IMPROVE- MENTS IN WAREHOUSING OR STORING LIQUIDS AND OTHER GOODS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Pierre Charles Paul Laurent Préfontaine, of Paris,
Rue de Berlin, No. 12, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN WAREHOUSING OR STORING LIQUIDS AND OTHER GOODS."
Sealed the 4th April. 1865, and dated the 29th December 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Pierre Charles Paul
Laurent Préfontaine at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,. with
his Petition, on the 29th December 1864..
I, PIERRE CHARLES PAUL LAURENT PRÉFONTAINE, of Paris, Rue de Berlin,
No. 12, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WAREHOUSING OR STORING LIQUIDS AND OTHER GOODS," to be
as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to warehouse or store liquids and other goods
by immersing them in water; the Invention is more especially applicable to
storing hydrogenized liquids, either volatile or fixed, such as oils, essences,
spirits, and the like.
The Invention consists in warehousing or storing goods in immersed vessels.
The vessels may be of any convenint shape or shapes, and separated from each
other, or combined as desired. They may be of any size and formed of any
materials according to the goods to be stored therein. They may be immersed
entirely or partially in either fresh or sea water, and made to either float or
sink. They may be filled and emptied by any means now in use, and prefer-
ably by the employment of rarefied or compressed gases.
The Invention

page_text: consists essentially in the immersion of the magazine, and accessorily in the
mode of constructing it.
The principal advantages derivable from my Invention are, the relative
steadiness in temperature of the body by which the magazine is surrounded,
security against fire, and mobility of the magazine, which allows of its being
removed when in danger.
In constructing a magazine composed of say, 100 vessels, arranged in
4 rows of 25 each, I intimately combine or connect the vessels when of cylin-
drical form so as to allow the spaces which separate them to be utilized. The
vessels are protected by belts of timber which serve as ribs to receive wood
planking for insulating the vessels from atmospherical influences and for
facilitating the attendance thereto and the working. The horizontal part of
the planking above the vessels serves as a platform. The whole is covered
with the necessary coatings to preserve the metal and wood, and it may be
placed under a roof or other covering.
When the magazine is employed for storing oils, essences, spirits, and similar
liquids, the vessels should be hermetically closed. For this purpose I close
the neck or entrance to the vessel as follows:-The neck is composed of a cup
with a bottom capable of being detached from the vessel; it is closed by a
cover at its upper part and riveted on its outer periphery to the body of the
vessel. If the bottom be raised the opening may be used as a man-hole,
when, on the contrary, the bottom is fixed in its seat the vessel is hermetically
closed. The bottom carries at its centre a tube which descends nearly to the
bottom of the vessel. The liquids enter and issue into and from the vessel by
this tube. At the side of this tube and at the highest part of the bottom of
the cover there is another tube which, when open, allows escape of the air
which the liquid replaces in the vessel, or which, when put in communication
with a supply of compressed air, gives access to this air into the vessel so as
10 drive out the liquid by the central tube in the bottom of the cover. At
another side of the central tube and at the lowest part of the bottom, I fit a
valve which regulates the pressure of the air in the vessel by being raised by
the action of the compressed air. This valve may be worked by hand either
to regulate the pressure or to return any liquid which may remain in the
cup to the vessel. The central tubes are put either directly or indiretly in
communication with the reservoirs, the contents of which are to be emptied
into the vessels or with the reservoirs to which the contents of the vessels are
to be supplied.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Pierre Charles Paul Laurent Préfontaine in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 16th May 1865..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PIERRE
CHARLES PAUL LAURENT PRÉFONTAINE, of Paris, Rue de Berlin, No. 12, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Pierre Charles Paul Laurent Préfontaine, Her special licence
that I, the said Pierre Charles Paul Laurent Préfontaine, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Pierre Charles
Paul Laurent Préfontaine, 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 WAREHOUSING OR STORING LIQUIDS AND OTHER GOODS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Pierre Charles Paul Laurent
Préfontaine, 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 months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Pierre Charles Paul Laurent Pré-
fontaine, do hereby declare 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 thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
The object of my Invention is to warehouse or store liquids and other goods
by immersing them in water; the Invention is more especially applicable to
storing hydrogenized liquids, either volatile or fixed, such as oils, essences,.
spirits, and the like.
The Invention consists in warehousing or storing goods in immersed vessels.
The vessels may be of any convenient shape or shapes, and separated from
each other or combined as desired. They may be of any size and formed of.

page_text: any materials according to the goods to be stored therein. They may be
immersed entirely or partially in either fresh or sea water and made to either
float or sink. They may be filled and emptied by any means now in use, and
preferably by the employment of rarefied or compressed gases. The Inventions
consists essentially in the immersion of the magazine and accessorily in the
mode of constructing it.
The principal advantages derivable from my Invention are, the relative
steadiness in temperature of the body by which the magazine is surrounded,
security against fire, and mobility of the magazine, which allows of its being
removed when in danger.
The accompanying Drawings represent the manner in which I prefer to
construct my magazine.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal elevation partly in section, and Figure 2 is a plan
also partly in section.
The magazine represented in the Drawings is composed of 100 vessels A,
arranged in four rows of 25 each. The vessels are cylindrical with spheroidal
bottoms (see the sectional parts to the left of Figures 1 and 2). They are
intimately combined so as to allow the spaces B which separate them to be
utilized. The vessels are protected by belts of timber (as seen in the central
parts of Figures 1 and 2), which serve as ribs to receive wood planking D, (see
the parts to the right of Figures 1 and 2), for insulating the vessels from
atmospherical influences and for facilitating the attendance thereto and the
working. The horizontal part of the planking above the vessels serves as a
platform (see the part to the right of Figure 2).
Figure 3 represents three views of the magazine, that to the left being a
transverse section through the middle of four vessels, that in the middle an
end view, and that to the right an end view with the planking D removed.
P, P, are ladders or steps to allow of access to the top of the magazine. The
whole is covered with the necessary coatings to preserve the metal and wood,
and it may be placed under a roof or other covering.
When the magazine is employed for storing oils, essences, spirits, and
similar liquids, the vessels should be hermetically closed. The Figures before
referred to represent in section one form of closing.
{
Figure 4 represents in section the neck or entrance to one of the vessels A,
showing the means I adopt for hermetically closing the same. This Figure s
shows the parts in the position they occupy when the vessel is being filled or
emptied.
Figure 5 is a section of the neck or entrance, showing it hermetically closed.
The neck is composed of a cup E, with a bottom F, capable of being detached

page_text: from the vessel; it is closed by a cover G at its upper part and rivetted on its
outer periphery to the body of the vessel A. If the bottom F be raised the
opening may be used as a man-hole; when, on the contrary, the bottom is
fixed in its seat, the vessel is hermetically closed. The bottom carries at its
centre a tube H, which descends nearly to the bottom of the vessel A; the
liquids enter and issue into and from the vessel by this tube. At the side of
this tube and at the highest part of the bottom F of the cover there is another
tube I, which, when open, allows escape of the air which the liquid replaces
in the vessel A, or which, when put in communication with a supply of com-
pressed air gives access to this air into the vessel so as to drive out the liquid
by the central tube in the bottom of the cover. At another side of the central
tube and at the lowest part of the bottom I fit a valve L, which regulates the
pressure of the air in the vessel A by being raised by the action of the com-
pressed air. This valve may be worked by hand either to regulate the
pressure or to return any liquid which may remain in the cup to the vessel A.
The central tubes II are put either directly or indirectly in communication
with the reservoirs, the contents of which are to be emptied into the vessels A,
or with the reservoirs to which the contents of the vessels A are to be
supplied.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
First, warehousing or storing liquids and other goods in vessels immersed
entirely or partially in water, substantially as herein-before described.
Second, constructing and combining vessels for warehousing or storing
liquids and other goods, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated
in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pierre Charles Paul Laurent Préfontaine,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of April,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
Cir. ARMENGAUD,
Civil Engineer,
P. C. P. L. PREFONTAINE. (L.s.)
No. 28, Bt. de Strasbourg,
à Paris.