IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPLIANCES FOR DETERMINING THE COURSE OR DIRECTION OF BODIES IN AIR AND WATER
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Albert Henry at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th
October 1878.
I, ALBERT HENRY, of Havre, in the Republic of France, Architect,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
METHOD OF AND APPLIANCES FOR DETERMINING THE COURSE OR DIRECTION OF BODIES
IN AIR AND WATER," to be as follows:-
This Invention is based upon the combined application of the effects
of weight and the force of impulse upon a rigid plane submerged in any
fluid.
The Invention chiefly consists in uniting by means of connections of
unequal lengths a rectangular plate to a weight and to a float in such a
manner that in the position of equilibrium the plate will be oblique and
will immediately follow on being left to itself a rectilineal and inclined
trajectory, which can be calculated upon previsiously. In the description
which I proceed to make of my apparatus I will commence by summing
up succinctly the properties possessed by parachutes and floats when in
the air and water.

page_text: Firstly. Supposing a parachute constructed of a rigid plate of
rectangular form and the cords of the parachute connected at a lower
point, so that this point may be at an equal distance from the four
apexes of the rectangle; if this point is sufficiently heavy it will draw
the parachute in a perpendicular direction towards the centre of the
earth, and this theory is as equally true with regard to air as with regard
to water. If now we reverse the apparatus and if instead of a weight we
have a float or a balloon fixed to the point of connection of the cords,
the parachute will take a completely contrary course, that is to say, the
parachute will ascend towards the clouds if it be in the air, or will rise
to the surface if it be submerged in water. This principle being
admitted we may proceed to see the results obtained by giving different
dimensions to the branches of the parachute, and consequently giving
other positions to the plane of the rectangular plate above mentioned.
Secondly. Supposing now that two of the branches are shorter than
the other two. If we put the apparatus in the air or water there will
happen the same fact which takes place when we put a ball upon an
inclined plane, the parachute will move following a certain inclination
and will traverse à longer or shorter distance depending upon this
inclination.
In the case of a float or balloon suspending the plate the same action
is produced, and if two of its sides are shorter than the two otliers the
instrument will rise obliquely describing a trajectory in the direction
opposite to the one just instanced. I have therefore constructed upon
the basis of these two principles an apparatus or rather arrangement of
apparatus provided with a weight and a float. The weight descends
obliquely through the midst of the water and draws with it the plate
and the float which is intended to afterwards cause the ascent of the
apparatus. Arrived at the bottom of the water the weight unhooks by
its own weight or is released from the apparatus by a cord for the
purpose, then the float tends to rise to the surface of the water, but it
only reaches it obliquely and at a certain distance from the point of
departure, a distance which can rendered more or less by making the.
parachute more or less inclined.