Improved Means and Submergible Apparatus for the Collection or Obtaining Material from River Beds.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 6th June, 1895
Complete Specification Left, 5th Mar., 1896-Accepted, 6th June. 1396
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means and Submergible Apparatus for the Collection or
Obtaining Material from River Beds.
I, CHARLES JULIUS BALL, of Monte Rosa, St. Leonards on Sea, County of
Sussex, Mining Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to certain means for reaching the bed-rock of rivers and
placers deposits containing gold or other valuable material such as diamonds, tin,
etc.: so as to be able to add the intelligence and the sight of the worker to the
powers developed by the machinery above him.
For carrying my invention into practice, I employ a pontoon or float which
carries the machinery, and which may be formed either by one barge, or by any
floating craft that may be at hand, or especially may be composed of several local
canoes connected by cross-timbers which are planked over, and thereby afford a
suitable and large platform at a very small cost.
The arrangements made are such that either the barge contains a well through
it, or the canoes are kept apart sufficiently to allow for a well-like formation to be
comprised within their sides. In this well descends and re-ascends a diving tower
which is entirely different from a diving hell in as much as it is open at the top and
sinks to the bottom by its own weight.
This diving tower is composed of a pipe through which a man can go up and
down by means of a ladder and a larger chamber at bottom in which he can work ;
this chamber being lighted by an electric light, so that he may clearly see what he
is doing, and therefore pick up out of the cracks and crevices and pot-holes of the
rock the gold or other valuables therein accumulated. The top of this tower is
provided with a door which can be opened either from the outside or from the
inside, so that the man who is working inside may always feel that he is able
to get out of the castle by himself were anything to go wrong with the
machinery.
As soon as this diving tower is lowered into the water and has reached the bottom,
a man steps in and is enclosed in it, compressed air being forced into it by a special
air compressor. The water is gradually repelled and forced out of the tube and
chamber, the man following the water down by means of the ladder which is
contained in the diving tower. Presently the water is entirely expelled, and the
man stands on the bottom of the river.
This apparatus is completed by the presence on the outside of the chamber
of :-
Firstly, a ball sucking pump which from the deck of the pontoon causes a violent
suction to arise around its nozzle which is brought to be a little lower than the lip
of the diving chamber.
There is further, a grab of a special type made so as to open at any height
desired, which keeps grubbing up the ground round the pipe and thereby loosening
all the material at hand. If the material is somewhat hard and coherent, the grab
is made to open a few feet above the level of the bottom where it has just taken an
amount of material which it allows to fall down on to the ground and thereby to be

page_text: difficulty.
BUCKING
Pipe Cau
'
The grab, at the same time can lift out of the way any stones or even small
boulders which the sucking pipe is incapable of dealing with.
In the same way if the strata to be encountered happens to be of a clayey nature
or sufficiently resistant not to be amenable to the action of the sucking pipe, the
grab can bring it up to the surface entirely out of the way of the dredging operation
and dispose of it wherever desired.
If it is desired to extract material by the grab not from without the chamber but
from within, the following device is resorted to.
Vide-licet, a second tube is inserted in the diving tower, which in that case must
..of course be made of somewhat larger dimensions and this second tube is sufficiently
large to allow the grab to go down it open and to come up it when full; it there-
fore grabs under these conditions inside the diving chamber instead of without, but
the second tube must be kept a little in advance of the diving bell so that it may
be sealed hydraulically by the water in which it dips and the air which fills the
diving tower be prevented from escaping up this second pipe.
'
.
A special disposition is necessary in this case to allow the grab to unload itself
without throwing back its contents into the very tube from which it has extracted
them, and therefore it is hung and actuated from the end of a rocking arm slightly
bent over the mouth of the second pipe, and so balanced that of its own gravitation
it will fall back two or three feet away from the pipe. Therefore as soon as the
grab emerges from the pipe the rocking arm falls back, and the man in charge
can lower the said grab without fouling the tube and deposit its contents where
required.
In other cases I use a movable shoot which comes under the grab it is wanted to
unload after it has been pulled up out of the tube.
When the grab is used outwardly it is directed in its descent by a chain or wire
rope attached to the diving tower and which compels it to reach the ground always
in the same definite place as regards the diving tower itself, the man inside has
therefore only to shovel or push the material he wants to get rid of to that definite
marked place in his diving chamber, and he is certain that the grab will faithfully
come to the very place to take up the load which has been prepared for it.
If it is required that the grab should swing when it comes to the surface from
that particular position to any other, two methods can be used, either a lad may be
stationed to disconnect the grab from the guiding chain or wire rope at each turn,
or the wire rope may be made to give way to a considerable extent right or left, so
as to allow the discharging of the grab where wanted by means of a weight or
spring or other contrivance attached to its further end, so that though tight enough
to guide the grab in its descent and ascent, it will give way to the swing of the
crane working the said grab to the necessary extent to allow the grab to be
discharged where required.
The grab chain is given a catch which acts on a chain or rope compressor which
locks the guiding chain of wire rope guiding the descent of the grab and unlocks it
when coming up so as to have it quite loose when it is desired to swing the crane
and grab bucket.
The diving tower when at the bottom, and the door being closed, is filled with
air acquires a buoyancy which tends to upset the boat on which it is fixed. To
counteract this action two means are provided. In one case the top of the diving
chamber at the end of the diving tower is so prolonged that it can receive a large
amount of old chain or other flexible moveable ballast which is poured into it by
means of a little revolving shaft and wheels which pick it up from the pontoon in
wells specially provided for it and deposits it in this way on the top of the diving
chamber. By such contrivance the centre of gravity of the apparatus is brought
at will below the centre of displacement of the tower, and the stability of the
whole concern is formally established and maintained.
In another way, a tank may be attached to the diving tower, and filled with

page_text: water continuously or otherwise by means of auy pumps which may be working on
board, and the weight of the water may be so arranged that it compensates the
displacement of the diving tower.
A valve of large section is provided at the bottom of the said tank, and is
arranged by means of rods and levers to be within the control of the man who is
working in the diving tower.
It is made of sufficient section to considerably overpower the inflowing of water,
so that if the man in the tower chooses to lighten the tower so as to cause his rising.
from the bottom of the river, he has only to pull these rods and levers in such a way
as to increase the out-letting section of the said valve.
Thereupon, the tank empties itself, becomes lighter, and the natural displacement
of the diving tower at that particular depth overcomes the downward weight and
it rises exactly to the call of the man who working in the diving tower.
The same applies to the system of chain ballast previously mentioned, and by
communication with above, either through speaking tubes, telephones, or by rods
acting on the machinery, he can cause the chain or other weights to be lifted from
the top of his diving chamber, and he can therefore rise and fall at his own will
according to the necessities of the case.
In the diving chamber itself certain arrangements are necessary to protect the
life and the safety of limbs of the worker. Firstly; a folding seat is attached to
the side of this chamber, so that the man may rest on it and also sit on it when the.
tube is withdrawn from the river and brought to the surface.
As the swaying of the boat by the current might cause the chamber to move
from side to side, and perhaps nip the working men's feet or legs between the.
river bottom and the iron structure, it is desirable that he should be protected
from any such sudden swerving, and for that purpose two tongues of iron are
hinged on to the sides of the chamber perpendicular to the direction of the current,
and they are perforated with holes of sufficient diameter to receive spikes which.
can be driven through them into the ground below, and are always at hand, being.
chained to the sides of the chamber. In this manner a sudden swerving of the
chamber is absolutely impossible.
The tools placed at the disposal of the worker in the chamber are crowbars,
brushes, hooks, so as to enable him to work out any material contained either in
clacks and rugged or uneven surfaces, pot holes or crevices.
He also is provided with an apparatus composed of a jet of high pressure water,
enabling him to dislodge material from cracks and crevices where his metallic tools
could not follow the turns and windings of the aperture, and the same apparatus
delivers into an ascending tube a secondary jet of high pressure water which
creates a suction at the end of the mouth of the principal tube, so that any
material stirred up by the first jet within the vicinity of that mouth, is
immediately sucked up and delivered within a reasonable distance into such
receptacle as may be provided, from whence the valuable material can be taken out
by the ordinary means at leisure, or to the nozzle of the suction pump.
The diving tower goes down by means of its own weight on the one hand and a.
winch in the ascending direction.
These winches may be of all sizes and power according to the size of the tower in
use, and may be reduced to simple differential pulleys worked by hand.
In the separating process which follows the raising part of the work it may be
necessary to clear up the material of all mud and clay before passing it through
the sluice boxes, or diamond separators, in which the stuff has finally to be
treated.
To that effect the material is thrown, whether it comes from the grab or from
the ball dredging pump, on to two revolving drums which are slightly inclined
forward and which revolve in an out-gathering way. These drums are formed of
bars of iron with spaces between them, and one drum may be made to revolve
faster than the other. In this way the material is continually lifted and allowed
to fall and knock against the bars while it is being deluged by the water delivered

page_text: by the dredging pump, and the result is that all the stones above the desirable
size are gradually brought to the end of these two inclined drums and can thence
be conveyed either by a short channel overboard or by a conveyor to the stern of
the boat out of the way of the dredging operations. I also sometimes throw the
material into a single drum equally formed of iron bars and slightly inclined
forward but having three or four of the bars replaced by plates of larger breadth
which pick up the material, lift it up solid, rotating and let it drop back when at
a certain height breaking it up.
The material just cleared of the bigger stones and reduced to say one inch gravel
may still be muddy. In such case it is allowed to fall into a trough in which
revolve obliquely disposed flaps of cast iron or other metal, which, while pushing
the material forward keep stirring it and rubbing it against itself and themselves,
and a stream of water flowing gently in the opposite direction being provided the
material cleanses itself after a more or less prolonged stay in this trough which
time may be varied by varying the inclination of the revolving paddles and is
delivered at last perfectly clean, resembling the beach of the sea.
When dredging for gold, the material after, or without this cleaning is thrown
into ordinary sluice boxes of any description suited for the gold country and leaves
its gold behind the riffles usually provided and should it contain what is technically
known as float gold, the latter is collected by means of a new device, consisting of
sheets of amalgamated copper hinged on to the top of the sluice boxes from place to
place so that the current floats them upwards but exerts a continual friction against
the lower side of the said plates, the result being that if any gold is floating it is
absolutely bound to come into contact with the amalgam surface of the copper.
This system has the advantage that the plates remain perfectly flat and can
therefore be scraped of their amalgam without any difficulty.
If in the case of common materials, such as river sand for building purposes etc.
where it is only required to relieve the material of its mud and water the arrange-
ment consists of a funnel of sufficient dimensions to receive the inflow of water and
sand with if necessary an intermediate stirrer added but which generally is
unnecessary as the dredging action of the ball pump and the passage of the
material through its rapidly revolving vanes has thoroughly liberated the muddy
particles from the more solid sand and the action of gravitation causes the clean
sand to accumulate at the bottom, whereas the water, muddy or otherwise flows
over the rim of the funnel. A valve controlling the outlet of the funnel allowing
the material to be delivered out as fast as it accumulates in the said funnel. This
disposition can be inverted so as to bring the material down by a vertical tube into
a vertical tube ditto of much larger dimensions with an opening at the bottom. In
that case the pure grit or sand is shot down and does not rise to the surface but all
the mud and smaller particles are carried by the rising flow of the water which is
brought in by the inner pipe.
When the material to be separated consists of diamonds it is brought after
preliminary cleansing in the revolving drum or drums and passage through the
scourer into sizing screens and the sized gravels are then shot in a continuous
stream into the open top of a vertical pipe supplied with an ascending current of
water at a constant pressure sufficient to expel the dross but not the diamonds.
I do not use any annular guide or obstruction in the vertical tube to regulate
the current or distribute the material but throw it in pell mell with some water just
into the top of the ascending stream, the pipe of which is slightly funnel shaped.
Dated this 6th day of June 1895.
H. GARDNER,
Patent Agent, 166 Fleet Street, London,
Agent for the said C. J. Ball.

page_text: Improved Means and Submergible Apparatus for the Collection or
Obtaining Material from River Beds.
I, CHARLES JULIUS BALL, of Monte Rosa, St. Leonards on Sea, County of
Sussex, Mining Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to certain means for reaching the bed-rock of rivers and
placers deposits containing gold or other valuable material such as diamonds, tin,
etc. so as to be able to add the intelligence and the sight of the worker to the
powers developed by the machinery above him; also in appliances for the same and
for dredging purposes generally.
For carrying my invention into practice, I employ a pontoon or float A, Figures 1
and 2, which carries the machinery, and which may be formed either by one barge
or by any floating craft that may be at hand, or especially may be composed of
several local canoes connected by cross timbers which can be planked over, and
thereby afford a suitable and large platform at a very small cost.
The arrangements made are such that either the barge contains a well B through
it, or the canoes are kept apart sufficiently to allow for a well-like formation to be
comprised within their sides.
In this well descends and re-ascends a diving tower C which is entirely different
from a diving bell inasmuch as it is open at the top and sinks to the bottom by its
own weight.
This diving tower is composed of a pipe through which a man can go up and
down by means of a ladder and a larger chamber D, Figure 3, at bottom in which
he can work; this chamber being lighted by an electric light, so that he may
clearly see what he is doing and therefore pick up out of the cracks and crevices
and pot-holes of the rock the gold or other valuables therein accumulated.
The top of this tower is provided with a door which can be opened either from
the outside or from the inside, so that the man who is working inside may always
feel that he is able to get out of the castle by himself were anything to go wrong
with the machinery.
As soon as this diving tower C, D, is lowered into the water and has reached the'
bottom, a man steps in and is enclosed in it, compressed air being forced into it by
a special air compressor.
The water is gradually repelled and forced out of the tube and chamber, the
man following the water down by means of the ladder which is contained in the
diving tower. Presently the water is entirely expelled and the man stands on
the bottom of the river.
This apparatus is completed by the presence on the outside of the chamber of :-
Firstly, a sucking pump E, Figures 1 and 2, which from the deck of the pontoon
causes a violent suction to arise around its nozzle F, Figure 3, which is brought to
be a little lower than the lip of the diving chamber D.
There is further, a grab G, Figure 3, made so as to open at any height desired
which keeps grubbing up the ground round the pipe and thereby loosening all the
material at hand. If the material is somewhat hard and coherent the grab is made
to open a few feet above the level of the bottom where it has just taken an amount
of material which it allows to fall down. on to the ground and thereby to be broken.
up and comminuted so that the sucking pipe F can absorb it without difficulty.
The grab G at the same time can lift out of the way any stones or even small.
boulders which the sucking pipe F is incapable of dealing with. In the same way,
if the strata to be encountered happens to be of a clayey. nature or sufficiently.

page_text: resistant not to be amenable to the action of the sucking pipe, the grab can bring
it up to the surface entirely out of the way of the dredging operation and dispose of
it wherever desired.
If it is desired to extract material by the grab not from without the chamber but
from within, the following device is resorted to.
Vide-licet, a second tube H is inserted in the diving tower C, D, Figure 4, which
in that case must of course be made of somewhat larger dimensions, and this
second tube is sufficiently large to allow the grab. G to go down it open and to
come up it when full it therefore grabs under these conditions inside the diving
chamber instead of without, but the second tube must be kept a little in advance of
the diving bell so that it may be sealed hydraulically by the water in which it dips
and the air which fills the diving tower be prevented from escaping up this second
pipe. A special disposition is necessary in this case to allow the grab to unload
itself without throwing back its contents into the very tube from which it has
extracted them, and therefore it is hung and actuated from the end of a rocking
arm slightly bent over the mouth of the second pipe, and so balanced that of its
own gravitation it will fall back two or three feet away from the pipe. Therefore
as soon as the grab emerges from the pipe the rocking arm falls back, and the man
in charge can lower the said grab without fouling the tube and deposit its contents
where required. In other cases I use a movable shoot which comes under the grab
it is wanted to unload after it has been pulled up out of the tube.
When the grab is used outwardly it is directed in its descent by a chain or wire
rope I, Figure 3, 'attached to the diving tower D and which compels it to reach the
ground always in the same definite place as regards the diving tower itself, the man
inside has therefore only to shovel or push the material he wants to get rid of to
that definite marked place in bis diving chamber, and he is certain that the grab
will faithfully come to the very place to take up the load which has been prepared
for it.
If it is required that the grab should swing when it comes to the surface from
that particular position to any other, two methods can be used, either a lad may be
stationed to disconnect the grab from the guiding chain or wire rope at each turn,
or the wire rope may be made to give way to a considerable extent, right or left, so
as to allow the discharging of the grab where wanted by means of a weight or
spring or other contrivance attached to its further end, so that though tight enough
to guide the grab in its descent and ascent, it will give way to the swing of the
crane working the said grab to the necessary extent to allow the grab to be
discharged where required. The grab chain is given a catch which acts on a chain
or rope compressor which locks the guiding chain of wire rope guiding the descent
of the grab and unlocks it when coming up so as to have it quite loose when it is
desired to swing the crane and grab bucket.
The diving tower when at the bottom, and the door being closed is filled with air,
acquires a. buoyancy which tends to upset the boat on which it is fixed. To
counteract this action two means are provided. In one case, the top of the diving
chamber at the end of the diving tower is so prolonged, as at J Figure 3, that it
can receive a large amount of old chain or other flexible movable ballast which is
poured into it by means of a. little revolving shaft and wheels which pick it up
from the pontoon in wells specially provided for it and deposits it in this way on
the top of the diving chamber.. By such contrivance the centre of gravity of the
apparatus is brought at will below the centre of displacement of the tower, and the
stability of the whole concern is formally established and maintained..
I. sometimes prefer to load permanently the chamber by means of a zone or belt.
of cast iron ingots in the chamber supported by a strong angle iron ring and
interlocked so that they cannot fall inwards.
In another way, a tank may be attached to the diving tower and filled with water
continuously or otherwise by means of any. pumps which may be working on board,
and the weight of the water may be so arranged that it compensates the displace-
ment of the diving tower.. A.valve of large section is provided at the bottom of.

page_text: the said tank and is arranged by means of rods and levers to be within the control:
of the man who is working in the diving tower.
It is made of sufficient section to considerably overpower the inflowing of water,
so that if the man in the tower chooses to lighten the tower so as to cause his rising-
from the bottom of the river, he has only to pull these rods and levers in such a
way as to increase the out-letting section of the said valve. Thereupon the tank:
empties itself, becomes lighter, and the natural displacement of the diving tower-
at that particular depth overcomes the downward weight and it rises exactly to the
call of the man who is working in the diving tower. The same applies to the
system of chain ballast previously mentioned, and by communication with above,
either through speaking tubes, telephones, or by rods acting on the machinery, he
can cause the chain or other weights to be lifted from the top of his diving chamber,
and he can therefore rise and fall at his own will according to the necessities of
the case.
In the diving chamber itself certain arrangements are necessary to protect the
life and the safety of limbs of the worker. Firstly: a folding seat is attached to.
the side of this chamber, so that the man may rest on it and also sit on it when
the tube is withdrawn from the river and brought to the surface.
:
As the swaying of the boat by the current night cause the chamber to move
from side to side, and perhaps nip the working men's feet or legs between the river
bottom and the iron structure, it is desirable that he should be protected from any
such sudden swerving, and for that purpose two tongues of iron are hinged on to
the sides of the chamber perpendicular to the direction of the current, and they
are perforated with holes of sufficient diameter to receive spikes which can be
driven through them into the ground below, and are always at hand, being chained
to the sides of the chamber. In this manner a sudden swerving of the chamber is.
absolutely impossible.
The tools placed at the disposal of the worker in the chamber are crowbars,.
brushes, hooks, so as to enable him to work out any material contained either in
cracks and rugged or uneven surfaces, pot holes, or crevices. He also is provided
with an apparatus composed of a jet of high pressure water, as at K Figures 3.
and 5, enabling him to dislodge material from cracks and crevices where his metallic
tools could not follow the turns and windings of the aperture, and the same
apparatus delivers into an ascending tube L a secondary jet of high pressure water
which creates a suction at the end of the mouth of the principal tube, so that any
material stirred up by the first jet within the vicinity of that mouth, is immediately
sucked up and delivered within a reasonable distance, say at Q, into such receptacle
as may be provided, from whence, the valuable material can be taken out by the
ordinary means at leisure, or to the nozzle of the suction pump.
The diving tower goes down by means of its own weight on the one hand and a
winch M in the ascending direction. These winches may be of all sizes and power
according to the size of the tower in use, and may be reduced to simple differential
pulleys worked by hand.
In the separating process which follows the raising part of the work it may be
necessary to clear up the material of all mud and clay before passing it through
the sluice boxes, or diamond separators, in which the stuff has finally to be treated.
To that effect the material is thrown, whether it comes from the grab or from the
"ball" dredging pump, on to two revolving drums which are set slightly inclined..
These drums are formed of bars of iron with spaces between them, and one drum
may be made to revolve faster than the other. In this way the material is.
continually lifted and allowed to fall and knock against the bars while it is being
deluged by the water delivered by the dredging pump, and the result is that all the
stones above the desirable size are gradually brought to the end of these two-
inclined drums and can thence be conveyed either by a short channel overboard, or
by a conveyor to the stern of the boat out of the way of the dredging operations.
I also sometimes throw the material into a single drum equally formed of iron
bars and slightly inclined forward but having three or four of the bars replaced by

page_text: plates of larger breadth which pick up the material, lift it up solid, rotating and let
it drop back when at a certain height breaking it up.
The material just cleared of the bigger stones and reduced to say one inch gravel
may still be muddy. In such case it is allowed to fall into a trough in which
revolve obliquely disposed flaps of cast iron or other metal, which while pushing
the material forward keep stirring it and rubbing it against itself and themselves,
and a stream of water flowing gently in the opposite direction being provided, the
material cleanses itself after a more or less prolonged stay in this trough which
time may be varied by varying the inclination of the revolving paddles and is
delivered at last perfectly clean resembling the beach of the sea.
When dredging for gold, the material after or without this cleaning is thrown
into ordinary sluice boxes of any description suited for the Gold Country and leaves
its gold behind the riffles usually provided, and should it contain what is technically
known as float gold, the latter is collected by means of a new device, Figures 6, 7
and 9, consisting of sheets N of amalgamated copper hinged on to the top of the
sluice boxes P, P, from place to place so that the current floats them upwards but
exerts a continual friction against the lower side of the said plates, the result being
that if any gold is floating it is absolutely bound to come into contact with the
amalgam surface of the copper. This system has the advantage that the plates
remain perfectly flat and can therefore be scraped of their amalgam without any
difficulty.
If in the case of common materials such as river sand for building purposes etc.
where it is only required to relieve the material of its mud and water, the
arrangement consists of a delivery tube Q, Figure 8, as in the previous cases, of
sufficient dimensions to receive the inflow of water and sand with, if necessary, an
intermediate stirrer added but which generally is unnecessary as the dredging
action of the "ball" pump and the passage of the material through its rapidly
revolving vanes has thoroughly liberated the muddy particles from the more solid
sand and the action of gravitation causes the clean sand to accumulate at the
bottom, whereas the water muddy or otherwise flows over the rim of the screen V
into the overflow pipe V₁ while a certain quantity goes through the pipe U into
the box T from whence the water overflows by the pipe V", a further portion
passing by the passage T¹ with the washed sand into the hopper with screw T
which continually lifts and pushes it overboard, the remainder of the water escaping
by the pipe V
This disposition of the hopper screw can be inverted so as to bring the material
down by a vertical tube into a vertical tube of much larger dimensions with an
opening at the bottom, and thence into a collector.
In that case the pure grit or sand is shot down and does not rise to the surface
but all the mud and smaller particles are carried by the rising flow of the water
which is brought in by a pipe to escape by the outlet tube V", the deposited saud
being lifted by the creeper T" to fall overboard.
The elevation, Figure 9, is for separating gold on shore.
Figure 10 illustrates a double pontoon with riffles between them for separation
afloat.
When the material to be separated is diamonds, I throw the stuff into a
regulated vertical current after sizing by screening or jigging.
I do not use any annular guide or obstruction in the vertical tube to regulate the
current or distribute the material but throw it in pell mell with some water just
into the top of the ascending stream, the pipe of which is slightly funnel shaped.
Where the rivers are of great depth, say 20 to 30 feet, the chimney of com-
munication is abandoned and the diving bell substituted with the various air
suction, high pressure water, electric and telephone respective pipes and wires
entering into it and being therein handled by the operator, but as the bell in
deep water and river or tide current would become quite erratic in its movements,
the arrangement shown at Figures 11 and 12 is provided. The bell is held by
four chains a, a, a, a, or by steel wire ropes actuated by 4 winches b, b, b, b, of

page_text: special construction as follows for allowing varying amounts of chain to be let out
The drums of
or picked up as the bell is lowered or lifted by the main winch.
the four winches b, b, b, b, are then made of varying diameters so as to let out
exactly the lengths of chain required to keep the bell in the perpendicular line
exactly.
They are all four connected by shafting and gearing so that they all must
move together and they are equally and similarly connected with the main lifting
and lowering winch, the result being that the bell must move up and down in the
vertical line and it is thus possible to depend on its position.
Either in the chamber and chimney diving tower or in the controlled bell now
described it is necessary to make provision for picking up the slack of these hoses
and wires or for letting them out as the bell is lowered.
For this purpose a revolving drum c, Figure 2; is provided divided in two halves,
one for compressed air, the other for high pressure water, and on the ends d two
The drum
bobbins of good diameter pick up the electric light and telephone wires.
is supplied with air and water through its shaft and this drum is always kept
working against the diving tower or bell action either by means of a weight or
spring, or by a connection with the up and down motions of the diving gear, so
that all the hoses and wires are always kept tight.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim :-
1. In a dredging pontoon, a lifting and lowering tower with enlarged lower
chamber and capable of admitting workmen for operation on a river bed as and for
the purposes set forth.
2. In a pontoon, a descending tower with enlarged base and open bottom in
conjunction with inner or outer grab for raising solids as dislodged by workman on
river bed, as described and substantially as represented in the annexed drawings.
3. In dredging operations by plant before referred to, the water jet and suction
tubes for dislodging and recovering fine stuff from cracks or holes comprised within
the enlarged base of submergible tower, as described.
4. In dredging operations by the pontoon plant hereinbefore described and
represented, the upward dash of material against flat amalgam plates as and for the
purposes set forth.
5. In dredging operations by the pontoon plant aforesaid the system of effecting
separation of minerals from earthy matters as described.
H. GARDNER,
Patent Agent, 166 Fleet Street, London,
Agent for the said Charles Julius Ball.
H. GARDNER,
Patent Agent, 166 Fleet Street, London,
Agent for the said Charles Julius Ball.