AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING A LINE OR OTHER MEDIUM OF COMMUNI- CATION FROM A SHIP OR VESSEL FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING RELIEF OR ASSISTANCE IN: CASE OF SHIPWRECK, OR FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE TO WHICH THE INVENTION MAY APPLY
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edsall Matthews, of Sea View, Parish of
.. St. Helen's, in the isle of Wight, Baker, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING A LINE OR OTHER MEDIUM OF COMMUNI-
CATION FROM A SHIP OR VESSEL FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING RELIEF OR
ASSISTANCE IN: CASE OF SHIPWRECK, OR FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE TO WHICH THE
INVENTION MAY APPLY."
Sealed the 25th March 1862, and dated the 1st October 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edsall Matthews
_ at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st October 1861.
I, WILLIAM EDSALL MATTHEWS, of Sea View, Parish of St. Helen's, in the
Isle of Wight, Baker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
'AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING A LINE OR OTHER MEDIUM OF COM
MUNICATION FROM A SHIP OR VESSEL FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING RELIEF OR
ASSISTANCE IN CASE OF SHIPWRECK, OR FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE TO WHICH THE
INVENTION MAY APPLY," to be as follows:
"
A cradle or frame, constructed of wood or other materials secured by bolts
with nuts and screws (to render the same portable to be taken on shipboard),
at the end of which frame a reel is secured, which, running on a spindle, has
at the same time a line reeled round it, which line runs off from the under
parts of the reel and through a thimble or brass or copper eye attached to a

page_text: small rope, which may be shifted at pleasure from the centre to either side of
the frame (inside), to act as a directing power, if required, whilst to the fore
part of the frame gutta percha, indian-rubber, or other ball or balls of a light
and powerfully buoyant nature are attached, which being acted upon by the
wind and sea, carry the line and cradle away, the line relieving itself as the
apparatus moves through the water by the force of the wind, or of the wind
and sea combined, on the ball or balls. The apparatus may, by enlargement,
so as to secure adequate buoyancy, be made to carry a man (or other weight)
from the ship to the shore.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edsall Matthews in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 29th March 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDSALL MATTHEWS, of Sea View, Parish of St. Helen's, in the Isle of Wight,
Baker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Edsall Matthews, Her special licence that I, the said William Edsall
Matthews, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Edsall Matthews, 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 "AN
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING A LINE OR OTHER MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION
FROM A SHIP OR VESSEL FOR THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING RELIEF OR ASSISTANCE IN
CASE OF SHIPWRECK, OR FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE TO WHICH THE INVENTION MAY
APPLY.', upon the condition (amongst others) that he, the said William Edsall
Matthews, his executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
his, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edsall Matthews, 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 :---
An apparatus constructed in the following manner, that is to say, A
cradle or frame, formed of wood or other floating material, which, in order to
render the same portable, is secured by bolts shouldered inside, according to
the width of the frame, and the outside with nuts and screws on the same bolts,
with a ball or balls, either constructed whole or in two hemispheres, composed
of gutta percha, indian-rubber, or of other material of a light and buoyant
nature, and secured to the frame by lashings with a handle or handles or
loops, through which to pass a rope or belt, if required, such ball or balls,
when so attached, being intended as an impelling power when acted on by the
wind, or the wind and waves combined, the insides of the frame being hollowed
to fit the shape of the ball, where the ball rests, to cause it to take the water.
Behind the ball or balls is a block to secure a reel; attached to this block is a
spindle which is moveable, and on which the reel revolves, and the line or
rope wound on such reel passing through a loop or eye connected with a
shifting line, and which apparatus is more particularly described in and by
the diagrams or plans hereunto annexed, marked with the letters A and B,
and signed by me the said William Edsall Matthews.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edsall Matthews, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of March, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-two.
Signed and sealed by the said
William Edsall Matthews
in the presence of
THOMAS WHITE,
WILLIAM EDSALL MATTHEWS. (L.S.)
Solicitor,
Ryde, Isle of Wight.

page_text: Eye at C through which the line passes
after running off from the underside of
the real