IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR TEACHING THE ART OF SWIMMING."
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Lambert Cowell, of Adelphi, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS FOR TEACHING THE ART OF SWIMMING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Lambert Cowell at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th March 1858.
I, LAMBERT COWELL, of Adelphi, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR TEACHING THE ART OF SWIMMING," to be as
follows:-
My said Invention relates to certain mechanical aids for teaching the cor
rect attitudes and motions of the limbs in swimming on the back or sides, and
in floatation on the surface of the water.
I provide a short couch of sufficient size to repose the body and capable of
adjustment to any required inclination, and having the two side frames made
capable of being drawn out at the head when desired to the extent of the
hands when thrown back, as in the act of floatation.
The bottom end of the couch or body rest has at the bottom end suitable
leg rests secured there with cup and ball joints and jointed at the knees to
take the proper motions of the legs in teaching to swim or float on the back,
which may be effected by an assistant or by the feet rests being confined to
the required circuit by a grooved or other rail the operator drawing them
forward, and springs causing them to return also by a connection of plain and

page_text: cog wheel work, levers, bands, and the like. The top and end of the couch
body may be centred to turn to either side on pivots when required for the
motions of side swimming, and machines so intended may also have jointed
arm rests at the two ton corners to direct the correct movements of the arms.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said Lambert Cowell
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th October 1858!
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LAMBERT
COWELL, of Adelphi, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One. thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Lambert Cowell, Her special licence that I, the said Lambert Cowell,
my executors, administrators,. and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Lambert Cowell, my executors, administrators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR TEACHING THE ART OF SWIMMING," upon the
condition. (amongst others) that I, the said Lambert Cowell, 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 in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
inonths next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Lambert Cowell, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
'
My said Invention relates to certain mechanical aids for teaching the correct
attitudes and motions of the limbs in, swimming, whether on the back, the
sides, or otherwise, and also in floatation on the surface of the water.
And for the better understanding of my said Invention, I will now proceed
to detail the particulars thereof.

page_text: I provide a short couch of sufficient size to repose the body upon, and
constructed so as to be capable of adjustment to any desired inclination, and
having two side frames, both made to draw or slide out at the head to the
extent of the hands while thrown back, as in the act of floatation, whenever so
required. The bottom end of the couch or body rest has suitable leg rests,
attached thereto, with cup and ball joints or other suitable joints, being like-
wise jointed at the knees to take the proper motions of the legs in teaching to
swim or float on the back, which operation may be effected by the aid of an
assistant, or by the feet rests being confined in their motion to the required
circuit by a grooved or other rail, the operator drawing the feet rests backward
and forward, or by means of springs causing them to return; also by a con-
nection of cog wheel work, levers, bands, and like known means. The top and
lower end of the couch body may be centred to turn to either side on pivots
when desired for the motions of side swimming; and machines to be thus
applied may, in addition, have jointed arm rests at the two top corners to
direct the correct movements of the arms. In machines for swimming
on the back, the kicking-out action may conveniently be obtained by
having a pair of band chains with an attachment to each for the feet,
the bands passing round two setts of suitably sized and situated drum wheels
turning on a horizontal prolongation of the body, couch, or support, one pair
of the drum wheels having projections taking into the chains of the chain
bands, and the driving power may be so arranged as to drive both equally;
and be carried to any convenient part by a chain band, cog wheels, or other
customary mechanism.
In another arrangement of my machines the body of the pupil reclines on
a cushioned support, which can be fixed at any inclination or height in
respect to two nearly horizontal cam, rings, whose shape is the horizontal
course of the hands in swimming; near the centre of each cam ring rises an
axis carrying across its top end a square or other suitably shaped tube,
through which slides a bar having at one of its ends pullies, which make it
keep the outline prescribed by the cam ring on the axis, turning the bar by
sliding through the tube, accommodating itself to the varying radius of the
The supports of the cam rings carry the ends of an axis furnished
with a winch handle, or one at each end, and has a pinion which drives a
toothed wheel, fixed to the side whereof is an irregular ring or cam of such
shape as to move a lever on a pin on the base or stand, which lever is con-
nected with the cam at about the level of its centre by means. either of studs
or pullies. The upper or free end has adjustable along it a cross shackle or
attachment having at each of its ends connecting rods communicating the
cam.

page_text: motion of the cam through the lever to the leg supports; these consist of,
first, a pair of bars turning on pins fixed under the cushion stand, and
having their ends towards the feet divided or forked so as not to obstruct
the thigh in drawing up. Descending from the forked ends of these bars
are two rods whose length is variable, carrying a rest for the leg, and
supplied with a shoe or foot holder; the part of the forked bar furthest
from the feet is formed into a lever, from which descends a link con-
necting it with the leg support, so as to form a parallel motion; this bar
further produced to reach, by means of suitable connexions, two pins,
descending from the under side of two wheels next to be described. To
the winch handle driving axis, carrying the pinion which drives the wheel
and cam for the leg motion, is attached by bevil wheels of equal numbers, one
on the driving shaft and one on a vertical shaft, having on its upper end a
pinion, driving, by suitable carrying wheels, two toothed wheels, fixed on the
axes of the vertical shafts which carry the square or other tubes before named.
These toothed wheels must have the same proportional numbers of teeth or
cogs to the vertical pinion that the pinion driving the leg cam has to its wheel,
so that the hands and feet may act in unison. The lower face of the toothed
wheels which guide the hands have adjustable pins to guide or retain the leg
levers when kicking out.
Having thus described the best means I am acquainted with for construct-
ing my said machines or apparatus, I would here observe that as the same
may be considerably modified in respect to the details thereof, without
deviating from the principle of my said improvements, I do not, therefore,
restrict myself to materials, dimensions, or the precise number or form of the
several parts, so long as the peculiar operations of the same are substantially
maintained, in any modification thereof. And I do declare that what I claim
as my Invention is, the construction of machines or apparatus for teaching
correctly the peculiar movements of the limbs requisite in the practice of
swimming, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Lambert Cowell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of September, in the year of our
Lord 1858
L. COWELL. (L.S.)