US56858A - Improved apparatus for buoying vessels - Google Patents

Description

llNiTEn STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

THOMAS GATO MOKEEN, OF IRVINGTON, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO THE NEW YORK SUBMARINE COMPANY.

IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR BUOYING VESSELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 56,858, dated July 3l, 1866.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, THOMAS GATO MOKEEN, of Irvington, in the county of Essex, State of New Jersey, United States of America, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Buoying and Elevating Ships or Boats, and raising submerged or sunken vessels and objects, and of constructing, valving, netting, and operating the buoys therefor; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure l represents my apparatus applied to a boat, shown in longitudinal section. Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken through the boat, exhibiting the buoys arranged under the same. Figs. 3 and Il are views of buoys of different forms of construction.

My present invention has for its object to give strength to the buoy used for raising vessels and objects submerged or sunkenin water; to furnish it with a man-hole, through which it can be entered to be finished or repaired; to relieve it, more than can be done by any other process, from strain when inated and exerting its lifting power, by transferring the strain to the netting or cordage with which it is covered; to furnish it with the means of relieving itself from the interior pressure requisite for its inflation at great depths in the water as it rises toward the surface, and not only simultaneously to lill or inflate by means of compressed air all the buoys that may be used in an operation, but also to inflate any one or more ofthem at a time, as may be desired.

The accompanying drawings, forming a part l of this specification and description, will suflice to illustrate the general features of my invention; but in making them the form and proportions ofthe apparatus as willbe adopted in practice are not preserved.

In the drawings, A represents a vessel or air-receiver, which may be concealed in the hold of the vessel Bor placed in a suitable situation on deck. This vessel or receiver is to contain condensed airfor iniiating the buoys, and this airis supplied to the vessel or receiver A by suitable air-pumps. This receivermay be constructed in one single compartment, or may be a succession of cylinders or compartments of other shapes, connected by pipes or other communications provided with faucets or valves, so that any one or more of them may have the air compressed into them without filling the others, or may have the air let out of them without emptying the others, or may all be simultaneously filled or discharged.

C is a main, which communicates with the vessel A by means of a pipe, D. Attached to this main pipe C, on either side of it, and at suitable distances along its line, are flexible or other branch pipes E, each provided with its own cock or faucet. These pipes communicate, respectively, with the bags or buoys F, which can be inflated by opening their communications with the receiver A, when the compressed air rushes into them; and when so inflated they serve the purpose of buoys or floats, and when not inflated can be packed away in a small compass.

These bags or buoys consist of cotton, hemp, linen, or other kind of canvas or cloth, coated with gum-elastic or some preparation of rubber, and of multiplied thicknesses, until the required strength is attained to bear inflation with atmospheric air obtained from the vessel A, or they may be made of any other suitable air-tight and watertight flexible material. They are passed into the water in a collapsed condition, are madefast to the vessel or other object to be buoyed or raised, and their communication with the air receiver or vessel A established. When iniiated they displace their bulk of water, and thereby exert their'lifting power.

In order to complete the strength of these floats or buoys, and to prevent their inj ury from contact with the surface of the vessel or other objects, and to transfer the strain from them when inflated and exerting their lifting power, I cover them with strongcordage, which is knit around them, similar to the netting on balloons, and which is wrought on rings or grummets at the bottom and top of the bags, or may be formed by covering the buoys with vertical and horizontal strands of cordage seized at the crossings or the strands may be so laid on that the horizontal strand may gradually wind from the top to the bottom of the buoy, or vice versa; or the strands may be united into a cable or hawser at the bottom of the buoy, which hawser, by being fastened to the vessel or object to be buoyed or raised, or passed under the saine, will draw and hold the buoys in place.

It is better to make the covering of cordageslightly less in diametereach way than the buoys proper, the better to relieve the flexible material from strain and prevent its bursting.

The hose or iieXible pipe 'for conducting the air to the buoys is attached to the top, side, or bottom of the bag or buoy, as may be desired, by strong metallic or other coupling, or the pipe itself may be a continuation of the material of which the bags or buoys proper are made.

rIhe form of buoy best adapted for the purpose may be round, square, or cylindrical, or a combination of two or more of these forms, and of a size to meet the necessity of the case.

I also provide the buoys with a man-hole, to which may be fitted an air-tight metallic or other cover or head, the object of which contrivance is to enable a workman to perfectly close and finish the seams of the buoy on the inside, and also to enter the buoy to repair or strengthen it. I leave an aperture in the covering of cordage, so that the bag or buoy proper may be introduced into it or taken out of it, as desired. This aperture may be worked upon agrummet of rope or a ring of metal or wood, or may be made by leaving interstices in the strands ofthe cordage.

`In the use and management of the buoys, while the object or vessel is being elevated, care must be taken that the bags are not ruptured by the pressure of the air within them increasing as the buoys rise toward the surface, thereby diminishing the external pressure of the water upon the buoys in an increasing ratio.

To obviate this danger I provide the buoys with safety-valves graduated to open at certain degrees of pressure 5 or the danger may be avoided by carefully attending to opening the cocks or faucets inserted in the pipes through which the air is supplied to the buoys, or by an aperture in the bottom of the bags or buoys'.

J J are cocks on either end of the main c for the escape of the air from the buoys when they are to be packed away.

Although I use the main C, as shown in the drawings, I do not confine myself to its use as a necessity, but I also inflate the buoys without its aid by substituting a pipe, forming a direct communication between each bag or buoy and the receiver A; and this method docs not in the least interfere with inflating all the buoys simultaneously, or one or more of them at a time, as desired.

I disclaim the invention of the safety-valve; but

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The use and application of the air reservoir or receiver A, in combination with the bags or buoys F, (whether connected together directly by the use of pipes or by the use of the .intermediate main 0,) and the method of constructing the air-receiver, the buoys, and netting, and of infiating the buoys by means of compressed air, the application to and use with the buoys of the common selfacting safety-valve, made to yield or discharge at a certain pressure, and the application and use of the manhole and its head to and with the buoys, the whole arranged and operating substantially in the manner and for the purposes above set forth.

T. GATO MGKEEN. Witnesses:

ELLIOT F. SEEPARD, PETER D. KENNY.

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