CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS RELATIVE TO CANALS
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
WOODHOUSE, of the Parish of Broomsgrove, in the County of Worcester,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent.under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixth day of April, in
the fiftieth year of His reign, grant unto me, my exors, admors, and assigns,
His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
John Woodhouse, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, should and lawfully might,
during the term of years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Inven-
tion of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS RELATIVE TO CANALS;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said John Woodhouse,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully, and at large appear.
•
NOW KNOW. YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said -
John Woodhouse, do hereby declare that my said improvements relative to

page_text: canals are described in the manner following, and comprised under the
following heads:―
First, an improved method of conveying boats, barges, or other vessels from
one level of canal to another without the use of locks.
Secondly, an improved crane, whereby the manual labour is much decreased
and much time gained, which will facilitate the loading and reloading of goods
in or out of the boats upon canals.
First, my improved method of conveying boats, barges, or other vessels from
one level of canal to another without the use of locks, is described as follows:
-The upper and lower levels of the canal are to be brought to within such a
distance of each other as shall be somewhat more than the length of a boat,
barge, or other vessel intended to be conveyed; the space between the two
levels to be inclosed with two walls lengthwise; the base of one of these walls
to form a towing path, and the other wall, which I call the lever wall, to be
strong enough to carry the apparatus; this space to be wide enough to receive
the conductor, herein-after described, and to contain the towing path before
mentioned. On the other side of the lever wall are to be formed by cross walls
a number of recesses, which cross walls are to be joined into this lever wall,
and all those walls, with two end walls, to be carried up a proper height above
the top level to fix the machinery, and a roof to protect the apparatus, if thought
necessary; upon leaving a sufficient opening in each of the end walls for the
boat, barge, or other vessel to swim in or out at, and to have doors to enclose
these openings, in case of the machine being wanted to work in the night, these
doors being shut, and the space lighted with lamps, the boats, barges, or other
vessels may be conducted from one level to another by night as well as by day;
and in case of frost, from a flue being constructed along underneath the towing
path in the space before mentioned, and returned again on the wall above, at a
small expense the whole of the building and machinery will be kept warm and fit
for work whenever the canal can be kept open. In the space before described
I suspend a water-tight vessel made of wood or iron, which I call a conductor,
capacious enough to swim the boat, barge, or other vessel in. This conductor
must be furnished with a stop gate or paddle at each end, and the ends of the
upper and lower level of canal must also have stop gates or paddles. The con-
ductor must be suspended by a competent number of chains or ropes, by means
of strong pieces of wood or iron fastened to the sides or bottom of conductor,
and connected by pieces of timber or iron across at the top ends, high enough
for boats, barges, or other vessels to swim under, and one end of each chain or
rope to be fastened to one of the cross pieces of timber or iron, and the other

page_text: end of each chain or rope must be fastened to a weight after passing over a wheel
or drum, which wheels or drums must be so large that the middle of the chain
or rope may extend from the centre of the space where the conductor is to
work to the centre of the recesses where the weights are to work. Two of the
before-mentioned chains or ropes may be divided into two parts, and each part
be fastened to the wheel or drum in such a manner as to leave a sufficient
quantity to unlap, according to the depth of the lift, which determines how
much those chains or ropes must exceed the others in length. The chains or
ropes being thus fastened to the wheels or drums, will prevent the possibility
of the conductor and weights moving without causing an equal motion in each
of the two wheels or drums; these two wheels must be placed one at each end
of the conductor, or at an equal distance from the ends, and being connected
by means of toothed wheels and pinions, so as to move with equal velocity.
The conductor must preserve its horizontal position as it rises and falls. These
chains or ropes must be of sufficient strength to bear the conductor filled with
water, and the weights must be altogether the same weight as the conductor
when filled with water to a given height. Example: If the conductor,
filled with water, to a given height, to be sixty-four tons, and there be
eight wheels, there must be eight weights of eight tons each. This machine
may either be constructed with a greater or less number of wheels, or any
number of those wheels may be connected together, either by horizontal
shafts, with pinions working into wheels fixed on the same axis as the wheels
are, or any other well-known mechanical contrivance, or by the chains crossing
as is described herein-after; or if the walls be made strong enough on each side
of the space for the conductor to carry the apparatus, and the number of
recesses formed behind each wall, a double set of wheels, chains, and weights
may be applied, or two drums or two sets of wheels may be fixed
on two hori-
zontal shafts, which may be made of several lengths and connected together
and fixed upon the walls on each side of the space for the conductor to be some-
what more apart than the width of the conductor, and the outsides of these
wheels or drums to be nearly over the centre of the recesses that the weights
are to work in, so as to allow for the coiling of the ropes or chains should it be
found necessary for the ropes or chains to wrap more than once round the
wheels or drums. All the ropes or chains that have one end fastened to the con-
ductor, the other end must be fastened to the wheels or drums over them, and
the ropes or chains that are fastened to the weights must pass over the wheels
or drums over them, and go across to the under side of the wheels or drums
that are opposite to them, and there be fastened; or a part of the ropes or chains

page_text: imight be fastened as before mentioned, and the rest of them, after being
fastened to the side of the conductor, might pass directly over the wheels or
drums, and the other.end fastened to the weight; or a part of these wheels
may be connected together by horizontal shafts, with pinions working into
segments or wheels fixed on the same axis to regulate the motion of the con-
ductor. The ends of each level of canal must be covered with leatlier or söme
other elastic body, which elastic body must extend and cover a movable frame
of timber,. which presents a face level with the sides and bottom of the canal ends,
and behind which frame are three springs, one to cach side, and one to the bottom;
and the ends of the conductor, being faced with brass or made smooth by any other
method, and formed a little bevel, presses the elastic body hard between the end
of the conductor and the moveable frame of wood, which causes the springs to
nct, and makes the joint water-tight between the end of the conductor and the
end of the canal; while the boat, barge, or other vessel passes in or out of the
conductor. In order to preserve the conductor and balance weights in equilibrio
when any alteration takes place in either of the levels of the canal, the ends
of the levels are provided with a frame capable of being raised and lowered to
accommodate itself to such alteration, so that the surface of the water in the
conductor may always be brought level with the surface of the water in the
canal; to this frame the moveable face frame, above described, must be jointed,
and the paddle must work in it. It is likewise necessary to have a mortise made
through the paddles of the conductor just above the water level, for a piece of
iron or wood to slide through and come in contact (when the boat strikes; with
a strong piece of timber fixed in the end walls to receive it. A piece of inch
board about four feet -long and six inches wide is placed before and fastened
to the piece which slides thro' the paddle, and kept at about two inches from
the paddle by. a block at each end, which board is provided with a pad or
elastic body for the boat to strike against. By these means the paddles are
preserved from injury by the striking of the boat. In any of the above-
described methods, the equilibrium may be preserved by a number of chains and
weights being fixed to the under side of the conductor and balance weights.
To pass a boat, barge, or other vessel or vessels from one level of canal to
another, for example, from the lower to the upper level of canals, open the gate
or paddle in the conductor and the gate or paddle in the lower level of canal,
and swim the boat, barge, or other vessel into the conductor, which will dis-
place a quantity of water from the conductor, equal in weight to the weight
of the vessel and cargo, so that the conductor with its contents is exactly of
the same weight, whether the boat, or barge, or other vessel is in it or not. When

page_text: the vessel is in the conductor, and the gates or paddles shut, the apparatus is to
be set in motion by pinions and wheels acting upon two or more of the main
wheels or shafts that the chains or ropes pass over, or by any other mechanical
contrivance, and the conductor with the water being of the same weight as the
weight suspended on the other end of the chains will ascend, and the weights
descend. When it arrives at the upper level, a small quantity of water is let
in betwixt the paddles or gates of the conductor and canal, by which they open,
draw up, or let down at case, and the vessel swims out of the conductor into
the upper level of canal, since the equilibrio is not destroyed by the vessel
entering the conductor. It may be expedient to give the conductor more
weight when descending to produce motion in the apparatus with more ease, which
may be effected by stopping the conductor a little before the surface of the water
in it arrives at the level of the surface of the water in the canal; and when the
conductor is to ascend, to give it less weight, which may be effected by stopping it
a little before the surface of the water in the conductor is level with the surface
of the water in the lower level of canal. Where a canal is to communicate with
a river, considerable difficulty will arise from the rising and falling of the water
in the river; in this case the conductor must be made with a fast end in it;
next the river, so that when it is let down low enough, the barge is to swini
over the end into the conductor; and instead of dead weights, to have vessels
made of a weight equal to the conductor, when sunk into the water, to receive
the boat; these vessels must be of such a size as when filled with water to be
equal to the weight of the conductor filled with water to a given height; for
example, suppose the boat to be lowered from the canal into the river, the end
of the conductor being in contact with the end of the canal, the balance
vessels being filled with water, the paddles are to be raised to allow the boat to
swim into the conductor, the paddles being shut, the mechanical power applied
as before mentioned, and the conductor is lowered; when it touches the water
a valve is to be opened in each vessel, and as the water runs out of the vessel,
the conductor will sink into the river, until it is low enough for the boat to
swim over the end of the conductor into the river, and the vessels, when refilled,
will raise it out of the river; the space in which the conductor moves must be
made deep enough to receive it when lowered for the boat to swim out of it.
Secondly, my improved crane is described as follows:-Instead of manual
or other labour, assisted by mechanical power, as generally used, I suspend a
vessel capable of containing water, and when empty, light enough to permit the
scale or platform, on which the goods are to be placed to be raised, to pre-
ponderate. When goods are to be raised, the vessel must be filled with a

page_text: quantity of water sufficient to preponderate over the goods, and discharged
when the goods are raised. When the goods are to be lowered, the vessel
must be filled with water equal in weight to somewhat less than the weight of
the goods, 'so that the goods may preponderate. This machine may be regu-
lated by means of a break or any other method.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Woodhouse, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Second day of June, One thousand eight hundred
FREESE, Extra.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Second day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1810, the aforesaid John Woodhouse came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing thercin contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according
to the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand