IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR SUPPORTING THE HUMAN BODY WHEN IMMERSED IN WATER, FOR THE PURPOSE OF PREVENTING DROWNING
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
GREVILLE PIGOT, late of Old Cavendish Street, in the County of Middlesex,
but now residing at Hammersmith, in the same County, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the sixth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors; give and grant unto me, the said Richárd
Greville Pigot, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Richard Greville Pigot, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said Richard Greville Pigot, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, my Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
SUPPORTING THE HUMAN BODY WHEN IMMERSED IN WATER, FOR THE PURPOSE OF
PREVENTING DROWNING;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Richard Greville Pigot, by an Instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particulary to describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six

page_text: calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in order that my Invention may be the more readily
understood, I will, in the first, place point out what I consider objectionable in
the various kinds and forms of apparatus and methods which have heretofore
been used for supporting the human body in the water for the purpose of
preventing drowning, and then proceed to explain the improved method and
apparatus which constitutes my Invention:-
First, the means hitherto employed to render the human body specifically
lighter, whereby to prevent drowning, have failed in obtaining popularity and
general use, from a faulty form, and an inefficient, as well as inconvenient mode
of appliance for constant wear, arising from an imperfect consideration of the
structure of the human frame, as relates to the real facilities which it offers
for the adaptation thereto of a convenient auxliary floating power, consistent
with the dress and daily habits of society, which defective forms, and modes of
appliance, are incompatible with the said dress, general habits, and prejudices
of the public, and inconsistent with the comfort and more assured safety of its
members as articles of inostensible and continual wear; the unwieldly form,
structure, and weight of the old cork jackets; and the still greater objections
attached to the leather "marine air collar" of the last century, having long
consigned them to disuse. Since the application of caoutchouc to the purpose
of life-preserving apparatus, they have been superseded by the some time known
caoutchouc swimming belts, whose form, bulk, mode of appliance to the body,
and unsightliness, militating still against the disposition of the public to adopt
them as an appendage of constant wear on shipboard or when exposed to
danger by water, received, among other objections, still greater prejudice from
their liability to slip or shift upon the body when worn naked while bathing,
thereby, as in cases recently detailed, causing the death of the parties wearing
them as a safeguard. The so-called life-preserving hat and cap, subsequently
suggested, though forming more properly an integral part of the every day
apparel, afforded also too uncertain and too slender a reliance in the hour of
danger; too distant by their position from that part of the human frame where
the aid should alone be applied to be really efficient, viz, the chest and region
of the lungs; requiring also that the wearer should have the presence of mind
to grasp them with his hands and apply them beneath his chin, whereby he is
denied the use of his hands for progression. From such objections, failing in
their object of efficient utility, as from equal defects of form, convenience, and

page_text: method of appliance for universal use, have other recent suggestions and inven-
tions, particularly those having their action above the shoulders.
Having thus briefly pointed out what I consider to be objections to the
apparatus hitherto in use, I will proceed to describe my Invention, which is an
improved method of supporting the human body in the water upon all
occasions, and which has for its object to give the greatest amount of auxiliary
buoyancy to the human frame in the smallest space consistent with efficiency,
with the least possible inconvenience to the wearer, adapted in form and
method of appliance to that part of the human frame alone whose stucture
and inherent principle of buoyancy requires that correct consideration, to be
efficiently assisted, which has hitherto been so much overlooked, and at the
same time to be available and applicable to all classes, and to both sexes,
of continual wearability, if required by the vocations and pursuits, yet permit-
ting of such convenient concealment as shall render it.imperceptible to the eye.
of the common observer as an undetectable and accepted part and parcel
of the daily wearing apparel, and, for reasons to be detailed, capable of being
combined with a mode of preserving the body from the fatal effects of chill
and cold.
Fig. 1 represents the form and external appearance of my Invention as a
life-preserving shirt front, or chemisette, to be worn over the shirt, and assum-
ing the appearance of the front of that garment, containing within it an
apparatus constructed with air-proof cells, of capacity proportioned to the
weight and size of the wearer, communicating with each other, and simul-
taneously inflatable by means of the valve A, and enclosed between any two
waterproof fabrics. When put on, by passing the head through the aperture
B, the front of the apparatus, which with its cover forms the false shirt front,
or chemisette, assumes its place exactly over and-upon the cavity of the chest
and lungs, forming as it were an additional or artificial lung, whose lateral air
cells, extending in a narrow band over either shoulder, expand into the shoulder
flaps C, C, which fall upon the scrapulars, upon which they are confined
together by the ties D, D, and fastened down upon the back region of the
lungs by the two loops e, e, suspended from their outer angles, through which
loops pass the strings. or bands f. f, affixed to the front of the apparatus, which
are then tied in front, whereby the whole is immoveably and safely fixed upon
the chest and back without the possibility of slipping, the whole shielding, by
its position and form the chest and collar bones from external injuries from
concussion, being worn either inflated without inconvenience or unsightly
appearance, or inflated only previous to incurring risk by means of the air

page_text: valve depending on the left side of the breast close to the mouth. When worn
alone as a bathing companion its may be taken out of its covering, as repre-
sented, Fig. 1*, and worn either with the shoulder flaps fastened down on the
back in the way described, or by merely tying the front bands round the waist,
when the shoulder flaps rise and form an agreeable support and pillow for the
head when floating on the back, relieving greatly the fatigue felt on long
immersion in the vertebræ of the neck. Upon the occasion of bathing, with
the apparatus as described, additional convenience is moreover felt by the use
of the martingale F, a band three inches broad of flannel or other fabric, affixed
at will by buttons to the bottom of the front, which is passed between the
legs and fastened either to the buttons at the bottom of the inner angle of each
flap, when worn down, or to a loop at its extremity, through which the latter
are passed when the flaps are worn up, the addition of which martingale
enables the buoyancy of the apparatus to diffuse its action, and lift equally the
lower and more gravid part of the body, as also to steady the buoyant power
on the chest.
Figure 1* shews the apparatus when divested of the shirt front, or chemi-
sette covering; it consists of two thicknesses of a waterproof fabric containing air-
proof cells, the internal structure of which cells is represented by dotted lines.
The dotted lines A, A, are the partitions, which form and at the same time
separate the cells from each other; they are cut of a depth proportionate to the
depth and capacity required to be given to the cells, and upon inflation permit
of their distention to the depth or width only of those partitions. When the
apparatus is emptied of the air, these partitions, distended on inflation, relapse
and fold upon themselves longitudinally, when the apparatus becomes flat, as
before inflation. The spaces or openings B, B, at the extremities of the
partitions are left, in order to permit a continuous passage of communi-
cation for the access of the air from cell to cell when injected through the
air valve at the side for the insertion of the pipe, of which a space is left open
in the side (at c) of the cell, to which it is affixed. The extremities of each
air cell, and the external side or edges of the lateral cells, are bound for
greater strength with a narrow band of the same material as the air cells
enclosing their edges, and rendering the whole structure of the cells more
air-tight. When the cells are thus put together, the whole is placed upon
one of the above-mentioned thicknesses of the waterproof fabric which
projects on all sides beyond the cells to which it may be united by a thin
solution of caoutchouc spread upon its internal face (should the latter be
dry from being long made); the cells so placed are then covered in by a

page_text: similar thickness of the waterproof fabric of equal dimensions with the one
underneath, prepared in a like manner, when the projecting edges which
protrude beyond the cells on all sides are united together by pressure, enclosing
the latter within them and forming the apparatus described, the pipe of the air
screw being inserted in its place, and the borders of the two waterproof fabrics
carefully closed round it. As from long immersion in the water, at inclement
seasons, even the strongest and most proficient swimmers become chilled, and
the physical powers of endurance so much paralysed and perished, that though
supported even by such an agent as my apparatus above detailed, few but the
hardy and inured could endure the effects of a protracted immersion and
survive, even when rescued, it is of the utmost importance as a provision for
the worst that mariners and voyagers by sea should as much as possible (in
northern latitudes) clothe themselves warmly, whereby they will be enabled to
resist much longer the chill incident to long immersion, which is more particu-
larly felt about the kidneys and region of the loins, in which sensitive part the
blood soonest loses its chaloric, and entails that palsy so fatal to the physical
powers; to retain the full use of which, and to keep up the warmth in the
lower limbs and trunk, I further combine my apparatus in such a manner that
it forms both a buoyant power and a protective against the chill of the water.
Figure 2 shews the shirt front, or chemisette, thus combined in one, with my
waterproof hose, for supporting the body, and at the same time resisting the
evil effects of long immersion; the chemisette passing over the head in the usual
manner upon the hose being pulled up to their place on the chest, and forming
therewith a life-preserving garment of increased value, from its combination of
an agent of buoyancy with an agent of warmth; the lower garment or hose,
composing at once a foot and leg covering, ascending in the form of a
continuous hose and pantaloon without opening, embracing the chest, under
the breast, by a waistband of broad elastic rubber web, to which the
chemisette is adjoined, which, on immersion, prevents all access of water
between it and the body, without inconvenient ligature. This garment I make
of an inner casing of flannel, which, at the same time that it keeps up the
equal warmth of the limbs and lumber region, acts as an absorbent of transpi-
ration. The external covering of this hose I make of cloth, or other woollen
fabric, whose internal surface I cover with a light coating of waterproof
composition. Supported by my apparatus, as attached to this appendage, the
wearer will with more certainty resist the effects of the cold where it is most
sensibly felt, and thereby ensure efficient support with a greater power
of endurance, which would be of peculiar advantage to mariners, fishermen,

page_text: and travellers by sea, as well as to all persons on boating, usming, or
fowling excursions.
.
Fig. 3 shews the same form as Fig. 1, with the addition of an inflatable
cravat or stock communicating therewith; although this appendage is by no
means necessary, as I hold that all aid above the shoulders is less immediately
required with this form, the lungs before and behind being efficiently assisted.'
Figs. 4 and 5 shew the front and back views of the foregoing Figure.
Figures 6, 6, 6, shew the different positions and use of the shoulder flaps of
'the shirt front or chemisette when in the water.
Figs. 7 shew a modification of the same apparatus without the shoulder
flaps, or with decreased length thereof, as adapted to a mariner's woollen
comforter in winter, or to rowing chemisettes, &c.
Fig. 8 shews the appartus as adapted to a civilian's cravat, or stock and tie;
applicable alike as a bathing or skating companion.
Fig. 9 shews a slightly modified inversion of Fig. 1, as applied by me to
upper male garments, such as mariners' jackets, waiscoats, coats, Guernsey
frocks, &c., into which articles of clothing it is admitted between the linings,
which form pockets to receive the back and fronts of the apparatus, and which
are then buttoned into their respective places by buttons at the upper elges
of the pockets, concealing thereby the apparatus totally from sight; applicable
also to bathing, and a safe appliance to the naked body.
Fig. 10 shews a modification of the same form as I apply it to a female's
garment in the form of a pelerine, as at Figure 10*, covered according to the
taste of the wearer, from the sight, and adapted also to bathing, to be worn
over the bathing dress without its cover as a safeguard.
Fig. 11 shews the form as adapted to children and lads up to twelve years
of age for bathing.
Fig. 12 shews the same form as Fig. 1, as I apply it for the use of light
troops and boarding parties in war time, of material and structure to be here-
after detailed, which being then worn for an ostensible and public purpose
requires not to be concealed from the eye by any covering, having the appear-
ance of a part of the usual dress. This form of my apparatus, as I adapt it
to the use of light troops and boarding parties in war time, I construct of cork,
which I previously preserve and prepare by immersion in a waterproof com-
position in thin solution, or of any other hydraulic varnish, to preserve that
material from its liability to decay, from access of insect, and from frequent
contact with water, in which it otherwise soon looses one-fifteenth of its
buoyancy, which buoyancy is, in the ratio of its quality, one pound of the

page_text: common cork, being three and a half times less buoyant than the same
weight of the finer material. The breast or front A, I make of one plate of
cork, averaging in weight from one to two and a half pounds, hollowed out on
each side on the upper part, to permit of the unimpeded play of the large
pectoral muscles when swimming, working, or fighting; the under side next
the breast I make 'concave, the external side slightly convex. The shoulder
flaps B, B, 1 form of two oblong square plates of the same material, slightly
concave, to sit easily on the scapulars, of the average weight each of from half
to one pound. These plates of cork I enclose in their respective places within
a waterproof or glazed linen, canvass, or flannel, of the same form as my
apparatus Fig. 1, with ties and bands or straps and buckles. This form of
life-preserver, so well adapted to the use of soldiers in the field, or mariners,
has the two-fold advantage of being light, most convenient to wear, and easy
of carriage, occupying only a space of twelve inches in length by eleven broad,
and less than five to six and a half, inches deep, when folded breast to back,
capable of being carried strapped on to the havresack of light troops, and
offering by its texture, when worn by boarding parties, efficient resistance to
the stroke of a cutlass or thrust of a boarding pike, as well as to part spent
inusket or pistol shot.. Furnished with this apparatus, light troops and
advanced parties may be thrown across rivers, and other waters, for the purpose
of reconnoitering, &c. without the usual loss of time in waiting for the arrival
of the pontoons, or the construction of bridges. On board ships of war, always
provided with a certain number of these convenient life-preservers as part of
their war stores, not only an efficient means of saving life on numerous
individual occasions would be afforded, but all boarding parties, assuming them
as part of their equipment, would derive still greater confidence, from the
knowledge of their safety from drowning in case of being thrust overboard,
when they could readily recover their own or the enemy's deck. The import-
ance of this service to be derived from the use of so portable an appendage
will be more readily conceived, when we consider that upon such occasions so
many valuable lives of officers and men are lost to the State, whom the fire
and sword of the enemy have not attained, and who perish miserably and often
unheeded in the ocean.
Fig. 13 represents an improved air screw which I use, having an additional
mouth-piece A and tube affixed to the old form, by which means the air can
be turned off without taking the valve from the lips, which is a great advantage
over the same.
Ilaving so far described the nature of my Invention, I would wish it to be

page_text: understood that I do not confine myself to the exact outline or forms of my
apparatus shewn in my Drawings, as the shape may be varied, so long as the
peculiar character of my Invention be retained in its mode of appliance to
the human frame; the peculiarity of my Invention consisting in having the
apparatus so formed that the parts of the body. described be especially assisted
and covered, yet permitting at the same time of the freest use of the arms
for swimming or working in the water, and interfering in no way with the full
action of the large pectoral muscles; such being the best means I am
acquainted with of giving that sure, constant, and convenient aid of buoyancy
and power to the human body, which is so necessary for progression in the
water, and for the more certain preservation of life from drowning, the presence
and appearance of which apparatus when worn being at the same time
effectually concealed from the eye of the common observer by its respective
external coverings, after the manner exhibited in my Drawings.
I would have it further understood that I do not either confine myself to the
material or structure of my apparatus, which may be of any waterproof fabric,
with air cells either communicating with each other and inflating simultaneously,
(which form of structure for general purposes I deem the most economical
where air is the floating agent,) or distinct and separate air cells, or of cork
the pith of elder, and other vegetable productions, whose power of buoyancy,
I first make permanent by preventing their inherent tendency to gradual
absorption, which otherwise eventually destroys their efficiency by decreasing
their floatability; and particularly as regards the cork, of which I make the
interior of my apparatus, Fig. 12, as adapted to light troops, &c. Moreover,
I do not confine myself to the particular form of air screw or pneumatic valve
by which I inflate my apparatus, which may be either with the common air
screw already known, by any other pneumatic apparatus, or by the improved
air screw, as described.
I would, moreover, remark that I do not claim the prior use of caoutchouc,
or of air or air cells communicating with each other, or of cork as used here-
tofore; but, I claim the mode and form of the apparatus, and method of
applying the same to the parts of the human frame, above detailed, for the
purpose of supporting the human body in the water; and, as in my Fig. 2, of
preserving simultaneously the same from the effects of cold. I claim the
mode and form by which I cover and conceal my apparatus from the eye as
applied to my Invention, after the manner shewn in my Drawings. And,
I further claim the use of independent and unconnected air cells, as also
of the pith of elder and other vegetable productions prepared as above detailed

page_text: and of the employment of cork preserved and prepared, after the manner
above detailed, from decay and absorption, when such materials and structure
are employed for the purpose to which I apply them in the form and according
to the method shewn in my Specification.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Greville Pigot, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fifth day of
› October, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Richard Greville Pigot,
came before our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year above written.