US23574A - Pier or breakwater - Google Patents

Description

pri

UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

C. T. HARVEY, OF MARQUETTE, MICHIGAN.

PIER 0R BREAKWATER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 23,574, dated April 12, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES T. HARVEY, of Marquette, in the count-y of Marquette and State of Michigan, have invented a new and improved style of pier or breakwater with an attachment called a current-fender, the whole or either being designed for use in rivers, harbors, lakes, or other bodies of water to deepen watercourses by concentrating and properly conducting and controlling currents of water between or near lines of these piers or to secure permanency of piers as foundations for superstructures or otherwise in submerged locations, such as quicksands, Sac., and by means of said pier and attachment to counteract and prevent the tendency of waves and currents on unreliable grounds, such as sand, &c., to undermine piers in such places, but, on the contrary, cause the agitation of the water by waves and currents to deposit the earth and sand held in solution or moved by them in such pla-ce and manner as to give solidity and permanency to pier and surroundings.

The nature of my invention consists in the design or plan of the pier and attachment. Thus in the pier-the mode by which-a single tier of horizontal timbers is carried from a floor resting on the bottom to the surface and as far as desired above the water which tier of timbers are held andl supported in place by braces reachin between them and the iioor timbers and forming a triangle as shown in the accompanying drawing 'by Figure l. This triangular (and novel) form it is claimed by presenting peculiar strength at the points where resistance is most desirable is in such respects superior to any form now in use.

These braces before mentioned having a dovetail joint at one end and a lock joint at the other present peculiar and incalculable strength for the required use. See drawing Figs. 2 3 and 4 also model.

The different tiers of triangular timbers are prevented from becoming detached by perpendicular binders of timber. See drawing Fig. 5. Letter.A (also model) held to the iioor timber by a 0troove at B in Fig. 5- of drawing and by being bolted and fastened Vto each tier of braces or face timbers as may be desirable the whole being thus firmly held and presenting the strength in its greatest degree to resist pressure from any quarter.

The rear of the floor series of timbers has a double set of transverse timbers so arranged as to present a slot or crevice; See drawing Fig. -G- letter large B, so contrived for a particular purpose-to witwhen the pier having been constructed elsewhere is brought to the spot where it is desirable to sink it to the bottom two or more piles are inserted into the aforesaid slot, and being driven into the earth below serve as guides by which to sink and retain the pier in any desired locality.

The cross timbers projecting downwardas seen in drawing Fig. l at letter, C,-when the pier is resting on the bottom will from the pressure of weight or filling from above settle into the sand or earth bottom on the lake &c., and render the pier immovable horizontally.

The brace timbers7 of the pier have regular spaces left between them intended to be used as ways, or grooves, for sliding timbers. See drawing Fig. -1- letter D for the following purpose to wit. v

Then enough stone has been placed in the upper angle of the pier to overcome suiiiciently the buoyancy of the timber the balance of the angle is filled with carefully selected and adjusted layers of evergreen brush and tine fibrous wood as compactly as pos- .sible and then pressed down and held lirmly in place by timbers moving downward in the slide ways. These may be forced down by leverage and fastened at any point by pin bolt, as desired.

rThe outside slot next to longest brace may be filled with a solid succession of timbers as sand accumulates and thus incase and effectnally retain it. See Figs. l and 6 and 9, letter Z in Fig. l.

The pier having been thus constructed and by means of piles &c. before mentioned, guided and held in place always with the shallowest or rear portion toward the windward so that waves may roll over it-the particles of sand carried by the waves will be carried in and settle and hence be retained in the meshes of the filling of fibrous wood above specified and thus gradually fill it up with a permanent loading of sand without trouble or expense.

In the side view shown in Fig. l, the timber C is calculated to lie on the submerged bottom and the timber F (f) to be at water surface. From F upward a narrow right angle pier of usual style is to be built to any required height for convenience of vessels &c.

From timber C Fig. l downward timbers are to be placed on the front tier as low down as the channel is desired to be made and are to be held in placeby braces on the beam, plan and principle as in the upper angle of the piers, excepting shorter in length and of a wedge shape to prevent as little resistance as possible to the settling of the prier to its broad bearings. Two of the lower braces being projected beyond the face of the piers as in Fig. l letter g. A heavy iron bolt is firmly secured in their ends with the projection upward for the following purpose to wit.

After the piers by being placed have confined a current and given it velocity which bears away the bottom, and threatens to attain a depth sufficient to cause the undermining of the piers, the current finder attachment is added in front of the pier as a safeguard against such contingency. See drawing` Figs. l and 2, letter iz..

rFwo guide rods (see F ig. l, letter z') having a socket-cavity in one end of each to enable them to receive the top of the bolts or pins at letter j, are put in use (when the fenders are loaded so as to sink readily) byA having the ends of the fender chains slipped over them (the guide rods) by which the chains are looped over the ends of the pins or bolts below, and on the removal of the guide rods the fender attachment is found to be sunken in the exact desired position and firmly secured by means of its chains to the bottom of the pier, being coupled to the bolts at letters 7c and j in Fig. l, and C of the drawings.

The current fenders are constructed by an upper and .lower lattice or network of wood or iron, having stone between them enough to overcome the buoyancy and the inside of the lattice or network filled with a thick compact matting of fibrous wood (brush) Vheld securely in Vplace by bolts clenched, riveted, or screwbolted, drawing the lattice and contents firmly together. See drawing in Figs. l and 6, letter 7L;

The result of the use of current fenders when constructedv and placed as aforesaid is that the current of any river or the waves of the lake will fill all its interstices with sand or other weighty deposit and consequently the water'cannot go below it to undermine and will have no injurious effect in the narrow space between it and the piers. Should the channel deepen very considerably Youtside a-nd undermine the feeder it will adopt any necessary angle of inclination but by remaining (as it will) with one edge against the pier will hold the sand in place under it and thus secure its position and permanency. Any length of pier and of fenders can be used by constructing in suitable sections of length and by using such modifications as'the depth of water given or required will indicate. Y

`When afoundation for a Vlighthouse or other structure is required on a shifting sand bar or submerged shoal, or where bot-h are quicksands, four sections of this pier is required mitered together, so as to form a hollow square as shown in drawing, Fig. 9. The shallow or rear part always to be outward from center of hollow square. On the outside there is to be the current fender attachment, as shown particularly in drawing No. 9, in that connection, however, more properly styled wave fenders as they answer the purpose of preventing the displacement of sand about the piers from the undertow of the waves and thus affording perfect protection. The hollow square or space formed in the center of the piers will aord the desired immovable foundation and in case of quicksand should iirst be filled with several layers of fender matting inside. V

I do not claim of itself a crib or frame of timber, filled with stone or other material, and to be sunk on the bed of a river, lake or sea, as such is well known to engineers, but

Witnesses z L. T. MERRILL, W. B. HATCH.

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