IMPROVEMENTS IN LIPE-PRESERVING APPARATUS FOR FLOATING AND SUSTAINING PERSONS IN THE WATER
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Joseph Laurendeau, Doctor of Law and
Advocate, of No. 82, Boulevard Sébastopol, Paris, in the Empire
of France, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LIPE-PRESERVING
APPARATUS FOR FLOATING AND SUSTAINING PERSONS IN THE WATER."
Sealed the 19th January 1869, and dated the 27th July 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Joseph
Laurendeau at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 27th July 1868.
I, CHARLES JOSEPH LAURENDEAU, Doctor of Law and Advocate, of
No. 82, Boulevard Sébastopol, Paris, in the Empire of France, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LIFE-
PRESERVING APPARATUS FOR FLOATING AND SUSTAINING PERSONS IN THE WATER,"
to be as follows:-
This apparatus is composed of a quantity of thick cork sufficient to
float and sustain a person in the water, and is adapted to the abdomen

page_text: and a part of the chest. A second supply of thinner cork is placed
between the shoulders and reaches to the nape of the neck. This
arrangement is intended to produce perfect equilibrium. The part of the
body unfurnished with cork acts as ballast.
The form of the apparatus may vary, but the most simple is a species
of chasuble in cloth or woolen stuff which is supplied at the points
indicated with cork; the two parts of the chasuble are united under the
arm-pits by means of buttons, laces, or clasps.
Another form is a sash and pelerine united as before, and furnished
at the parts mentioned with cork. The cork may be applied in bands or
rolls covered and connected to the ordinary bathing dress, or in lieu of
cork inflated india-rubber or any other hollow and light body may be
employed.
A person having on one of these apparatus in the water will float on his
back, the face being quite out of the water and his limbs free to direct
himself, and in rough water he will sustain less frequent intermittent
immersions than the ablest swimmer. In order to float on the stomach
it is merely necessary to reverse the apparatus; the principal piece will
then be on the loins and the pelerine or collar under the chin. Should
the bather desire to swim under water the collar is removed or the
buoyant part turned from the side of the principal piece, and being
furnished with nippers for closing the nostrils and a pipe or tube to
breathe through, the end of which terminates in a funnel of cork so as to
float on the surface of the water. And finally a person may remain and
swim a considerable time under water by making the principal piece of
the apparatus both a means of buoying up the body and an air reservoir
from which the bather expells and draws in air by means of a double
tube, this reservoir being divided into two compartments by an elastic
partition or kind of diaphragm, but this apparatus is intended only for
good swimmers, and it would be necessary to carry a ballast.
The principal use to which this latter contrivance would be applied
would be as a substitute for the diving bell and the scaphandre or false
stomach invented by Mr. Rouqueyrol, which is most expensive and at the
same time dangerous.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Joseph Laurendeau in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 21st January 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
JOSEPH LAURENDEAU, Doctor of Law and Advocate, of No. 82, Boulevard
Sébastopol, Paris, in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Charles Joseph Laurendeau, Her special
licence that I, the said Charles Joseph Laurendeau, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Joseph
Laurendeau, 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, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LIFE-PRESERVING APPARATUS FOR FLOATING
AND SUSTAINING PERSONS IN THE WATER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Charles Joseph Laurendeau, my executors or ad-
ministrators, 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 Charles Joseph Laurendeau, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manuer
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
This apparatus is composed of a quantity of thick cork sufficient to
float and sustain a person in the water, and is adapted to the abdomen

page_text: and a part of the chest. A second supply of thinner cork is placed between
the shoulders and reaches to the nape of the neck. This arrangement is
intended to produce perfect equilibrium. The part of the body unfurnished
with cork acts as ballast.
The form of the apparatus may vary, but the most simple is a species
of chasuble in cloth or woollen stuff which is supplied at the parts
indicated with cork; the two parts of the chasuble are united under the
armpits by means of buttons, laces, or clasps.
Another form is a sash and pelerine united by buttons and furnished
at the parts mentioned with cork. The cork may be applied in bands or
rolls covered and connected to the ordinary bathing dresses, or in lieu of
cork inflated india-rubber may be employed or any other hollow or light
body may be used.
A person having on one of these apparatus in the water will float on
his back, the face quite out, and free to use his limbs to direct himself,
and in rough water he will sustain less intermittent immersions than
the ablest swimmer. In order to float on the stomach it is merely
necessary to reverse the apparatus, the principal piece will then be on the
loins, and the pelerine or collar under the chin. Should the bather
desire to swim under water the collar is removed or the buoyant part
turned from the side of the principal piece, and being furnished with
nippers for closing the nostrils and a pipe or tube to breath through, the
end of which terminates in a funnel of cork so as to float on the surface
of the water. And finally a person may remain and swim a considerable
time under water by making the principal piece of the apparatus both
a means of buoying up the body and an air reservoir from which the
bather expels and draws in air by means of a double tube, the reservoir
being divided into two compartments by an elastic partition or kind of
diaphragm, but this apparatus is intended only for good swimmers, and
it would be necessary to carry ballast.
The principal use to which this latter contrivance would be applied
would be as a substitute for the diving bell and the scaphandre or false
stomach invented by Mr. Rouquegrol, which is most expensive and at
the same time dangerous.
Having thus described my Invention, and mode of carrying out the
same, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is, the appara-

page_text: tus as herein explained for the purpose of floating and sustaining persons
in the water as a means of preserving life.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Joseph Laurendeau, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
Witness,
E. HÉBRÉ.
CHARLES JOSEPH LAURENDEAU. (L.S.)