A NEW OR IMPROVED DREDGING MACHINE
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Sourd at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd October
1864. A communication from abroad by Charles Gheerbrant, of Paris,
in the Empire of France.
I, JOSEPH SOURD, of 30, Nelson Square, Blackfriar's Road, in the County
of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW
OR IMPROVED DREDGING MACHINE," to be as follows:-
The machine by means of which I intend to cleanse the high and low
flowings and floodings of rivers, canals, and other waters, is specially composed of
thick woodden supporters or pilasters solidly bound together by rafters distant
from each other by a little more than one English yard and one quarter.
These pilasters bear and have in front a flat iron bandage ending in a point, and
intended while sinking into the ground over which the waters flow, to fix up
the machinery, which can be easily done by means of anchors according to
the nature of the ground and the strength of the current. At the extremity
of the pilasters, and forming with them a right angle on the endorsing side,
are other pilasters horizontally fixed, and of similar strength, bound to the
upper part of the vertical pilasters by woodden legs at an inclined angle of
45 deg.
The whole system or machinery is bound together horizontally by iron-
bound cross bars, and vertically so by one only. An upper cross beam varying:

page_text: in length, serves for the removing of or transporting the machine, which can
be worked easily by three men on a space of from five to seven English yards.
(See Letter F.) Rings fixed in the iron bandage serve for fastening the
anchors necessary for holding the machine fast in a large flood or current of
water.
The length of this dredging machine varies according to the different widths
of the streams and currents of water. This length is composed in all cases of
a fixed particle and a moving one; and the latter is formed of filters bound to
the fixed particle by the means of consolidation generally in use..
The machinery according to the case required may be made of wood or
sheet iron, and can be easily fixed up in any rivers, streams, canals, or other
waters.
The sole motive power is the water, which meeting with an obstacle in the
dredging machine, finally finds an issue, after having sought for it in the
space separating the extremity of the dredge from the bottom of the current,
and into which the water rushes with a violence that carries off every particle
of deposit or sediment matter.
The constitutive principle of my Invention, a principle of which I reserve
for my Patent, and all its appliances to every current water, consists therefore
solely in the use of water as a natural and continuous propeller; and without
binding myself to any determined form of construction I shall consider as
mine own all ideas bearing on my principle.
The method of moving or transporting the machine is entrusted; to. thé mien
who have it under their care, and who can do it by raising the dredge by the
high bar or beam, and the change of position is effected most naturally, as
may be understood from the subjoined Drawing and explanations :-
A, beams or strong planks. of wood placed over each other in sufficient
numbers so as to: rise above the level of the water; B, vertical posts bound to
the beams, or strong planks A; C, flat pointed iron spikes intended. for fixing.
the apparatus in the solid ground; D, horizontal posts forming a basis, and
joined to the lower part of the vertical posts B; E, strong inclined legs, at an
angle of 45 deg., binding together the horizontal and vertical posts; F, cross
beam binding the lower part of the vertical posts, and intended for the moving
or transporting the machine; G, cross beams connecting the horizontal posts,
and intended for bearing the supplementary loads or weights, should the
current require the same; H, rings requisite for mooring the anchors to be
employed in case of a strong current; I, supplementary lock gates (vantaux),
varying in number according to the width of the river, canal, stream, or water,
and bound to the fixed up part by hinges, chains, &c.; K, sets of chains of

page_text: the fixed and moveable parts, helping in opposing the inversion of the latter
by the current; M, a concave space reserved in the lower part of the bottom
beam, allowing free passage to the gravel, sands, slime, mud, or matter drifted
by the current.