Patent Model for an Apparatus for Raising Submerged Vessels, 1842

This model accompanied Theodore R. Timby’s patent application for "a new and useful Apparatus for Raising Sunken Vessels and other Submerged Bodies" that received patent number 2,572 on April 21,

1842. The device is comprised of a pump that supplies air though a wire- reinforced leather hose to a submerged chamber, which inflates to lift a submerged item to the surface. Timby did not claim to invent the use of an air chamber to provide lift; his innovation was in shaping his "air vessel" like an inverted cone with a dome on top. Furthermore, because the object to be raised would be secured to a ring on the air chamber's lower end, he prevented the weight of the object from deforming the chamber or ripping the ring loose by suspending the ring from chains run up and over the body of the chamber. The air vessel was to be constructed of thin copper, as the model is. The pump, although beautifully modeled, was to be simply an "ordinary air pump," and did not incorporate any innovations by Timby.

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