CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION OF DIVING BELLS OR APPARATUS POR DIVING UNDER WATER
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
STEELE, of Magdalen College, Cambridge, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-eigth day of October, in the sixth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Steele, His especial licence that I, the said Thomas Steele, my exors,
adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Steele, my exors,
adiñors, 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 also in all His Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF DIVING BELLS OR APPARATUS POR DIVING UNDER WATER;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Thomas
Steele, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly 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 His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto bad, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Thomas Steele, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention of improve-
ments in diving bells to consist in combining the advantages of what is termed
a bell of observation with what is termed a working bell, and in so connecting
the same with an air chamber placed above the surface of the water while
the bell is under water as to afford to the persons above greater facility of
communication with those below, and vice versa, than by any means now
used. And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Thomas
Steele, do hereby describe the manner in which I perform my said said In-
vention by the following description thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, (that is to
say):
The Drawing marked A represents a section of my said Invention as far as
regards the combination of the bell of observation with the working bell, and
is what I call "a communicating diving bell." This Drawing represents the
said bell in section; B is a compartment, which is in fact an ordinary working
bell, and for that purpose has no bottom to it, as will be seen by reference to
the Drawing; C is another compartment in the nature of a bell of observa-
tion, and therefore having a bottom to it. This compartment, which I call
"the communicating chamber," has no air communication with the compart-
ment B, except through the air cocks D and E and the manhole F. The air
hole, the hole or tube D, it will be seen, is furnished with two air cocks and
is for the purpose of passing a written communication from C to B when
necessary, as will be hereafter more particularly explained; E has but one air
cock, and is intended merely for the transmission of air, as will also be here.
after more particularly explained; the parts marked G are thick glass windows,
or that are commonly called bulls'-eyes, but I prefer glasses with two plane
sides, because however thick they may be no interruption is opposed by them
to distinct vision through them; F is a man-hole with one of the said windows
in it, and is in fact a large air-tight valve or plug large enough to admit the
may bo
passage of a man from B to C, or back again; H is a hole, to which
fitted an air-tight sleeve, so that a person in C may under certain circumstances
be capable of some limited exertions in the way of labor; K is the ordinary
pipe or tube for the injection of condensed air; L, L, are the ordinary slinging
chains; and it is necessary to observe that the bell is here supposed to be
under water; M, N, are pipes, communicating with the atmospheric air and
for the purposes herein-after explained. Now it is evident that if a diving
bell were formed in manner here represented and lowered to such a given

page_text: depth under water as these machines are usually employed at, the compart-
ment B would be in the state of an ordinary working diving bell, and the
workmen employed in it would be subject to the ordinary inconveniences
attendant on the condensed state of the air contained in it, but a person in
the compartment marked C would be comparatively free from these incon-
veniences by being in a chamber communicating immediately with the
atmosphere, and who would be able not only to direct the work by means of
writing held up to the window between the two compartments, but would also
have an opportunity of conversing with persons above the surface of the
water, by, speaking, through one of the pipes M, N, while the other would
still serve for the admission of atmospheric air. If the person in C found it
necessary to admit condensed air into his compartment for the purpose of
refreshing and purifying the air contained in it, he would turn the cock E and
admit air from B, and if he wished to pass a written paper to the persons in
B, he would put it into the tube D, and shut the cock in his compartment,
while the persons in B would open their copartment and draw it out, and
vice versa, when required; the plug which stops the man-hole must of course
be air-tight, and may be either screwed into the division which separates B
from C, or fitted to it with flanges and washers by screws and nuts, or in fact
by any of the ordinary modes of closing such apertures air-tight with a plug
or valve easily removeable when the hole is required to be opened. The
Drawing marked J represents a head-piece, such as is used when the workmen
leave the bell for any purpose. And in order to render this head-piece
available at greater depths than it has been heretofore, I connect to it the
two pipes O and P with an air cock R, and is open to the chamber B, while
the piece O passes through the partition that divides the chambers B and C,
and is open to the chamber C; this arrangement will allow the workmen
wearing the head-piece to renew the air within it at pleasure. The pipe O
should be furnished with an air stop-cock somewhere near the point where
it passes into the chamber C, so that when the workman returns into the bell
and the head-piece is to be taken off, he may prevent any air communication
between the two chambers through the pipes of the head piece. The
Drawing marked S represents an improvement which I propose to add to
an ordinary working diving bell, and is as follows:-B is an ordinary working
diving bell; K is the ordinary pipe for pumping in condensed air to the bell;
and L is the ordinary slinging chain; now I add to the said bell a pipe T,
which communicates with an air-tight chamber V on the deck of the vessel
or other situation above the surface of the water. In this chamber V a

page_text: person is placed who will of course suffer under nearly the same pressure of
air that those in the bell are subject to, but the advantages to those in the
bell will be that they can communicate with the person in the chamber V by
speaking through the pipe T, who, from his situation, will have ready means
of communicating with those around him; and in order to render this com-
munication more certain, the chamber V has another air-tight chamber W
confected with it, into which the person in V may get through a man-holo
such as before described, and closing the man-hole after him may then open
the second chamber W to the atmosphere; or by having an air stop-cock to
the pipe T, where it enters the chamber V, the second chamber W may be
dispensed with.
Now whereas I do not claim as my Invention any of the gear used to raise
or lower the said bells, nor the mode of forcing air into the same by means
now in ordinary use, but whereas that which I claim as my Invention is,
First, a bell, such as is described in the Drawing marked A, being a com-
bination of the bell of observation and the working bell.
Secondly, the application of the two pipes marked O and P, to the head-
pieće used by workmen, when it is required to leave the bell and work out of
it, as described in the Drawing marked J.
And, thirdly, the addition of the pipe marked T to the ordinary working
bell, and the chamber V and W connected with it and placed above the surface
of the water, as shewn in the Drawing marked S.
And such my said first, second, and third improvements being to the best of
my knowledge and belief entirely new and never before used within that part
of His Majesty's said United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, His said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, nor
in any of His said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, I do hereby
declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe
this my said Specification doth comply and in all respects fully and without
reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent contained, wherefore I hereby claim to inaintain exclusive
right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Steele, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.
(L.S.) THOMAS STEELE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of April,
in the year of our Lord 1826, the aforesaid Thomas Steele 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
5 above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.