USRE135E - Improvement in floating dry-docks - Google Patents

Description

pieces, so that said i timber,(marked M M,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN THOMAS, OE ELIZAEETHTOWN, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN FLOATING DRY-DOCKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 522, dated December 20, 1837,' Reissue No. `135,

d ated May 1, 1849.

To ail whom t may concern Be it known that I, JOHN THOMAS, of Elizabethtown, in the county of Essex and State of New J ersey,have invented a new and Improved Mode of Building and Equipping Sectional Floating Docks; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description.

The nature of lmy invention consists in providing a number of strong trussed frames connected together by strong beams at the upper and lowerparts. In the space formed bythe frames and beams are placed tanks or oats,' in which water is let in through cocks or gates, when the dock is sunk to a depth sufficient to iloat the ship over the keel-blocks. To raise the ship, a part of the water is to be pumped out,when the dock with its load rises above the water a suiicient height to enable the workmen to perform the various repairs on the bottom of the ship. Other tloats or tanks are placed at each end of each seetion,to preserve the equilibrium. The dock may consist of two or any number of sections which may be required, or any size. Th esections are all alike. The one I shall describe is about sixty feet long in clear,and seventeen feet wide and eight deep.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

Each section is made of two trussed framesone on each side-about sixty feet long, ten deep. The length of the section is the breadth ofthe dock. These trussed frames are made of string-pieces, Plate 4, D D, above, and below of strong timber, about sixteen inches deep and eleven thick. Between the stringpieces, at each end, are buttresses,(marked O O, Plate 4,)strongly jogged and bolted. Each buttress is about ve feet long.

The truss-pieces (marked E E, Plate 4) are next to be described. These are strong timbers thirteen inches deep and eleven thick. They come in contact at the middle under the upper string-piece. The other ends are placed against the buttresses at the lower string-y trusses and buttresses form the drawings marked may have a projecting Plate 4,) formed by and wer string-pieces, so as an arch, as shown in Plate 4. These frames connected with the lo .een inches.

to receive the sills and which is called the about seventeen wide, and eight deep. `In the space thus formed are to be placed two tanks or floats, as shown by the dotted lines, Plate 4, letters m m, each of them to be nine inches deeper at the ends of the section than at the middle. They are to be kept apart in the middle of the section from two to four feet. These iloats are to be framed with strong timber', and of a sufficient strength to resist the pressure of the water,which will vary according tothe size. sides, and made water-tight, except a man-hole On the upper part near each end, and a hole for the pump, and asmall hole through which the air is to escape when the tank is to be lled with water. Two strong beams (marked W W, Plate 5) are also to be placed across the section, leaving aspace between them of eight- On these beams are placed the keel-blocks on which the ship rests. Iron stirrups are to connect the other beams, one inch thick by four inches wide. Plate 4, letter P, is one of them shown. On the projecting timbers above described, and which form the end framing, are long stanchions( marked L L L, Plate 4.) These and their appendages form the end framing. The diagonal and horizontal braces, together with the posts, stanchions, andycapsills,consttute the end framing. To the sill and plate on each side of each end is a strong bar of iron, (Plate 4, letters B B,) one inch thick and four wide. In this bar are holes four'inches apart and one and a half inch diameter,to suit which holes bolts are provided. The use of said bars is to raise and depress the end oats,which I shall directly describe, and thereby secure stability to the dock. will be observed that the long stanchions L L Ll will form an open oblong squarev space of about fifty-eight feet long in clear,

They are to be strongly planked on all 2 4 las and their appendages, together with the iron bars, form an opening at each end of each section about seventeen feet long and ten wide, (Plate 5, letters H H H H.) In this space the end float-s or tanks are placed. The end floats are strongly framed, to resist the pressure of the water, and are flanked and made watertight on all sides. No water is intended to be left in them.- They are shown in Plate 4 by dotted lines marked T T. The use of these floats is at all times to preserve the equilibrium of the dock, and may be depressed or raised by means of lever applied to the iron bars and bolts, as above described. There are two other short timbersor stanchions, (Plate 4, marked G G.) which I shall also be particular in describing, as they are one of the claims. These stanchions are eleven inches apart, placed near each end of each section, these stanchions being connected by a cross-piece near the upper ends, having a space of eleven inches between them. Through these square openings thus formed pieces ot' strong timber pass ten inches by Iive thick.

' distance apart-say two feet-#(Plate 5, letters N N,) which will allow of the respective sections being retained at any desired distance from each other when several sections are placed together.

Said timbers connect the respective sections together. These The manner of Working said dock is as follows: Vhen a ship is to be taken on, the dock is sunk by letting in water through the cocks or gates. Ballast is sometimes wanted in addition. When it is sunk so that the water is sufficiently deep to float the ship over the keelblocks, she is then placed and secured in the middle. The pumping isthen commenced,the cocks or gates are closed, the dock with its load rises to the surface of the water,andalit tle above, so as to enable the workmento perform the repairs to the ships bottom, the main tanks raising the ship and dock,the end tanks or floats giving perfect stability during the process of raising or lowering the ship to and from the water.

Having described the man'nei` of building my sectional dock and the mode of working v the same, I declare I do not claim as my invention the use of tanks or floats to raise vessels.

\Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The end floats,A T T, by means of which thegdock may be balanced and leveled, and which may be forced down by machinery, substantially as herein described.

2. Regulating theline of motion of said floats `and of applying the control exerted by them to the dock by means of guides and frames, in which they are made to move, the Whole operating and constituted substantially as herein described. L

JNO. THOMAS.

Witnesses:

RICHARD GRIFFIN, WILLIAM N. WOODRUFF.

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