US30564A - Canal and bivek lock - Google Patents

Description

J DAVIES CANAL AND RIVER LOOK.

Patented No-v .6, 1860.

WIT/YEGSES,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES DAVIES, OF SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, PENNSYLVANIA.

CANAL AND RIVER LOCK.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 30,564, dated November 6, 1860.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES DAVIES, of Schuylkill Haven, in the county of Schuylkill and State of Pennsylvania, have in vented certain new and useful Improvements in the Construction of Canal and River Locks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same and of its mode of operation, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of my specification, in which-- Figure 1, represents a vertical section through a portion of one of the lock walls, in the line of its length. Figs. 2 and 3, represent respectively horizontal sections through the lock walls, at the line of the water ways through them.

Similar letters of reference where they occur denote like parts of the structure in all the drawings.

I am aware that chambers have been constructed in look walls, and that their inlets have been furnished with wicket gates. The object of these chambers was to receive the water from the lock chamber, instead of allowing it to run into the level below the lock; and when the lock chamber was to be refilled, the water from these chambers or hollow walls, was allowed to flow into the lock chamber. The object aimed at was to save water, which it would do to a certain extent.

The object of my invention is to facilitate the passage of boats into, and out of locks, and in doing this I incidentally save the water from washing into the lower level, to a certain extent, and I also use wicket gates, but the water ways or passages which I make in the lock walls, have an inlet, and an exit for the water, and moreover extend from the lock chamber to the upper level, and also to the lower level, and are not simply adjuncts to the lock chamber. They lead from the chamber to the canal, or level, both above and below the lock, and the water that enters at one end of the passage, goes out at the opposite end.

The nature of my invention consists in combining with a lock chamber, a water way or passage, or water ways or passages, which extend from the lock chamber, to the level above, and below the lock, for the purpose of preventing the water from piling at the bow of the boat or vessel on entering the lock, and to prevent the suck, which retards the boat or vessel when she leaves the lock'said passages being provided with suitable wickets to close and open them, as circumstances may require.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the same with reference to the drawings.

When a lock chamber is prepared for receiving a descending boat or vessel, the water in it is of course as high as that in the level or canal above it, and a boat to get into the lock, must displace as much water in the chamber, as is equal to the cubical content of that part of the boat that is under the water line. The displacing of this bulk of Water retards the boat or vessel very much, and besides the water piles up at the bow of the boat and is forced over the lower gates into the lower level. Now, to avoid this retardation, and incidentally the forcing of the water from the higher to the lower level, I have constructed a water Way or passage A, in one or both of the lock walls, furnished with wickets B; and when a boat is to enter the look from above, these wickets B, are opened, and the water that is displaced from the lock chamber, by the entrance of the boat, instead 01": piling up, and flowing over the lower gate, flows back through these water ways into the upper level, and thus saves it at this height instead of washing it, where it may not be wanted. The boat having been lowered in the lock chamber to the lower level, another difliculty exists in getting her in motion. So great is this difficulty that the team that readily draws the vessel in the canal, cannot start it out of the lock chamber, and resort is had to swelling it out, that is, raising the wickets in the upper lock gate to create a swell in the water suificient to float out the boat. In this there is great waste of water frequently requiring as much and sometimes more than would fill the lock chamber. The difficulty in moving the boat out. of the lock chamber arises from this that the boats are as large as will pass through the chamber, or, in other words, fill the chamber, and the moment the boat is started forward, the water that rushes back to fill up the space she occupied, carries-the boat back too, and thus the team is unable to draw the boat out without other aid this suck as they term it, holding as it were the boat tightly bound. Now to avoid this difiiculty, and to save swelling out the boat, I construct in one or both of the lock walls, a water way or passage 0, furnished with a wicket D, which wicket when opened allows the water from below the lock to freely flow into the lock chamber, near or at the stern of the boat, and take the place of that which otherwise would rush back through the lock chamber with such violence, as to drag back the boat with it, or, in other words, I avoid what the boatmen term the suck of the water by allowing water to enter behind the boat from below the look through the passages C. These passages A, C, may not both be used on the same look, as one, can be used without the other, but I claim the passages whether used for entering and leaving a lock, with facility, or

whether used singly for entering, or for leaving, and not both on the same look.

Having thus fully described the nature of my invention, and'shown how it operates, what I claim therein as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- In combination with a lock chamber, a passage, or passages, through which the water may flow back into'the upper level when a boat enters the look from above, and through which water may flow into the chamber from the level below, when the boat is leaving the lock, substantially in the manner, and for the purpose set forth.

JAMES DAVIES.

Witnesses:

'WILLIAM B. RUDY, REUBEN SoHooK.

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