IMPROVEMENTS IN PASSING BOATS AND OTHER BODIES FROM ONE LEVEL TO ANOTHER
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
GRAHAME, of Nantes, in the Kingdom of France, but now of Suffolk Street,
Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, 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 Thirteenth day of May, in the sixth year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Grahame, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Thomas Grahame, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Thomas Grahame, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN PASSING BOATS AND OTHER BODIES
FROM ONE LEVEL TO ANOTHER;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Thomas Grahame, 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
Thomas Grahame, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say -
In order more clearly to explain the working of the machinery I shall take
a particular case, and shall suppose that the total difference of levels or clivity
to be overcomo is thirty feet, in the line of the canal; I shall also suppose
that it is intended to fit this clivity for the ascent or descent of common
passage boats, five feet six inches in breadth, seventy feet in length, and
limited to a load of sixty passengers, so as to have when fully loaded an
extreme draught of water, keel included, not more than two feet, so as to keep
the keel about six inches from the bottom of the tank; that the tanks are
seventy-three feet in length, six feet in breadth, and filled two feet six inches
in water; that the weight of a tank with its load, including the suspending
chains, is forty tons, and that the gross weight of the two tanks and dead
weights, counterbalanced the one against the other, is therefore one hundred
and twenty tons, and that the force or weight required to work this machinery
and to cause the lower tanks and dead weights to ascend, and the upper tank
and dead weight to descend, and thus change their positions, is thirty hundred
weights, or a ton and a half, taken from the lower load or added to the upper.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is intended to represent a canal carried forward on both levels
to the point where the clivity or difference of level is to be passed, and that
two parallel small canals or aqueducts, of a breadth of six feet and of a depth
of two feet six inches, are carried forward on the upper level to the edge of
the clivity to be passed; that these aqueducts are fitted with flood gates so as
to prevent the water of the upper level falling over the clivity into the lower
level of the canal; two parallel dry cuts or troughs, of dimensions sufficient to
receive the tanks before described, and provided with drains or conduits for
voiding any water that may fall into them, are constructed at the bottom of
the clivity a lower level in two prolonged lines with the upper aqueducts, to a
distance of seventy-three feet six inches (the full length of the proposed tanks
and of the overhanging flanges after described) from the bottom of the clivity;
that at this distance the dry cuts or troughs are met or joined by two parallel
small canals or aqueducts, carried from the lower canal level and of dimensions
similar to the two aqueducts procceding from the upper canal, reach, or level,

page_text: and like them secured at the extremity with flood gates, so as to prevent the
water from the lower level running into the dry troughs before mentioned j
such would be the form of the canal before the pillars, tanks, and counterpoise
weights are placed, as shewn in the bird's-eye sketch annexed, and shewn at
Figure 1. Three rows of iron or wooden pillars or beams are to be erected
along and to form the sides of the dry cuts or troughs, rising to a height
equal with the top of the walls forming the sides of the two upper aqueducts
before described, and which arrangement constitutes an important feature of
my Invention, one row on each side of and one row separating the dry cuts
or troughs; each row of beams or pillars is perforated and traversed by two
rods or arms of iron seventy-three feet in length, separated by a distance of
thirty feet; on these rods there are fixed, as on an axis, a number of wheels
corresponding to the number of pillars, a wheel for each pillar (in which
grooves are formed), for the play of the wheels (see Figure 2), giving a front
view of one of the pillars; an endless flat chain is made to revolve round each
of these wheels, the application of which constitutes another important
feature of my Invention. It is obvious that, in case two weights equal in
amount were suspended to the endless chain, Figure 3, one at the point A, at
the top of the pillar, and the other at the point B, at the bottom of the pillar,
they would there remain, the one weight counterbalancing the other, and 'all
that would be required in order to bring the upper weight to the lower level
at the point D, and the lower weight to the upper level at the point C, would
be a weight or power sufficient to overcome the friction of the wheels and
chain, over and by which the weights are suspended. It is on this principle,
and by a series of pillars, wheels, and endless chains, that it is proposed to
suspend, counterbalance, and put in motion tanks in which the boats are to be
raised or lowered over canal clivities or differences of level, there being two
tanks, one at the upper level, and the other at the lower level.
In the sketch, Figure 4 (1, 1, 1,) represent three pillars or beams of twenty-
one inches, and of a total length of thirty-five feet three inches, proportioned
as follows:-One foot six inches from the top to the surface or outside circum-
ference of the upper wheel, one foot thence to the centre or axis of the upper
wheel, thirty feet from the axis of the upper wheel to the centre or axis of the
lower wheel, and two feet nine inches from the centre or axis of the lower wheel'
to the floor on which the tank rests when at the bottom of the clivity, in all
thirty-five feet three inches; these measurements are independent of any length
of pillars which may be driven or built in the lower level or bottom of the
clivity. (2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2,) mark the six wheels, one near the top and the other
near the bottom of each of the three pillars; these wheels are of a diameter

page_text: of two feet, and extend one inch and a half beyond the outer surfaces of the
pillars; (3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3,) point out the endless chains to which the tanks and
dead counterpoise weights are attached. These chains do not describe a
complete revolution; no portion of these chains ever describes a greater circuit
than thirty feet, that is to say, a distance exactly the same as that of the
clivity or difference of level to be surmounted, or the distance separating the
centres or axis of the wheels over which the chains work. (4, 4,) the two
tanks, the one suspended at the top, the other at the bottom of the clivity;
attached to each of these tanks is a sluice or turncock, fixed at a height
just sufficient when opened to permit the escape of one ton weight of
water; (5, 5) are two long counterpoise dead weights of pig iron, attached
to the bottom of each of which is a small pipe or conduit capable
of containing half a ton or ten hundred weights of water, with the necessary
apparatus for filling or discharging this water. The dead weights are
formed of a pig iron casting in the form of a plank, two feet six inches
in depth and a little above five inches in breadth, extending all along
the outer sides of the outer pillars a continued length of seventy-eight
feet, so that each weighs, with a pipe or conduit when filled with water,
twenty tons, or an amount equal to one-half of the weight of a tank filled with
water. For the equalization of the strain on the wheels and pullies, the two
extremities of these iron dead weights are made to extend a little beyond the
end pillars of each row, or they may be formed a little heavier at each
extremity. The pipes or conduits attached to the said dead weights must
have such a connection with the upper canal water as to be filled therefrom
on turning cocks. (6, 6,) denote two drains or conduits formed to carry off
any water which may fall or be discharged into the dry troughs at the bottom
of the clivity, so as to make the tanks to move clear of water. The total
breadth from outside to outside of the two pillars is eighteen feet, beyond
which the wheels extend one inch and a half on either side, while the dead
counterbalance weights extend six inches beyond the wheels; a shed or house,
of seventy-five feet in length and of a breadth of twenty-four feet, would there-
fore cover in the whole apparatus, leaving walking space all around. The
number of pillars in each row is supposed to be ten, and their breadth on this
line of length to be two feet three inches, so as to leave a space not exceeding
five feet and a half between each pillar. Each pillar must be secured by cross
beams and supports to the adjacent pillars, so that the whole ten pillars may
form a compact and conjoined piece of framework, and the outside pillars may
at the upper part above the wheels have land ties or beams, in order to
counteract any strain. The entire weight necessary to be supported and

page_text: counterbalanced on these thirty pillars would just amount to one hundred and
twenty tons; forty tons being the weight of each of the two tanks filled with
water, and twenty tons the weight of each of the two counterpoise dead
weights. The weight supported by each pillar would be thus exactly four
tons, and this weight would act entirely with a perpendicular or downward
pressure on the pillars.
An apparatus such as has been described being completed and erected, and
that from the end of the upper aqueduct is to have a circular iron flange or
trough of this form, U, extended, say six inches beyond the edge of the clivity
or upper level, the outside of this flange being covered with felt, or some
similar substance, and in like manner at the corresponding extremity of each
tank a similar flange protruded, but on a size of circle sufficient to embrace or
receive the first described flange or trough, so as when conjoined to form a
junction nearly water-tight. A similar apparatus is fitted to the extremity of
the lower aqueducts and to the ends of the tanks joining these aqueducts.
Supposing this machinery completed, and the stop gates of the aqueducts and
the gates of the tanks at top and bottom to be opened, and the whole to be
filled with water, and a boat to be floated into either or both tanks, and the
gates then to be shut, it is obvious that the tanks and dead weight at top
would be suspended and kept in counterbalance by the corresponding tanks
and dead weight below, even after the apparatus for locking or preventing
motion in the machinery when unequally balanced by the empty tanks was
unloosed. To produce a motion whereby the vis inertia of the bodie sand the
friction of the suspending machinery may be overcome, and the positions of the
upper and lower tanks and dead weights may be reversed, is to be accom-
plished in two ways, either by adding to the weight of the upper load, or by
reducing the weight of the lower load. The entire weight moved at each
operation, whether the tanks have boats in them or not, being one hundred
and twenty tons, the addition to the upper load, or subtraction from the lower
load of about a sixtieth of the weight moved, would accomplish all that is
necessary. The tanks and dead weights would then change their positions.
1
Note. There should be attached to the machinery the necessary apparatus
for fixing and rendering the whole immoveable however the weights were dis-
posed, also breaks whereby the rapidity of ascent and descent of the tanks and
dead weights could be regulated; as however the amount of power to be
applied would never vary, and this exact amount would alone be placed at
the disposal of the operators, the breaks would be chiefly precautionary.
Having thus by the aid of the sketches or Drawings pointed out the nature

page_text: of my Invention, I would further observe that it will be evident that the appli-
cation of my improvements will materially depend on circumstances referrable
to the extent of lift, and I would recommend, where the same is of many fect,
that the pillars or posts 1, 1, 1, should be carried up some feet above the level
of the upper canal, in order by cross bracings and framing to the pillars to
strengthen the whole structure and counteract the tendency of inward strain;
but these will readily be adapted by an engineer acquainted with such descrip-
tion of works. I would remark, that I am aware that various propositions
for perpendicular lifts on canals as substitutes for locks for passing boats and
other bodies from one level to another have been before made, and in some
instances carried into effect with considerable advantage. I do not, therefore,
claim the same generally, but do confine myself to the means herein described
for that purpose.
One of such plans was many years ago proposed by
Dr. Anderson, which consisted of two tanks, one acting as a balance to the
other, suspended over a series of wheels, which wheels were necessarily of a
large construction and extending to the centre of the shafts in which the two
tanks worked; a full description of such plan having been published in various
works no further description need be given in this my Specification. Another
plan was proposed by Jonathan Brownhill, of Sheffield, Cutler, for which he
obtained His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster on
or about the First day of May, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight,
such plan consisting of one tank, counterbalanced on each side by boxes or
vessels containing water; such plan, though it offered the advantage of having
the tank (which received the boat or barge and its load) supported or
suspended on each side in place of from the centre, as in Dr. Anderson's plan,
had the disadvantage that only one tank was used, and hence, if a boat or
barge required to be raised, and the tank was above, it must be first lowered,
and vice versâ; in addition to which, the wheels and machinery are raised on
walls high above the level of the canal, in such manner as greatly to encrease
the expense, and cause great danger of vibration.
Now, it will be seen from the foregoing description of my Invention, that
the tanks into and from which the boats or vessels are floated, are suspended
from each side, and at the same time two tanks are used, by which one will
be above when the other is below, and hence, whenever a boat or vessel
requires to be raised or lowered, there will be a tank to receive it, and if there
be one in each direction, there will be tanks to receive them.
And I would have it understood that what I claim as my Invention is, the
arrangement and combination of the pillars 1, 1, (in place of walls), and the

page_text: pplication of endless chains (3), and the mode of constructing and applying
he dead weight pipes (5) as above described, when combined and used in
assing boats and other bodies from one level to another.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Grahame, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of November, in the
year of our Lord 1836, the aforesaid Thomas Grahame came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twelfth day of November, in the year of our Lord One