CERTAIN INVENTIONS TO PRESERVE VESSELS AND OTHER BODIES FROM THE DANGEROUS EFFECTS OF EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL VIOLENCE ON LAND OR WATER, AND OTHER IMPROVEMENTS CONNECTED WITH THE SAME
Year: 1826

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
NEWMARCH, of Cheltenham, in the County of Gloucester, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-fifth day of February, in the seventh year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said Benjamin Newmarch, my exors,
admiors, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and autho-
rity, that I, the said Benjamin Newmarch, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or
such others as I may 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 INVENTIONS TO PRESERVE VESSELS
AND OTHER BODIES FROM THE DANGEROUS EFFECTS OF EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL
VIOLENCE ON LAND OR WATER, AND OTHER IMPROVEMENTS CONNECTED WITH THE
SAME;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Benjamin Newmarch, 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

page_text: next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Benjamin Newmarch, do hereby declare that my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is herein particularly set forth
and explained, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, together
with the following description thereof (that is to say) :-
My Inventions to preserve vessels and other bodies from the dangerous
effects of external or internal violence on land or water, and other improve-
ments connected with the same, consist, in the first place (that is, as respects
external violence), in the adaptation of elastic shields to be attached to the
sides and to the bows of ships and of smaller vessels, such as are employed
for inland navigation, for the purpose of taking off the effect of any sudden
concussion, as the accidental contact of two vessels, or the striking of one
against the piers of walls of docks, bridges, locks, or the sides of canals,
which clastic shields may also be employed to protect fortified places on land
when battered by shots and balls.
Secondly, as respects internal violence, a method of preventing or retarding
the recoil of cannon on ship boards, or in fortifications. In the Drawing
hereto annexed Fig. 1st shews a horizontal section of the fore part of a
vessel with one method of protecting it from external violence by placing
round the bows or sides of the vessel an elastic shield. a, a, a, is the ordinary
woodwork of the hull at the bows near the level of the deck. b, b, b, are a
number of helical springs supporting the mast or shield c, c, c, made of ash
wood or any other suitable elastic material, but instead of these helical springs
the shield may be supported by pieces or blocks of cork fixed between the
mask or shield and the sides or bows of the vessel, or any other suitable
elastic material may be employed, which may be capable of giving way to
pressure and afterwards return to its original form. Similar shields may also
be placed on the outsides of fortifications and other places likely to he
attacked by gun shots.
My Invention, as respects the preservation of vessels and other bodies from
the dangerous effects of internal violence, applies to gun carriages, and is
designed to prevent the mischief which frequently happens from the recoil of
guns when fired. The invention consists in the adaptation of a spring or
springs connected to the axle of the fore wheels of a gun carriage, which
spring or springs, as the carriage runs back, becomes wound up to considerable
tension, and thereby retarding the rotation of the wheels causes them to

page_text: drag, and the running back of the carriages to be greatly impeded, if not
effectually stopped.
Fig. 2 represents the section of a gun carriage taken vertically.
Fig. 3 is a horizontal view of the same gun carriage, in which two
Figures the Invention is shewn adapted. a, a, are the fore wheels of the
carriage affixed to an axle which turns loosely in bearings or plummer
blocks. Round this axle one or more helical springs are coiled, which
are enclosed by the cylindrical box or barrel b. This part will be
best seen by the detached view of the axle box and spring, Fig. 4.
One end of the cylindrical box is formed by a disc or circular plate c,
which is firmly fixed to the axle d, d. (Into this disc one extremity of the
helical spring is inserted; the cylindrical box 6 and the disc f, forming its
other end, slide loosely upon the axle d, and the other extremity of the
helical spring is inserted into the disc f. On sliding the disc f to the right
the cylindrical box incloses the spring, and it is wound up to tension by
turning round the disc f, the disc c being at the same time confined, but the
construction of a spring barrel of this kind is so well understood as to requiro
no further explanation. The spring barrel being now attached to the axle
of the fore wheels of the carriage, as shown at Fig. 2 and 3, it is made to
operate on the wheels in the following manner :-The peripheries of the
discs c and fare cut into ratchett teeth, and the disc f being held by a pall 9,
attached to the side of the carriage for the purpose of holding the spring
previously coiled up to any required force, the rotation of the wheels, as
the carriage runs back in its recoil after firing, turns the disc c, and winds
up the spring to tension. At the same time the winding up of the spring
partially retards the rotation of the fore wheels, and, as the force of the
spring increases, ultimately stops the carriage, when the pall h, taking hold
of the ratchet c, prevents the carriage from running forward again. The gun
may now be reloaded, aud on raising the pall h so as to liberate the ratchet c,
the force of the coiled spring will impell the carriage into its situation
previous to firing, and ready for the next discharge. I have described one helical
spring coiled round the loose axle of the fore wheels of the gun carriago;
but I do not mean to confine myself to one spring, as, under some circum-
stances, I may find it desirable to employ two or more springs, one coiled within
the other, upon the axle of the fore wheels; and though I have described an helical
spring or springs in that particular situation, I do not mean to confine myself
to that situation, as a spring or springs of other forms may be adapted to other
parts of a gun carriage for the purpose of being wound up to tension by the
running back of the carriage, and thereby retard its recoil, which is the object

page_text: I have in view, and may be performed in several ways beside that above
described, all of which I claim as my Invention, but give the preference to
the contrivance shewn in the Drawing, and which said contrivance, to prevent
the dangerous effects of internal violence, may be adapted to gun carriages
employed either on land or water, and the other improvements connected
with the same are the modes above described of retaining the gun in a situation
convenient for loading, and of afterwards impelling it forward by the force
of the spring into its former place.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Newmarch, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-third day of August, in the year of our
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.