IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR RAISING AND LOWERING SHIPS AND VESSELS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Clark, of 5, Westminster Chambers,
Victoria Street, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR RAISING AND LOWERING SHIPS AND VESSELS."
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Edwin Clark at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 18th February 1873, pursuant to the 9th
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN
CLARK, of 5, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
iN MACHINERY FOR RAISING AND LOWERING SHIPS AND VESSELS," and have
petitioned Her Most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, to grant
unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters
Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that I am the
first and true Inventor thereof.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edwin Clark, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for
raising and lowering ships and vessels.
In order to pass ships and vessels from one level to another in place
of constructing locks, as is now usual, I form a large tank of sufficient
capacity to admit of the ship or vessel being floated into it, and I lift or
lower the tank with the ship or vessel floating within it from the one
level to the other; the lifting and lowering gear consists of an hydraulic
ram or rams. The ends of the tank are fitted with gates, or otherwise
arranged so that it can open to pass the ship or vessel, and close behind
it, and the ends of the upper and lower watercourses are also provided
with gates, so that they may be made to communicate freely with the
tank when it has been brought to the proper level.
It is preferred in order to economise power and time to employ two
tanks, one ascending when the other descends, and the ram or rams
which support one tank are caused to communicate with the ram or
rams which support the other, so that the water discharged from the
cylinder or cylinders of one set of rams, enters the cylinder or cylinders
of the other set; thus the tanks are made to balance each other, and
when equally floated they have no tendency to move.
The power to work the apparatus may be derived in great part from
loading the descending tank with water somewhat more deeply than the
ascending tank, but means are also provided for admitting water from
an accumulator to either set of rams, when it is required.
Where a series or number of rams are employed to support a ship or
vessel in a tank as above described, (or it may be upon a grid or pontoon
as is described in the Specification of a former Patent granted to me,
and dated the 19th day of January 1857, No. 159,) I apply automatic
controlling apparatus in such manner that some of the rams at one end or
side of the series control others at the other end or side;
and so I ensure
that the tank or platform shall be kept approximately horizontal.
Apparatus in connection with the rams at one end or side as they
ascend and descend causes a bevelled wheel to rotate, and similar
apparatus in connection with the rams at the other end or side acts a
similarly upon another bevelled wheel, rotating it, however, in the opposite

page_text: direction. Between these wheels is a third, which when there is any
irregularity in the motion of the first two wheels is carried round, and
gives motion to cams which act upon water taps, cutting off the supply
of water to or allowing the water to escape from the cylinders of the
rams which are too high.
When the object of raising the ship or vessel is for the purpose of
repair, I employ a pontoon, as is described in the Specification of my
former Patent, herein-before referred to. I make the pontoon sufficiently
stiff to withstand the lifting strain, and I connect the lifting chains
descending from the hydraulic rams to the two sides of the pontoon.
This I do by means of links jointed to the bottom of the pontoon and
boomed out from its upper surface, so as to bring the upper ends of the
links directly under the ram heads. When the pontoon is floated to and
from the lifting apparatus, the booms are turned or drawn in or removed
so as to offer no obstruction.
In order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawings here-
unto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
c and
Figure 1 is an elevation, Figure 2 a plan, and Figures 3 and 4 are
transverse sections of machinery adapted to pass small vessels, such as
canal barges, between two navigable channels at an upper and a lower
level, a is the lower channel, and 6 is the upper channel, which in the
case represented by the Drawings is continued by an iron aqueduct across
the lower channel; it is fitted with lock gates near its open end.
d are two similar tanks each of a size to allow of a canal barge being
floated into it. Each tank is provided with gates at one end. These
tanks can be moved up and down vertically between the guides e, e,
through a distance equal to the difference of level of the two navigations.
The bottoms of the tanks are very stiffly constructed, and each is rigidly
fixed upon the top of an hydraulic ram. These rams are marked f, and
f, and their cylinders 9, and g¹, are sunk in the ground, and firmly
supported by a bed of concrete. The cylinders g, and g¹, are connected
by a pipe, with a stop valve upon it; each of them is also provided with
an outlet valvė, and they can also be put into communication when
necessary with an accumulator / into which water is pumped at a
pressure adequate to raise the rams. The tanks c and d when down
are received into artificial channels a¹, in communication with the

page_text: channel a. Gates may be provided to these channels. When the tanks
c and d are in their upper positions they coincide with upper channel b
and ordinary precautions are taken to make a sufficiently water-tight
joint between the two. When one of the tanks is thus raised, the other
being in its lower position, gates at the end of the channel b, and at the
end of the raised tank are opened and a barge is floated either into or
out from the tank. This having been done and the gates shut, com-
munication is opened, between the cylinders g and g¹.
The upper
trough (with the barge which may be within it) then commences to
descend, and the lower trough to rise, things being so arranged that the
water level in the upper trough shall stand somewhat higher than it
does in the lower. The movement continues until the descending tank
has reached the water in the channel a¹, and at this time the tanks are
brought to rest, and the communication between the cylinders g and g¹
is closed. The ascending tank is afterwards raised the short distance
necessary to bring it to its place by means of the accumulator. The
descent of the other tank is completed by opening the outlet valve of
the cylinder of the descending ram.
In some cases the channel a¹ may be run dry before receiving the
descending tank, and then there will be little if any work to be done from
the accumulator.
When the weights to be moved are greater than admit advantageously
of the use of a single ram, I employ a series of rams in connection with
each tank, and I apply self-acting controlling apparatus to ensure that
all the rams of each series shall rise and fall in unison.
Figure 5 is an elevation, Figure 6 is a plan, and Figure 7 is an end
view. a and b are the upper and lower water courses; c and d are the
two ship tanks; f,f,f, and ƒ¹, f',f¹, are the rams by which these tanks
are supported respectively; 9, 9, 9, and g¹, g¹, g¹, are the ram cylinders;
h is an accumulator; i, i, are racks, which rise and fall with the rams
at the two ends of the series, in so doing they drive spur wheels upon
the axes k, k, which have upon them two bevelled pinions 1, 1, forming
part of the controlling apparatus. This apparatus is shewn to a larger
scale in Figures 8 and 9. So long as the rams move at the same speed,
and in the same direction, the bevelled pinions 1, 1, rotate at the same
speed, but in opposite directions; between the pinions is a similar
pinion m, carried by a wheel m¹, which is free to rotate concentrically
with the pinions ; n is a weight tending to hold the wheel m' in the

page_text: position in which it is shewn, and it remains in this position so long as
the rams move at the same speed, but if the speeds become different the
wheel m¹ commences to rotate, and the cams m³, m², upon it open one or
other of the safety valves n*, n*. In a similar manner they are made to
close other valves not represented in the Drawings. The rams supporting
each tank are divided into three sets which in Figure 5 are marked 1, 2,
and 3 respectively. The cylinders of each set are connected by pipes
with the cylinders of the corresponding set belonging to the other tank,
and the cams of the controlling apparatus act to close the valves on the
connecting pipes of such of the rams as commence to overrun the others,
and to open the safety valves of such of the rams as may stand at too
high a level. There are two similar controlling mechanisms to each
trough, one for the sets 1 and 2, and the other for the sets 2 and 3.
Similar self-controlling apparatus is also advantageously employed
when ships are lifted by hydraulic power upon pontoons or grids in the
manner described in the Specification of my former Patent, herein-
before referred to.
The series of rams is divided into three sets in the manner already
described, and each set is worked from a separate accumulator, or it may
be by pumps directly supplying the ram cylinder, in which case the
cams of the controlling apparatus may act upon the throttle valve of
the steam engine, or the cams may open relief valves to allow the excess
of water pumped by either of the engines to run to waste.
When lifting a ship upon a pontoon I do not employ girders beneath
the pontoon, as shown in Figure 10, as such girders increase the depth
of water requisite for working the apparatus by several feet, but in
place thereof I connect the pontoon (which is built sufficiently stiffly to
sustain the weight) with the lifting chains by the means shewn in
Figure 11. a is the cross head of one of the rams; and 6 is a guide for
the same; cis a lifting chain descending from one end of the cross head;
d is a portion of the pontoon; e is a link jointed to the pontoon at e¹;
f is a movable pin, by which the link e can be connected with the
lifting chain c; h is a strut jointed to the pontoon at h¹; it serves to
boom out the link e to the centre line of the ram.
When the pontoon is being floated into or from its place, the link e
and the struth are turned up into the positions shewn by the dotted
lines.

page_text: Figure 12 shews a modification of the arrangement; the strut h is in
this case jointed to the link e, and a movable pin at h* connects the
strut with the pontoon. This pin h* as well as the pin f is knocked out
when the pontoon is to be floated to or from its place, and the parts then
assume the positions indicated by the dotted lines, and leave no
projection beyond the side of the pontoon.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim
the means of raising and lowering ships and vessels from one level to
another, by floating them into a tank, which with its contents is :
movable, substantially as described.
I also claim the combination of such tanks in pairs in such manner
that the descent of one tank with its contents may supply power to raise
the other tank and its contents, substantially as described.
I also claim the combination, with a series of rams supporting a
moving tank or platform for raising and lowering ships and vessels, of
automatic controlling apparatus, so arranged that when either of the
rams is higher than the rest of the series the water is allowed to escape
from its cylinder, or the supply of water to its cylinder is stopped,
substantially as described.
°
I also claim the method of constructing pontoons for lifting ships and
vessels for examination and repair, and connecting such pontoons with
and disconnecting them from the lifting apparatus substantially as
described.
I also claim the arrangement of apparatus substantially as described,
and shewn in the annexed Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Clark, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-forth day of January; in the year of
T
na thousand sicht hundred and cavant thron