RAISING GREAT WEIGHTS, IN PREVENTING SHIPS FROM SINKING, IN RAISING SHIPS WHEN SUNK, IN RENDERING SHIPS WHICH ARE DISPROPORTIONED TO SHALLOW WATERS CAPABLE OF ENTERING RIVERS, OF PASSING BARS OR SHOALS, OR OTHERWISE MOVING IN SHOAL WATER, IN WORKING PUMPS OF GREAT POWER, IN SUPPLYING THE PLACE OF LOCKS ON CANALS, AND IN VARIOUS OTHER OPERATIONS IN WHICH A POWERFUL ENGINE FOR SUSTAINING HEAVY BURDENS OR RAISING GREAT BODIES IN WATER MAY BE NECESSARY
Year: 1803

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
MATCHAM, of Bath, in the County of Somerset, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third' did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of
January, in the forty-third year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
George Matcham, His especial licence that I, the said George Matcham,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might use,
exercise, and vend, within England & Wales and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "RAISING GREAT WEIGHTS, IN PREVENTING SHIPS
FROM SINKING, IN RAISING SHIPS WHEN SUNK, IN RENDERING SHIPS WHICH
ARE DISPROPORTIONED TO SHALLOW WATERS CAPABLE OF ENTERING RIVERS, OF
PASSING BARS OR SHOALS, OR OTHERWISE MOVING IN SHOAL WATER, IN WORKING
PUMPS OF GREAT POWER, IN SUPPLYING THE PLACE OF LOCKS ON CANALS, AND IN
VARIOUS OTHER OPERATIONS IN WHICH A POWERFUL ENGINE FOR SUSTAINING HEAVY
BURDENS OR RAISING GREAT BODIES IN WATER MAY BE NECESSARY;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said George.
Matcham, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance of the said proviso, I, the said
George Matcham, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described
in the manner herein-after mentioned, viz*:-

page_text: The mode I propose of raising great weights (for instance, what I had
primarily in view, a barge from a lower to an upper canal,) is by inflating
a leather balloon, attached by cordage to a wooden case, in which is a weight
preponderating the barge to be drawn up. At the end of the upper canal,
adjoining to the inclined plain or precipice where the barge is to be drawn
up, a reservoir of water is to be formed, the depth of the inclined plane or
precipice, in which is suspended, by inflation, a balloon, with the attached
weights. A rope leads from it over a roller, and is locked to the boat in the
lower canal; the mouth of the neck of the balloon being opened, the water,
pressing round it expels the air, and the balloon sinks in the water; when it
is at the bottom the barge will, by the rope, be drawn up into the upper canal.
When again required to work, the balloon must be inflated through the leather
pipe or neck, which is of the length of the depth of the reservoir. The
inflation is effected by a bellows, worked by a horse or lever. There are
situations in which a small steam engine will be advantageously applied as
an air pump.:
The same application will effect the different purposes specified in the
Patent; but that of floating vessels in shoals by buoyancy I have found has
some time since been communicated to the public by Dr. Fothergill, of Bath.
The ideas suggested in his pamphlet so closely accord with my own, that I
can lay no claim to priority as to the buoyancy of vessels, &c. by inflated bags,
thereby expelling the grosser element of water.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Matcham, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and three