AN IMPROVED MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENT FOR ELEVATING OR LOWERING AND MOVING FORWARD OR BACKWARD HEAVY OR SUBMERGED BODIES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Felix Bouchet, Mechanician, of Paris, France, for
the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENT FOR ELEVATING
OR LOWERING AND MOVING FORWARD OR BACKWARD HEAVY OR SUBMERGED
BODIES,"
Sealed the 22nd January 1856, and dated the 26th September 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Felix Bouchet at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th
September 1855.
I, FELIX BOUCHET, Mechanician, of Paris (France), do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENT FOR
ELEVATING OR LOWERING AND MOVING FORWARD OR BACKWARD HEAVY OR SUBMERGED
BODIES" to be as follows:-
My improvements consist in suitable arrangements for moving heavy bodies,
and which I apply to the removal or transporting at short distances the
earth from excavations for building purposes, for the recovery or removing
of submerged bodies, for submarine constructions, and for other analogous
purposes.
The same consists of a sort of aërial track or way formed by one
or more cables or chains, the ends of which are fixed to suitable triangles,
standards, or ships' masts, and over which cables may be moved forward and
backward one or more small carriages provided with suitable pulleys, and one
or more chains or cables, to which latter are fixed the objects which by this
means may be elevated or lowered by proper mechanisin, permitting at the
same time to move the carriages forward and backward. In case of removing
submerged bodies, one of the carriages may serve for carrying a proper diving
bell, and the other for actuating the objects to be removed, or to be brought to
the surface of the water.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Felix Bouchet in the Great Seal Patent Office ou the
24th March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FELIX
BOUCHET, Mechanician, of Paris, France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our
Lord Ore thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Felix Bouchet, Mechanician, Her special licence that I, the said Felix
Bouchet, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Felix Bouchet, 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, exer-
cise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED MECHANICAL
ARRANGEMENT FOR ELEVATING OR LOWERING AND MOVING FORWARD OR BACKWARD
HEAVY OR SUBMERGED BODIES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Felix Bouchet, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Felix Bouchet, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in aud by the following
statement:
This Invention relates to certain mechanical arrangements for elevating or
lowering and moving forward and backwards heavy loads, submerged bodies,
or for other similar purposes. The same are particularly suited for the
excavating or curing of canals or rivers, and canalizing these latter for
hydraulic constructions, and raising submerged bodies; in which latter case a
diving bell is also made use of for carrying down or for raising again the
working people, tools, and other purposes.
In the annexed Drawings, Figure 1 represents an elevation view of the
arrangement I make use of for the excavating of canals and similar purposes;
whereas Figure 2 represents a similar view of the arrangement for raising

page_text: submerged bodies, and working the diving bell for carrying down or rising
again above the surface of the water the working people, tools, &c.; Figure 3
is a separate view of the mechanism for working the entire. In these
Figures corresponding parts are indicated by the same letters of reference.
Istly, in the arrangement (Figure 1) employed for excavating canals and
similar purposes, two capstans are made use of, one of them at each side of
the canal or river; these capstans are connected by an iron cable or strong
rope a, a, attached by suitable hooks to the top of the capstans, and the
samne corresponds with the counterweights J and Y. On this cable a carriage
R is made to move forward and backward by means of suitable ropes or
moving cables Kaud Q, guided by the pulley V, V, which ropes are acted
upon by a mechanical arrangement situated at the lower part of the capstans,
and composed of four cast-iron standards or brackets B, B, furnished with
proper bearings, in which turn the trunnions of the two cylinders or windlasses
C,C, one of them for each capstan. In order to move these cylinders, which
are furnished with proper gearing,a horizontal arbor turning in four other cast-
iron standards A, A, A, A; the middle part of this arbor carries two cast-iron
nuts F, F, which are permitted to glide on this arbor in proper slides. The
two nuts form part of the arbor, and are fixed, but in order to permit of their
stoppingat will or liberating them again, they are made to advance and recede
when required by means of a horizontal cranked fork G, furnished with a
toothed rack and pinion. This fork fits into a slide L, furnished also with
a pinion and gearing, and by these means the nuts are made to advance or
recede. As soon as the pinion leaves the gearing, a break acted upon by the
same pinion rises a lever, by which the windlass of the capstan is either
set free or kept in a fixed position, in which latter case the load O¹ is kept
suspended at the height the same was elevated at that moment, and the same
may then be moved forward and backward by the carriage R The rack E
acting on the break, must when required be able to move independently
from the nut which makes the fork turn, by which means the load or body
to be moved may be either caused to raise or be lowered and carried to its
destination. The winch handle D and the pinion have then to wait only for
the motion obtained from a steam engine or any other suitable prime mover.
If required, two carriages R may be used, and the capstans, being
very large, may be arranged in such manner as to serve for temporary
habitation for the working people. A are the standards or brackets for the
main arbor; B, the standards for the windlass or cylinder C; D, the
bearers for the toothed racks E; F, gearing nuts with guiding slides; G
forked parts; H,tootned wheel fixed on the cylinder; 1, bearer for the break;

page_text: J and Y, counterweights; K and Q, moving cables; L, bell-crank lever;
M, winch handle for the ratchet wheel; O, diving bell; P, tackle block
provided with a hook; R, carriage with double pulley moving on the iron
cable S; T, large pulley with bearer; U, driving bell; V, guide pulleys;
B, toothed wheel; C, pinion; D, winch handle.
2ndly, when the arrangement is to serve for raising large or heavysubmerged
bodies from out of a great depth of water, I make use, as shown in Figure 2,
of two vessels S,S, connected together by means of one or more cables, the
ends of which are fastened to the ships' mast, and in this case the capstans
may consequently be dispensed with. In this case a diving bell O may serve
for carrying down the work-people to the submerged bodies, which hell is
moved by the above-described mechanism; and at the same time a large boxU
may also be made to move forward and backward, lowered, or be raised again,
by the same arrangement, that is to say, by a second carriage R¹, whereas the
bell is moved by the carriage R. By this second carriage the necessary
implements and other objects may be carried down to the workmen below the
surface of the water, who may, consequently, remain for a longer period under
water in the diving bell, and by means of the box U, and at a signal trans-
mitted by any suitable means, the objects may be raised above the surface
of the water on board of the vessels while the workmen remain under water.
The other parts of this arrangement are identical with those above described
with regard to Figure 1.
Having thus described the nature of my arrangements, and the manner in
which the same act, I wish it to be understood that what I claim as my
Invention consists in the mechanical arrangement described, permitting of
lowering and rising and moving forward and backward at any required height
heavy loads or submerged bodies.
In witness whereof, I, the said Felix Bouchet, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
FELIX BOUCHET. (L.S.)