US514767A - Device for protecting riparian lands from overflow - Google Patents

Description

(-No Model.)

DEVICE FOR PROTECTING RIPARIAN LANDS PROM OVEEPLO-W.

No; 514,767. Patented Feb. 13, 1894-.

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WILLIAM MOOAUGHAN AND HARPER MCOAUGHAN, OF GULFPORT,

MISSISSIPPI.

DEVICE FOR PROTECTING RIPARIAN LANDS FROM OVERFLOW.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 514,767, dated February 13, 1894.

Application filed March 23, 1393.

5 have invented a new and Improved Means for Protecting Riparian Lands from Overflow, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improved means of protecting riparian lands from the overflow of rivers whose banks are-protected by levees, as the Mississippi for instance, and it consists in the peculiar construction and arrangement of the several features of the invention which we will now proc'eedto describe with reference to the drawings in which- Figure 1 is a plan view and Fig. 2 a sectional view taken through the line 00-93. I In the drawings A represents the river whose banks upon each side are protected by raised embankments or levees B B. In one of the banks we cut an outlet 0, and also provide an outlet channel 0 back of the opening, said channel 0' having levees D D upon eachjside of the same. This outlet channel extends to a lower lying basin or reservoir into which the surplus waters may be received and retained, or be drained away to some other outlet. By this construction aportion of the water from the main stream A is led off through the outlet channel, but in order to prevent the water from the main stream from entering the outlet channel at all times, we construct a dam E across said channel near its month which dam is of apredetermined height, being lower than that of the levees and just high enough to permit overflow here when the-danger point in the altitude of the main stream is reached from a flood or other cause. During the normal flow of the river this dam forms a part of the levee on this bank of the river. This dam is inclined on each side of its middle to permit a steady rise upon the river side, and an easy and gradual flow upon the other side, to prevent violent washing and the destruction of the dam.

The levees and dam are constructed in any suitable manner and of any material, and in order 'to protect the entrance to the outlet Serial No. 467,339- (No model.)

channel we construct fenders F at each cornor of the junction of the main stream and overflow channel, which fenders extend some distance up and down stream, and also some distance past the dam in the overflow channel. These fenders prevent the washing of the corners. c

To prevent washing the dam it is provided with a non-erosive face G. As shown the fenders are made of piles with a heavy plank or timber facing, and the non-erosive faceof the dam is also constructed of sheet piles driven perpendicularly across the outlet channel. fenders and the facing of the dam may be built of masonry or any suitable material without departing from our invention.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that in times of flood or freshet the river will rise until it reaches the level of the top of the dam E, and after this instead of endangering the banks of the river by cutting crevasses in the levees, it will flow over the dam and the superfluous water will thus be disposed of so that the river cannot rise above a certain level and its banks will at all times be preserved intact. These overflow passages and dams may be located at any point along the banks of the river, and as many of them may be provided as is necessary to dispose of the extra volume of water.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The means for preventing the overflow of low-lying riparianlands protected by levees, which consists of a non-erosive dam forming a part of one of thelevees and arranged with its top at a predetermined distance below the tops of said levees, an outlet channel lying back of the said dam, and means for confining the water in said channel, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. The means for preventing the overflow of low-lying riparian lands protected by levees, which consists of a lateral channel way communicating with the main stream and provided with 1evees,'a non-erosive dam placed It is obvious, however, that both the across the lateral channel near its mouth and forlningapart 0f the main levees of the stream at low Water but made of less height than said main levees, and fenders or guards F arranged at the junction of the lateral channel with the main stream and extending a short distance up and down stream, and also along the'lateral channel past the dam, substantially as and for the purpose described.

WILLIAM MCOAUGHAN. HARPER MCOAUGHAN. Witnesses:

GEORGE MCOAUGHAN, WM. G. WALKER.

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