AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF BOATS AND BARGES
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
BILL, of Newman Street, in the Parish of Saint Marylebone, in the County
of Middlesex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifth day of December, in the second year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said Robert Bill, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Robert Bill, my exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS
OF BOATS AND BARGES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso, that if I, the said Robert Bill, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters, and all liberties and advantage
whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become voia,"

page_text: as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Bill, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in the following description thereof (that is to say):-
The boats, barges, or vessels built upon my plan, the bottom is always
male of wood and the sides of iron. A description of one kind or class of
vessels will be sufficient to explain my plan, varying the substance of materials
according to the size and use of the vessel.
I will describe the mode of building a canal boat, such as are commonly used
with seven feet locks. These boats are generally seventy feet long, seven feet
wide, and four feet deep; the bottom I make on any of the ways now in use. If
the several planks be "grooved and tonged "I use thin slips of iron instead of
laths, as is now done, between each plank. Instead of raising the sides of plank,
I make use of iron plates, about nine pound per foot, more or less; these plates
should not exceed two feet ten inches in width, and of a length to allow three
or four inches to be bent at the bottom to admit sufficient rivets for effectually
securing the plates to the bottom. I then place my iron ribed knees
at such a distance from each other that whatever the size of the plates
may be they shall just meet on the middle of the exterior of the knees;
holes at proper distances being made on each side the rib or middle of
The whole must be
the knee, and corresponding holes in the plates.
rivetted together in the usual way of rivitting plates together to exclude the
admission of water; I, however, countersink the rivets in thep lates to
preserve as even a surface as possible. The feet of the knees are made of
sufficient length to secure them to the boat bottom, to which they must be
securely rivetted; the stern and steen posts, in the usual way, or in any
required way, according to the purpose for which the boat is wanted.
I also claim as new the use of knees made of any iron, whether the rib be
on the middle or the side of the bar, where they are applied to the purposes of
connecting the plates which form the sides of the boat, barge, or vessel with
each other, and also connecting and securing them to the bottom of the vessel,
boat, or barge. The sides may be strenthened by rivetting along the upper
edge or gunwhale of the. boat angle iron of a proper strength to preserve its
form and resist the blows to which boats are liable, but this is nothing new,
and dioganal or curved pieces of angle iron may be rivetted between the knees
to the sides of the boat, barge, or vessel, , so as greatly to increase the strength
of the sides when required.

page_text: In some shapes or forms of vessels, as in the London coal barges, the
bottom of the fore and after part of the vessel is exposed to alternation of wet
and dry, and if constructed of certain kinds of wood, such as elm, ash, beach,
and such like, would soon decay. To render wood more durable I impugnate
the pores
with varnish, which I effect in the following manner, which I believe
to be new, as also the application of wood for the bottom with iron sides, and
if so, claim the Invention: I boil the timber or planks in a mixture of pitch
and tar, raising the heat to three hundred and fifty degrees and upwards;
this heat is continued from six to twelve or fourteen hours, according to the
substance of the timber; any other material which would bear the required
heat would answer the purpose, but I prefer coal pitch and tar; I then
rapidly draw off the hot stuff and immediately cover the timber with thein
varnish. I take care that little heat escapes during the change, for as the
moisture and air contained in the timber are greatly expanded by the heat, so
as the heat decreases, the air and moisture collapse, and leave room for the
thin varnish to enter the timber. The heat is discontinued when the varnish
is added, and the timber remains until it becomes cool. One part of coal pitch
and five or six parts of spirit or oil of coal tar make a good varnish, which I.
have used with full effect.
The manufacturing of such iron as I use for knees is entirely my Inven-
tion, and I claim the application of it for the construction of knees, the
object of which is to encrease the strength of a bar by the least possible
additional weight where the bar is to sustain pressure by its flat bearing,
and is thus effected :-I take a bar of a proper size for the boat's knee, four
inches broad, three-eighths thick, another bar, called the rib, two inches broad,
three-eighths or four-eighths thick; this rib is placed on the middle of the
face bar, they are then heated in a proper furnace to a welding heat, then
passed through a pair of rolls with a proper groove in the lower one, and
receiving sufficient pressure, the union of the two bars will be effected.
Bars of any required size may be produced by the same process by a proper
adaptation of the machinery and the substance of the bars; but I find, for the
boat described before, if the face bar be from three to four inches broad and
three-eighths of an inch thick, the rib two inches broad, three-eighths of an inch
thick, the knee when bent will be sufficient.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Biil, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two.
ROBT (L.S.) BILL.

page_text: INGLEBY, Extra.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-ninth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1822, the aforesaid Robert Bill came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form 'above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose..
Inrolled the Fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and twenty-two.