A MACHINE OR APPARATUS UPON A NEW AND PORTABLE CONSTRUCTION, CAPABLE OF BEING INCLINED IN DIFFERENT DEGREES, ADAPTED TO THE CONVEYANCE OF PERSONS AND GOODS OVER WATER OR RAVINES FOR MILITARY OR OTHER OBJECTS, AND APPLICABLE ALSO TO PURPOSES OF RECREATION AND EXERCISE
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GERARD
GRAULHIE, of Castle Street, Holborn, in the City of London, Gentleman, send
greeting.
of
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom, bearing
date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of April, 1823, in the fourth year of
His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Gerard Graulhie, my exors, adññiors,
and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Gerard Graulhie, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, during the term
years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, an Invention,
partly communicated to me by certain foreigners residing abroad, and part
my own Invention, of "A MACHINE OR APPARATUS UPON A NEW AND PORTABLE
CONSTRUCTION, CAPABLE OF BEING INCLINED IN DIFFERENT DEGREES, ADAPTED TO THE
CONVEYANCE OF PERSONS AND GOODS OVER WATER OR RAVINES FOR MILITARY OR
OTHER OBJECTS, AND APPLICABLE ALSO TO PURPOSES OF RECREATION AND EXERCISE; in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said
Gerard Graulhie, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-

page_text: diately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters
Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall
utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Gerard Graulhie, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the Drawings thereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say) :-
:-
This Invention is composed of the following parts, viz* :—
1st. Frames and posts more or less elevated and placed at a distance from
each other, (see Drawing, Fig. 1, A,) to support the tables with their ropes,
ways, and ballustrades (hereafter mentioned), and to form with them flying
bridges and other machines, portable and flexible, and susceptible of different
undulations and degrees of inclination, with the facility of changing at pleasure
the inclination or declivity from one direction to the opposite direction (Figs.
5, 6, and 7), and to form with the tables an ascending part which is the
shortest, (Fig. 1, B, and Fig. 2, A,) and a descending part which is tho
longest, (Fig. 1, C, and Fig. 2, B,) with a double floor, either at the top or
bottom of the inclined plane, consisting of two tables, one sliding over the
other, to fill up the space produced by slackening the main ropes or chains.
2nd. Wood, metal, or any other tables, (Fig. 2, D, and Fig. 3, A,)
made of any convenient length and width (with one edge of each table made
convex and the other edge concave, so that when the tables are drawn close
they may work together like a joint), attached to cach other by ropes
or chains passing above and below through holes made at each side of the said
tables (Fig. 2, C, and Fig. 8, B). These tables are supported by main chains
or ropes tightened at pleasure by windlasses, (Fig. 1, D,) giving the facility to
change the declivity and to diminish the motion at the commencement of
the circular tables.
3d. Semicircular tables (Fig. 2, E) made of the same materials as the
straight tables before mentioned, and supported by a circular frame (Fig. 1, A)
with posts high enough to receive the hand rails (hereafter mentioned), and
having (in addition to the general declivity) a particular inclination or declivity
in the inside of the semicircles so as to balance the centrifugal force by the
power of gravity by proportioning the inside particular inclination of the
semicircular tables to the general declivity of the whole and to the velocity
acquired in consequence.
4th. A circular projection of iron rod or wire or other material affixed to the

page_text: inside of the posts surrounding the circular frame and hanging over the
extremity of the axletrees outside of the wheels, so as to prevent the possi-
bility of the wheels rising and running over the ways, such circular projections
giving facility to form an endless circus or ellipsis where the cars (hereafter
mentioned) running with great ease and perfect safety may be kept in a
continual or uninterrupted motion.
5th. Ways fixed to the tables on each side to connect together the boards
forming each table, and likewise to direct the wheels of the cars running on
the connected tables, (Fig. 2, F, and Fig. 3, C,) and to prevent any side
motion of the said tables, bareface tenons or rabbets (Fig. 3, D) are formed
at the end of each way, so as to join half of the ways of one table to half of the
ways of the next table, without destroying their flexibility or their backward
or forward motion, and also moveable ways at the bottom of the descent to
turn the cars off the machine when it is necessary for them to stop.
6th. Ballustrades at each side of the connected tables formed of a handrail
of rope running through the tops of the posts, the said handrails connected
with the tables by means of other smaller ropes in the form of network
(Fig. 1, D).
7th. Cars with two axles moving on the bolts which attach the said axles to
the perch, allowing the wheels to accommodate themselves to the parabola of
the circles so as to prevent their friction on the circular ways. The bodies of
the said cars are made to move backwards and forwards on another axletree,
which gives to a hooked lever underneath (Fig. 8, A) the facility to pull down
or bring forward the front of the cars, and place the body of the cars and the
riders in an horizontal position on the ascending part. By the action of the
rope or chain ladder (hereafter mentioned) on the lever in catching the iron
steps of the ladder, and by the reaction of the hooked part of the lever on the
front of the cars and at the commencement of the descent, the body of the
cars and the riders returning backwards by their own gravity are equally in
the descending part in an horizontal position.
8th. An endless rope or chain ladder on the ascending part, with iron rod
steps, (Fig. 2, G, and Fig, 4, A,) turning or revolving, by means of persons
turning the handles of the large wheels, (Fig. 2, H, and Fig. 4, B,) on two
wheels, one small at the bottom and the other large at the top. The large
wheel with cogs or catches (Fig. 4, C) to prevent the ladder from slipping
while drawing up the cars, which is performed by the steps of the ladder
catching hold of the hooked lever (before mentioned) (Fig. 8, A) of iron fixed
underneath the said cars, the lever moving in one direction only, so as to pass
over the iron rod steps of the ladder in going up, and catching them in the

page_text: tendency of the cars to go back. The cars being thus drawn to the top of the
ascending part (or commencement of the descending part), are then impelled
forward by their own gravity.
Finally, it is for the flexibility of the tables, for the circular ends, ways, and
tables, for the susceptibility of the cars assuming an horizontal position in
ascending the machine, and for the mode of bringing up the cars, that this
Patent is obtained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Gerard Graulhie, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Thirteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-three.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of October, in
the year of our Lord 1823, the aforesaid Gerard Graulhie came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-three.