AN APPARATUS FOR CONTAINING AND PRESERVING ARTICLES OF VALUE FROM LOSS OR DAMAGE IN CASES OF SHIPWRECK
Year: 1858

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Charles Edward Bull at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 9th October 1858, pursuant to the 9th Section of
the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
EDWARD BULL, of Wells, in the County of Norfolk, do hereby declare the
nature and object of my Invention to be "AN APPARATUS FOR CONTAINING AND
PRESERVING ARTICLES OF VALUE FROM LOSS OR DAMAGE IN CASES OF SHIPWRECK," and
that the manner in which the same is to be performed is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, with the aid of the
Drawings annexed, that is to say :-
I make a box of metal (tin); Figure 1 represents the box as it appears
when the outer lid is open; Figure 2 represents the box when the inner lid
or covering is removed. The box is lined within with cork throughout, bottom
and sides, on the sides the cork comes within about two inches of the top.
I fasten the cork to the tin with tin straps, (four or five on each side and at
the bottom,) strongly soldered to the box, which are brought through the cork.
and then clenched. Upon the upper edge of the cork, along the four sides of
the box, is fixed a metal (tin) flange H, which is strongly soldered to the
sides. The inner lid or covering B, I make of mahogany, on its under side
there is fastened along the outer parts a band of vulcanized caoutchouc L, one

page_text: and a half inch broad, and one quarter of an inch thick. Besides fastening
the caoutchouc to the lid with strong caoutchouc glue or cement, I also fasten
it with copper nails to the lid on the inner and the outer edges. When this
lid or covering is put over the inner part of the box, the caoutchouc rests
upon the edge of the flange H, and when the lid is pressed on the flange by
the apparatus hereafter described, the box is rendered impervious to water,
I bind the box, front, bottom, and back with two bands of iron covered with
tin F, (soldered to the box,) one inch and a half broad, and one-eighth of an
inch thick; the upper end of each band in front and at the back of the box
terminates in a catch E. Upon the inner lid or covering B is also fixed by
screws, two bars or plates of iron J having a pivot K, riveted in the centre
of each, upon which pivots turn two other bars or plates C, having at each
end of them a catch D, which enters the catch E at the end of the iron bands
F, before referred to. When the apparatus is thus fixed by the catches, the
box is continuously bound round with iron, the pressure on the lid or covering
B is then effected by turning the four thumbscrews G.
The box from which the Drawings were made is one foot ten inches long,
one foot four inches wide, and one foot four inches deep, internal measure-
ment, and weighs, with all its apparatus, forty-three pounds. I have put
into it articles weighing one hundred and twenty-eight pounds, and the box
floated four inches above the water. The contents will remain dry and
uninjured for a long indefinite time; the box thus manufactured is of great
strength, capable of resisting the severe shocks to which it may be exposed,
it is thoroughly watertight, and if the external parts be made of galvanized
metal, so as to resist oxidation, I cannot conceive that its permanent utility
can be impaired. The outer lid A is convenient but not essential, for without
it the box is perfect; when the lid is shut the box resembles the usual
receptacle for papers in a solicitor's office.
I do not claim all the parts and details of this box as newly invented or
newly arranged; but I claim as my Invention the methods, arrangements,
combinations, and contrivances, by which the inner lid or covering is con-
structed and adjusted, and the apparatus and means by which the box is
made watertight, and adapted for the preservation of despatches and letters
of moment and articles of value from loss or damage in cases of shipwreck ór
other accidents, through which the box' may be immersed in or submitted to
water.
Figure 3 shews the upper part of the inner lid with the bars or plates,upon
it; Figure 4 shews the under side of the inner lid with the caoutchouc L

page_text: fixed upon it; Figure 5 presents two views of the flange H, one of them with
the flange fastened on to the cork and soldered to the box; the other, the
flange in profile before it is adjusted. Figure 6 shews the apparatus of the
inner lid separately from the lid, and beneath it is a Figure of the catch E in
the band F.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Edward Bull, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Thirtieth day of September One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-eight.
CHARLES EDWARD BULL. (L.S.)