IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING, LOWERING, AND RELEASING SHIPS' BOATS, AND OTHER HEAVY BODIES."
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Barry Lord, of Plymouth, in the County
of Devon, Veterinary Surgeon, Royal Artillery, and Frederic Hughes
Gilbàrt, of Brixton, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, for the In-
vention of "IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING, LOWERING, AND
RELEASING SHIPS' BOATS, AND OTHER HEAVY BODIES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Barry Lord
and Frederic Hughes Gilbart, at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 17th March 1862.
We, WILLIAM BARRY LORD, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon,
Veterinary Surgeon, Royal Artillery, and FREDERICK HUGHES GILBART, of
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING,
LOWERING, AND RELEASING SHIPS' BOATS, OR OTHER HEAVY BODIES," to be as
follows:-
We here give a description of of our Invention only as applied to a ship's
boat, but would observe that with some modification, the apparatus is useful
for raising; lowering, and releasing other heavy bodies. We pass through
the kelson of a boat amidships or in the centre thereof, and under or
nearly under a thwart, a bolt or pin and secure it. This bolt is attached to

page_text: and forms part of a metal head-piece, or species of block, through which is left
A circular piece or disc bearing a head and ring is fitted into the
head-piece, and works on a spindle, a portion of this disc is cut out to
allow two hooks, each furnished with a notch, to pass into the slot first
mentioned. These hooks are inserted side by side, but coming from opposite
directions (say right and left), and being in position the head of the disc is
pulled down by means of a lanyard attached to the ring, and thus all parts are
firmly secured together. From the eye and shank of each hook, a rope passes
to and through eye bolts, also secured (fore and aft) in the kelson. Two
lugged rings are held suspended nearly over the eye bolts, by means of lashings
passed through their lugs, and secured to the boat sides. The hook ropes
pass through the eye bolts and suspended rings, and serve to secure the boat to
the davits. The boat when required for use, is lowered from the davits (the crew
being in her), at a signal from the officer in command, a lad pulls the lanyard,
causing the disc's head to assume a vertical position bringing all the slots or
openings square with each other, the hooks are thus released, and the weight.
of the boat and crew causes them to pass through the eye bolts and rings, and
the boat drops into the water on an even keel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Barry Lord and Frederic Hughes Gilbart in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th September 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
BARRY LORD, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Veterinary Surgeon,
Royal Artillery, and FREDERIC HUGHES GILBART, of Brixton, in the County of
Surrey, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said William Barry Lord and Frederic Hughes Gilbart, Her special
licence that we, the said William Barry Lord and Frederic Hughes Gilbart,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
William Barry Lord and Frederic Hughes Gilbart, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United

page_text: Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR RAISING,
LOWERING, AND RELEASING SHIPS' BOATS, OR OTHER HEAVY BODIES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said William Barry Lord and
Frederic Hughes Gilbart, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, or one of our, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same
'to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Frederic Hughes Gilbart, for myself
and my co-patentée, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention;
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly de-
scribed and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had
to the illustrative Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, and forming part of
this.our Specification :-
The description of our Invention will be confined to its application to
raising, lowering, and releasing ships' boats, and it will be evident that with
'certain modifications, the apparatus may be used for the same purposes as
regards other heavy bodies.
Our Invention consists in combining certain mechanical parts in such wise
that they form, when so combined, an apparatus facilitating the lowering of a
boat from the ship's davits into the water, its instantaneous release at the will
of the person in charge thereof, and also with modifications as aforesaid, the
same operation in respect to other weighty bodies or substances.
To effect the combination above stated, we pass through the kelson of a
boat amidships, or in the centre thereof, and under or nearly under a thwart,
a bolt or pin, securing the end thereof by a countersunk nut, a washer being
placed between the nut and keel, or by other fastening. The bolt or pin-
aforesaid forms the shank of a metal block or head-piece, through this
block is left a slot; a flat circular piece or disc bearing a head and ring is fitted
into the block and works (on a spindle) within the slot. A portion of the
disc is cut out to permit the introduction of two hooks into the slot, each of
these hooks is furnished with a notch and a hole through which to pass the
bight of the lowering ropes. The hooks are inserted side by side within the
slot, but coming from opposite directions, say right and left. When the hooks
are in position within the slot, the head of the disc is (by means of a lanyard
attached to a ring) pulled down, it thus secures the hooks in position, and the
greater the strain on the lowering ropes, the firmer the connection between the

page_text: disc and the notches of the hooks. From the eye and shank of each hook a rope
(the lowering rope). passes to and through eye bolts, secured in like manner as
the centre pin fore. and aft in the kelson. Perpendicularly (or nearly so) over
these.eye bolts are lugged rings or plates having lugs, these rings or plates are
held suspended over the eye bolts, by means of lashings passed through the
before-mentioned. lugs, and attached to the sides of the boat. The ropes
which pass fore and aft from the shanks of the notched hooks, serve to suspend
the boat from the ship's davits, and by hauling on to or releasing these. ropes
from the belaying pins, the boat is raised or lowered. The apparatus may
be cased in as far as the eye bolts if desired. Either on the davits, or on
the side of the ship, we fit a grooved catch or slide, at the end of the sennett
or rope, which is passed over the boat to prevent its swaying with the motion
of the vessel, we attach. a slide pin, the .head thereof fitting:loosely into the
groove, formed in the.catch or slide, when the boat is..secured: and sliding
down and falling out of such groove .when the boat is. lowered... When it is
desirable to lower the boat for service, the crew pass into her, she is then
lowered from the davits at a signal from the officer in command, a lad.pulls the
lanyard, causing the head of the disc to assume a vertical position. This
movement brings all the slots or openings in the block, disc, and hooks square
with each other, the hooks are thus released, and the weight of boat and
crew causes them to leave the block, pass through the eye bolts and suspended
rings, and the boat meets the water on an even keel. To lift the boat the
hooks are, passed each through one of the suspended rings or plates,. each
through one of the eye bolts passed right and left into the open block, the
lanyard is pulled down, the whole secured, and the boat is hauled to the
davits, (in the ordinary manner) by means of the ropes, attached to the notched
books before mentioned. Or, instead of the notched hooks,, we use a pair of
links, and in such case we operate by means of a short lever instead of a
lanyard, a bolt or pin in a lock-piece fixed as, before directed in the centre of
the boat receives a pair of links, answering the purpose of the notched hooks,.
the bolt being withdrawn by means of the lever from the lock-piece or socket
the links pass through the suspended rings in. the same, manner. This
arrangement is intended to be used for boats of small size or capacity, and
the combination. of parts is, in other respects the same, as, herein-before de
scribed.
In the annexed Drawing, Figure, 1 shews a metal block (or head-piece) a,.
through which a slot a' is. cut, this block is secured to and through the kelson.
of the, boat by pin or bolt all as, described. Within this block works on a
spindle, the disc b, Figure 2, out of which a piece is cut as at 6, this disc has

page_text: a head and ring 61; two hooks c, d, Figures 3 and 4, are furnished with
notches and d, to allow them to pass into the slot a³, and these hooks pass
into said slot side by side, but coming from right to left, as appears at Figure 5.
The disc b being within the block a and the hooks c, d, also in position, the
the ring is pulled down by the lanyard attached to it to the position shewn
by the dotted head at Figure 1 and all parts of the appuratus are firmly
secured: From the shank of each hook a rope passes through eye bolts e,
(Figure 6,) in the kelson and through guide rings to. the davits. When
the boat is secured to the davits, sennetts. or securing ropes are passed
over her; at the ends of the sennett is attached a slide pin, (Figure 7,)
and on to the side of the ship is fixed a grooved catch or slide, (Figure 8,) the
head of the pin g is passed into the lower end of the groove of the slide at h,
and when the sennett or rope i is hauled taut, the boat at the davits is
secured from swaying when the sennett or rope is loosened, the pin drops
from the groove, and the boat may be lowered in the usual manner; one or
more catches may be used.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and means by
which we carry it into practical effect, we would have it distinctly under-
stood that we do not confine ourselves to the precise details herein given
or shewn, as they may and must be varied to suit the circumstances of
particular cases, but what we claim as of our Invention, is, the combination
of mechanical parts forming when so combined, improved means or apparatus
for raising, lowering, and releasing ships' boats, or other heavy bodies, the
whole essentially as herein-before described and shewn.
4
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederic Hughes Gilbart have hereunto
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
FRED. H. GILBART. (L.S.)