IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS FOR DISPERSION OF SAND, MUD, AND SOFT GROUND, AND IN PROBES OR SEARCHERS FOR USE IN SAND, MUD, AND SOFT GROUND
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Boyd, of the Firm of Herbert and
Company, of 67, Strand, in the City of Westminster, Patent Agents,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS
FOR DISPERSION OF SAND, MUD, AND SOFT GROUND, AND IN PROBES OR
SEARCHERS FOR USE IN SAND, MUD, AND SOFT GROUND."-A communi-
cation from abroad by Willem Hendrik ter Meulen, of Bodegraven,
Holland.
Sealed the 28th July 1871, and dated the 1st February 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Boyd at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st February 1871.
I, ROBERT BOYD, of the Firm of Herbert and Company, of 67, Strand,
in the City of Westminster, Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF AND APPARATUS
FOR DISPERSION OF SAND, MUD, AND SOFT GROUND, AND IN PROBES OR SEARCHERS
FOR USE IN SAND, MUD, AND SOFT GROUND," a communication to me from

page_text: abroad by Willem Hendrik ter Meulen, of Bodegraven, in Holland, to
be as follows
The Invention comprises the softening, loosening, disturbing, and
dispersing the sand, mud, or soft ground, herein-after called sand, into
which it is desired to penetrate by effluent water forced or supplied and
directed thro' and by apparatus into the sand which it is intended
thereby to reduce or assist in reducing to a pasty or quaggy or com-
paratively soft or loose condition, and into which, when the quantity so
treated permits, helmet divers may be lowered to pursue their duties
in search of wrecks, or executing work or otherwise, or into which
ordinary or other hooks, tongs, nets, deep-sea leads, guaging rods, lifting
apparatus, or tools for various purposes are intended to be introduced,
or into and thro' which, whether the quantity so treated be large or
small, probes or searchers may be passed for feeling for or ascertaining
the existence of harder substances beyond the sand.
Also the Invention comprises, for the above purposes, water-fed borers,
drills, probes, searchers, or apparatus consisting of gratings, pipes, and
supply hose to same, thro' which the acting effluent water has to pass,
and by means of which it is to be directed to the surfaces of the sand to,
against, or upon which it is desired to operate, and specially includes an
electric probe, searcher, or detector for metallic objects, consisting of a
metal tube with a metal ring fastened therein, and covered round by
gutta percha or other suitable insulating material. In this tube is another
ring separated from the first by a spiral spring, and with the probe or
searcher attached to it, so that when the probe strikes on a piece of
metal the spring gives way and the two metal rings meet, and thus
the electric circuit is made complete (by means of wires connected to
each of the two rings), and an alarm bell struck or other alarm given.
In performing the Invention any approved pump or water engine
may be employed. The tubes of the improved sand borer or drill are
intended to be of a circular, square, or other approved form supplied
with water by one or more lines of hose supported by chains from the
side of a vessel, and is intended, if necessary, to be weighted or pressed
upon to force them down. And a branch hose and jet from same can
be used by a diver to enlarge a hole or space in the sand which the
apparatus has produced, and into which it has been lowered, and in
which the diver is working.

page_text: The improved sand probe or searcher is intended to be formed of a
metal tube with or without a wooden rod or handle, and sometimes a
suspending chain at the top, and of a hose communicating with the
tube and supplying the effluent water, a wire attached, held somewhat
tightly by the observer, serving to warn him when any hard substance is
reached.
The improved electric sand probe, searcher, or metal detector is an
appliance screwed on to the lower end of the above described improved
searcher, and furnished with an insulated extremity so sliding or moving
or striking or pressing against hard objects as to complete an electric
circuit, which is incomplete when the pressure is removed, the necessary
proper communication by wire with a galvanic battery being established
for the purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Boyd in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st August 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
BOYD, of the Firm of Herbert & Company, of 67, Strand, in the City of
Westminster, Patent Agents, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Robert Boyd, Her special licence that
I, the said Robert Boyd, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Robert Boyd, 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 THE MODE OF AND
APPARATUS FOR DISPERSION OF SAND, MUD, AND SOFT GROUND, AND IN PROBES
OR SEARCHERS FOR USE IN SAND, MUD, AND SOFT GROUND," a communication
to me from abroad by Willem Hendrik ter Meulen, of Bodegraven,

page_text: Holland, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert
Boyd, 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 Robert Boyd, do hereby declare
the nature of the 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 firstly comprises and consists in the softening, loosen-
ing, disturbing, and dispersing the sand, mud, or soft ground, herein-
after called sand, into which it is desired to penetrate by effluent water
forced or supplied, and directed through and by apparatus into the
sand which it is intended thereby to reduce or assist in reducing to
a pasty or quaggy or comparatively soft or loose condition, and into
which when the quantity so treated permits helmet divers may be
lowered to pursue their duties in search of wrecks or executing work
or otherwise, or into which ordinary or other hooks, tongs, nets, deep-sea
leads, gauging rods, lifting apparatus, or tools may for various purposes
be introduced, or into and through which, whether the quantity so
treated be large or small, probes or searchers may be passed for feeling
for or ascertaining the existence of harder substances beyond the sand.
Secondly. The Invention comprises for the above purposes and
consists of water fed borers, drills, probes, searchers, or apparatus of
gratings, pipes, and supply hose to the same through which the acting
effluent water has to pass, and by means of which it is to be directed
to the surfaces of the sand to, against, or upon which it is desired to
operate.
And thirdly. The Invention comprises and consists of an electric
probe, searcher, or detector for metallic objects so contrived that on
striking or coming into contact with the object an alarm or other
electric signal may be given.
In performing the Invention any improved pump or water engine
may be employed. The tubular ring of the improved sand borer or
drill is intended to be of a circular, square, or other approved form; to

page_text: be supplied with water by one or more lines of hose to be supported
by chains from the side of a vessel, and (if necessary) to be weighted
or pressed upon to force them down. And a branch hose and jet for
same can be used by a diver to enlarge a hole or space in the sand
which the apparatus has produced and into which it has been lowered
and in which the diver is working.
The improved sand probe or searcher is intended to be formed of a
metal tube with or without a wooden rod or handle and sometimes a
suspending chain at the top and of a hose communicating with the
tube and supplying the effluent water; a wire attached, held somewhat
lightly by the observer, serving to warn him when any hard substance
is reached.
The improved electric sand probe, searcher, or metal detector is an
appliance screwed on to the lower end of the above described improved
searcher and furnished with an insulated extremity so sliding or moving
in striking or pressing against a hard object as to complete an electric
circuit, which is incomplete when the pressure is removed, the necessary
proper communication by wires with a galvanic battery being established
for the purpose.
The accompanying two Sheets of Drawings and following description
of them and remarks will further illustrate the manner in which the
Invention is to be and may be performed.
In Drawing No. 1 Fig. 1 is a sketch illustrating the improved mode
of sand dispersion and the use of the improved apparatus, also a helmet
diver occupied with same in enlarging the hole or space already formed
or partially formed by directing a jet of water against the surfaces
to be removed supplied by a hose from or through the sand boring
apparatus, but which may be supplied by a separate pump, the effect
of both being to soften the sand or ground by converting it into a slough
or pasty like mass in which the various operations of divers may be
carried on with or without excavating and other tools.
Fig. 2 is an elevation or perspective sketch. Fig. 3 a section, and
Fig. 4 an inverted plan of the improved water fed sand borer or sand
drill drawn to a scale of about one-tenth of the full size. It consists
principally in a ring or grating partly tubular which has approximately
the form of a wheel with four spokes and felloe wedge shaped on the
under side. The water is ejected vertically downwards by a split and

page_text: horizontally at the two flanks by a ridge of little holes on either side.
The hollow wedge shaped portion a of the grating is made (say) of
copper, the small screen or baffle plate with holes therein being
placed in the interior of the arms or spokes (of a) to ensure a more
equable distribution of the ejected stream through the several openings.
The upper portion or frame c of the grating is of the same size and
form (on plan) as the lower, and is made of wrought iron solid or in
skeleton lined or loaded with lead, a chair or seat is shewn (in Fig. 2,)
as affixed thereto for the use of the diver. The grating is suspended
in a horizontal position by one or more chains or cables, by which it
is lowered down slowly from a boat or vessel, and when it meets the
sandy or muddy bottom and water is forced through the openings a
local softness is effected, and the apparatus sinks therein, and the sand
or mud boils or is caused by the current to rise as represented in Fig. 1,
and into the hole so created the diver can enter and assist in the
enlargement and pursue his calling.
A section on a larger scale of the wedge shaped tubular part a is
shewn at Fig. 5, but instead of this the form shewn at Fig. 6 may be
substituted. d and e in Figures 1, 2, 3, are the feed or supply pipe
and hose through which the apparatus receives the water which is to
be forced or pumped into it with pressure or force sufficient to make
it spurt out forcibly from the several openings.
Figs. 7 and 8 are an elevation and plan, two views of a modification
substituting two feed pipes d, d, for one, as in the former Figures;
Figs. 9 and 10 indicate other forms of grating which may be employed.
These may be varied at pleasure, and two separate hoses may be
employed for directly feeding one grating, but may, if desired, be united
at a distance higher up. When it is desired to employ a grating of large
size it may be divided in two or more parts with as many feed pipes and
hoses so arranged that they do not receive water all at the same time, a
but that regularly one part after the other may receive during some
moments all the water that can be forced in, whereby a greater effect is
attained in consequence of the greater quantity and force of the issuing
stream. And here I wish it to be noted that the forcing the water at
short intervals and in succession to several gratings or drills from one
engine or pump may be advantageously employed, cach grating or drill
in its turn receiving for some moments the whole force of the water by

page_text: regulation of the requisite valves or taps, which are to be furnished for
turning on and shutting off and directing the flow.
In Drawing No. 2 Fig. 11 shews on a scale of about one-tenth the
actual size a very simple form of the improved water fed probe,
searcher, or detector. fis a metal tube or pipe connected to a hose g,
by which water is forced into the tube; this apparatus is intended for
sounding at a shallow depth, for instance at (say) 20 feet. The tube ƒ
is connected to a stick or rod h of sufficient length to serve as a handle.
This simple apparatus will be found extremely suitable in searching after
hard substances or objects. When the depth is too great for managing
the probe as thus constructed the tube not to be connected to a stick,
but to a chain or cable, or to the hose itself, hanging vertically there-
from, as shewn at Fig. 12. The tube must be weighted sufficiently
(without thickening it too much, say, by coating it with lead) to sink
into the sand or mud). With this apparatus also hard objects may be
detected by lowering the probe by means of a rope or metal wire bound
to the tube, the observer feeling immediately the least touching of the
probe against the object.
Also the improved probe can be formed on the same principle as tho
improved sand drill, that is to say, as a little grating, and so constructed
will be found suitable for shallow and for very great depths.
Fig. 13 is a vertical section (partly exterior view) of such a probe;
and Fig. 14, a horizontal section on the line A, B, in Fig. 13.
k is a hollow cylindrical tool or extremity supported by a hollow cross
arm k from the hollow central feed pipe k³, which last is loaded with a
leaden covering 1; and is a weight on the top of k, both to make the
apparatus sink into the slough or soft ground created by the jets of water
spurted out at the several little openings represented in the Figures.
The dotted lines C, D, shew a modification which may be adopted in the
form of the upper part of the cylindrical tool. In searching for hard
objects whereon the probe rests a feeler or antenna may be used con-
sisting of an iron bar or rod hanging by a rope in the position shewn by
the dotted lines E, F, in Figs. 13, 14, and guided by the ring m (Fig. 13),
and which is to be occasionally drawn up a little and allowed to fall.
Here I would desire it noted that tongs, scissors, hooks, sweeping nets,
and tools of various kinds may be used in connection with the improved

page_text: probes or searchers to detect the nature of the object felt or struck by
the probe, that is to say, to distinguish whether it consists of metal (say
gold) I connect to one of the above-described probes the improved
electric metal detectors.
The feature of this detector consists in the disposing of two conducting
metallic wires with two suitable touchers or feeling pieces so arranged
that as soon as they touch the metal the electric fluid flows and an
electric alarm bell strikes or other signal is given.
Two instruments of the kind are herein described. The first, which
is suitable for use with the two firstly described improved probes, is
represented (full size) in vertical section and sectional plan at the
Figs. 15, 16, respectively. q is a metal tube connected to the lower
extremity of the tube or pipe f, as shewn in the Figures, and also by
dotted lines in Figure 11. Centrally within the tube is placed a pin s,
which is forced a little beyond the tube by a spiral spring, so that when
the instrument meets with some hard object the pin recedes so far as to
allow the tube to come in contact with the same object, and when that
is of metal there will be an electric contact established, as follows:-
Two metallic wires x and i serve as conductors, and all the parts are
varnished with an insulating varnish except the two extremities of the
tube and the pin 8, which must be blank or may be gilt. The second
electric metal detector, and which is suitable for use with the third of
the three improved probes herein-before described, is represented (half
size) at the Figures 17 to 21.
Fig. 17 is an exterior view or elevation; Figs. 18, 19, vertical sections
at the top and bottom ends respectively; Fig. 20, a cross section at the
middle of the length; and Fig. 21, a cross section or end view of the
lower end. This apparatus is intended to be placed in the position
denoted by the dotted lines E, F, in Figs. 13, 14, and used instead of
the iron rod, antenna, or feeler described in connection with that Figure.
t is an iron or brass rod or bar coated with insulating varnish or material
except at the point or extremity of lower end, and u is a metallic spiral
spring surrounding the said lower end and projecting beyond it. When
this strikes an object it yields so far as to allow the blank point of the
rod t also to come in contact with the object. These two metallic pieces,
the rod, and the spiral ring, are each connected with a metallic wire,
both wires being disposed in the rope whereby the apparatus hangs and

page_text: is managed. And the two wires conduct the electric stream to an
alarm bell or galvanometer. All metallic contact between the spiral
spring or its wire x with the rod or its wire y is to be avoided by
properly insulating the parts, but the extremities of the rod and spring
are to be left blank or may be gilt.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be and may be performed, I claim as of
the said Invention, the several improvements firstly, secondly, and thirdly
herein-above set forth and as herein described, and including all such
reasonable modifications and variations in detail as do not depart from
the feature and essence of the Invention as above set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Boyd, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.