CERTAIN INVENTIONS OR IMPROVEMENTS CALCULATED TO IIIPROVE NAVAL ARCHITECTURE AND NAVIGATION, AND TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE COMFORT AND BETTER SUBSISTANCE OF MARINERS, AND APPLICABLE TO OTHER PUR- POSES
Year: 1809

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD
TREVITдICK, of Rotherhithe, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, and ROBERT
DICKINSON, of Great Queen Street, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of
April, in the forty-ninth year of His reign, give and grant unto us, the said
Richard Trevithick and Robert Dickinson, our exors, adñors, and assigns,
His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that we, the said
Richard Trevithick and Robert Dickinson, our exors, admors, and assigns,
should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein mentioned,
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, "CERTAIN INVENTIONS OR IMPROVEMENTS CALCULATED TO
IIIPROVE NAVAL ARCHITECTURE AND NAVIGATION, AND TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE
COMFORT AND BETTER SUBSISTANCE OF MARINERS, AND APPLICABLE TO OTHER PUR-
POSES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
us, the said Richard Trevithick and Robert Dickinson, or one of us, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and
seal of one of us, to cause a particular description of the nature of our said
Inventions, and in what manner the same are to be performed, to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Richard Trevithick and Robert Dickinson, do hereby declare that the nature
of our said Inventions, and the manner in which the same
performed, are particularly described and ascertained as follows, that is to
say:
are to be
The first of our said Inventions or improvements is, a moveable caisson or
floating dock, made of wrought iron plates rivetted together, or fastened toge-
ther by screws, or in any other secure manner for docking a ship or other
vessel of considerable size while riding at her moorings in any suitable depth
of water, by means of which the said ship may be supported as in a common
dock, and the water pumped out so as to leave her keel dry in a few hours,
without removing any of her stores, masts, or furniture. The said caisson or
floating dock may be made of any convenient size or dimensions, but for the
sake of precision in our description thereof, we shall mention certain dimen-
sions fit to receive the largest first rate, at the same time that we shall
describe its form and structure. The internal figure of the said caisson or
floating dock resembles that of a boat, and it may be made of wrought iron
half an inch thick, and two hundred and twenty feet long and fifty-four feet
wide and thirty feet deep, with a flanch six feet wide extending horizontally
outwards from the upper edge for the workmen to stand upon, and also to
-strengthen.the.caisson; _the_weight_of_such a caisson or floating dock is nearly
four hundred tons, and it is surrounded by an air chamber or by air chambers
rivitted water-tight to its external surface, which renders it so buoyant that
it will draw only nine fect water when the said air chamber or air chambers
is or are empty; and the said air chamber or air chambers doth or do consist
of wrought iron plates rivetted together, so as to form a semi-cylindrical hollow
protuberance extending along the sides of the caisson horizontally, and of a
figure which in any of the vertical sections thereof would present a semi-
circle, or outline nearly approaching to a semicircle, which is the best outline,
altho' other outlines may be used; and the said air chamber or chambers
contribute much to strengthen the caisson or dock, and support the principal
sliores from the ship, and the strength of the caisson may be still further
augmented, if necessary, by edge bars within. The method of using the
said caisson consists in taking it to the ship intended- to be-docked, and then
the water is to be let into the caisson by an opening with a valve at the
.bottom, and the caisson is to be suffered to sink until the upper part is even
with the surface of the water, the air chamber or chambers still keeping it
buoyant; a small quantity of air is then to be discharged by opening a plug-
hole, or a valve in the air chamber or chambers, until a quantity of water has

page_text: been let in just sufficient to sink the caisson, which is then to bo drawn under
the ship's bottom. This being effected, the caisson (of which the residual
gravity or preponderency for sinking is very little) is to be raised to the sur-
face of the water by ropes made fast to the caisson from each quarter of the
ship. A pump placed within the caisson is then to be worked by manual
labour, or any suitable power; but we prefer for this purpose a steam engine;
one of twelve horse power, placed in a barge alongside the caisson, will empty
it in three hours, and reduce the draft of a first-rate ship of war eight feet,
namely, from twenty-six feet to eighteen feet, and then she may be carried
up into shoal water if required, because the caisson will float with the draft
of only eighteen feet, while the ship she carries would have required twenty-
six feet. As the ship is to be supported by props or shores as if in a dock, it
is manifest that the external pressure of the water against the caisson will
support the ship, and she will ride with all the stores on board, and masts
standing, nearly as easy as when floating in the water. The advantages of
this Invention for inspecting the bottoms of ships in an extremely short time,
and of docking them in places where that process would else have been im-
practicable, and of carrying them over bars and shoals, are too obvious to
require any detail; and if at any time the causson should, from blowing
weather or any other cause, be thought inconvenient, it may be cast off and
suffered to sink to the bottom, and may be afterwards weighed with as little
inconvenience as raising an anchor.
The second of our said Inventions is, to build in the same manner as the
floating dock, not small craft fit for canals and inland navigation, such having
been long in use, but ships of war, East Indiamen, and other large decked
vessels fit to navigate the ocean. In such ships we mean to make the decks
as well as the sides of plates of wrought iron, rivitted or joined by screws, not
only to each other, but to the sides of the ship, and to support the decks
with wrought iron beams. Ships so constructed will possess the following
advantages, they can be built at much less expence than wooden ships of equal
dimensions, the material is not only a home production but inexhaustible;
they will be much lighter and of greater capacity than a vessel of equal
outside dimensions built of wood, and will consequently carry a larger cargo,
while they will be also much stronger, safe against fire, tight in a
gale of
wind, require neither caulking nor copper sheathing, will defy all mischief
from vermin, will never become unhealthy, and will be extremely durable;
they will also have this advantage, in a battle there can be no splinters; a
shot will carry away no more of the ship's side than the diameter of the ball,
the hole may be instantly plugged, and the damage can be repaired at sea.

page_text: The third of our said Inventions or improvements doth consist in making
masts, bowsprits, yards, and booms, of wrought iron, out of plates rivitted o
screwed together in hollow or tubular forms. These masts being hollow tubes
the upper masts may be made to slide into the lower mast, as the inner tubes
slide into the outer tube of a pocket telescope, or they may be struck exactly
in the same manner as the wooden masts are at present, but we prefer the
former method, because, by making the masts in a sufficient number of sliding
picces, the whole may be lowered by means of ropes and pullies successively.
till all be as low as the deck; an arrangement which affords to a ship in the case
of a storm that advantage which is endeavoured to be obtained by cutting away
masts made of wood. When the storm is over, these masts may be raised
again to their first situation and original utility with great ease. The bow-
sprits, when so wanted, may also be made in sliding pieces like the masts.
The fourth of our said Inventions or improvements doth consist in the
preparation of timber, by seasoning the same most effectually and in a very
short time, and also by giving any required curvature during the seasoning
process which shall afterwards continue perfect and invariable. For these pur-
poses we place the said timber in iron chambers, disposed over a long horizontal
flue which communicates between a fireplace or furnace and an upright or
ascending chimney. The heated air and smoke which has passed thro' the
fire, and is capable of producing or maintaining any combustion in the wood,
is admitted into the said chambers by regulated openings with dampers, and so
thoroughly heats the said wood that the crude sap and pyrolignic acid become
evaporated and driven out, and may, if required, be collected for use in manu-
facturing processes; and by this treatment the wood becomes firm, hard,
thoroughly dry, and well seasoned throughout its whole substance; and we do
construct some of our said chambers with a curved side of such a figure as it
may be required to give to the wood by bending; and we do, by means of
screws, chains, or bearing pieces suitable to the figure intended to be pro-
duced, the form and application of which will be readily apprehended without
any further instruction by any competent workmen, gradually compress and
bend the said wood against the said curved side, during the time of the said
seasoning heat, until the desired flexure is produced therein; and we do suffer
tho said wood, so bended and seasoned, to remain, until cold, before we proceed
to slacken or relax the actions of the said chains, screws, or bearing pieces; or
otherwise, instead of making a curved side to the chamber, we do place or fix
within the said chamber such curved pieces or pins or reaction pieces as may
be suitable to the effect and figure required to be produced.
The fifth of our said Inventions or improvements doth consist in a method

page_text: of framing; or. putting together the hulls of ships or vessels. The said method
consists in substituting, in the place of those pieces which are disposed between
the outer and inner planking, and are called ribs or timbers, a double range of
straight-grained pieces of half the substance, more or less, and as long as can
be conveniently obtained, the same being bended to the proper figure by the
means before described, and placed contiguous to each other between the outer
and inner planking with the joints, as far as possible, from being, opposite each
other, and the whole is secured by bolts or treenails as usual or otherwise.
The said pieces may be disposed, not upright or at right angles to the keelson,
but oblique, the inner range of these pieces being inclined forward on the one
side and aft on the other side of the ship, as they rise from the keel, and the
outer range of these pieces being inclined in the contrary direction to that of
the inner range which they cover, by which arrangement the said ranges do
act with regard to each other as diagonal spurs.
...
The sixth of our said Inventions or improvements is, buoys made of cast
iron or of wrought iron plates, screwed, brazed, soldered, or rivetted together,
so as to form a hollow water-tight vessel of any shape or size that may be
requisite. The advantage of these buoys is, that they cannot be injured by
worms or imbibe water to make them lose any of their buoyancy, and conse-
quently that they will at all times float higher and be better seen than buoys
made of wood.
The seventh of our said Inventions or improvements consists in a method
of working an arm or lever attached to a steam engine for the purpose of
hoisting, pumping, rowing, or other similar works in naval affairs. To effect
this the piston rod of a steam engine is racked on one side, and drives a wheel,
or a portion of a wheel, which has a horizontal axis, with an arm of consider-
able length attached thereto. The whole of the said apparatus, and the steam
engine for working the same, which we usually construct of about the weight of
ene ton, may be placed on wheels and conveyed to different parts of; the ship;
and the said arm, which may be varied in its length as well as in the inclina-
tion of its positions at the ends of its stroke, may be employed in hoisting, a
basket of coals successively out of the hold of a ship, and conveying the same,
by means of a rope of suspension, to the gangway; or goods may in like
manner be hoisted and carried over the side, and, in cases where the hoist
5 may prove too long for the circular motion of an arm to carry the goods suffi-
ciently high or with due perpendicularity, we avail ourselves of a runner or
rope, one end of which is made fast to the deck, and the other serves to seize
the goods, while the bight or bend of the rope passes over a sheave or pulley at
the extremity of the arm; and by this contrivance every seaman and, mechanic

page_text: will be aware that the hoist is rendered more direct, and the rise and fal
nearly double; and, farther, we do apply the said arm to pumping ship
and other like uses; and when the said arm is passed over the side it may be
employed to work a paddle or rowing board of the usual construction, or a
rowing trunk of the construction herein-after described.
The eighth of our said Inventions or improvements is, a rowing trunk, tube
or prismatic cavity. When the stroke of an oar or any similar implement is
made against water, for the purpose of obtaining a reaction as nearly as may
be similar to that of the resistance of an immoveable body, part of the force
is lost in producing a lateral motion in the water which escapes sideways,
and the blade of the oar is far from being stationary. If the oar were to pass
in a channel to which it is fitted, and the channel were of such dimensions as
to present a great length of water before the oar which could no otherwise
move than by passing out of the channel, it is demonstrable that the said mass
of water may be assumed of such a magnitude as to render the actual motion
of the oar, by a given force and during a given time, less than any assignable
quantity. We have availed ourselves of the foregoing considerations in our
rowing trunk or tube. It consists of a tube of considerable length disposed
horizontally in the water, and the stroke of rowing is made by means of a
piece of the nature of a piston-with-valves, which-is-acted upon the_rowing
arm, and shuts the valves; but in the return of the stroke the valves open,
and the said rowing trunk or tube being attached to the vessel, and its contents
having too much inertia or resistance to receive much velocity from the piston,
the vessel itself and the tube are carried along with much more power and
effect that by common rowing. If the tube itself be made moveable and
attached to the rowing arm, and there be a stop within of. the nature of a
valve to shut against the stroke, and open with the return, the effect will be
the same.
And lastly, the ninth of our said Inventions or improvements consists in
the adaptation of various particulars or additional parts made of iron, and
conducing to the comfort and better subsistance of mariners and others unto tho
boiler of the steam engine that may be used for the forementioned purposes,
that is to say, in the upper part of the said boiler we insert or fix a vessel,
cither single or divided into compartments, for boiling provisions in water, or
cooking the same in steam; and in the part of the said boiler opposite the
fireplace we insert or fix an oven surrounded by a space communicating with
the chimney, so that the walls of the said oven shall be surrounded by heated
air, and not in contact with the water; and further, we do adapt and apply
to the boiler, or to the place of escape at the steam cock, any of the apparatus

page_text: heretofore in common use for condensing steam, in order to procure fresh water;
and we do apply and use the said last-mentioned addition to the boiler either
separately or together as may be required.
In witness whereof, we, the said Richard Trevithick and Robert Dickin-
son, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-eighth day of
October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
nine.
RICHARD TREVITHICK. (L.S.) ROBT DICKINSON. (L.8.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of October,
in the year of our Lord 1809, the aforesaid Richard Trevithick and Robert
Dickinson came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and nine.