IMPROVEMENTS IN DREDGING MACHINES
Year: 1873

page_text: *LETTERS PATENT to Darnton Hutton, of the Amsterdam Canal
Harbour Works, Beverwyk, in the Kingdom of Holland, and of
5, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, for the Invention of.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DREDGING MACHINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Darnton Hutton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th October 1873.
'I, DARNTON HUTTON, of the Amsterdam Canal Harbour Works,
Beverwyk, in the Kingdom of Holland, and of 5, Westminster Ohambers,
Victoria Street, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DREDGING, MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in dredging machines.
:
In order to dredge sand, clay, mud, or any soft material from the
bottoms of harbours, streams, or channels or similar places I employ a
barge or vessel with suitable appliances for securely. mooring it, and
moving it slowly and regularly as the work progresses,

page_text: Upon the barge or vessel a frame is mounted upon an horizontal axis ;
it extends over the end of the barge or vessel, and here it has jointed to
it a second or outboard frame, which is sufficiently long to reach to the
bottom which it is required to dredge. This frame carries a pipe or
trunk, at the lower end of which a bent mouth piece is fixed, thṛouglî 5
which the material to be dredged is sucked up by the pump.
There is a steam engine on board the barge or vessel driving a pump,
and this pump draws the sand, clay, mud, or other soft material,
together with water, up the pipe or trunk, whence it is discharged either
into a barge or other receptacle, or conveyed away by floating pipes 1
furnished when necessary with a spiral flange inside for ensuring the
thorough mixture of the dredged stuff with the water, which conveys it
to a place where it may be deposited without inconvenience.
na
The arrangement of the two frames and their connections together
and to the barge or vessel which carries them admit of the barge or 1
vessel rising and falling to the waves or tide without interfering with
the working of the apparatus.
"
Means are provided for lifting the outboard frame for, travelling from
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 20
filed by the said Darnton Hutton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 2nd April 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DARNTON
HUTTON, of the Amsterdam Canal Harbour Works, Beverwyk, in the
Kingdom of Holland, and of 5, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, 2
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of October, 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 30
grant unto me, the said Darnton Hutton, Her special license that I, the
said Darnton Hutton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Darnton Hutton, my executors, administrators, and

page_text: 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN DREDGING MACHINES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Darnton Hutton;
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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, thẻ said Darnton Hutton, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in dredging machines.
In order to dredge gravel, sand, mud, clay, or any material which can
be lifted and transported by a stream of water through the dredging.
pipes I employ a barge or vessel fitted with a jointed and framed arm,
one end of which is attached to the vessel by a hinge, and the other
hanging overboard carries the pump, pipe, and mouth piece.
The pump, which may be of any suitable description, either centri-
fugal. or plunger, is usually worked by a steam engine, and draws a
stream of water through the pipe, which sucks up with it the material
to be dredged, the construction of the jointed arm being such that the
bent mouth picce at the end of the suction pipe continually presses
against the bottom, so that the suction of the pump draws up the
material to be dredged mixed with water undisturbed by the rising or
falling of the barge on the surface.
Means are provided for lifting the apparatus to the surface either to
suit different depths of water or when the dredger is not at work, and
proper winches and machinery are employed to move the dredger in the
direction in which it is desired to work her.
The material when dredged, as described, may be either discharged
into a bargo or other receptacle alongside the dredger, or it may be
•

page_text: pumped through pipes to any place where it may be desired to
deposit it.
When heavy material has to be pumped through pipes to a con-
siderable distance the pipes may be provided with spiral or rifled flanges
inside, which keep the material properly mixed with the water in the
pipes, and are so arranged as to carry the material, which settles down
to the bottom of the pipe, again to the top.
In dredging some descriptions of material it is desirable to regulate
the supply of water to the bent mouth picce above described, and for
this purpose a pipe is attached to the suction pipe, which conveys water
directly to the mouth piece, and is furnished with a cock or valve to
regulate the quantity.
A branch pipe may also be attached to the suction pipe of the pump,
through which at any time by opening a valve pure water can be
supplied to the pump without the necessity of lifting the mouth piece
from the bottom.
In order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and.
readily carried into effect I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereto

page_text: necessary.
In witness whereof, I, the said Darnton Hutton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.