Abstract: The present invention is concerned with methods of and apparatus for constructing cylindrical structures such as large-diameter pipes for the transport of materials in ocean mining and the like, whereby one or more rolls of previously prepared sheet materials are wound around a core in a cross-wise fashion and bonded and treated by chemical and physical processes from a special floating platform that enables such construction operation in situ on the high seas.

Abstract: Minerals or other bodies are lifted hydraulically from a region below the surface of a free fluid medium, such as the ocean. An at least partly gas-filled chamber with an elongated conduit extending therefrom is at least partially submerged in the fluid medium so that the conduit extends to the region from which the bodies are to be lifted. The fluid level in the chamber is maintained sufficiently lower than that of the surrounding fluid medium, as by a suction pump exhausting into the medium, such that the fluid pressure corresponding to the difference between the fluid level in the chamber and the level of the medium is at least substantially equal to the sum of the frictional pressure drop of fluid through the conduit and the pressure drop due to the lifting of the bodies in the fluid medium through the conduit. The velocity of fluid flow through the conduit is maintained larger than the steady state sinking velocity of the bodies.

Abstract: Underwater mining apparatus employs a rotatable drum having a plurality of rows of digging forks and a plurality of adjacent rows of openings for receiving materials loosened by the forks during rotation of the drum over the ocean bottom. The spacing between the forks determines the minimum size of material to be mined and the size of the openings determines the maximum size. A material-receiving trough extends longitudinally along the interior of the drum and communicates with the openings. A longitudinally extending spiral screw rotates with the drum within the trough to concentrate the material and to move the material longitudinally to a pick-up region, from which the material is transported hydraulically.

Abstract: This disclosure is concerned with the hydraulic lifting or conveying of fluids and any bodies carried therewith, such as solid minerals in ocean mining and the like, from depths far greater than the maximum suction heights of pumps and the like, by a partially gas-filled submerged chamber suspended from a stable surface platform and connected to the open environment by means of pipes connected to a buoy, equipped with pumps, and connected to pipes of smaller cross-section extending to the required depth, with the fluid level in the submerged chamber so deep under the ocean surface that the pressure difference between the inside of the chamber and the surrounding water is greater than the pressure drop caused by the transport of fluid and solid material through the pipe from its lower end to the chamber, and with the materials subsequently transported in nearly neutrally buoyant containers, guided by a paravane.