IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS OR VESSELS AND THE METHOD OF DISCHARGING BILGE WATER THEREFROM
Year: 1858

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
bij the Act.).
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Cowper at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th March
1858.
I; THOMAS COWPER, of Douglas, Isle of Man, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS OR
VESSELS AND THE METHOD OF DISCHARGING BILGE WATER THEREFROM," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to methods of checking the movement in mass of
bilge water which may have collected in the bottom of a ship, and which by
the motion of the ship in a rough sea causes the vessel to strain or labour,
and roll heavily.
It is well known that flat bottom ships suffer most from this cause in the
space at bottom usually devoted to the bilge. I dispose a series of dash-
boards between the low transverse bulkheads, one on each side of the keel
line; these dashboards are set at a suitable angle with the bulkheads, and
form wedge-like spaces, into which the bilge water upon the rolling and
pitching of the ship is driven, then, by providing suitable perforations in and
through the bulkheads, the bilge water will be driven through first one bulk-
head, then another, until it reaches some suitable part of the vessel, about the
centre of its length, where in like manner the bilge water from the other

page_text: portion of the length of the vessel will also be collected from a similar arrange-
ment of dashboards placed at the opposite angle, the space between these two
sets of angular dashboards being devoted to a well or cistern, into which the
lower end of the pump pipe dips. The accompanying Drawing exhibits four
views of an arrangement of dashboards, diverters, or deflectors, and collectors
applied by way of illustration to a flat bottom iron vessel.
It will be seen in referrence to the plan, that when the ship rolls one way,
say, towards C, the water will run in the direction of the red arrows, and when
rolling in in the opposite direction, the water will run in the direction of the
black arrows; this is continuous; it is quite apparent that the bulkhead
with holes through at bottom of such bulkheads, and by the splashboards
being set diagonally, the water will be diverted towards spaces S, S, and
accumulate there, and by placing suitable valves, say, of india-rubber cloth,
at V, V, in the sectional view, the water will collect about the rose at the bilge
pumps R, and the more the ship rolls the higher will the water rise about the
rose, as compared with the average height of the water throughout the bottom
of the ship.
In thus illustrating the nature of my said Invention, I do not intend thereby
to confine myself to the precise form, details, or arrangement of dashboards
shewn in the Drawing, as variations and modifications thereof may be made to
suit the various conditions and circumstances connected with the build or form
of ship, and which may also be necessitated from other causes; but my Inven-
tion consists in collecting and disposing of the bilge water in manner described
by taking advantage of the motion of the ship for these purposes, and as it
were by screwing the water to the point desired.