cylinders; it can also be put in communication with the sur-
rounding water by two taps, one-placed at its top and the other at its bottom.
By filling this cylinder entirely with air, or partly or entirely with water, the
apparatus may be caused to float or sink more or less rapidly. Between the
two gratings, and near to each of the four corners, there is a cylinder placed
vertically, the bottom of which is open, and the top placed in communication,
by a tube furnished with a cock, with the reservoirs of compressed air, so that
one or other of these cylinders, which are filled with water when the apparatus
is floating on the surface, may be filled at pleasure, more or less, with-com-
pressed air by the divers, whether for raising any matters from the bottom of
the water, or for causing the apparatus to rise more quickly, or for regulating
its balance if it should become deranged. The balance of the apparatus is
established before it is caused to descend by means of weights placed on the
lower grating.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to
describe more fully the manner. of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 of the Drawing shews a perspective view of a diving apparatus
arranged according to my Invention; and Figure 2 shews a section of a portion
of the apparatus on a larger scale. A, B, are the two rectangular gratings, of
wood or other suitable material, which are connected together at a distance
apart by the uprights C, C, so that a diver may walk between them. To the
upper grating A are connected the air reservoirs D, D, of copper or other
suitable material, and of a sufficient thickness to withstand the pressure of the
compressed air. The reservoirs D communicate by means of the pipes a, a,
on which there are cocks b, b, with the two upright cylinders E, E, which are
open at the bottom. The quantity of air admitted into the cylinders E is regu-
lated by the cocks b, b; the amount to which each of the cocks b is opened
being regulated by means of a float c (see Figure 2), from which a cord passes

page_text: over pulleys to a crank d on the plug of the cocks, the action of the floats
tending to open the cocks; and there is a spring attached to the other side of
the plug which constantly tends to turn the cock off, and since the floats have
a greater and greater tendency to open the cocks according as the diving
apparatus is deeper and deeper beneath the water, the quantity of air admitted
into the cylinders E varies with the pressure of the water; or in place of
thus acting on the cocks, the cocks may be acted on by the diver. The air
from each of the cylinders E is transmitted by means of an air pump F (one
of which is contained within each of the cylinders E), through a flexible pipe f,
to the helmet or dress of a diver; the air passes away from the dress of the
diver through a flexible pipe into the purifying apparatus G (shewn separately
at Figure 3), and then back into the cylinder E, there being one purifying
apparatus to each cylinder E, although only one is shown in the Drawing, to
avoid confusion.
Another diver may also be supplied with air from the other
cylinder E, although for the same reason only one is shewn in the Drawing.
The purifying apparatus G consists of a cylinder g, closed at each end, which
turns on hollow axes at its centre; the interior of the cylinder is divided across
the centre by a partition of fine wire gauze, and the cylinder is about th
filled with a solution of soda (the strength of the solution I prefer being twenty
parts of caustic soda in hundred parts of water), through a tap h at one end
of the cylinder. The air passes into the cylinder from the dress of the diver
through a perforated pipe attached to one of the hollow axes, and passes away
to one of the cylinders E through the other hollow axis; the air in its passage
through the cylinder 9 passing through a fine shower of the solution of soda
caused by the solution passing through the partition of wire gauze. The air
pumps F take the air from the top of the cylinders E through the pipe k, and
the piston rods of the air pumps are worked up and down by the cranks lon
the axis m, to which motion is communicated by means of the toothed wheel
n, which gears with the toothed wheel o, which is caused to rotate by means
of a weight r on the end of a rope wound round the pulley p on the same axis
as the wheel o, and the pulley p can either be put in or out of connection with
the wheel o, so that the weight can be wound up without giving motion to the
air pumps. To the lower grating B is attached a cylinder H, closed at both
ends; this cylinder is connected by a pipe furnished with a cock with one of
the cylinders E; it can also be put in communication with the surrounding
water by two taps, one placed at its top and the other at its bottom. By
filling this cylinder entirely with air, or partly or entirely with water, the
apparatus may be caused to float or sink more or less rapidly. At each of the
four corners of the upper part of the apparatus there is a cylinder K, placed

page_text: vertically, the bottom of which is open, and the top placed in communication
by a tube furnished with a cock with one of the cylinders E, so that one or
other of these cylinders, which are filled with water when the apparatus is
floating on the surface, may be filled at pleasure more or less with compressed
air by the divers, whether for raising any matters from the bottom of the water,
or for causing the apparatus to rise more quickly, or for regulating its balance
if it should become deranged. The weight of the apparatus is regulated by
means of weights placed on the lower grating B, so that the apparatus will
float when the divers with their tools are on the apparatus, the cylinders K, K,
filled with water, and the cylinders D, D, and H filled with air, and the 1
apparatus is caused to sink by water being let into the cylinder H; the
apparatus being again caused to float when it is required to refill the reser-
voirs of air, or for other purposes, by again filling the cylinder H with air, and,
if necessary, the cylinders D also more or less with air.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacques Marie Edouard Masson, have 1
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Third day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
JACQUES MARIE EDOUARD MASSON. (L.S.)
R. BONNIN, Ingenieur Civil,
Rue Desormeaux (Evreux).