IMPROVE- MENTS IN CONSTRUCTING AND ARMING SHIPS AND FLOATING BATTERIES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Michael Peniston at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th
December 1863.
I, WILLIAM MICHAEL PENISTON, of No. 6, Great Queen Street, West-
minster, E.C., do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN CONSTRUCTING AND ARMING SHIPS AND FLOATING BATTERIES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its objects to render the armour plating available for
strengthening the framing of a ship or vessel, and at the same time to avoid
bending or planing the face of the plates or weakening them by bolt holes or
screws; also to protect the armour plates, so that after continuous firing the
blow of the shot shall be received on and have to pass through a thick layer
of compressed wool, cotton, or other suitable material before reaching the
armour plates, and also to facilitate the manoeuvring of guns either worked
by the turret and turntable system or otherwise. All these objects may be
attained either in the construction of new vessels of iron and timber or in the
reconstruction of old timber vessels.
In constructing a vessel or floating battery according to this Invention it is
formed with an inner and an outer skin, as has before sometimes been the
case, the inner and outer skin are at such a distance apart that while the
outer one retains the curves or mould required, the inner one, where the iron
armour plating is applied, shall be upright or nearly upright, by which, amongst
other advantages, the armour plating may be employed in a flat or unbent

page_text: form, the plates being placed with their greatest length running vertically, and
being of such a length that one plate only in depth is necessary. The outer
skin may be of iron plating secured to iron framing, or may be of wood
planking, or iron or wood framing properly moulded to the forms or lines
desired. The inner skin and framing constitute a complete inner body or
vessel, and are composed of iron from the keel upwards, whether it be when
building a new ship or when altering an old one, or whether the external body
of such ship be of iron or wood. The inner and outer skins are bound
together by ribs of plate iron at intervals a little greater than the breadth of
the armour plates; these main ribs on the outer side are formed to the
required mould for the outer skin, and fitted with angle or T iron to secure
them to the outer skin, whether it be of timber or iron plate; the inner side
of the rib is straight for the length of the armour plate, and to each side of
the straight edge of the rib is rivetted a strip with a dovetail tongue corre-
sponding with a groove cut in the edges of the armour plate, by which means
the armour plate ties the ribs together and makes one complete frame. The
armour plates are further secured in their position by angle irons rivetted to
the ribs parallel to the tongue just described, the angle iron coming on each
side of the armour plating, and so forming grooves in which the plates fit, and
thus secure it in place laterally without any strain on the tongue. The armour
plates thus secured in and forming part of the framing form the upper portion
of the inner skin of the vessel, and this portion may be further strengthened
if required by bars of angle iron at the back. The lower portion of the inner
skin is formed in the ordinary manner of iron ship building.
By the foregoing arrangement the vessel's side will be divided into cells
running nearly vertically from the lower to the upper deck, of which the sides
will be the plate iron ribs, the back the armour plate, and the front the
planking or outer skin of the ship; these cells will be filled with cotton wool
or other suitable material, which will previously have been rendered incom-
bustible, and will be pressed up from below by bydraulic or other pressure
applied at a point just below that at which the cells are filled, so that what-
ever disturbance may be made in the upper part, the pressure from below
will serve to fill up any spaces or vacuities that may be caused by shot or
shell.
When it is desired to have a backing of wood behind the armour plating, I
carry up the inner skin of iron plating to the top of the armour plating, and
connect this skin with the outer skin by webs, and to these webs the armour
plates are attached in like manner. to that above described, a space being left
between the armour plates and the inner skin that is filled in with wood

page_text: backing, the space between the outer skin and the armour plates is, as before,
filled in with cotton wool or other suitable material.
In arming ships and floating batteries it has before been proposed to mount
guns on platforms, which are capable of being raised to and lowered from the
positions where the guns are fired. When
When employing this system of arming a
ship or battery, I use hydraulic power to raise and lower the platforms, and
where two, three, or more of such rising and descending platforms are used, I,
at the level to which the platforms are brought, construct a rail or tramway
between the platforms, in order that the guns may be run off from and again
on to such platforms, or from one platform to another, by which means and
by having a spare gun or guns in the event of any injury to a gun or its
carriage, the same may be replaced by another gun and carriage, and such
ways between the places occupied by the platforms when down will be found
to present other advantages in addition to the one above named. When using
rising and descending platforms it is preferred that they should be arranged
in the manner of turntables.