IxPROVEMENTS IN BREAK- WATERS AND STRUCTURES FOR COAST PROTECTION
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to, Robert Saunders, of Croydon, in the County of
Surrey, Gentleman, for the Invention of “IxPROVEMENTS IN BREAK-
WATERS AND STRUCTURES FOR COAST PROTECTION."
Sealed the 16th December 1870, and dated the 25th June 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Saunders at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 25th June 1870.
I, ROBERT SAUNDERS, of Croydon, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN BREAKWATERS AND STRUCTURES FOR COAST PROTECTION," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the formation of harbours, the
protection of roadsteads, exposed piers and landing places, and for
protecting any exposed coast. line, and generally for breaking the force of
a running sea, embodying improvements on a former Invention, for
.

page_text: which Letters Patent were granted to me on the 28th day of August
1868, Numbered 2671.
Breakwaters constructed according to these improvements consist of
screens or bulkheads sustained by pontoons or cylinders placed in
combination to give the structure the required buoyancy, or screens held
in position by piles or legs secured to or resting on the bottom, or
otherwise suitable to meet local contingencies. In some cases, I prefer
to have the structures trough shaped, the two sides forming screens, the
bottom serving particularly to float the structure to its intended
position, and there sink it. The portion required for strength above the
close water-tight trough may have open spaces so as to permit a portion
of the water in motion to pass on to the screens on the land side of the
trough.
For protecting coast line and cliffs from being undermined by the
wash and action of the sea and for the protection of piers, cast or
wrought-iron, or in combination, or timber in combination, structures
may be arranged in skeleton, or trellace work, plated over and forming
an inclined plane with spaces or inlets on the surface may be used
arranged with the highest side next to the cliff and its lowest side
meeting the sea. The water in force would partially pass through the
spaces and partly up the surface of the structure.
These structures may also be used for forming tidal harbours, or
harbour entrances, only in this case the highest side is next the sea
and plated over, and the lowest side and the trellace or skeleton work
filled in with soil, sand, concrete, or suitable material for forming an
embankment.
For forming harbours and protecting exposed roadsteads, vertical
plates strongly connected together by tubular girders may be used.
The seaward plate being inclined and somewhat higher than the
landward plate, both plates being connected or tied together by strong
´ tubular girders, giving buoyancy to the structure. Intermediate plates
may be arranged to drop down in one or two lines and form screens after
the structure has been floated into position. It is not requisite for
breakwaters thus constructed to be more than twelve or fourteen feet
deep, and about thirty or forty feet broad.
The object of these breakwaters is to mitigate or reduce the strength
of high seas or broken water, so as to afford safe anchorage for ships

page_text: inside or to leeward, and to enable boats to land safely on coasts liable to
heavy surfs, also to protect cliffs and soft lands from being undermined
or enroached upon by the sea.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Saunders in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 20th December 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
SAUNDERS, of Croydon, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Robert Saunders, Her special licence that I,
the said Robert Saunders, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Robert Saunders, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 BREAK-
WATERS AND STRUCTURES FOR COAST PROTECTION," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Robert Saunders, my exccutors 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 Saunders, 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:-
This Invention has for its object the formation of harbours, the
protection of roadsteads, exposed piers, and landing places, and for pro-

page_text: tecting any exposed coast line, and generally for breaking the force of
a running sea, embodying improvements on a former Invention for
which Letters Patent were granted to me on the 28th day of August,
1868 and Numbered 2671.
Breakwaters constructed according to these improvements consist
of screens, or bulkheads, which may be arranged vertically or horizontally
plain or perforated, or otherwise so constructed as to admit a portion
of the water in motion to pass through to the lee or shore side of it.
These screens are sustained by pontoons or cylinders placed in com-
bination to give the structure the required buoyancy, or the screens are
held in position by piles, or legs secured to or resting on the bottom,
or otherwise suitable to meet local contingencies. In some cases I prefer
to have the structures trough shaped, the two sides forming screens,
the bottom serving particularly to float the structure to its intended
position and there sink it. The portion required for strength above
the close water-tight trough may have open spaces so as to permit a
portion of the water in motion to pass on to the screen on the land side
of the trough.
For protecting coast line and cliffs from being undermined by the
"wash" and action of the sea, and for the protection of piers, cast or
wrought iron, or in combination, or timber in combination, structures
may be arranged in skeleton or trellace work plated over and forming
an inclined plane with spaces or inlets on the surface may be used,
arranged with the highest side next to the cliff and its lowest side
meeting the sea. The water in force would partially pass through the
spaces and partly up the surface of the structure.
These structures may also be used for forming tidal harbours or
harbour entrances, only in this case the highest side is next the sca
and plated over, and the lowest side and the trellace or skeleton work
filled in with soil, sand, concrete, or suitable material for forming an
embankment.
For forming harbours and protecting exposed roadsteads vertical
plates strongly connected together by tubular girders may be used.
The seaward plate being inclined and somewhat higher than the land-
ward plate, both plates being connected or tied together by strong
tubular girders, giving buoyancy to the structure. Intermediate plates
be arranged to drop down in one or two lines and form screens
may

page_text: after the structure has been floated into position. It is not reqeusite
for breakwaters thus constructed to be more than twelve or fourteen
feet deep and about thirty or forty feet broad.
Breakwaters according to this Invention may also be constructed of
swinging screens or plates, plain or perforated, and sustained by pontoons
or tubular girders, or supported or held in position by legs or piles
fixed or attached to the ground.
The object of these breakwaters is to mitigate or reduce the strength
of high seas or broken water, so as to afford safe anchorage for ships
inside or to leeward, and to enable boats to land safely on coasts liable
to heavy surfs, also to protect cliffs and soft lands from being undermined
or encroached upon by the sea.
In order that this my said Invention may be more clearly seen and
understood, I have hereunto annexed two Sheets of Drawings, illustrative
of some of the various styles of breakwaters according to my Invention.
like letters being used to denote similar parts throughout the various
Figures.
Figure 1 (Sheet 1) is an elevation of a portion of a breakwater with
swinging screens, or plates which may be plain or perforated, or
otherwise so constructed as to admit a portion of the water in motion
to pass through to the lee or shore side, supported by legs or uprights
rising from sunken pontoons, which are primarily used to float the
structure into position; Figure 2 (Sheet 1) is a side elevation of the
same; Figure 3 (Sheet 1) is a plan of the same; Figure 4 (Sheet 1)
illustrates a similar style of breakwater, only in this case supported
by floating pontoons; Figure 5 (Sheet 1) is a plan of the same; Figure 6
(Sheet 1) is a side elevation of the same; Figures 7 and 8 (Sheet 1)
illustrate a structure with fixed screens or plates supported by pontoons
or water-tight girders.
Figures 9 and 10 (Sheet 2) illustrate a structure for protecting coast
"
'wash' or action of the
line and cliffs from being undermined by the "
sea. Similar structures may also be used for forming tidal harbours or
harbour entrances.
The Figures 1, 2, and 3, Sheet 1, and Figures 9 and 10, Sheet 2, are
drawn to the scale of quarter of an inch to the foot. Figures 4, 5, 6, 7,
and 8, are drawn to the scale of one-eighth of an inch to the foot.

page_text: A (Figures 1, 2, and 3) pontoons, which are used primarily to float the
uprights B, girders C and C³, into position, and are then sunk, forming
a base and fixing the structure. A¹, projections or feet for holding
ground. These pontoons are floated to their destination in pairs and
there sunk and fixed, the intermediate girders C being attached when in
position. B, legs or supports attached to and springing from pontoons A.
These supports carry the girders C and C². D and D' a series of plates
or screens, which may be plain or perforated, hung or hinged to the
under side of girders C and C¹; the seaward plate D being of less
depth and immersion than the landward plate D'. These plates swing
or oscilliate by the action of the sea in the arcs E and F, shown in
Figure 2.
C¹ is a girder for connecting together and stiffening the
pontoons in pairs.
Figures 4, 5, and 6, show a similar structure to that shown in
Figures 1, 2, and 3, only in lieu of the sunken pontoons A, and legs or
uprights B, floating tubular pontoons G are used, which are strongly
moored in position with the shortest or least immersed plate seaward.
Figures 7 and 8 show a floating structure. In this case the screens
or plates D and D' are firmly attached to the pontoons or floating
girders H and H'. When these structures are used they are securely
moored in line or in double line, with intermediate spaces, with their
least immersed plate seaward.
Figure 9 (Sheet 2) illustrates a structure for the protection of coast
line and cliffs. Ka series of screw piles or legs driven into and firmly
attached to the beach line L. M, girders connecting screw piles or legs;
N, stays or stiffening bars; O, plating which covers the whole surface
of the structure, and which is perforated by P, inlets or spaces made in
the surface between the girders; R and R', swinging plates hanging
under structure to mitigate the rush of water; S coast line or cliff. The
sea striking the structure at its lower end rises over the surface, the
weight of water however falling through the spaces or inlets P meets
the water flowing underneath, so that a counteracting force is thus
obtained. These structures may be plated over and made available for
the formation of tidal harbours, the spaces between the piles being
filled up with stones, shingle, or débris.
The arrows throughout the various Figures denote the flow or action
of the water against the structure.

page_text: Having now described and ascertained the nature and object of this my
Invention, together with the manner in which the same is to be or may
be carried out into practical effect, I wish it to be clearly understood
that I do not confine myself to the proportions, exact style, and relative
dimensions of the various parts of the structures as shown, as it will be
readily seen the same may be considerably varied, but what I claim as
the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid is,—
The construction, arrangement, and combination of floating or fixed
screens, breakwaters and structures, substantially in the manner described
and for the purposes herein-before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Saunders, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
ROBERT (L.S.) SAUNDERS.