AN APPARATUS CALLED THE SELF-SWIMMER
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jean Jacques Danduran, Civil Engineer, of No. 13,
Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "AN APPARATUS CALLED THE SELF-SWIMMER."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jean Jacques Danduran
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th August 1856.
I, JEAN JACQUES DANDURAN, Civil Engineer, of No. 13, Charlotte Street,
Fitzroy Sq, County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN APPARATUS CALLED THE SELF-SWIMMER," to be as follows:-
This Invention, called the self-swimmer, gives the power to any person or
persons swimming for pleasure, or exposed to the danger of falling into deep
waters, even in strong currants, to keep themselves afloat, whether they are
acquainted with the art of swimming or not; and, moreover, to save others from
the peril of drowning.
For example: a child or a female, however heavily attired, may, with the
assistance of the said apparatus, keep themselves afloat for any length of time,
and be easily saved; the apparatus thus offering an immense security to sea
travellers, especially as it can be put on in a few seconds.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
The self-swimmer is an apparatus made of any sort of metal, but particularly
of tin or zinc for economy sake; by its round form it encircles the shoulders of
the swimmer, begining pointed at the top to give to the arms all liberty of

page_text: motion, and gradually thickening, forming an obtus elbow as it comes on the
back of the swimmer.
By this description it will be easily understood that the head and half of the
body of the swimmer keep continually above the water without being obliged
to make the least motion, and in that position the locomotion is so much
more easy, that the swimmer feels himself free from apprehension, and that
his own strength is no more required to keep himself afloat. The straps that
keep the apparatus together, passing on the neck and the back of the swimmer,
are so perfectly and so strongly adherent to his body, that the apparatus
cannot be separated from the swimmer even accidentally, and offers the most
security, as it can be put on in a few seconds.
The said apparatus can also be made of gutta percha or of india-rubber, but
those materials have neither the graceful aspect nor the solidity of the metal
usod, which is covered with different kind of stuffs.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jean Jacques Danduran in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 3rd February 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JEAN
JACQUES DANDURAN, Civil Engineer, of No. 13, Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square,
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Jean Jacques Danduran, Her special licence that I, the said Jean Jacques
Danduran, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Jean Jacques Danduran, 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
APPARATUS CALLED THE SELF-SWIMMER," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Jean Jacques Danduran, my executors 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

page_text: 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 Jean Jacques Danduran, 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 and accompanying Drawings (that is to say):
The discovery, which I have designated when I took Provisional Protection,
and which I still designate here under the name of the self-swimmer, is intended
to maintain imperturbably on the water all persons using it, whether they can
swin or not, and that without the necessity of a single movement. This dis-
covery is intended at same time to give those persons who use it, whatever be
their age or sex, and if complete strangers to the art of swimming, the faculty of
an easy locomotion, and assuring to bathers or swimmers the perfect equilibrium
and oblique position, which precludes all dangers. These advantages are due to
the shape of my apparatus; it is therefore the shape which constitute: my Inven-
tion, which I denominate as the self-swimmer. And, in fact, this apparatus
being elongated at its superior part, and gradually enlarging as it extends over
the brest, and terminates at the loins as a truncated or rounded cone, it is
obvious that the immersed body makes a position that is neither quite vertical
or horizontal; it is therefore the oblique position, and that position infallibly
keeps the head of the swimmer out of the water..
The designs I., II., and III., indicate that this apparatus is divided in two,
three, four, or several other parts, at my. will, and that at all events these parts
are united by straps.
The size of the said apparatus varies according to the service it is intended
for; thus, for salvage purposes it takes the more developed form, whilst for
the use of children it requires lesser proportions. These two points are the
maximum and the minimum.
The self-swimmer is composed of zinc, tin, copper, or any other metal;
it can also be made of india-rubber, gutta percha, or any other impermeable
tissue. The straps, thongs, which fasten the parts, are made of cotton,
worsted, silk, leather, thread, india-rubber, or any other tissue; they can
also be made fast by metal chains. The belt which fixes the apparatus to
the body, either by a knot or by means of a buckle, is made of the
materials above enumerated for what I term the thongs or straps, which
serve to unite the various parts of the apparatus, Fig. I., II., and III.
I sometimes place a small strap, like those mentioned above, on that part of
the apparatus which fixes the arm-pits, so as to prevent the too immediate
contact of the arms. I sometimes lace a strap which unite the belt and the

page_text: strap, so that it should descend more firmly towards the inferior part of the
neck. The self-swimmer, ornamented or plain, is bare, or covered with linen,
cotton, silk, satin, or worsted, each distinct part which compose it, either Fig.
I., II., III., and will be of one piece or several pieces united by being soldered.
In terminating this Specification of my discovery, I repeat that I have
named it the self-swimmer, claiming the Letters Patent for the shape which
I have given it, and reproduced by the Drawings which accompany this
Specification.
Fig. I.-A, self-swimmer, composed of two parts; B, strap uniting the two
superior parts of the apparatus; C, belt serving to fix the apparatus to the
body; D, strap uniting the belt with the strap B; E, strap under which the
belt passes; F, small strap, serving to distance from the arm-pits the lateral
parts of the apparatus; G, cap receiving the extremities of the strap B, and
fixed to the superior part of the apparatus by means of bands, which run on
the two sides from top to bottom of the lateral parts.
Fig. II-A, self-swimmer in 3 pieces, lateral parts; K, barrell resting on
the loins; C, straps, under which pass the belt which fixes the apparatus to the
body; the rest as Fig. I.
Fig. III-A, self-swimmer, with four pieces, lateral parts; H, self-swimmer,
inferior parts; L, uniting the lateral parts A to the inferior parts H.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jean Jacques Danduran, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this
day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.