IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DOCKS, BASINS, RAILWAYS, AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH, FOR RAISING OR REMOVING VESSELS OR SHIPS OUT OF THE WATER OR ONTO DRY LAND FOR THE PURPOSE OF PRESERVING OR REPAIRING THE SAME
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, 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 Seventeenth day of May, in the fifteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Edward Newton, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Edward Newton, my exors, admors, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said William Edward Newton, my exors,
admors, 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 mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plan-
tations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and
Man, an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DOCKS, BASINS,
RAILWAYS, AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH, FOR RAISING OR REMOVING
VESSELS OR SHIPS OUT OF THE WATER OR ONTO DRY LAND FOR THE PURPOSE OF
PRESERVING OR REPAIRING THE SAME," being a communication from abroad; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William
Edward Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, parti-
cularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be

page_text: inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will. more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Edward Newton, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is parti-
cularly described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention of Improvements in the Construction of Docks, Basins, Rail-
ways, and Apparatus connected therewith, for Raising or Removing Vessels or
Ships out of the Water or onto Dry Land, is described by my Foreign Corre-
spondent as consisting principally in forming a floating dock of a series of
separate sections which may be connected together in any desired number to suit
the size or length of the ship or vessel to be raised, and which sections can be
disconnected at pleasure. Each of these sections or compartments consists
mainly of a water-tight hollow vessel or tank, which may be made of any
suitable material, but in the Drawings hereunto annexed they are represented
as constructed of wood. They must be made water-tight so that they may be
made to float when required, and they must be provided with valves or other
suitable contrivances whereby water may be admitted into the interior and
pumped out therefrom when required. At each end of each of these separate
sections of which the dock is composed there is a strong wooden or other
framing in which is fitted another hollow vessel arranged in such a manner
that it may move vertically up and down in this frame. These end hollow
vessels or floats are for the purpose of steadying the dock while rising.
Fig. 1, Sheet I., in the Drawings represents a front elevation of one of the
sections or compartments complete, with the shores and cradle thereon, to
support a ship or vessel, and also the end floating vessels to maintain the dock
in a steady and proper position while the ship or other vessel is being raised.
Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same. In both these Figures part of the planking
is cut away in order that the internal construction and the arrangement of the
timbers may be more clearly seen. Fig. 3 is an elevation of one of the trusses
inside the floating section or tank.
.
Fig. 1, Sheet II., is an elevation of one of the frames at the end of the
floating section or tank, a part of the hollow vessel which composes the same
being shewn in section as taken in the line E, F, of Figures 1 and 2, Sheet I.
Fig. 2, Sheet II., is an elevation of the back of this frame, as seen at H, K,

page_text: in Sheet I. Fig. 4, Sheet II., is an end elevation of the tank or hollow vessel
of which one of the sections or compartments is composed; Fig. 6 is a cross
section of the same taken on the line A, B, of Fig. 2, Sheet I.; and Fig. 8 is '
a similar view taken in the line C, D, of Fig. 1, Sheet I.; Figures 7, 9, and
12 are detached views of some of the same parts.
Fig. 1, Sheet III., is a plan view of the basin into which the vessel when
raised out of the water is to be floated on the floating dock previous to being
drawn onto the railway; Fig. 2 in the same Sheet is a longitudinal section of
the same, and Fig. 3 a transverse section. B, B, are the side walls of the
basin; C, the bottom or foundation, which is made level and built upon piles;
D, D, are two lines of rails which come up to the edge of the basin, and
onto which the cradle which supports the ship or other vessel is drawn off
from the sections or compartments of the floating dock, which may then be
used for raising another ship.
Fig. 1, Sheet IV., is a plan of the sliding frame on which the ship rests,
and whereby it may be drawn off the dock; Fig. 2 is an elevation of the
pumps whereby the floating vessels, tanks, or compartments are emptied of
water; and Figures 3 and 4 are front and side elevations of the gearing
whereby the end floating vessels are worked in the end frames before
mentioned.
The several Figures in Sheet V. represent the general plan of gearing for
the pumps and floating vessels at the end of the sections or tanks.
The Figure in Sheet VI. represents in perspective the several parts combined,
and a steam ship in the act of being drawn off the sections of the floating dock.
onto the railway, the vessel having been previously raised out of the water by
means of the sectional floating dock, as will be presently more fully described.
The floating dock in this intance is represented as consisting of nine sectional
floating vessels or tanks connected together, but it will be evident that a lesser
or greater number may be combined together according to circumstances..
All the sections or tanks are constructed alike, as represented at Figures 1, 2,
and 3 of Sheet I., where a is a frame composed of four (more or less) truss
frames b, b, b, b, constructed and put together as represented at Fig. 3, Sheet I.,
and also in the detached Figures in Sheet II. The truss frames are connected
together by cross timbers above, below, and at the ends, and the whole is then
planked over to be as nearly water-tight as practicable. On the deck is fixed
a block or blocks, as at c, about the middle of the length, so as to form a
support for the ship or other vessel, or rather for the cradle or sliding frame
on which the vessel rests, and on each side and running lengthwise of the
section are rails d, d, to which are fitted slides for the adjustable stays e, e, to

page_text: support the vessel.
At each end of the section or tank is formed a frame-
work f, which extends up to a considerable height above the deck, and to the
inside of each of these frames is fitted a floating vessel g, which slides vertically
in the said frames. These end floating vessels or floats are also made water-
tight, and each is provided with vertical racks h, h, seen also in Figures 3
and 4, Sheet IV. In these racks work pinions i, i, which are mounted on a
horizontal shaft j, which by a suitable gearing receives motion from a driving
shaft above for the purpose of drawing up the racks h, h, and by this means
elevating the said end floats or floating vessels when the entire dock is made
to sink preparatory to receiving a ship or vessel thereon. By actuating the
gearing in the opposite direction, the end floats or floating vessels may also
be gradually depressed or lowered into the water when the docking, with the
ship or vessel thereon, is being raised. The object of these end floats is
to bear on the surface of the water, and being hollow and empty to keep the
dock steady and prevent it from careening on one side, as it will be obvious
that before the floating dock can careen over all the end floats on one side of
the dock must be forced into the water and the corresponding ones on the
other side lifted out of the water, which from their size would require an
enormous pressure and power. The sections or compartments a, a, are pro-
vided with pumps k, k, at each end, and the rods of these pumps extend up to
the upper part of the end frames f, f, where they are provided with cross
heads 1, 1, see Fig. 2, Sheet IV. These cross heads work in appropriate ways,.
and are by means of the rods m, m, connected with a crank shaft n, which
receives motion by a belt from the main driving shaft o, Sheet V. All the
shafts of the different sections on each side of the dock are connected
together by universal turning and sliding joints, as shewn in the several views
in Sheet V., so as to constitute one continuous line of shafting on each side of
the dock. This line of shafting may be driven by a steam engine or some other
motive power placed on some one of the sections of the dock. The universal
and sliding joints forming the connections of the shafting between the different
sections admit of the requisite play or lateral movement between the several
sections, and at the same time admit of readily connecting and disconnecting
the several sections so to adapt the capacity of the dock to the size of the
vessel to be raised. The different sections must be provided with the requisite
means of connecting and disconnecting them, and when connected to keep
them as nearly as possible in the same line longitudinally. By the various
means above described all the sections can be regulated to rise and sink
simultaneously and to the same extent, and thus avoid straining the vessel
whilst at the same time they admit of being adapted to a vessel which ha

page_text: been hogged or otherwise bent.
When a vessel is to be raised, the required
number of sections or compartments are connected together, and water is let
nto them by means of valves or some other equivalent contrivances adapted
to the bottom of the tanks. When all the sections of the dock have sunk to
sufficient depth to admit of the vessel being floated onto them, the ship or
vessel must be brought above the floating dock, and the shores must be pro-
perly placed so as to support the ship or vessel when lifted out of the water;
the pumps k, k, are then set to work to pump out the water from the sections
or tanks which form the dock. By this means the buoyancy of the sections
of the dock is increased until the entire dock will rise to the required height
with the ship or other vessel thereon, at the same time the end floating vessels
must be gradually depressed so as to keep the dock steady, and to some extent
assist the buoyancy of the sections in lifting the ship or other vessel.
The basin A, into which the floating dock and ship or vessel thereon is
brought, is shewn in Figures 1, 2, and 3, Sheet III., and is forined with
walls B on three sides, and with or without a gate or gates on the fourth or
other side. The bottom C of this basin is constructed on piers, and at such
depth that when the dock above described rests on it the upper deck of the
dock shall be on the same level with the system of railways D, D, before
mentioned. The cradle or sliding carriage (shewn in plan at Fig. 1, Sheet
IV.) is fitted to run on the deck of the sections of the floating dock with
truck rollers interposed, and is provided with appropriate shores for
supporting the vessel. When the dock is submerged by admitting water
into the several sections, the ship or other vessel is floated into the cradle,
Fig. 1, Sheet IV., and is there properly supported, and after the dock has
been raised to the required height by rendering the several sections buoyant
by pumping out the water, it is floated into the basin, and its front end
brought to coincide with one of the sets of rails, as shewn in the perspective
view, Sheet VI., and also at Fig. 1, Sheet III. The floating dock with the
cradle thereon is then properly secured, so as to keep the cradle opposite to
or coincident with the ends of the rails, then by admitting water into the
different sections of the dock, the whole is let down until it rests on the
bottom of the basin. The cradle or sliding frame is then connected with the
requisite moving power, and is drawn with the vessel thereon off of the sec-
tions of the dock on to the railway; for this purpose I prefer to use an
hydraulic engine, but any other suitable motor may be substituted. When
I employ an hydraulic engine it is placed on ways provided with turntables
such as those shewn at Fig. 3, Sheet II., so that it can be shifted from one set
of rails to another. In this way it will be seen that the same floating dock

page_text: can be employed in succession to raise a great number of vessels, either for
repairs or preservation, as immediately the cradle, with the ship or other
vessel thereon, is drawn off the several sections of the dock, the latter may be
again employed in a similar manner to raise other vessels.
The machinery or gearing on the several sections of which the floating dock
is composed is, as before mentioned, connected together, so that the end
floating vessels, and the pumps for pumping the water out of the sections of the
dock, may all be made to work simultaneously; the end floating vessels will,
therefore, be uniformly depressed or raised, and the pumps worked at an equal
speed, as all the gearing will be actuated by the same motive power.
Having now described the Invention that has been communicated to me by
my Foreign Correspondent as aforesaid, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do
not mean or intend to claim as new raising ships or vessels by means of hollow
floats, which, after being filled with water, are sunk and connected to the ship,
and then emptied of water and filled with air, for increasing their buoyancy;
but that which I consider to be new in the above described improvements, and
therefore wish to claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before
in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
The constructing of floating docks of a series of air-tight and water-tight
sections or compartments, which may be combined together in various num-
bers, according to the size of the ship or other vessel to be docked, then
submerged by the admission of water into them, in order that the ship or other
vessel may be floated over the same; after which the sections of the dock may
be exhausted of water, so as to impart to the combined structure the requisite
buoyancy for raising the ship or vessel out of the water, and floating, with the
ship or other vessel thus raised, into a basin, from which the ship and cradle
which supports the same may be drawn off the dock onto a railway.
I claim also the mode of combining and arranging the different parts, for the
purpose of simultaneously exhausting or pumping out the water from the
several sections.
.
I also claim the method above described of constructing basins, railways,
and apparatus connected therewith, for the purpose of facilitating the removal
of the ship or other vessel from the floating dock on to the fixed ways
on which the ship or vessel may remain for the purpose of examination
or repair.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
W. E.
(L.S.) NEWTON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1852, the aforesaid William Edward Newton came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and speci-
fied, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Seventeenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.