CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHODS OF CONSTRUCTING, LAYING DOWN, AND ORGANIZING THE MAIN AND OTHER PIPES FOR THE CONVEYANCE OF WATER FOR THE SUPPLY OF THE METROPOLIS OF LONDON AND OTHER CITIES, TOWNS, AND PLACES WHERE PUBLIC WATERWORKS ARE ADAPTED, AND OF APPLYING THE WATER SO CONVEYED TO A VARIETY OF OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES, TO WHICH THE SAME HAS NEVER BEFORE BEEN SO APPLIED
Year: 1812

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
BRAMAH, of Pimlico, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of October, in the
fifty-third year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Bramah,
my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Joseph Bramah, my exors, admors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein men-
tioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
METHODS OF CONSTRUCTING, LAYING DOWN, AND ORGANIZING THE MAIN AND OTHER
PIPES FOR THE CONVEYANCE OF WATER FOR THE SUPPLY OF THE METROPOLIS OF
LONDON AND OTHER CITIES, TOWNS, AND PLACES WHERE PUBLIC WATERWORKS ARE
ADAPTED, AND OF APPLYING THE WATER SO CONVEYED TO A VARIETY OF OTHER
USEFUL PURPOSES, TO WHICH THE SAME HAS NEVER BEFORE BEEN SO APPLIED;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said
Joseph Bramah, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the
said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby.

page_text: granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the
same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Bramah, do hereby declare that my said Invention, and the benefits
deriveable therefrom, depend as follows, that is to say, not on the invariable
construction of any machinery, instrument, matter, and thing I may from
time to time adopt and apply for the production and accomplishment of it; but
I wish it to be precisely understood that I take this Patent and I rest the
principal merits thereof solely on the new and. beneficial effects I shall produce
by sundry new methods of conducting, applying, and employing water (and
sometimes other fluids) for the general supply of this metropolis, its environs,
and other cities, towns, and places, in a way not liable to produce those public
evils and inconveniences to which waterworks are at present subject, and by
which said new methods of supply many important advantages will be gained
both in a domestic and pecuniary point of view; and, secondly, on the
hydrostatic application of water (and sometimes other fluids), on my late
patent hydromechanical principle, to an endless variety of new purposes, and
for the production of all such new and beneficial effects as the said new system
of mechanics hath not heretoföre been applied to produce.
I also think it proper here to mention that I claim the sole exercise under
this Patent'
of two great improvements in the machinery I use in this
important branch of this Invention, which is as follows, viz Instead of
using in all cases, as I do at present, the simple cylinder and piston as my
grand operator, I use on some occasions' and for 'some peculiar purposes n
compound apparatus, consisting of a plurality of hollow cylinders, so fitted
and equipped as to slide water and air tight one within another, exactly on the
principle of an opera glass or common hand télescope, and by which principle
of construction I am enabled to make machines for raising and Jowering with
great expedition the most ponderous or trifling weights to a prodegious height,
either by the injection of water, air, or any other solid of elastic fluid, and by
which new application of fluid pressure I am enabled to construct machinery
of the most surprising nature for any purpose whatsoever where expeditious
elevation and depression is required, such as 'signals at sea, machines for
hoisting lights, beacons, telegraphis, &c. &c.; and for an endless variety of
other purposes of great public importance."
And, secondly, I claim the sole use and exercise in the application of this
hydrostatic principle, "whether to purposes already known or not, a method I
have discovered of preventing the bad effects of rust in all parts of any
machinery subject to be injured thereby.

page_text: Thirdly, by the help of the above-mentioned nyaromechanical application of
Huid elements and the introduction of a new principle of floodgates, cleansing
sluices, and new method of constructing 'canals, aqueducts, floats, docks, har-
bours, and every other species of open waterworks, I am enabled to produce
many important effects, and to promote and accomplish vast variety. of new
objects, highly valuable to the trade, commerce, and navigable pursuits of this
empire and which have never heretofore been publickly put in practice.
And lastly, from the general universal conduct and application of water and
other fluids on the principles above alluded to I am enabled to transfer the
effects of the motion of the tide, waterfalls, or any other stationed elementary
or other force, from the place wherever I can collect it to any distance (within the
limits of practicability), for the establishment of general and collective-depôts
or magazines of power to be retailed out for any known purpose whatsoever, I
mean, so as to cause water or other fluids to become both the primum mobile
and the intermediate mechanical agent between the power and the weight in
all kinds of machinery where force and motion are required; and which said
new hydrostatic principle of applying water to drive machinery I mean to
introduce into any part or the whole of this metropolis, and all other cities,
towns, and places where water can be conducted by pipes and mains, either
from distant or adjacent stations, so as to form general depôts of force, as
above mentioned.
I now proceed to explain the first proposition stated, and in order to which
it will be necessary to observe that the present supply of water for the
Middlesex side of the metropolis only depends on no less than nine distinct
and unconnected companies' works, all carried on under as many interests and
independant capitals, and the whole of them, instead of forcing their water
into one collective main and ramification of pipes that would cause an
universal participation at all times and at all points of the collective influx,
each company employ an independent supply of each respective district or line
of service, so that when any accident happens to the engines or other works of
any of these separate means of supply all the tenants are left wholly without
water during the period of reparation, as no help can be afforded them except
by cutting off their pipes from one companie's works and attaching them to the
This is a
mains of some other who happen to serve in the same district.
circumstance not only of great inconvenience to the inhabitants, but also
occasions great damage to the pavement by being constantly disturbed. By
this injudicious method of supply, and the preposterous dimensions and
unnecessary number of those pipes now adopted, the town is not only menaced
with an overthrowing deluge in case of accident, but the pavement in all the

page_text: principal streets is constantly kept (by a vast number of leaky joints and other
causes), in such a perpetual state of delapidation as to cause not only serious
inconvenience to each inhabitant in their dwellings by continual blockades and
stoppages, but also throws in the way of public commerce at all seasons the
most insuporable difficulties, insomuch as to occasion both serious dangers
and alarming apprehension in the public mind. These circumstances, added
to the enormous waste of expence both in the length of pipes, their dimen-
sions, and all the retinue of contingent expences attending the works that
may be avoided by a better plan, leave the most ample and obvious scope
for those improvements I have in view under this branch of my Patent,
namely:
First, the introduction of a method of supply that will obviate the unqua-
Jified and ruinous competitorship which now exists, and so evidently threatens
the public with those consequences which attend heavy failures in these
undertakings.
Secondly, the total prevention of accumulated fires and the calamitous
consequences occasioned by them, and to render fire insurance wholly unneces-
sary. To save a great portion of the present expences that attend the prime
cost of these works, and by a more judicious principle and permanence of
workmanship cause both the repairs and the cost and inconvenience of them
to be very unfrequent and comparatively trifling to what is at present felt.
And lastly, to give to the public in this branch of my Patent, by an
universal and constant supply of water at all points and to a high and com-
manding altitude, a great variety of domestic and other conveniences never
before possessed through the medium of public waterworks.
In the introduction of this interesting reformation into. this conspicuous
branch of domestic dependence, I shall not add to the existing costs and the
future accruing contingent expences, either by additional pipes or by aug-
menting their present extraordinary dimensions, nor by adding those constant
new excavations which have already caused the platform of every street to be
little better than a continued quicksand, but I produce the improvements I
propose by a conduct just the contrary, because, instead of continuing the use
of the nine sets of mains and pipes above mentioned, and laying them side by
side, and crossing and piling them to an unfathomable extent, both in length
and a wild capacity of bore, I mean to take the whole of them away, and rid
the streets of a nuisance both so injurious to the public and so degrading to
those who have placed them there, and in lieu of all these I shall introduce
one single principle main only down the middle of every street, forming
transverse and other junctions universally with each other, just like the

page_text: thoroughfare street themselves, throughout the whole circuit or extent of
service, be that what it may, so as to form no more, collectively, than one
universal cavity or channel for the water's circulation in all directions, whether
direct or retrograde, and which collective main I can then both charge and
discharge universally at all points, or perform both indiscriminately, either by
a single outlet and inlet or by an endless plurality of them. By this principle
and this capacity I am enabled to inject water into this main for the whole
service, either by a single set of pumps or by an indefinite number stationed
where I and how I please, and whether I adopt the former or the latter every
individual point of service will participitate of the general influx for domestic
or other purposes comprehended in this Patent. From this general and
collective main I branch all my smaller ramifications for the individual supply
for every purpose I may adopt, and by the introduction of a number of
capacious air vessels or leaded pistons acting up and down in cylinders, both in
the vecinity of my engines and the neighbourhood of any other scene of action,
I cause a heavy pressure upon the water in my said mains and pipes to be
constantly kept up equal, if I find it necessary (for my purpose) for the
pressure of a great plurality of atmospheres, and which pressure I regulate by
safety valves, placed either in the said air vessels or cylinders with leaded
pistons themselves, or in any other proper parts of the collective main and.
pipes above described. This my said collective main so equipped will then
constitute a great and universal depôt or magazine of hydrostatic force,
sufficient to become the primum mobile to any machinery, or for any other
bydrostatic operation I may adopt, and which force I can draw off and retail
out for any purpose of machinery the same as I do water for domestic and
other uses.
The period of time allowed by the present water companies for
individual supply is on an average not more than a single hour out of twenty-
four per diem all the year round, and which is performed by opening the cocks
three times in a week, a circumstance which not only in many instances
occasions considerable inconvenience to the inhabitants, but almost constantly
precludes the possibility of a instant supply of water in case of accidents of
fire, and other instances where it is desireable and advantageous to obtain water
on short notice, and which limited time for supply it will hereunder be made
appear occasions a considerable unnecessary augmentation to the interior bore
or dimensions of all the pipes, cocks, &c., and to remedy which objections, the
unnecessary costs and other inconveniences, I cause my water to be always on,
and my mains and pipes constantly. and universally capable of both influx and
reflux at all points, subject to the controul of stopcocks, valves, &c., for the
purpose of suspending the water's run when necessary for repairs, &c. From

page_text: this property of having the water always on, and liable to issue at all points of
discharge constantly, instead of being limited to a twenty-fourth part of every
day, as already stated, it must be obvious, from the theory by which the
necessary bore of my pipes must be determined, that my dimensions will be
required less than the former in the same proportion; which is as one to
twenty-four in favor of my principle, that is to say, my simple main constantly
running will only require one twenty-fourth part of the dimensions of those
limited in their service, as above, stated, to deliver out an equal quantity of
water in any mean period of time, say in the twenty-four hours in each day,
because it must be recollected that the whole of the nine individual mains
above alluded to only constitute one collective one, and the whole service must
be just the same, whether this service be performed by twenty-four pipes of equal
bore running one hour, or by one only running twenty-four hours without inter-
mission, as the ultimate result will be the same. This statement. being allowed,
and I think the truth of it cannot be disproved, it must be evident that my
pipes being much smaller in dimensions than those now used, nearly in the
above proportion, not only much expence will be saved, but from the con-
traction of their bore great and superior strength to resist pressure both in
themselves and in all their junctions will be obtained in favor of my plan; not
only in the pipes themselves will their vast advantage accrue, but also propor-
tionably in all cocks, plugs, and other appendages of every description, and
these pipes being so much less in their dimensions will be easily manufactured
of such a superior strength, and so permanently jointed, as to last for even cen-
turies without repairs; and with respect to the ultimate cost, I will venture to
affirm that had I no other object in view but barely the ordinary supply of
water I should be able to accomplish all the needful in the supply of this great
metropolis at less than even one sixth part of the cost of the present methods,
both with respect to the first cost and all future contingent expences of every
description, and when these are all added to the saving that will accrue on
account of street pavement hindrance to commerce and all other concomitant
causes of public loss, the whole will amount to many millions in the space of
twenty years in favor of the collective interest. From what has been already
remarked, the principle of my improvement in this section of my Patent;
and-the advantages deriveable, therefrom, must appear too obvious to require
any farther.comment ;. but for the sake of. being more clearly understood I
offer hereunder one plain demonstrative example, viz' :-
In addition to the savings in the dimensions. of my pipe already proved, the
following will'shew the comparative savings in their length,. that. is. to. say;
suppose the Chelsea Company and the West Middlesex had (which is partly

page_text: the case at present) to send their water up to the New River Head at Islington,;
and that, vice versa, the New River Company and: the East: London, had, to
drive their water in a contrary direction up to the station of the two former
companies' works, there would then be employed four distinct mains, one for
each company, which would, without any reference to their, ramifications,
involve for such a service near forty miles of principle pipe,. with all their.
respective retinue of cocks, plugs, junctions, &c. &c., attendant, thereon (and
which plurality of joints are a very objectionable part of all waterworks where
they cannot be avoided, and to remove the necessity for them must be con-
sidered a conspicuous improvement were no other objects ascertained). Then
let it on the contrary be supposed that a compound general main on my plan
is substituted in the place of all the four former ones, and into which the
engines at each of the stations mentioned shall force their water.. in at the
extremity next them, then one main only would be employed, and three of
them rendered useless, and by which not only about: thirty miles of pipe would
be saved, with all the cocks, joinings, plugs, and other appendages, but likewise,
all the other costs of excavation, laying down, jointing, .taking up and relaying
pavement, &c. &c., which, on the whole, will amount to a prodigious saving.
To all this store of occonomical improvement there will be to add the reduc-
tions produced annually in the cost of repairs, attendants, office expences, and
every other contingent incumbrance by which the aggregatè .expenditure is
increased. And farther; by the introduction of this new method of supply it
must be obvious; from the above example, that in proportion to the savings
made in the ultimate length of pipes employed, I shall lessen very considerably
the momentum or length of the water's traverse, and consequently reduce the
strain upon the pipes in a proportion equal to the diminution of, the quantity
of friction, a circumstance in waterworks of considerable importance.
These remarks, and an attentive reference to the above.examples, must
clearly shew that like advantages will be gained throughout the whole of this
collective channel of conveyance by dispensing with all the other companies'
mains, and beyond the limits of their extent. of service, or whether confined to
the present means of influx, or under any unlimited encrease of supplying:
pumps. Presuming now that I have made myself thoroughly understood with
regard to the principal merits of this part of my Invention, and as clearly
evinced the obvious simplicity of my method of supply, and likewise its self-
apparent utility in favor of the public, and having developed the principle and
the organic arrangements I shall pursue, I shall leave the strength, dimensions,
and manner of joining all my mains and pipes to write their own practical specifi-
cation, as circumstances and varied cases in a work like this will not admit of

page_text: any confinement minute of such an enterprize as I have engaged. I think it
proper here to add, before I conclude this part of my Specification, an obser-
vation or two respecting one of the main objects I have in view in this part of
my Invention, namely, the total prevention of accumulated fires, and those
lamentable and destructive consequences that so frequently occur for want of
an instantaneous supply of water to prevent. This important object will
indisputably be much within my power to obtain by the heavy force of water
I shall be able to cause to issue instantaneously at any part of that collective
and general main I have described, as it must be obvious that when I have
prepared such a constant universal supply of water, and always under a heavy
pressure, that will issue with a violent jet at all times and at all points in an
instant, preparations for extinguishing may be at all parts adopted for this
purpose, either in any part of buildings in the streets or elsewhere, so that
when an accident by fire happens water can be immediately commanded to
extinguish it. And, as it must appear that on most occasions a very trifling
quantity of water applied in time would prevent much mischief, there can be
but little doubt of ultimate success, and sanguine hopes may be entertained
that by the good effects of the means above proposed the public safety will be
restored to perfect certainty, while at the same time the enormous expence now
attending fire insurance will be partly, if not fully, obviated, a circumstance
not only worthy of individual, but likewise of national consideration.
Having thus shewn how I produce the new effects intended by the first pro-
position of my Patent, I proceed to explain the nature and peculiar merits and
advantages comprehended in the second, namely, the hydrostatic applica-
tion and employment on my new discovered principle of hydromechanics,
to accomplish all such farther new and beneficial effects and objects as
the said principle hath not heretofore been publickly applied to produce.
But were I to attempt to delineate or describe the organic arrangements
or peculiar methods of construction of all the instruments the pursuit and
future application of a principle so endless and extraordinary in its nature
will, of necessity, cause me to have recourse to, I must unavailingly write
and explain all my lifetime, and have said nothing at the end of it, because
as the said new principle is in its nature and extent infinite, its arrangements
and combinations must be so too; and as I have already declared that I mean
to rest on the new effects of this principle as my claim to novelty, and not on
the organization of the component means, I shall not attempt any detail of
the latter. but leave my proceedings in a work which must be altogether public
to give its own occular exemplification as to the organic means, which I repeat
are infinitely variable. But, notwithstanding, I think it proper to state that

page_text: in cases where I find it best for my hydrostatic purposes I shall in all my
public works introduce an especial main, with its ramifications, for hydrome-
chanical purposes only, and another for doméstic, as already described; and in
this case I shall cause the spent water issuing from my hydrostatic machinery to
be conveyed by pipes into the domestic main for domestic use, allowing such a
portion of the unspent hydrostatic pressure to be continued in the domestic
duct as will be amply sufficient to raise the water up to any altitude I may
require, and both mains being constructed with air vessels and so forth, as
described in the first section, it must be obvious that by communicating stop-
cocks between these mains I can, if necessary, render the pressure in them
both equal, and both these mains may be charged either by the same machinery
at the fountain head or by distinct and separate engines, as practice may
suggest. And when I can state that I am daily in the habit of applying
water without any difficulty, in my hydrostatic machinery, under a pressure
amounting to more than an altitude of twenty thousand feet, I think this will
demonstrate both the vast utility and extent of this extraordinary principle,
when applied in this way. It must be likewise sufficient to shew that by such
an accumulated magazine of power I shall be enabled to drive machinery of
every description, for any purpose, and of any magnitude whatever, such as
grinding, turning, sawing, planing, pressing, forging, stamping, grasping, and
for every known or unknown purpose whatsoever, without exception, either
with respect to construction, use, or situation, because I shall be able to under-
take any process calculated for stationed action in any situation, either in
towns or elsewhere, wheresoever I can convey a pipe of but very inconsiderable
dimensions. But I must not omit to state that the general cranage of goods
in both public and private situations is one of my principle intended objects;
although I claim every hydrostatic application of water issuing from mains and
pipes as above described, whether to produce effects already accomplished by
hand injections or otherwise.
The improvement I have stated in the preamble of this Specification
to have occurred to me for the prevention of the bad effects of rust in
all my iron materials depends on my lining all my iron cylinders and
covering my iron pistons with sheet copper, brass, or any other not
rustable metal, and this I perform by a process very similar to the method
used by the opticians in making their brass tubes for sliding telescopes,
namely, by drawing through a machine as wire is drawn.
The other improvement also mentioned in said preamble, namely, the com-
pound apparatus for elevating and depressing light or heavy weights, or any other
objects on the principle as there stated of the opera glass or common sliding tele-
scope, I sometimes perform by drawn tubes mounted as above, and caused to slide

page_text: one within another, perfectly air and water tight, and sometimes by using cylinders
of cast metal, borne and turned in the usual way; but when I have to elevate
light weights to a very high altitude, I uniformly adopt the former on account
of lightness. By these elevations it must be easily observed that I can, with
very great ease' and expedition, hoist and lower any light weight to any required
altitude; without either difficulty or danger; for instance; suppose I cause five
hundred tubes of five feet in length to slide one within another perfectly air
and water tight as above stated; and add a bottom to my external one, and
after which I join to this bottom by'a proper junction a small tube, just as I
now 'do to my hydrostatic opifix; this tube at its contrary end being then
joined to and communicating with a copious vessel of condensed air (without
water, for the sake of levity), with a stopcock between, it must be obvious that
when this cock is opened, and the condensed air admitted into the bottom of
this system of tubes, that its expansive force will slide them all out in succes-
sion till eacli of 'them reaches its stop, leaving the exterior one standing upon
its bottom, just resembling an opera glass or a common telescope' shot out and
placed upright. upon its largest end, which, being. securely fixed, becomes the
base of the machines. Then it must appear that when all these tubes are slided
out of their ultimate bounds, the aggregate altitude will be 5×500=2500
feet, and which can be performed, if required, in a few seconds of time.
A 'due attention to this improvement will. evince its great utility in an
endless variety of applications; as, for instance; the necessity for erecting
costly lighthouses for nautical security will be in a measure unpreceded, as
lights of any description, signals; telegraphs, &c. &c., can be hoisted to
an immence altitude, and lowered from the same with surprizing expedition..
I can also construct apparatus on this principle that will prevent ships from
sinking, even if the whole of their bottoms be lost, wrecks raised or destroyed;.
and for military purposes I know no end of the application of this won-
derful and unfathomable principle, as bridges, walls, towers, gates, trees, or
any other obstacle can be removed or destroyed with the utmost ease and
expedition, with little trouble in preparation, noise, or cost.
Goods and every
kind of light or the most ponderous weights can be raised and lowered to and
from warehouses of every description, both with that perfect safety and
expedition by no other means attainable, by the methods I propose, without
either rope, chain, pulley, gib, or any crane apparatus like those now used.
Ships may be launched; lifted on to land, hoisted in docks, on building slips,
for repairs, or the most stubborn planks and timbers bent into any curve.
masts taken out or put in, 'and' innumerable' other processes accomplished in'
shipbuilders' yards by apparatus on this. principle too tedious to name.

page_text: I am more profuse in the recital of these particulars than perhaps becomes a
Specification, but my object in it is to shew the incompatibility of my resting
the security of this. Patent upon minute organic definition, and to evince the
propriety of my declining it, and to shew also that this. Patent does not only
differ in its nature, and in its boundless extent of claim to novelty, but also
in its claim to merit and superior utility compared with any other Patent: ever
before sanctioned by the legislative authority of any nation.
The next particular is the conducting, management, and application of water
in open channels, aided by this hydrostatic principle mentioned, and some new
improvements in constructing flood-gates and other necessary machinery, so as
to produce new effects and advantages. never before attempted in any open
waterworks, and which improvement consists as follows, namely:-On,a method
of constructing canals, aqueducts, floats, docks, harbours, or any other navi-
gable or other waterworks, so as they can be easily cleansed and cleared of all
their mud at any period, and at a very trifling expence. Also of causing
canals, aqueducts, or other navigable water channels, by a particular shape
and manner of construction, to be capable of having caused in them (by the
application of machinery between the extremities of any length of level)
artificial currents in reverse directions, so that vessels of any description can
be caused to float without either sails, wind, tide, towage, or oars, and with
any velocity required; also a method of applying hydromechanical works. in
canals, aqueducts, and so forth, so as to enable vessels to be lifted and lowered
Likewise. in. a
from one level to another, without locks or any loss of water.
method of constructing float. gates for locks, basons; harbours, and so forth,
on a. balance. principle, so that they will sustain the pressure. of any unlimited
altitude of water on their reverse surfaces: with. an equal degree of security,
both with respect to their office. and their strength to resist the most. consider-
able pressure. that can be laid upon them, and under which. pressure the said
gates can. be opened and shut. by a. very trifling power, both when there is an
equal head.on cach: side,. or when. the head and the pressure of it. is on one side
only. Canals, aqueducts, docks,, floats, basons,, ponds, harbours,. &c., which
can be cleansed, at pleasure, I construct, as follows;. viz-Supposing them to
communicate. with the sea, or any tide or river. from which they can be filled
and emptied (for instance, say the river Thames); I cause. the water channels to
be excavated; in any shape: best. calculated. for the current of, a cleansing process,
but whether in the shape of two: canals running parallel to each other, and
forming a conflux at their. summit; or in any other shape, the legs must form
each a separate junction with the river, so that the water may be caused to
run in at one extremity and out at the other alternately, when required. At

page_text: each of these junctions (with the river) I fix a pair of floodgates, and also
another pair at the summit or conflux of the legs; and now, suppose that
when I want to cleanse, all these gates are open when the tide flows, then the
canals, docks, &c. will, at high water of course, be filled to the high-water
level, and at which time all the said gates shall then be shut before the ebb of
the tide begins, except one of the pairs commanding one of the junctions
with the river, say the gate A, then at the next ebb the leg A will, of course,
be left empty, and B will be full. Then, suppose the gates at the summit or
conflux are suddenly opened, all the water in the leg B will rush down the
leg A with great violence, and cleanse it of all lodgments of mud, &c., and it
must, from this example, be obvious that by shutting all the gates except B at
the next high water the leg B may be cleansed in the same manner by a vice
versa current of the water, and thus both legs can be washed reciprocally
in any kind of open navigable channels, whenever necessity calls for it, by this
easy and simple process.
To cause artificial currents in navigable waterworks as mentioned, I pursue
the following plan, viz, I cause the shape of canals and all other waterworks
as aforesaid to be made exactly on the same or on a similar principle and
shape with those last described,. and for the better and more casy comprehen-
sion of my meaning I will limit the shape of canals to that of the cistern of the
paper maker's engine, used for washing and beating rags; and now, supposing
the first or summit level of any canal or other float (of any, even a plurality of
miles in length) to be thus formed with a bank wharf or wall of separation, to
form two channels of circulation, as above described, and floodgates fixed in
the three stations, as in the foregoing instance, i. e., the two gates A and B at
the head of the second or lower level, and another pair at the conflux formed
at the summit or conflux extremity just as before described. Then suppose
that another conflux channel is cut between the legs at the station where the
gates A and B are fixed, but a little within them; then when the said gates
are shut the water channel on the first level will, as before stated, resemble the
paper engine's cistern, and the water contained therein will be capable of
moving in a circulatory manner up one leg and down the other, just like the
water and rags, in the cistern alluded to, when any force giving it that motion
is applied. Now suppose that a waterwheel with floats (instead of the paper
beating roller, where knives are fixed, and which moves the water and rags in
this circulating manner constantly in two opposite directions) is fixed in the
conflux junction between the legs near A and B, so as to fill the space like the
cut way of any other float board or ground stream waterwheel, it must be evident
that, supposing the floodgates at the summit to be open and this wheel turned

page_text: about in either one direction or the other, the whole body of the water in both
these legs would soon be put in motion up one leg and down the other with a
velocity according to this wheel, which I denominate a shifter, is turned, and
consequently boats, barges, or other vessels or floating matters will, of course,
be carried in both directions at the same time with that velocity with which
the said wheel or shifter is turned, and which velocity I shall give them by the
application of the tide's motion, steam engines, or any other primum mobile
power I can collect as best adapted for my purpose, and by which engines or
other apparatus I may adopt as my acting mechanical agent. I shall also
work the injectors for my hydromechanical machinery, by which the boards or
other vessels, &c. are raised and lowered from one level to another; and such
engines, in addition to driving shifters, pumps, injectors, &c., I cause, where I
find it necessary, to perform the offices of public waterworks, by raising water
either for domestic or hydromechanical purposes of every description, as exem-
plified under the head of this Specification, or for any other purpose that
machinery can accomplish on my hydromechanical principle or otherwise.
And I must not omit to mention a farther circumstance of great importance
to the public, and which is, that I can engage on my hydrostatic principle to
cause one steam engine, waterwheel, tide mill, or any other competent power,
however distantly stationed from the scene of action where I may wish to retail
this power out, to perform all the business above alluded to, or any other known
mechanical operation, on the banks of any canal, aqueduct, dock, bason, &c., as
above mentioned, let the length of the line or the number of different levels bo
what they may. And also I can branch from my general main (so carried in the
line of any canal for the uses of it as above mentioned) colateral pipes for any
purpose on my hydromechanical principle in any part thereof, or to any dis-
tance within the limits of human posibility. A due consideration of what is
advanced in this section must readily shew also that the property of cleansing
before described will in this instance of canals of different levels apply, because,
let it be supposed that when a canal on this construction is completed and
requires cleansing, that when the canal is full on any level, that the floodgates
at the summit of the first level be shut, and then by opening the gates at A,
this leg will be of course emptied of its water into the lower level on the same
side, and B, on the contrary, will be kept full, and then by opening the summit
gates, as mentioned in the cleansing section, the whole of B's water will rush
down A and completely cleanse it into the lower level, and by a vice versa
application, as in the first example, each level of any canal, whatever may be
its length, may be completely cleansed by the loss of one measure of water, only
even from one extremity of any level of any length to the other. And this

page_text: water. in its descent from one level to another I shall cause to turn a water-
wheel or work some other hydromechanical apparatus, to perform some work
or other best calculated for such periodical application; and in situations where
the redundant water from the sources of supply in any navigable river, canal,
or other navigable water channels as above mentioned, will work a waterwheel
or produce any other primum mobile force I mean this redundant power to
perform (where I can have it) all my mechanical operations at the respective
head of each level, such as shifting, hoisting, lowering, and so forth, as already
described, so that no power may be lost.
The method of lifting vessels and other floating substances on canals and
other waterworks I perform as follows:-At the head of the lower level I build
a wall up to the surface line of the upper one, and which wall forms the dam
of the latter; and in the wall at the end of the upper waterway I fix a sluice
or gates, for the purpose of emptying the water into the lower one when I
cleanse, or for any other purpose. I then fix a strong frame or railway a
proper height above the upper level sufficient to allow any vessel or other
article to be slung in a cradle when raised above the water's surface and the
dam wall of the aforesaid level, and this frame or railway is as wide from side
to side as the canal itself, so as to represent a common railway supported by
legs or otherwise. This frame is continued in its length so as to oversail the
wall to a distance on each side, and over both the levels of the canal to any
length required for my purpose. I then place a truck with four wheels, to run
upon this railway in the manner of a railway waggon, and on which truck I
place one, or a plurality if necessary, of my hydromechanical apparatus, con-
structed in most instances on the improved principle for elevating already
described; but in others I may use the common cylender and piston in pre-
ference. I have also a cradle to receive the boat, barge, or other matters to
be raised or lowered from one level to the other, sunk to the bottom of the
canal for the reception of the boat, &c. To this cradle are fixed four sling
chains, resembling those put to the plank of a common pair of scales, so that
when the boat, &c., either in the upper or lower level, has found its bed upon
the cradle (supposing it for hoisting), the truck above and the apparatus upon
it is wheeled along the railway over the lower level, and stationed exactly over
the cradle below, and then by chains or rods sufficiently strong the cradle with
the boat upon it is connected with the apparatus on the truck above, and the
machine is ready for action. The injecting pipes of the apparatus being then
screwed on and the injecting pumps set to work, either by manual, aimual, or
elementary force, the boat, barge, or other matter on the cradle is raised till
the bottom of the latter will pass over the wall above described; and then the

page_text: truck being moved on its, wheels along the railway till it reaches its station
over the upper level, by discharging the water from the apparatus the boat,
barge, or other matter is lowered into the water of the upper level and floated
off the cradle, which will then be left ready to receive (if that should first
happen) another boat, &c. to be lowered into the under level, and to accom-
plish this the boat, being brought into the cradle as before, is connected with
the apparatus, which will then be already in its place, and being hoisted up, as
in the other instance, till the cradle will pass over the head wall as before, the
truck, boat, and apparatus being then wheeled back to its first station over
the lower level, the cradle and its load is lowered down with perfect ease and
safety into the lower level, where the cradle is again left for repeated action,
and thus the process will go on without any loss of water from one level to the
other, a circumstance of great importance in many instances to navigation.
Lastly, the floodgates I mean to use in all these hydrostatic works I con-
struct on a balance or equilibrium principle, so that they will, under all
circumstances of pressure, not only sustain that pressure to any amount of
altitude on either side reciprocally, while the reverse side is totally unpressed
upon, but also in any case, whether such hydrostatic force be all on one side, or
on the other, or equal on both sides, the gates will either be kept completely
shut or opened in an instant by a small hydromechanical apparatus, that can be
put in motion by the the slightest force. These gates I construct as under,
viz:-Instead of projecting from the stem or hollow posts of any pair of gntes
only one wing, as in the common way, I cause two wings to be affixed to each
of them at right angles with each other in a quadrant from, both of course
projecting in their radial sweep half the diameter of the waterway, so as to
bite water-tight when they meet. These wings I easily make finer than any
other gate by bracing them to each other, so that they mutually support and
strengthen each other; and when I fix them I place the stem or hollow post
in a line with the wall of the water channel in the usual way; but it must be
obvious that the gates cannot revolve if the walls of the watercourse are built
in a straight line. I therefore build my walls at the back of each post in a
semicircular form, just to the radial sweep of the wing from the centre of each
post. These sweeps I make so true that the wing of the gate will turn nearly
water-tight in it in each direction. Now it must be obvious, that when these
gates are shut, the two supernumery wings of each gate will shut up the two
circular channels as sweeps above described; and the water's effort to pass that
way, and the equality of the wings, will cause those in the sweep and those
which shut the channel to be equally pressed upon, whether the head be on one
side or the other, and consequently will be always kept in equilibrio, let the