AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING NAVIGABLE CANALS WITHOUT THE USE OR NECESSITY OF LOCKS, WHEREBY MOST OF THE OBJECTIONS TO AND INCONVENIENCES ARISING FROM CANALS ARE EFFECTUALLY REMOVED
Year: 1793

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSHUA
GREEN, of the Parish of Ginseley; in the County of York, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighteenth day of June, in the thirty-third year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said Joshua Green, His especial licence,
that I, the said Joshua Green, 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 "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING NAVIGABLE CANALS WITHOUT THE USE OR NECESSITY
OF LOCKS, WHEREBY MOST OF THE OBJECTIONS TO AND INCONVENIENCES ARISING
FROM CANALS ARE EFFECTUALLY REMOVED;" in which said Letters Patent there
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Joshua Green, 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

page_text: and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joshua Green, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following (that is to say):-
The nature and method of my Invention is by inclined planes, wheels, balance
vessels, and levers of a particular construction.
First, suppose a particular rise, as for instance, about thirty feet, which is
about equal to the rise of four common locks. I propose to overcome that
difficulty without locks or loss of water by inclined planes, &c. Let two
principal ones be erected of good stone or brick materials, eight or ten times
the length of the perpendicular or angle of elevation; the longer the inclined
planes the less stress will lay upon the ropes and other machinery hereafter
described. But upon the said inclined planes must be laid and fixed a frame
of wood, suppose of half or quarter deal balks, and to prevent friction as much
as may be, the top side of said wood should be covered or shod with forged or
casten iron. A third inclined plane, about two thirds the length of the other,
to be fixed betwixt the other two afore mentioned, for an use hereafter
described.
Second, the commercial boats I propose to be about thirty or thirty-five feet
long, seven feet wide, and to draw betwixt four and five feet water, which
I apprehend will contain about twenty tons of burden. One vessel I propose
to ascend up one inclined plane as the other descends upon carriages hereafter
described, then it is supposed that the one commercial vessel draws the
other, excepting the friction, which will be easily overcome by the machinery
hereafter described.
up
Third, I shall next describe the carriages, or what I call cradles, to contain
the said commercial boats, which I conceive to be the most difficult part of
the apparatus, and also the most ingenious. The supposed four beams or half
leal balks joined or framed together for the two sides, of sufficient width for
the vessels to slip in and out when in the water, on which account the said
frame or carriage is to be opened at each end, joined together at the
bottom by three or four cross timbers, and good timber knees at each corner
and joint, such as boat builders are accustomed to use. And that the said boat
or vessel may ride as easy as in water when in the said cradle, the bottom
frame is to be corded like a poor man's bed, with rope about inch diameter,
and about one hundred and twenty yards long; the eyes or holes the said
passes through are to be easy and as free from friction as possible, that the
rope or cord may draw from end to end; then all parts of said rope will have
rope

page_text: .
equal bearing. It is also meant that the said cording is to be above the
timbers that join the bottom part of said cradles. Four or more strong wheels,
either of casten metal or strong ash plank about four foot diameter, are to
be added to this said cradle frame; I think the latter, viz, ash plank, are
safer to trust to, about nine inches thick at the centre, and about five inches
thick at the rim or periphery, the sole of which rim is to be shod with
forged or casten iron. Now comes the difficulty of axleing these wheels con-
sistent with strength and convenience, for if the axletrees went over the vessels,
it would be inconvenient to the loading, as woolpacks, &c., and if under the
vessel, the burden being so much above the centre of gravity would endanger
over setting; also axles so long would require to be of enormous strength;
which difficulties to obviate, I propose what I call a false rung beam or half
balk of timber, well bolted and jointed to the upright timbers of each of the
outsides of the frame or cradle, but at such distance from the said outside frames
as will admit the wheels above described within the said false rung; then each
wheel will have its own axis of iron about three inches diameter, and only
eighteen inches long. I recommend that the axles be fast in the wheels and
turn round with them, which I apprehend will cause the machine to move
more steady.
Fourth, I shall next describe the principal lever or regulating wheel, which
I propose to be twenty foot diameter, with short levers or handspokes fixed
upon each side of the periphery or fellies of said wheel, three feet long,
which will be equal to a lever of thirteen feet; the said wheel will hang
vertically, being well fixed on the middle or centre of a beam about thirty feet
long, and say about twenty inches diameter, which must at each end, with its
gudgeons, rest upon two strong frames of wood elevated by its legs to a
proper height on each side of the upper canal, about thirty feet on the canal,
and if it be thought too long betwixt the two extremities or fulcrums, other
two fulcrums may be raised on each side of the vertical wheel, that part of
the beam or axis moving upon these fulcrums being rib'd with steel ribs, and
move upon brasses after the manner of an old-fashioned windmill. The use
of this beam or axis is two pair of ropes to wind or coil upon, fastened to the
carriage or cradle of each boat, the one pair of ropes on the upper side the
axis, and the other pair on the under side; and to keep the said ropes parallel,
one of the ropes of each pair must be so fixed by a screw or some other device
as it can be easily lengthened or shortened. In my models I have tried with
one rope, but could not make it answer so well as two. I also think two
stronger than one and safer to trust to. I
suppose the ropes being made of

page_text: the best hemp need not be much above inch diameter. The use of the lever
wheel is to regulate, by either assisting and quickening the motion, by the short
levers or handspokes; and for retarding a brake, may be fixed upon-the face or
side of the said wheel after the manner of a windmill brake.
Fifth, the third incline plane, the use of which is to assist the vessels going
in and out the upper canal; for whatever the elevation proposed to be raised at
one operation be, four or five feet will be lost in delivering the vessel or boat
into the upper canal, for the ascending vessel having arrived at the top of its
inclined plane, it is landed on to a flat but rather inclined towards the upper
'canal, and to get safely launched into the upper canal it must descend down än
inclined plane into the water at the upper canal, but to prevent it descending
too precipitately, a single rope is fixed or hung to the hind part of the cradle,
the other end of said rope being coiled and fastened on an axis, on which axis
or beam is fixt another lever wheel, but need not be so big as the other
already described, from which axis also goes another rope or couple of ropes,
joined to a carriage or vessel with four wheels at the bottom of the third inclined
plane, and by its ascent up said third inclined plane it succours or lets down
the commercial boat into the upper canal, and by its descent down said third
inclined plane it assists in getting a commercial vessel out of the upper canal
on to the head of its inclined plane; at the same time 'tis supposed that a
commercial boat is coming out of the lower canal, in which lower canal there
is no difficulty for the carriage or cradle being made specifically heavier than
water. The boat when let loose will naturally float out of the carriage either
in the lower canal or upper, being made deeper of water at those places for
that purpose. It would be well to have a spare vessel or two, ready loaded
with water or any other materials, in case alternate course not being kept by
commercial boat; but,
Seventh, a more simple and cheap method (but not so expeditious) may be
practised as follows:-Suppose only one inclined plane, as described in the first
article, and two lever wheels, as before described, only the beam or axis need
not be above twelve feet long, and about fifteen inches diameter, and the
inclined plane twelve times the length of the elevation, which will reduce the
burden, say, twenty-four tons, the burden to two-ton's or forty hundredweight,
and the lever wheel's handspokes being above eighteen times the diameter of
the axis, reduces the forty hundred to little more than two hundred, except the
friction, which will not amount to one tenth more upon a single machine, if
properly executed. Suppose the elevation to be overcome be twenty-four feet,
then the inclined plane would be two hundred and eighty-eight feet, which

page_text: would take about seventy-two revolutions of the great wheel, which I appre-
end the weight or power of three men would work up in about half an hour,
ut suppose three quarters of an hour. I add no more, but,
In witness whereof, I, the said Joshua Green, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, and in the thirty-
fourth year of the reign of our said Sovereign Lord George the Third,
by the grace of God King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,
Defender of the Faith, and so forth.