IMPROVEMENTS IN ARMOUR COATING FOR SHIPS, FORTIFICATIONS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle, of Charlton,
in the County of Kent, Esquire, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Benjamin Vaughan
Arbuckle at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 3rd June 1861.
I, GEORGE BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ARBUCKLE, of Charlton, in the County of
Kent, Esquire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ARMOUR COATING FOR SHIPS, FORTIFICATIONS, AND OTHER
STRUCTURES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in applying the iron armour, bars, plates, or coating
to vessels, fortifications, and other structures in a curved or series of curved
and wedged forms in such manner that each separate plate or bar when struck
derives support from those bars or plates contiguous to it.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 3rd December 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
BENJAMIN VAUGHAN ARBUCKLE, of Charlton, in the County of Kent, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle, Her special licence that I,
the said George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, tho said George Benjamin Vaughan
Arbuckle, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ARMOUR COATING FOR SHIPS, FORTIFICATIONS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Benjamin
Vaughan Arbuckle, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or ono of their hands and seals, should-par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said-Invention, and-in-what-
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent..
NOW KNOW, YE, that I, the said George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement:-
(I.) The nature of my said Invention, as already set forth in the Pro-
visional Specification left and recorded on application for the said Letters
Patent, cousists in applying iron armour, bars, plates, or coating to vessels,
fortifications, and other structures in a curved or series of curved and wedged
forms in such manner that each separate plate or bar when struck derives
support from those plates or bars contiguous to it, as also in providing a conical
or approximatively conical embrasure or port-hole, herein-after described, spe-
cially adapted to be conjoined and used with the aforesaid arrangements.

page_text: (II.) The iron, instead of being laid on in the ordinary way, is made, as
herein-before intimated, in the form of a wedge or series of wedges, so that
if a section should be made in any direction it would present an arched
appearance, by which, as in a bridge, the whole contributes to support a
weight going over it, so when the surface of this fortification is struck, being
of a curved and wedged form, the force of the blow is disseminated over the
whole instead of part. Between each of the curved parts are placed massivo
structures, faced with six or eight inches of wrought iron, and sloped as in
fortifications of the ordinary character. The form indicated in the plan is
such, that the longitudinal wedges finally rest upon these structures. The
wedges are fastened together by moulten iron being poured into them, and
clamped by brackets; but for ships, instead of molten iron, wood is substituted,
and a sheet of iron faces the interior, through which screws fasten the whole
together.
For ships, in order to render them light, and therefore capable of carrying
either greater armament or more coal, the iron is disposed on a totally
different principle from that now in use. At present, from the water line
and below it to the upper part of the vessel, the iron is of the same uniform
thickness, as in the Warrior (four-and-a-half inches); whereas I place the iron
of different thicknesses, for where the vessel can be struck horizontally, or
nearly so, I place the iron very thick, but according to the curve, so is the
thickness. In a wall-sided ship, as the Warrior, in a naval engagement she.
would be struck at a very slight angle, and there would be no tendency when
struck in trajectories at right angles, or nearly so, with the length for the pro-
jectile to fly off, but in my Invention the sides being curved, that part is the
thickest which receives direct fire; but in the upper portion, where the ship
receives the blow at an angle which deflects the shot, the iron is pro-
portionately thinner, and therefore the lightness is increased in the ratio of
the thickness, and the invulnerability is greatly increased in this Invention,
for the impenetrability being as the square of the thickness of the opposing
plate, in my Invention I have less iron and greater resistance; for with a
plate four inches thick the proportion is as sixteen, but in this Invention the
proportion is for a great part as thirty-six, varying fractionally, and where the
iron is thin deflection takes place.
For fortifications, to protect the men working the guns, a compensating.
platform is used. This platform contains gun carriages and men to work it.
It is raised or depressed by means of a balance. When below the fortifications, .
the
gun is elevated, loaded, and at a given signal the gun and platform rise,
the gun is pointed, fired, and sinks again to its former position.

page_text: Having thus far described the nature of the said Invention, I will, in order
to fully describe and ascertain in what manner the said Invention is to be
performed, now describe the details of construction which I prefer to adopt by
referring to the accompanying Drawings, as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1. is a representation of the longitudinal wedges as proposed by
me for ships. A, B, C, D, E, F, (the shaded part) is of iron, with wood
m, m, m, m, m2, in the interior. The iron is of the same uniform thickness at.
A, B, D, E, but from B, G, E, H, it increases in thickness to C, K, F, L, A, C,
and D, F, converge to a remote centre. N, N, are screws from the interior,
first going through C, O, F, P, which is an iron plate, covering the whole of
the interior, as seen in Figure II. A plate of the same description may be:
placed outside, and if in action it becomes much perforated, would still afford.
a network of iron to keep the wedges in their place, as in Figure III. If
the wedges are placed horizontally, they rest upon the decks; if they are
placed vertically, they rest then upon beams the same length as the breadth.
or beam of the ship and of the shape, Figure IV., a, b, c, d, e, f, boing of
wrought iron, and of such thickness as to be impenetrable to shot.
Figure V. is a section of iron plating of varying thickness, that is to say,
near the water line, and where the fire is horizontal, say from A to C, it is of
sufficient thickness to destroy shot (say six inches), but higher up, that is, from
C-to-E, where,-from.its peculiarly curved shape, it tends to deflect the shot,
there it is thinner; and the difference in weight between iron plating on-this-
principle and, as in the Warrior, where the thickness is uniform, represents
the gain in lightness, while the thickness of the iron in some parts represents.
the gain in power of resistance, that is, being as the square of the thickness of
the plate at that part.
Figure VI. is the section of a bolt for fastening the plates on; it is of copper.
or iron, with copper wire or some flexible substance, as at a, b, c, d, placed
round the neck to break the force of the concussion, and to prevent the bolt
breaking at that part.
Figure VII, is a section of a ship, with plates of different thicknesses instead
of a uniform thickness, as from A to C; it is thicker than from C to E, where.
the shot would necessarily be very much deflected.
Figure VIII. is the section of a rampart in land fortifications, as in the
modern system, except that the exterior slope is not uniformly at an angle of 45°,
but is made circular, as in plan, Figure IX., a, b, c, are of iron, and convergent.
The effect of a blow upon any point of this surface would be, it is concurred, as.

page_text: follows: That when struck the shot glances off, being at an angle, and also
being of a circular shape; each part where struck derives power of resistance
from those wedges or plates immediately contiguous to it. A buttress
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, b', k, extends the whole length of the slope, and the exterior
part is faced with six or eight inches of wrought iron, being thus im-
pregnable.
The embrasure, Figure X, is made in the form of a conical wedge, A, B, C, D,
so that if the face of it is struck, it tends to drive it inwards. The interior
e, f, g, h, is made on the opposite principle from embrasures now in use, as
the largest part is inside, allowing the gun to traverse, and the mouth of
the embrasure being only large enough to admit the gun, and enable the sight
to be taken correctly, as in Figure XI. This embrasure may possibly be used
otherwise than as combined with my other arrangements aforesaid.
Figure XII. is the section of a parapet on the modern system, with longi-
tudinal wedges of iron a, a, a, a, a, placed in a converging direction.
Figure XIII. is the section of a parapet with the escarp, having the wedges
of iron a, a, a, a, in a converging direction, so as to receive in a mass a pro-
jectile, that is to say, the force of a shot, instead of being local, is disseminated
over the whole, and its power of resistance is thereby much augmented.
(III.) Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I
declare that I claim the Invention as the naturo thereof is set forth in the
outset (marked I.) of this my Specification thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Benjamin Vaughan Arbuckle,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Third day of December, in
the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
W. H. BATEMAN,
GEORGE B. VAUGHAN ARBUCKLE. (L.S.)
71, Fleet St.,
London.