IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR LIFTING VESSELS OUT OF THE WATER, APPLICABLE VESSELS." ALSO FOR WEIGHING
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph William Wilson, of Wandsworth, in the County
of Surrey, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
LIFTING VESSELS OUT OF THE WATER, APPLICABLE
VESSELS."
ALSO FOR WEIGHING
Scaled the 30th June 1876, and dated the 27th January 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph William Wilson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th January 1876.
JOSEPH WILLIAM WILSON, of Wandsworth, in the County of Surrey, Engineer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR LIFTING VESSELS OUT
OF THE WATER,
APPLICABLE ALSO FOR WEIGHING VESSELS."
In the Specification of a Patent granted to me on the 23rd December 1868,
No. 3927, I described an apparatus for lifting floating vessels out of the water,
using for this purpose the buoyant power of a number of floating cylinders arranged
along each side of the vessel to be lifted and connected to a cradle on which the
vessel rested. My present Invention relates to improved means of effecting the
same object, whereby I am enabled also to weigh the lifted vessel and thus ascertain
its tonnage of displacement. For this purpose I erect in any convenient locality
in the water of a foreshore two rows of water-tight caissons or cylinders, sinking
them if necessary into the soil, and making them of such a height that they extend
above the level of the highest tides; the two rows are sufficiently wide apart to
admit between them the broadest vessel intended to be lifted. On each of these
caissons I mount a strong pulley or a pair of strong pullies, over which I pass ropes
or chains attached at the one end to a water-tight vessel or tank guided to ascend
or descend freely within the caisson, and at the other end to one of a set of trans-
verse girders forming a cradle for the reception of the vessel to be lifted. I provide
a reservoir, or several reservoirs, containing sufficient water to charge all the sus-
pended tanks, which communicate with them by pipes provided with suitable
valves or cocks, and I prefer to make each of those pipes with a downward bend
at the one end and an upward bend at the other, so that they remain always
charged with water, and thus when the valves are opened no time is lost in the
commencement of the outflow however long the pipes may be.
I also provide a
set of pumps, having suction pipes connected to the bottoms of all the caissons and
discharge pipes leading to the reservoir or reservoirs above mentioned. And in the
Price 6d1

page_text: bottom of each of the suspended tanks I provide a valve which can be opened from
above.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-The suspended tanks being empty
and the cradle being submerged, the vessel to be lifted is floated in between the
two rows of caissons immediately over the cradle. Water is then allowed to flow
from the reservoirs into the suspended tanks until they become sufficiently loaded
to overbalance the weight of the vessel, and the tanks then descending within the
caissons raise the cradle and vessel. By adjusting the flow of water to the several
tanks their respective lifting powers may be suited to the weights of the various
sections of the vessel which they have to counterbalance, and thus the strain may
be equalised throughout the length of the cradle and vessel.
For the purpose of weighing the vessel each tank is provided with a float or
gauge which indicates the quantity or weight of water in the tank, and these
weights being added together give the total weight or displacement tonnage of the
vessel. When this is to be ascertained with great accuracy the pullies may
temporarily be poised on knife edges instead of their ordinary bearings. When the
vessel is to be lowered again the tank valves are opened, permitting the water to
flow out of the tanks into the caissons, whereupon the cradle and vessel sink down
into the water until the vessel floating can be moved away. The water discharged
into the caissons is pumped back to the reservoirs, sc that the lifting operation can
be repeated. I find it convenient to erect along the rows of caissons stages or
platforms, which serve to connect them strongly together and steady them in
position, and also to give access to the working parts and to furnish stages for
workmen employed on the lifted vessel, and the reservoirs above mentioned may be
formed in such stages or platforms. I find it also advantageous to provide the
pipes leading to the several tanks with jointed parts, so that their inlet mouths
may be elevated or depressed as required in the reservoir for the purpose of
equalising the flow through the long and the short lengths of pipe,
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Joseph William Wilson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st July 1876.
JOSEPH WILLIAM WILSON, of Wandsworth, in the County of Surrey, Engineer.
6: IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR LIFTING VESSELS OUT OF THE WATER,
APPLICABLE ALSO FOR WEIGHING VESSELS."
In the Specification of a Patent granted to me on the 23rd December 1868,
No. 3927, I described an apparatus for lifting floating vessels out of the water,
using for this purpose the buoyant power of a number of floating cylinders arranged
along each side of the vessel to be lifted and connected to a cradle on which the
vessel rested. My present Invention relates to improved means of effecting the
same object, whereby I am enabled also to weigh the lifted vessel and thus ascertain
its tonnage or displacement. For this purpose I erect in any convenient locality in
the water of a foreshore two rows of water-tight caissons or cylinders, sinking them
if necessary into the soil, and inaking them of such a height that they extend
above the level of the highest tides; the two rows are sufficiently wide apart to
admit between them the broadest vessel intended to be lifted. On each of these
caissons I mount a strong pulley or a pair of strong pulleys, over which I pass ropes
or chains, attached at the one end to a water-tight vessel or tank guided to ascend
or descend freely within the caisson, and at the other end to one of a set of trans-
verse girders forming a cradle for the reception of the vessel to be lifted. I provide
a reservoir or several reservoirs containing sufficient water to charge all the sus-
pended tanks, which communicate with them by pipes provided with suitable
valves or cocks, and I prefer to make each of those pipes with a downward bend
at the one end and an upward bend at the other so that they remain always

page_text: charged with water, and thus when the valves are opened no time is lost in the
cominencement of the outflow however long the pipes may be. I also provide a
set of pumps having suction pipes connected to the bottoms of all the caissons and
discharge pipes leading to the reservoir or reservoirs above mentioned. And in the
bottom of each of the suspended tanks I provide a valve which can be opened from
above.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-The suspended tanks being empty
and the cradle being submerged, the vessel to be lifted is floated in between the two
rows of caissons immediately over the cradle. Water is then allowed to flow from
the reservoirs into the suspended tanks until they become sufficiently loaded to
overbalance the weight of the vessel, and the tanks then descending within the
caissons raise the cradle and vessel. By adjusting the flow of water to the several
tanks their respective lifting powers may be suited to the weights of the various
sections of the vessel which they have to counterbalance, and thus the strain may
be equalised throughout the length of the cradle and vessel.
For the purpose of weighing the vessel each tank is provided with a float or
gauge which indicates the quantity or weight of water in the tank, and these
weights being added together give the total weight or displacement tonnage of the
vessel. When this is to be ascertained with great accuracy the publics may
temporarily be poised on knife edges instead of their ordinary bearings. When the
vessel is to be lowered again the tank valves are opened, permitting the water to
flow out of the tanks into the caissons, whereupon the cradle and vessel sink down
into the water until the vessel floating can be moved away. The water discharged
into the caissons is pumped back to the reservoirs, so that the lifting operation can
be repeated. I find it convenient to erect along the rows of caissons stages or
platforms, which serve to connect them strongly together and steady them in
position, and also to give access to the working parts and to furnish stages for
workmen employed on the lifted vessel, and the reservoirs above mentioned may
be formed in such stages or platforms. I find it also advantageous to provide the
pipes leading to the several tanks with jointed parts, so that their inlet mouths
inay be elevated or depressed as required in the reservoir, for the purpose of
equalizing the flow through the long and the short lengths of pipe.

page_text: by giving rotation to the shafts K. A valve L, that can be opened or closed from
above, is provided in the bottom of each of the tanks C. These valves being closed
and the tanks being empty the girders E lying on or near to the bottom, the vessel
to be lifted is floated over them and steadied by any known arrangement of cradle.
The valves of the pipes G being now opened water flows from the reservoirs F into
the tanks C, which being thus loaded counterbalance the weight of the vessel and
cradle, and being farther loaded with water descend within the caissons A, raising
the girders E with the cradle and vessel out of the water. For lowering the vessel
again the valves L are opened, whereupon the water flows from the tanks C into
the caissons A, and the tanks becoming thus lightened the vessel, cradle, and girders
sink down, raising the tanks to their original position at the upper part of the
caissons. The pumps H are then worked until the water is withdrawn from the
caissons and returned to the reservoirs F, when the apparatus is ready for a
succeeding operation.
It is obvious that by regulating the flow by the pipes G into the several tanks
the quantity of water with which each is charged may be governed, and thus each
section of the vessel may be counterbalanced by the charge of the tanks facing that
section. A gauge of any known construction being fitted in each tank to indicate
the depth of the water in it, the total load counterbalancing the vessel can be
readily estimated, and thus the weight or tonnage can be ascertained.
For greater
accuracy in ascertaining this, the bearings of the pullies D may be made to rest on
knife edges, as shewn in Fig. 4, and steadied laterally when the knife edges are not
in use by set screws.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed, I claim,-
First. The use for lifting vessels out of the water of apparatus consisting of a
cradle, or or series of transverse girders, suspended by chains passing over pullies
and attached to tanks, which tanks when charged with water overbalance and by
descending raise the cradle and vessel, and which when emptied ascend allowing
the cradle and vessel to sink, substantially as herein described.
Second. In apparatus of the kind referred to in the preceding claim, suspending
the tanks within caissons or cylinders in which they are guided to rise or descend,
and from which the water discharged from the tanks is pumped to reservoirs
at a level sufficiently high to recharge the tanks when required, substantially as
herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph William Wilson have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
J. W. WILSON (L.S.)