William H Bartholomew’s Patent Application, 1862

In 1862, William Bartholomew, Engineer of the Aire and Calder Navigation Company, applied to patent his early design for a compartment boat train. Figures 1 and 2 at the top of the sheet shows what he was thinking at that time. To the left of the drawings you can see the cutwater, known today as the jebus, followed by six compartment boats for carrying coal, the train being pushed by a steam vessel shown on the right of the drawings. 

While students of the compartment boat system will recognise the configuration, there are notable differences between this early design and that which would become the norm for over a hundred years.

• The train was envisaged to consist of only six compartments. 
• The motive power was to be provided by a “push tug”. You will note the rudder and screw propeller to the right of the configuration.
• Finally, the surprising detail which shows each compartment boat with a pair of doors in the port side, giving the means of unloading the cargo of coal.

It is not certain when the original design evolved but it did change, one imagines as the result of feedback from trials. 

• Trains were expanded to consist of up to 19 compartment boats.
• “Push tugs” were discontinued  as the trains became pulled by a conventional tug.
• No doors were built into the compartment boats so coal was unloaded by mechanically tipping the compartment. Such doors must have presented a serious risk of compartments flooding.

While we do not know quite when these design changes were firmed up we suppose that they must have been quite early in the development of the system.

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