CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LOADING AND UNLOADING OF SHIPS, BRIGS, SCHOONERS, AND OTHER VESSELS, ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO THE UNLOADING OF THOSE VESSELS, CALLED COLLIERS, WHICH USUALLY DISCHARGE THEIR CARGOES IN THAT PART OF THE RIVER THAMES CALLED THE POOL, NEAR DON
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
ADCOCK, of Stamford Street, Blackfriars Road, in the County of Surrey,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifth day of February, in the sixth year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry.
Adcock, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Henry Adcock, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others, as
I, the said Henry Adcock, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time.
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LOADING AND UNLOADING OF
SHIPS, BRIGS, SCHOONERS, AND OTHER VESSELS, ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO THE
UNLOADING OF THOSE VESSELS, CALLED COLLIERS, WHICH USUALLY DISCHARGE THEIR
CARGOES IN THAT PART OF THE RIVER THAMES CALLED THE POOL, NEAR LONDON;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Henry
Adcock, shall 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 said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Adcock, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention aforesaid consists in the application and employment of water,
by means of its flowing properties and its impulsive effects in streams and
rivers, and through the interposition of certain combinations of well-known
mechanical contrivances herein-after to be described, to the loading and
unloading of ships, brigs, schooners, and other vessels, thus producing by
mechanical means much useful effect, which heretofore has been accomplished,
at very heavy costs and charges, by human labour. The manner by which I
effect this may be thus described. A punt or barge, of sufficient capacity to
hold and buoy up the contrivances herein-after to be described, and also con-
taining them, must be moored alongside the vessel to be loaded or unloaded by
it, or it may be moored between two vessels, and be employed in loading or
unloading both of them at the same time. This punt or barge must be
furnished with a water-wheel, constructed in the usual manner of an undershot
water-wheel, or a tide wheel having float-boards arranged about its periphery.
It must be supported on proper axles and bearings, and be arranged in a wheel
race, watercourse, or conduit extending longitudinally from end to end of such
barge or punt, or from the bows to the stern, that water may at the required
times be allowed to flow through such watercourse or wheel race in an effec-
tive manner. Such wheel race, watercourse, or conduit therefore, fore-and-aft,
must be furnished with shuttles, such as are common to water-wheels, or with
other contrivances equivalent thereto, that the discharge of water upon such
water-wheel may be regulated at the will of the attendant workman during
different states of the tides, or under different velocities of the stream, and at
such times and under such circumstances as shall be required. In such barge
or punt, and near to such water-wheel, must be placed a horizontal or other
kind of crane. It may consist of a post or column made of wood or other
material, or of posts or columns, extending vertically above the height of the
bulwarks or sides of the vessels which are to be loaded or unloaded by it.
From the upper part of such post or column, or posts or columns, a beam or
horixontal jib may project at right angles towards each vessel, and at that part
of the posts or columns aforesaid where the horizontal jibs project separately
towards the vessels, a pulley or friction wheel must be arranged (one to each
jib), in the line of direction of such vessels. Another pulley or friction wheel
must also be placed on the opposite end of each jib. By this means chains or
ropes fastened to the axle of the water-wheel aforesaid, or to separate and

page_text: independent axles, may be made to pass over each pulley, and thence each
chain or rope passing along its respective jib may be applied to the loading
and unloading of tho vessels in the manner herein-after described, that is to say,
on the bulwarks or sides of each vessel to be loaded or unloaded by these
contrivances; and in the line of direction of the horizontal jib of the crane there
must be fastened a wooden post or bar or column of iron.
Of these posts,
bars, or columns there will be two to each vessel, one rising vertically from each
side or bulwark in a lino of direction with the jib, as aforesaid, so that two
horizontal or slightly inclined beams parallel with each other, and extending
from the one post to the other, may be supported by them. These vertical
posts and the horizontal or slightly inclined beams aforesaid parallel with
each other are moveable at pleasure, and are intended to be arranged on
the sides or bulwarks of each vessel only when the operations of loading
and unloading are being performed. At such times the horizontal or slightly
inclined beams must extend from post to post over and above the hatch-
way of the vessel. These horizontal or slightly inclined beams, arranged
parallel with each other, must support a tramroad or railroad, to which a car-
riage must be adapted for the conveyance of the merchandize to or from the
vessel from or to the required place, when it has been raised by the water-
wheel and crane to the required height. When the vessel is to be unloaded,
the parallel beams may be made to incline towards tho placo where the
merchandize is to be deposited; on the contrary, when the vessel is to be
loaded, the inclination may be reversed. Both these operations can be readily
effected by holes and bolts adapted to the parallel beams and to one of the
vertical posts by which such beams are to be supported. One method of
constructing and adapting a railway or tramroad to the parallel beams afore-
said, and a carriage to move on them may be seen described at large in a
Specification which I caused to bo inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery on the Fifth day of May of this present year, being Specification of
certain Letters Patent granted by His Majesty to me, the said Henry Adcock,
on the Fifth day of November last past, for "Certain improvements at docks
and quays to facilitate the importation and exportation of merchandize, and
abridge labour," also by reference to a Sheet of Drawings which accompanies
the same for the more full and perfect explanation of the several parts. The
vertical bar, post, or column aforesaid, which supports the ends of the two
parallel beams nearest the punt or barge, must be of such height above the
bulwark or side of the vessel that a piece of metal on the horizontal jib of the
crane, hollow and adapted to move upwards and downwards on the vertical bar,
post, or column aforesaid, shall have space so to move upwards and downwards

page_text: the full extent of the difference of immersion of the vessels when filled with
merchandize and in ballast. The piece of metal on the horizontal jib is thus
made to slide freely up and down the vertical post, bar, or column aforesaid,
partly with the view to keep such barge or punt and horizontal jib in con-
nection with the two parallel beams extending across the vessel, and partly
with the view to allow part of the weight of the merchandize to press on such
vertical post, bar, or column, and thereby prevent it from acting sideways on the
punt or barge with a tendency to overturn it. In the arrangement, thus
described, care must be taken that the inclined planes, railroads, or tram-
roads extend a sufficient length beyond the sides of the vessel and be sufficiently
supported to convey the merchandize to the wharf or landing place against
which she is alongside, or into the vessel that is alongside of her, and vice
versa. Tho chain, therefore, by. which the merchandize is to be raised or
lowered being fastened to the axis of the water-wheel, or to a separate and
independent axis, as before described, and having passed over the pulleys or
friction wheels on the horizontal jib of the crane, may be made to descend'
thence, and pass beneath another pulley or friction wheel placed just above the
two parallel beams aforesaid, and thence over another pulley or friction wheel
supported by such parallel beams, and thence over the drum of the carriage, as
described in the Specification of the Patent before alluded to; and delineated in
the Sheet of Drawings that accompanies it, so that by. these arrangements, and
by the rotation of the water-wheel before described, merchandize may be raised
from ships and vessels by the flowing properties of water and its impulsive
effects in streams and rivers; and the merchandize being thus raised by these
contrivances to the proper height, may be lowered to the required depth by
putting the axlo on which the chain is wound out of geer by any of the usual
contrivances adapted to the purpose, and the descent may be regulated by a
brake, friction strap, or other similar contrivance.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not claim
as my Invention any part of the said combinations and contrivances in a
separate condition, nor in a state of combination when not used to effect the
object of my Invention, nor do I confine myself to the precise arrangement
and disposition of the contrivances and combinations herein detailed, but avail
myself of such other combinations and contrivances as are in mechanics equi-
valent thereto. But I do hereby declare that my Invention of "Certain
Improvements in the Loading and Unloading of Ships, Brigs, Schooners, and
other Vessels, especially applicable to the Unloading of those Vessels called
"Colliers,' which usually discharge their Cargoes in that part of the River

page_text: Thames called the Pool,' near London," consists in combining the various
mechanical apparatus and means, and actuating the same by water power,
when they are combined and applied to facilitate the loading and unloading of
vessels and abridging of human labour, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Adcock, do hereby set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.