A NEW AND IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING THE LIVES OF MARINERS AND OTHERS IN CASE OF SHIPWRECK
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and
Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris,
France, and 6, Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for the Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
PRESERVING THE LIVES OF MARINERS AND OTHERS IN CASE OF SHIPWRECK."-
-
A communication from Joseph Auguste André Fontaine, residing
D
Contlaman
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 29th December 1873.
I, HENRI ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent
5 Offices, 18, Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, France, and 6, Piccadilly,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "A NEW AND IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING
THE LIVES OF MARINERS AND OTHERS IN CASE OF SHIPWRECK," communicated to

page_text: me by Joseph Auguste André Fontaine, a person resident at Paris,
France, 19, Rue des Mathurins, Gentleman, to be as follows:-
When a vessel, after a collision for instance, sinks in a few minutes
the crew very often, as it has been illustrated in the disasters of the
Atlantic, Northfleet, and Ville du Havre, has not the time to lower the
ordinary lifeboats. Thence a great loss of lives, which might have been
possibly avoided if the foundered ship had been provided with a large
and ready made raft capable of being put to water in two or less
minutes. Such a raft it is not impossible to imagine, as it will be
proved by the perusal of the following description, and by the inspection
of the accompanying Drawings.
The Invention consists substantially in this:-To have on board a
reservoir of compressed air, and also a large air and water-tight bag,
the second being capable of being put in communication with the first
under the command of a cock, and so getting immediately inflated.
To carry out this idea it is necessary to devise means of lowering rapidly
the aforesaid air raft, and also means for the passengers and crew to
get to it.
The Invention is represented in the Figures of accompanying
Drawings, in which the same letters indicate similar parts.
A represents a reservoir containing in a state of compression a
quantity of air sufficient, brought down to the ordinary pressure, to
inflat the raft B. That raft is made of two or more air and water-tight
bags, one being contained in the other; the outer bag acts as a network
to the inner one, which contains the air when inflated; the raft has
the form of a mattress, interior ropes in the inner bag unite the upper
and inferior faces, so as to keep the mattress form. That inner bag is
provided with a large and heavy metallic duct, commanded by the
cock R. On the periphery of the outer bag are secured a certain
number of rings, to which can be hooked, first, the ropes and iron bars,
ladder F, and, second, the rescue ropes I, I; which, ordinarily contained
in a rubber envelope, so as to not be caught by broken timbers, sails,
may be in time of need brought by swimers or thrown to drowning
people. The ladder and the rescue ropes are hooked to the mattress
rings in such a manner that it is always very easy to unconnect them
from it. The air raft B is usually suspended, folded on itself, to the

page_text: ropes M, M, which are commanded by a ratchet wheel and shaft, or
by a brake, or any other mechanical apparatus; H, H, represents the
posts supporting the shaft L, on which revolve the loose pulleys of the
ropes M, M. The air raft B is connected to the boat V, first, by the ladder
F, and, second, by an heavy female screw O, which is to be operated
by its lateral arms. The ladder is unrolled with the raft usually as shown
in the Figures. The strong and hollow iron post E, which continues the
duct C secured to the air reservoir, is provided with iron bars, which may
be used of as stairs.
Now if a collision takes place seeing no hope of saving the boat,
which is fast sinking, the commanding officer orders life boat and air raft
to the sea.
Then one sailor ascends the column E, whilst others,
operating the lowering apparatus let down the raft. The cock is then
turned immediately the bag gets inflated, and last the femalo screw O is
unscrewed. The air raft then falls to the sea, the ropes M, M, having
been let loose, and people can rush to the ladder, get to that supreme
lifeboat, and wail to be rescued. When the vessel is near sinking the
ladder is abandonned, and the raft becomes free. It is probable that
the passengers, less frightened on account of that new life saving air
raft, will not so much interfere with the men working the ordinary.life-
boats. The key of the cock R is commanded by a stopping screw.
The air raft bears on its superior face a number of small ropes, to
which people can take hold or fasten themselves, to not be washed out
by the waves. (On board of small vessels the expense of such an air
raft would perhaps appear (though in fact it will not cost much) too
large to be indulged in, one might then simply use as a large life belt
a wide air and water tight duct, which generally standing coiled as a
rope might be filled at the time of danger).
Wraped in a white rubber cloth flag a bundle of rockets and of iron
sticks, which may be united together to make up a long staff, is attached
to the above described raft.
The air raft above described may be very useful when a boat strikes,
or is heavily hit. If such a raft had been on board of the three above-
named vessels, Northfleet, Atlantic, and Ville du Havre, which sunk in
onlm raathon many hundreds vintime might have been sued
on them

page_text: would have been certainly picked up on board of the boats which come.
searching on the scen of the disaster.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 27th June 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI'
ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Rue
de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, France, and 6, Piccadilly, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in
the thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville,
Her special licence that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henri Adrien Bonneville, 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, usc, exercise, and vend, within the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "A NEW AND IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PRESERVING
THE LIVES OF MARINERS AND OTHERS IN CASE OF SHIPWRECK," communicated to
me by Joseph Auguste André Fontaine, a person resident at Paris,
France, 99, Rue des Mathurins, Gentleman, upon the condition,
amongst others, that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, 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 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 Henri Adrien Bonneville, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
When a vessel, after having run ground, or after a collision, or
after any other accident, sinks rapidly the sailors have not always the
time to lower the ordinary lifeboats, especially when there are many
passengers on board. Thence often a great loss of lives, which might
be avoided should the vessel carry a large raft capable of being almost
instantaneously lowered to the sea. Should that raft, which might even
be used in case of sudden fire, be so composed that it would not break
on the rocks, on account of the clasticity of its component parts, it
would render great services at sca. Such is the raft to which the
Invention relates.
The new and improved apparatus for saving the lives of mariners and
others in case of shipwreck is composed of a wood and canvass floor,
supported and kept afloat by a certain number of air and water-tight
rubber bags, the whole making a raft, and of a reservoir and pipe
containing under high pressure the air necessary to fill rapidly said
bags.
In the annexed Drawings Fig. 1 represents a vertical section of the
reservoir and pipe; and Fig. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, represent in different
positions the life saving raft on the side of the boat which carries it.
In all these Figures similar letters of reference indicate similar parts.
The compressed air, in this case the life saving agent, is contained in
a rubber bag A, contained itself in a sheet-iron reservoir and metallic
pipe A'; B is a metallic capacity interior to the rubber bag A, which is
in communication with the cylindrical part of said bag by the orifices R,
and with the tubular part of said bag by the pipe B', S indicates the
cock of a pipe through which the air first, and second a certain
quantity of water, are forced in the bag A. A female screw C is
secured at the end of the metallic reservoir and pipe A'. The object of
tbis female screw, provided in its center with a vertical rod, is to lower
a rubber covered valve, which, kept up by the air interior pressure,
closes the free extremity of the rubber bag A. The rubber which
covers the valve is or may be united to the rubber bag terminal orifice

page_text: by a rubber soldering. It is easy to see that once forced in the bag A
the air cannot escapo being emprisoned between rubber and water.
The rubber cap, which composes the top of the cylindrical part of the
bag A is soldered to said bag with a hot rubber paste when the
capacity B has been placed inside.
The raft is composed of a canvass floor E, upon which are placed, and
kept by rings from distance to distance, the parrallel hold ropes N;
between which seat the shipwrecked people of a certain number of
wooden traverses F, which support said canvass floor, and finally of a
certain number of air bags G, which support the whole; D represents
the pipe made to cap the ajutage of the female screw C, which
distributes through the short branch pipes D', cach provided with a
valve, getting opened by external and closed by internal pressure the
air which inflates the rubber air bags G. Inside of the terminal end
of the pipe D, which is to cap the female screw C, is a metallic ring,
which can turn with the female screw nose or ajutage and yet connect
the ajutage and the pipe, which does not turn. Usually the bags are
empty and the raft enrolled upon itself is suspended over the side of
the vessel like an ordinary life boat; H, H, represent the two sus-
pension ropes of the raft, they are attached through the canvass to the
first of the wooden traverses passed through the upper orifices a, a,
and are finally hooked to the posterior face of the posts O, O, (see
Fig. 6); I, I, represent the two ropes made use of to maintain the raft
enrolled upon itself in ordinary times, and to let said raft unrolls itself
in time of danger. Attached on the front face of the posts O, O, they
enroll themselves round the pulleys V, V. When the raft is floating
against the side of the vessel these ropes may be made avail of to keep
said raft against said boat, and so facilitate the rescue of the ship-
wrecked; P represents an oiled canvass, the object of which is to
preserve the raft from the sea water, the rain, the sunbeams; P¹, P¹, arc
two oil cloth caps, which protect the ends of the enrolled raft, provided
with rubber brim; they press upon said raft and maintain the oiled
cloth P.
On the canvass floor of the raft is secured a strong rop L³, and on
the side of the boat is also secured another rop L; both are united by
a third rope M, each end of which is terminated by a ring. During the
unrolling of the raft the rop M descends, guided by the rop L; and

page_text: perforated; their object is to retain the particles of water which might
be carried away by the air in motion. The volum of air forced in the
capacity A is such that when the equilibrium is established in that
capacity, and the bags G, the pressure is superior to the atmospheric
pressure. The object of this is to give a greater rigidity to the bags G, 5
and to permit them to be filled even when plunged in the water air. As
soon as the pipe D is drawn from the ajutage of the female screw C the
valves of the bags G are closed by the pressure of the interior air. Should
a bag G looses its air the others would keep their own gas.
It is evident that this system shall work rapidly. Its main idea 1
consists in the hawing always ready a reserve force indepedant of the
boat engine, capable to fill in a very short time the bags G. Such a
reserve force can be obtained by the following apparatuses :-
1st. Reservoir of compressed air, to be used as the motive power
of an air machine operating an air pump.
2d. A weight at the end of a rope to be thrown to the sea, and thus
operate a shaft operating an air pump.
3d. A reservoir of liquid or solid gas (carbonic acid or protoxyde of
azote), by returning to a gaseous state such a body may inflate the
bags.
4th. Two reservoirs, one of sulphuric acid, the other of carbonate of
lime; the mixing of said substances might produce carbonic acid to
inflate the bags G.
1
20
ff, indicate the ladders, by means of which shipwrecked people
descend upon the raft. They descend looking to the raft between the 2
ladders and the boat wall.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner of carrying it into effect, I claim and wish to secure by Letters
Patent,-
1st. The idea of keeping emprisoned in a reservoir the buoyancy of 3
the above described raft.
2d. The combination of the air-tight rubber bags, actually known or in
use, with the canwass E, the traverses G, and the different organs above
described, ropes, pulleys, ladders, the whole making, a floating raft, with
means of access to it and of the reservoir of compressed air.
3

page_text: 3d. The special construction of the rubber and sheet-iron recipient,
which makes it altogether air tight.
4th. The heater B contained in the rubber and sheet-iron reservoir.
5th. the use of the following reserve forces, to be usod instead of
the reservoir of compressed air for the inflatation of the air bags;
compressed air operating an air machine and air pump; a weight
operating, falling to the sea; an air pump reservoir of gases brought
down to the liquid or solid state; double reservoir of carbonate of lime
and sulphuric acid, to instantly produce carbonic acid.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of June,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.