CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OR MEANS OF PREVENTING VESSELS OR SHIPS FOUNDERING OR SINKING AT SEA
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Davis, of Pall Mall, in the County of
Middlesex, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD
OR MEANS OF PREVENTING VESSELS OR SHIPS FOUNDERING OR SINKING AT
SEA."
Sealed the 25th July 1873, and dated the 29th January 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Davis at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th January 1873.
I, CHARLES DAVIS, of Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE METHOD OR MEANS OF PREVENTING VESSELS OR SHIPS FOUNDERING
OR SINKING AT SEA," to be as follows:-
The Invention is designed for the purpose of saving life and property
on board ship by preventing the fatal consequence of those calamitous
accidents at sea in which life and property are sacrificed, and which ariso
through vessels coming into collision with each other, or from other

page_text: causes. And the improvements consist in placing and connecting
throughout the vessel an arrangement of air-tight flexible bags or
compartments, connected or attached to convenient portions of the same
about the interior, and also around the exterior thereof, and which are
separately or collectively connected by means of tubing or other
equivalent with air pumps, fans, or other similar mechanical means of
inflation, which in the event of sudden and imminent danger the bags or
compartments can be readily filled with air, by which means a vossel in
the state of foundering or sinking can at once through the inflation of
such bags or compartments become buoyant, thus rendering the sinking
or foundering of the vessel and its freight impossible.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Davis in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th July 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DAVIS, of Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Charles Davis, Her special licence that
I, the said Charles Davis, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Charles Davis, my executors, admini-
strators, 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 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD
OR MEANS OF PREVENTING VESSELS OR SHIPS FOUNDERING OR SINKING AT SEA,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Davis,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, 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

page_text: 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 Charles Davis, do hereby declaro
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement:-
The Invention has for its object the providing of vessels or ships with
a medium of buoyancy in the event of collision or disaster at sca
independently from those means ordinarily employed, the design of
which is for the saving of life and property on board ship by preventing
the fatal consequences of those calamitous accidents at sea in which life
and property are sacrificed, and which arise through vessels coming into
collision with cach other or from other causes. The improvements
consist in supplying vessels, rafts, or floating bodies carring passengers
and persons or merchandizo with flexible air-tight bags or compart-
ments, which are separately or collectively connected by means of tubing
or other equivalent with air pumps or centrifugal fans, which may be
actuated by manual power, or otherwise, and which in cases of great
emergency can be operated upon readily so as to expand with air such
bags or compartments in a manner that will cause the same to become
inflated to an extent that they will (independently from any other
source) give to a sinking vessel or ship a means of buoyancy sufficient
to float it until succor or assistance can be obtained.
As an example of the application of such improvements I apply to the
cabins and other convenient places within and about the vessel or ship,
and also outside thereof, a number of air-tight bags or compartments
which when in their normal collapsed condition will occupy no material
or effective space that would be necessary for passengers or for the
storage of goods. For instance, inside the vessel, on deck, and about the
cabins such collapsed bags or compartments can be made or arranged to
assume the appearance of ornamental trimmings, linings, and upholstery,
and also as swinging hammocks; and outside the ship or vessel above
water mark or other convenient place the construction of the bags can
be made to assume the form of a line or facing around the vessel. The
whole of this arrangement, both inside and out, can be connected by
pipes or thoroughfares with air pumps, centrifugal fans, or other
equivalents, or may be arranged so as to offer ready connection by such
pipes with the ordinary bilge pump of the vessel which in this caso

page_text: would be so arranged when being worked for the purpose of discharging.
water from thic hold or vessel that they would simultaneously force air
through a separate thoroughfare into the various chambers or thorough-
fares leading to the series of air receiving compartments or bags with
which they communicate. It will thus be evident that by the novel
application and distribution about vessels of the herein-before recited air-
tight bags or compartments, together with their connection by means of
tubing with air pumps, or other equivalent, a vessol or ship in great
stress and immediate danger of foundering can with facility be rendered
sufficiently buoyant to float until succor is obtained.
The pumps supplying air to the air-tight receivers are provided with
double acting valves, so constructed that when in action during thic
continuous strokes of the plunger within the barrel or barrels of the
pump they will simultaneously operate one set as suction valves for
water and the other for air, the outlet or exhaust for cach being so
arranged that with the working of the pumps a continuous discharge of
water from the vessel and a supply of air to the air-tight flexible com-
partments will be effected.
In order that the Invention may be better understood and explained
in detail I have hereunto attached a Sheet of Drawings, in which
Figure 1 represents a longitudinal view of an ordinary steam vessel,
one half being shown in section and the other in clevation; and
Figure 2 represents a transverse section of the vessel.
In these views a, a, represent the various compartments or cabins
between decks of the vessel; each set of compartments is supplied with
flexible air bags b, b, as also is the exterior portion of the vessel b', b', tho
whole of which are connected together by means of inlet valves that
make cach bag when not receiving air for inflation independant and
separate from the other. These bags may be supplied with air in cases
of great emergency from various sources, such as fans or centrifugal
machines conveniently placed about the vessel, or the whole scries of
bags may be connected with the compressed air chamber c, which is
supplied with air up to a given pressure by the air pumps a, d, which
are driven by the "screw "shaft. This chamber c during the sailing of
the vessel between port and port is supplied up to a given pressure with
compressed air, which pressure may be increased at any time desired
when the engines are running by coupling the pumps with the screw
driving shaft by means of a clutch or other equivalent, so that whon

page_text: it is required to inflate the bags in the shortest space of time possible the
top of the outlet pipe e is opened, which at once causes the air to rush
from the chamber d and inflate the bags b.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, together with
the method of carrying the same into practical effect, I would remark
that permanently inflated flexible air-tight compartments have been
known and used as a means for making life boats and other similar
vessels buoyant, but what I claim more particularly to be understood as
my Invention in contradistinction to such permanently inflated com-
partments is, the providing of vessels and floating bodies with air-tight
bags or compartments, together with their connecting apparatus, to be
employed in the manner and for the purpose as herein-before substantially
described, set forth, and fully illustrated in the Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Davis, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Twenty-fifth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-three.
Witness,
BENN DAVIS,
36, Carlton Hill,
St. John's Wood,
N.W.
CHARLES DAVIS. (L.S.)