Pontoon

“ Get everything that floats below the bridge: we shall have quite enough river-craft coming down adrift anyhow, without letting the stone-boats ram the piers. What have you got on the east bank that needs looking after?"
"Pontoon, one big pontoon with the overhead crane on it. T'other overhead crane on the mended pontoon, with the cart-road rivets from Twenty to Twenty-three piers—two construction lines, and a turning-spur. The pile-work must take its chance," said Hitchcock.
"All right. Roll up everything you can lay hands on. We'll give the gang fifteen minutes more to eat their grub." ”

“ Dimensions of colonel Congreve’s Wooden Pontoons.
The common pontoons will support a weight of 4 or 5000 pounds. They are generally placed, in forming a bridge, about their own width asunder. See Bridge.
Pontoon carriage, was made with two wheels only, and two long side pieces, whose fore-ends are supported by a limber; and served to carry the pontoon, boards, cross timbers, anchors, and every other thing necessary for making a bridge; but better experience places them on four wheels. ”

“ When not fordable at all, pontoons, and pontoon 188bridges are resorted to. Pontoons are flat-bottomed boats, made of wood, but lined with tin or copper, as the case may be, a little better than twenty feet long. Bridges of boats, too, are used, as well as cables, stretched from the bank by tackles and capstans, and resting on the decks of vessels, moored at different distances. Flying bridges are at times very serviceable. ”

“ When Goodyear's ideas are carried out, it will be by pontoons of inflated India-rubber that rivers will be crossed. A pontoon-train will then consist of one wagon drawn by two mules; and if the march is through a country that furnishes the wooden part of the bridge, a man may carry a pontoon on his back in addition to his knapsack and blanket. ”

“ The pontoons in general use were skeleton frames, made with a hinge, so as to fold back and constitute a wagon-body. In this same wagon were carried the cotton canvas cover, the anchor and chains, and a due proportion of the balks, cheeses, and lashings. All the troops became very familiar with their mechanism and use, and we were rarely delayed by reason of a river, however broad. I saw, recently, in Aldershot, England, a very complete pontoon-train; the boats were sheathed with wood and felt, made very light ”

“ The conditions prevailing also compelled each span to be completed near the bank upon a pontoon, the steel-work being supported upon a heavy scaffolding. The pontoon was somewhat shorter than the span of steel which projected an equal distance over either end of the former. When all was ready, and when the tide was approaching its highest point, the pontoon, with its ungainly load, was towed and was warped gently between two adjacent piers, in such a way that the ends of the span were brought into their relative positions upon the masonry. ”

“ The arrangements for delivering vessels on radial slips is seen in plan at fig. 2, where A represents the river or deep water; B is the pontoon with the vessel; C being the cylinder or turning center; D is the low-level quay on to which the pontoon carrying the ship is first swung; E is the high-level quay with the slip-ways; F is an engine running on rails around the radial slips for drawing the vessels with the cradle off the pontoon, and hauling them up on to the high-level quay ”

“ Advantage of Pontoon-Ship as Aeroplane Base. The pontoon-ship as an aeroplane base possesses certain and obvious disadvantages; an area for alighting such as is presented by the deck of a ship, although it may be, say, 90 ft. beam by 400 ft. or more in length, is none too large under really bad conditions of weather for even a skilled pilot, especially if the vessel be rolling in a heavy seaway. ”

“ Pontoons, when united as a bridge, will no doubt bear more in proportion, than when acted upon separately: but the weight which a pontoon will bear may be easily ascertained, by loading it with water till it sinks to any required depth, and then by calculating the number of cubic feet of water it contains, ascertain the number of pounds required to sink it to that particular depth. ”

“ These bridges form great impediments to the traffic, both on land and by water ; for the pontoon is never pulled up to make a passage until about a dozen junks and boats have collected, and their owners, who by that time have been long waiting for the event, are clamouring and fighting amongst themselves to get first through. While the boats are passing through, the land traffic is of course interrupted, and crowds of foot passengers and vehicles are pressing forward on each side of the aperture to await the replacement of the pontoon. ”

“ General Cullum briefly describes the various bridge-systems employed in the different services of the world, including the galvanized iron boat system, the Blanchard metal cylinder system, the Russian and Fowke's systems of canvas stretched over frames, the Birigo system, the French bateau system, the various trestle systems, and many others. The French wooden bateau is the pontoon chiefly used in our service, and it is specially commended by its thoroughly proved efficiency, and by its utility as an independent boat. ”

“ Five pontoons, with their appurtenances, form the load of one carriage. Length, 15 feet; diameter, 1 foot 7 inches; displacement, 271⁄2 cubic feet; buoyancy, 1718 lb., or 151⁄4 cwt., from which deduct 2 cwt. for the weight of pontoon, and share of superstructure. A bridge of this nature is so light that it may be made on shore, and carried by hand entire. It will support as many men as can be placed on it, and, by removing the chesses over the gunnels, it may be bent so as to be passed without difficulty down a steep bank, or counterscarp. ”

“ But the crowning work of this corps, as it always seemed to me, the department of their labor for which, I believe, they will be the longest remembered, was that of ponton-bridge laying. The word ponton, or pontoon, is borrowed from both the Spanish and French languages, which, in turn, derive it from the parent Latin, pons, [382] meaning a bridge, but it has now come to mean a boat, and the men who build such bridges are called by the French pontoniers. In fact, the system of ponton bridges in use during the Rebellion was copied, I believe, almost exactly from the French model. ”

“ A rudder and helm are attached to each pontoon, and connected by a cross-piece of wood, so that both might be worked at once; while two drop-keels occupy the space between the pontoons, and can be raised or lowered with the greatest ease. The mast also could be lowered whenever it might be necessary, in order to allow the boat to pass under low bridges.
To those who are interested in the details of such a craft as the Swan, the book furnishes ample information (full dimensions and all particulars being given) . ”

“ When the drill has bored a hole, one of these chains is gripped by an arm, also magnetized, which extends from the diving bell, and the pontoon hook on the end of the chain is set into the hole in the vessel, where it is automatically locked. ”

“ You don’t see so much difference, but us boys who were in that scrap sometimes c’n hardly believe it’s the same aviation world we’re livin’ in. From compass to pontoons, a dozen or two things have been vastly improved. Look at the new ship; we got aluminum pontoons to let us light on the water of a river, lake or the sea itself and with the wheels set in the shoes so as to make a landin’ on dry land whenever we feel like it.”
“Pretty slick trick that, I own up, buddy,” admitted Jack, “and best of all they seem to work like magic in the bargain. ”

“ The long arms of the shoring stanchions smote the walls in a kind of terrific anvil chorus to the blaring orchestra of the tempest. The joints of the three huge pontoons sounded as if they were being rent asunder every moment. ”

“ There are twenty-eight of these pontoons, each 160 feet long and ten feet broad; they are each divided into eleven water-tight compartments, and moored both up and down stream by means of iron cables. Viewed from the lower part of the harbor as one approaches from the sea, the bridge appears like a massive fixed structure, and we could hardly believe the captain of the steamer when he told us that it was only a floating affair, resting on pontoons.
"There, we've described the bridge the best way we can, and the Doctor says it is very well done for inexperienced boys like ourselves. ”

“ These two pontoons were then laid on the ground side by side with a space of three feet six inches between their centres. They were then joined together by strong pieces of wood fastened the whole way across, every two feet. ”

“ In the wars of the 17th century pontoons are found as regular components of the trains of armies, the Germans using a leather, the Dutch a tin and the French a copper “ skin ” over stout timber frames. ”

“ It is the stick-boat that is freighted with memories. The yachts are toys, their owner a fresh-water mariner; they can cross and recross a pond only while the stick-boat goes to sea. You yachtsmen with your wands, who think we are all there to gaze on you, your ships are only accidents of this place, and were they all to be boarded and sunk by the ducks, the real business of the Round Pond would be carried on as usual. ”

“ At the foot of a flight of broad stone steps leading to the water from a wharf on the quay near one of the bridges, a superior sort of ship’s boat was moored, where her crew, some resting on the benches, some lounging on the steps, were grouped in conversation, evidently directing their attention to a beautiful ship of small tonnage but perfect symmetry that lay at anchor at a short distance, easily distinguished from the numerous vessels in her neighbourhood by the smartness of her rigging and the elegance of her build. ”

“ I started up, and hurried down to the drawing-room, which looked out over the bay. I could see nothing but people running about on the edge of the quiet waves. No sign of human being was on—the water. But the one boat belonging to the pilot was coming out from the shelter of the lock of the canal where it usually lay, and my friend of the coastguard was running down from the tower on the cliff with ropes in his hand. He would not stop the boat even for the moment it would need to take him on board, but threw them in and urged to haste. ”

“ Here we behold the pitiable sight of 225 two young girls, harnessed like mules, and attached to a lead rope, pulling inch by inch, and foot by foot, a large canal-boat filled with merchandise.
I can imagine no harder work than this, for the poor creatures are exposed to the intense heat of the sun, with no protection against its direct rays, and they have a long slow journey before them, ere the heavily-laden boat making its progress foot by foot shall reach its destination. The toil of the factory girl in America is play when compared with that of the draught girl in Holland. ”

“ At every river we had to cross, a large boat, like a coal barge, without stem or stern, is to be found, and stowing carriole, horses, and everything else connected with them into this huge ferry boat, the driver, by means of a rope made fast and extending from one bank to the opposite one, draws boat and cargo across, and, reaching the shore he desires, remounts his box, and, heeding not from which quarter the next traveller may come, drives off, and leaves the barge where he did not meet with it. ”

“ Here there is no rushing and thronging as on the railway, no dashing and rocking as in the steam-packet, nor any shaking in going over the ground as in the pleasure-vans. The ripple the boat makes is scarcely heard. You can even distinguish the rustling of the tiny waves among the sedge that sways idly to and fro on the banks of the canal. It is a beautiful sight to see these boats full of holiday passengers, gliding slowly along within a yard or two of the shore in the summer sunshine ”

“ The boat was too far below the quay for him to see anything but the upper stories of the buildings facing the harbour, so he had to content himself with gazing upon the latter and the variegated shipping that filled it. Steam trawlers, coal tramps, American deep-water fishermen, Newfoundland Bank fishermen, cargo boats, sailing and steam yachts, steam tugs and a host of smaller craft filled the basin. ”

“ A floating dry dock, as its name makes clear, floats on the water, the vessel resting on the bottom of the dry dock after the water has been removed. (2) A graven dry dock is dug into the land. The vessel floats in but rests on land once the water has been pumped out. (3) Finally there is the marine railway, on which the vessel is drawn out of the water, instead of the water being drawn away from the vessel. A ship is no more and no less on land when it rests in a graven dry dock than when it rests on a marine railway. ”

“ Occasionally we see a canal boat of larger size drawn by a buxom Dutch maiden and her brother; or not infrequently it is the old man and his wife, and sometimes the entire family all strenuously tugging the stout rope which is securely fastened to the bow of the boat, while the dilapidated old craft, laden with merchandise or produce creaks slowly on its way, breaking the placid surface of the water with a soft musical plash. ”

“ I cast on the starboard because it gives us the longest tack in this pond. When any boat or vessel is at anchor, she points her nose directly into the wind. Then it is as easy to cast on one tack as the other."
"But after the mainsail is set, the boat keeps flopping one way and the other," said Con.
"If you make fast the main-sheet, it will. In that case, you are to take advantage of the right moment to trip the anchor and set the jib. It is sometimes necessary to sway off the boom to get her in position."
By this time the Goldwing was nearing the shore on the west side. ”