AN IMPROVED PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR DEEPENING THE BEDS OF RIVERS AND OTHER WATERS
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Nepomuc Moerath at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd November 1882.
JOHN NEPOMUC MOERATH of Rome in the Kingdom of Italy, temporarily of
Finsbury Pavement in the City of London Civil Engineer "AN IMPROVED PROCESS
AND APPARATUS FOR DEEPENING THE BEDS OF RIVERS AND OTHER WATERS
"
The object of this invention is to deepen the beds of rivers, and remove bars and
banks from the mouths and channels of canals, rivers and other running waters in
a more simple and economical manner than heretofore.
To this end the invention relates to a novel process for removing the mud and
sand banks without the use of stationary floating dredgers or excavators such as
are commonly used, and to apparatus for effecting and aiding this removal of the
mud and sand, and for automatically collecting the more solid portion thereof at the
side or sides of the river or other running water, in such manner that it can be
easily removed by men from the shore, or for transferring the said solid portions
automatically to a distance from the navigable portion of such waters.
According to my invention I suspend a rotary drag or dredge consisting of toothed
discs or cutters, or their equivalent, arranged on an axle or in a frame, from ä
suitable raft or floating. pontoons; from which the drag can be adjusted to the
required depth. This Hoating raft or pontoon I tow by means of a steam tug or
equivalent power on the land or water, over the bed of the river to be deepened
having previously adjusted the drag or dredge to a depth sufficient for it to disturb
and remove some 6 or more inches of the sand or mud. The teeth of the dredge
are so formed as to bite into and lift up the sand or mud.
Behind the raft from which the drag or dredge is suspended and connected with
it or drawn behind it in any convenient manner is a floating plough, or double
pontoon having side boards or keels arranged to throw off the water and heavier
particles of the mud and sand removed by the teeth or blades of the drag, dredge,
or equivalent implement suspended from the raft. The pontoons I make adjustable
so that their position may be varied and the angle at which the water and mud are
forcibly deflected towards the side of the river or running water, may be adjusted
to give the best results.

page_text: A rear cross-bar or stay serves to stiffen the pontoons when adjusted in their
angular position. In order to collect the mud and sand which has been displaced
by the dredge and swept to the side of the river by the floating plough, as above
described, and also to prevent the waves thrown up by the tug and the apparatus
in its wake, from destroying the river banks, I protect the latter by means of dams
or barricades of a novel and simple construction to be hereafter explained, and I
arrange at intervals along the protected banks groins projecting obliquely into the
river or running water in such direction that the mud and sand will be swept in
eddies round and behind them, and accumulate in a form convenient for removal in
buckets or dredges or by any other suitable means from the shore.
The temporary or permanent barricades or groins above referred to I construct as
follows:-
I drive in two or more piles at regular intervals, and fit loosely over the said piles
a series of cast iron rings formed with sets of double flanges at suitable points
around them, and constituting, when several of such castings are placed one upon
the other, vertical grooves or guides for the reception of planks around which cords
or ropes soaked in marine glue are fastened, so as to form a water tight planking.
The iron rings with their double flanges as above described may be separated by
spacing blocks, and the several sets of lugs or flanges will enable the boards to be
applied to adjacent piles in such a manner as to closely follow the contour of the
shore whether straight or curved; while the rope-bound boards will interlock and
exclude the water. Asphalte or cement may be poured in between the castings and
the piles around which they are placed.
With the view of completing the deepening of the channels and removing the
deposits of mud and sand at the mouths of rivers, I arrange sets of groins similar to
those along the river walls, so as to extend at intervals for some distance -into the
sea, setting these detached groins or breakwaters in a line or lines, and at such an
angle to the trend-of-the-shore.as will divert the tide seawards as it runs up or
down past the river mouth, thereby removing the line where-the-sea and river
waters, acting in opposition, tend to raise a bar or delta, further away from the river
and enabling the river waters to flow off more freely and with consequently greater
The detached groins or breakwaters above referred to are constructed in the
same rapid and simple manner as is above explained, and are suitable for permanent
or temporary use.
scour.
When applying my improved process to canals and other waters which flow but
slowly, I set the boards of the plough right across the line of travel so as to create a
strong movement of the water and of the sand and mud mixed therewith,
By the use of the above described process and apparatus for deepening the beds
of canals, rivers, and other running waters, the navigation remains unimpeded by
stationary floating dredgers or excavators, and the clearance is effected in great
part by the flow of the water itself, with great economy and efficiency.