A MACHINE FOR LIFTING, RAISING, AND CONVEYING BOATS, VESSELLS, AND OTHER THINGS FROM AN UPPER TO A LOWER LEVEL, AND FROM A. LOWER TO AN UPPER LEVEL, ON CANALS OR RIVERS, TO SAVE WATER, AND PREVENT TUNNELLING
Year: 1798

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, PHILIP
CHELL, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, and HENRY.
NICKHOLLS, of the same place, Carpenter, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters:
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Third day of August instant, did give and grant unto us, the said Philip.
Chell and Henry Nickholls, our exors, admors, and assigns, His Royal will,
and pleasure that we should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
during the term of years therein expressed, within that part of Great Britain,
called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,;
our Invention of "A MACHINE FOR LIFTING, RAISING, AND CONVEYING BOATS,
VESSELLS, AND OTHER THINGS FROM AN UPPER TO A LOWER LEVEL, AND FROM A.
LOWER TO AN UPPER LEVEL, ON CANALS OR RIVERS, TO SAVE WATER, AND PREVENT
TUNNELLING;" in which Letters Patent a proviso is contained that if we,.
the said Philip Chell and Henry Nickholls, should not particularly describe.
and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same:
is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month next after the date of the said Letters Patent, then such Letters.
Patent were to be void, as in and by the same, reference being thereto had,
will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Philip Chell and Henry Nickholls, do hereby declare that our said Invention;
is described in manner following, that is to say:-.

page_text: First, brickwork or woodwork, or both, must be erected, similar to a
common lock, and wide enough to admit of a trough or cradle for the purpose
of raising a boat or barge from a lower to an upper level, or lowering the
same from an upper to a lower level, and this said trough or cradle must be
long and wide enough to admit a boat or barge to sail into it, at each end of
which is placed stop gates, to open and shut, to prevent the water from running
in or out, as the case may require, when raising or falling the same from an
upper to a lower or from a lower to an upper level. A stop gate or gates
must be erected within a certain space at the end of the upper canal, and
where the trough or cradle is joined to the upper level must be a water-tight
joint, and drawn together, to prevent the loss of water, by means of screws,
wheels, and pinions, as herein-after described. In the bottom of this trough
or cradle must be valves to admit water through to assist the cradle in
sinking, otherwise it would be inclined to float when let down to the surface
of the lower level. There must also be placed a stop gate at the bottom
end of the lock, to prevent the water rushing in when the cradle is raised to
the upper level. To move this cradle up or down from one level to the
other, there should be racks and pinions, two, three, or four on each side, as
found most convenient, with regulating wheels to give power and seed.
On each side the lock or back of the walling there should be holes or small
brick wells for weights to rise up or down, which weights are suspended by
chains or ropes over large pulleys fixed above the holes. On the side of the
said pulleys there should be fixed smaller ones on the same axletree, and the
said small pulleys should be connected to the cradle by chains or ropes, so, as
the cradle rises the weights descend, and as the cradle descends the weights
rise, so that by hanging the weights to the largest pulley there may be gained
some leverage, consequently the weights need not be so heavy, by which
means much friction is saved; but, to gain more power to counteract that
friction, there should be placed upright pieces of timber on each side the
lock, with other pieces framed upon them, high enough for a boat or barge
to sail under. In this woodwork there should be fixed large pulleys at certain
distances, from two to twelve in number, be the same more or less, and the
pulleys to be of any diameter that are found most convenient, from three
inches to twelve feet. Above the woodwork already mentioned there should
be fixed a frame, nearly the length and breadth of the lock, and this frame
should rest upon the pulleys above mentioned, so as to slide upon them
backwards or forwards. From this frame chains or ropes should be fastened to
the trough or cradle. Supposing the cradle to be at the bottom of the lock,
and the frame drawn forwards, it raises the cradle to the upper level. This is

page_text: done by means of screws being fixed at the head of the lock, and lying in a
horizontal direction. The head end of the screws runs in a collar, and firmly fixed
in framings of timber, and the other end of the screws, which is communicated
to the end of the sliding frame, draws it forwards, and so moves the cradle up
or down. Whatever height the cradle has to rise or fall, the screws must
be the same length; and with respect to the number of them, there may be
used from one to twenty, and they may be worked by tooth and pinion, and
the power of either man or horse may be applied to work them; and to assist
the screws there should be placed drawing weights to the end of the frame,
more or less in number, as may be found convenient. To prevent tunnelling,
or where the falls of canals are very great, and a number of locks must be
placed one after another, in that case there there should be used a single
inclined plane, with brickwork and stopgates, at the upper and lower levels
of the canal, with a cradle or kind of waggon, with wheels fixed under it, for
to move up and down the said inclined plane at the upper and lower level,
as well as at each end of the cradle or waggon, and there should be water-
tight joints to keep in the water whilst a boat or barge goes in or out of the
cradle. At or near the head of the said inclined plane should be sunk one,
two, or more wells, for weights to rise up or down in. At the top of these
wells wheels are fixed for chains to go over. One end of the chain is fastened
to the cradle or waggon, and the weights are suspended at the other over the wells.
The sort of weights that should be used are large chests or casks made large
enough to hold a sufficiency of paving stones or any other ponderous weight.
In these chests or casks should be fixed false bottoms, at what distance may be
found most convenient from the real bottom. In the real bottoms should be
fixed valves, to open and shut. Now, supposing the cradle or waggon to be
at the bottom of the inclined plane, and the weights suspended over the wells
by the aforesaid chains or ropes, and acting nearly as an equilibrium, to make
these weights ascend the easier, to bring up the cradle or waggon, there should
be drawn a few tons of water out of the upper level into these ches or casks,
which being done the weights descend nearly to the bottom of the we and
the cradle or waggon is drawn up to the head of the plane, and the boat or
barge conveyed into the upper canal; and when the cradle or waggon is ready
to descend, then the valves in the bottom of the chests or casks are opened,
and the water let out; the valves may be opened different ways, as shall be
found most convenient. To supply the chests or casks with water, without
taking too much out of the upper canal, there should be made a small side
pond to catch the leakage from the stop gates; and as there will always be
a small quantity of water lost between the stop gates of the upper canal and
༤ སྙན་པས་

page_text: the cradle, this may also be saved. To assist the weights, a level must be
drove, to take off the water from the bottom of the wells, and conveyed (if
necessary) into the lower canal.
In witness whereof, we, the said Philip Chell and Henry Nickholls, have
hereunto subscribed and set our hands and seals, the Twelfth day of 5
August, in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and
ninety-eight.
Stampe, m the presence
W. WHATELEY.
THOMAS LLOYD.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of August;
in the year of our Lord 1798, the aforesaid Henry Nickholls came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specificationi
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in forni
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
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