PREVENTING FURTHER CASUALTIES ON THE GOODWIN SANDS
Year: 1857

page_text: by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Chowen at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th February
1857.
I, GEORGE CHOWEN, of No. 7, James St., Covent Garden, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"PREVENTING FURTHER CASUALTIES ON THE GOODWIN SANDS;" to be as
follows:-
It is proposed to encompass the entire area of the Goodwin Sands with
buoys, each buoy to be furnished with a large sonorous bell.
On the channel side of the Goodwin would be placed two parallel lines of
"bell buoys," the first line to be laid down at the distance of two miles from
the sands, the second line the fourth of a mile nearer to the sand bank. The
bell buoys on the channel side of the Goodwin would be placed at intervals of
one hundred yards from each other respectively. On the coast side one line of
bell buoys would suffice; in this instance they would be placed at a distance of
three hundred yards from each other.
The foregoing plan carried out, these fatal sands would be rendered com-
paratively safe, for the following reasons:-
1. In stormy weather, at all hours, the clang of the bells, set in motion by a
tumultuous sea, would most effectually warn the mariner of impending danger
the instant his ship got to the leeside of the bell buoys.
2. During mist or snow storm, when the glimmer of the lighthouse could not

page_text: be perceived, the bell buoys would sound an alarm, in the face of which no
steamer could possibly rush into destruction.
8. In a calm, with a thick fog, the paddle wheels of the steamer would
create a sufficient swell to set the bell buoys ringing on passing the lines, a
warning voice to the mariner.
.
The bell buoys would be constructed in the following manner :-The body
of the buoy would be circular on plan, and egg-shaped in vertical section,
composed of sheets of copper securely rivetted together, and rendered air-
tight and water-tight; the internal space to be divided into air-tight com-
partments by sheets of plate iron; the lowest compartment to be loaded with
lead to serve as ballast. A wrought-iron axle, to be made to pass through
the buoy horizontally at the water level, properly secured to the buoy in order
that the whole may move together; the ends of axle to be extended, and to
work in a semicircular iron casting, which will pass completely under the
buoy, the upper part of casting on each side being furnished with a water-
tight cup to contain grease for the purpose of lubricating the axle at the
working points. A stout chain cable, with swivel, &c. complete, to be
securely fastened to the bottom of casting, the chain being kept in position by
a few tons of granite. A smaller chain to be attached to the upper flange of
casting and to the axis of the buoy, of a sufficient length to allow the appa-
ratus to oscilate freely from side to side, and to prevent it from swaying too
much out of the perpendicular. A wrought-iron framework for the support
of a bell to be fixed over the buoy, to consist of No. 4 standards of T-iron,
each standard being carried down the sides of buoy to the bottom, the top
ends to meet at an elevation of about twenty-four feet above the buoy. The
standards to be stiffened with horizontal T-iron ties, and tied across with
rods from angle to angle, obliquely in every direction. The bell to be hung
stationary to a stout oak stock, fixed to the iron uprights in the stronges
manner, the clapper being hung. loose. An iron plate to be placed over the
bell for the purpose of throwing out the sound, and the apex to be covered
with an iron hood, terminated by a ball. The ironwork to be galvanized, and
the whole of the construction to be painted four coats, in oil..