IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF IRON SHIPS OR VESSELS, AND OF ARMOUR APPLICABLE THERETO
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Barnabas Russ, of Bristol, in the County of
Gloucester, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
IRON SHIPS OR VESSELS, AND OF ARMOUR APPLICABLE THERETO."
Sealed the 31st July 1863, and dated the 4th February 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Barnabas Russ at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition, on the 4th
February 1863.
I, BARNABAS Russ, of Bristol, in the County of Gloucester, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF IRON SHIPS OR VESSELS, AND OF ARMOUR APPLICABLE THERETO," to be
as follows:-
This Invention consists, firstly, of a novel method of constructing iron ships
or vessels, having reference to their hulls, decks, and bulkheads, whether for
sailing or steam vessels, rams, or cupola ships, or for tubular, cylindrical, or
other forms of batteries on. deck; and, secondly, in the construction and
adaptation of armour when required for such vessels or their batteries.
The material to be used for the keels, stems, sterns, stern posts, frames or
ribs for the sides and skins, beams and decks, both externally and internally,
is iron.

page_text: The keels and the stem and stern posts can be made solid or with plate
iron to form the external or internal keels; the plate iron to form the frames
or ribs can be used with double or single plates to make the frames or ribs as
required either for long or short frames or ribs, which are to have angle iron
bolted or rivetted on each side of the external and internal edge to receive the
external and internal plating which forms the sides, hulls, or skins of the
vessels. The plates and seams will be rivetted together in the ordinary
manner, and the plates being put together double will form their own laps,
joints, butts, joggled or rebated joints, so that the surfaces of the plating will
then be perfectly smooth. The plating will be applied so that one joint will
not come opposite another. The decks and beams will be found of single or
double plate iron, and will have angle iron rivetted on each side of the
external and internal edges to receive the deck plating, which will be applied
to form joints similar to those of the hull.
The external and internal deck plates and beams will be secured to the
hulls, sides, or skins by means of angle iron or knees rivetted to the deck
plates and beams, and also to the hulls, sides, or skins, or secured with screw
bolts. Tubes are to be placed between the outside and inside plating, through
which tubes the screw bolts are inserted. The internal decks will be laid with
wood planking.
The bulkheads are to be made with double plates in order to form lap joints;
they will have angle iron rivetted on each side. The plates and angle iron
will be rivetted or screwed to the sides or skins, and when the frames or angle
iron cannot be used, plates will be applied. The space between the frames
and the plates forming the external and internal sides or hulls will be packed
or filled with concrete, or with a composition of concrete, pitch, tar, resin,
clinker, or stone and asphalte in about equal proportions, which will preserve
and strengthen the construction.
The bulwarks may be either fixtures or moveable by means of hinges,
joints, pins, or bolts, in order to lie flat on the decks or outside the hull of
the vessel, so as to permit of the discharge of ordnance from cupolas on deck.
The port holes, doors, or flaps are to be formed either as a single door or in
two parts, and may be jointed or blind-hinged. When the port holes, doors,
or flaps are to be opened, they will be actuated by means of male and feinale
screws, pins, balls, collars, nuts, wheels, and lever pins, and pass out and over
the rebates, and rise or fall accordingly by means of the gearing mentioned.
When the ports are closed they will form their own fastenings, and be flush
with the sides of the vessel.

page_text: The armour or shield plates are to be made of iron and steel welded, shut
or rolled together so as to present a steel face and an iron back; they may
be made of any required area and thickness. They should be subjected to
the processes of annealing, tempering, or hardening, when they will totally
resist shot or shell; they form a separate and distinct portion of the con-
struction of the vessel, ram, or of the cupola or battery. The joints may
either be joggled, butted, rebated, grooved, and tongued, or otherwise; these
plates may also be laid on the exposed deck plates. If the plates are rivetted
either to the hulls or decks no packing will be required, but if on the con-
trary they are fixed by countersunk screw bolts and nuts there should be
a packing applied. If required, the armour plates may be applied to form
the hulls externally in the place of the iron plates, and these armour plates
are to be attached by means of countersunk screw bolts passing through the
tubes before mentioned.
The vessel may be armour plated entirely or partly from stem to stern, and
as low down the sides as thought advisable; the armour plates may be applied
to vessels already constructed.
The cupolas may be formed as follows:-Firstly, they may be constructed
with a dome roof with frames or ribs, and external and internal plating, and
may be furnished with armour plates on the same principle as the hulls of the
vessels, and may be packed with concrete or the composition, and their port
holes, frames, doors, and flaps may be worked on the same principle as the
port holes in the vessels. Secondly, one-half or portion of their external
plating may be dispensed with, and the armour-plating applied to one external
plating only. Thirdly, the two external platings, frames, ribs, composition, or
concrete may all be dispensed with, and the armour plates may then be fixed
to the internal plating.
The cupolas may be constructed on the telescopic principle, so as to be raised
or lowered as requisite, and they may be made to rotate by means of toothed
gearing worked by manual labour.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Barnabás Russ, Her special licence that I, the said
Barnabas Russ, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Barnabas Russ, 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
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF IRON SHIPS OR VESSELS, AND OF ARMOUR
APPLICABLE THERETO," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Barnabas Russ, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly 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 Barnabas Russ, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
1. This Invention consists of a novel method of constructing iron ships or
vessels of war or otherwise, having reference to their hulls, decks, bulkheads,
bulwarks, port holes or doors, cupolas, tubular, cylindrical, or other forms of
batteries wherever placed, keels, stems, and stern posts, and of armour or
shield plates applicable thereto, said Invention being applicable to every kind
of vessel and floating battery of every kind, or battery that can be compre-
hended in the term of "vessel."
2. The vessels may be constructed with vertical ribs alone, or with longi-
tudinal ribs with the addition of vertical ribs, and such ribs may be constructed
solely or together throughout all or any part of the sides of the vessel, and
at any distance apart according to the purpose for which the vessel is con-
structed,
3. Where the vessel is constructed with vertical ribs alone, angle iron may
be rivetted on either or both sides of the ribs at their external edges, which
angle iron may be also rivetted to the external plating of the vessel. Angle

page_text: iron may also be rivetted on either or both sides of the ribs at their internal
edges, which angle iron may be also rivetted to the internal plating or to the
beams of the vessel.
4. Where the vessel is constructed with longitudinal ribs in addition to
vertical ribs, the longitudinal ribs are placed between the vertical ribs last
described and the external plating of the vessel, and the vertical ribs may
then have a middle plating fastened to their external edges by means of angle
iron and rivets in manner before described, and the longitudinal ribs may then
be fastened to the last-mentioned middle plating and to the sides of the vessel
by angle iron and rivets.
5. Where the vessel is constructed with longitudinal ribs in addition to
vertical ribs, the space between the external plating of the vessel and the
middle plating may be of any convenient width, and the spaces between the
longitudinal ribs may be left empty, or may be filled in any way that may be
convenient. I prefer to fill with wood such as teak or oak, or a lighter wood,
or with cement, or concrete or ebonite, and sometimes with a composition such
as next described, called Russ's compound.
6. Russ's compound consists of pitch, tar, rosin, asphalte, or clinker or
tough stone in about equal proportions by weight, the whole being well mixed
and boiled together over a fire of sufficient heat, and poured in the spaces
liquid and hot.
7. Any composition poured in liquid and hot is allowed to cool down,
"topping holes" being left to fill up hollows that have formed in the
cooling.
8. When the spaces between the external and middle plating are filled with
wood, or any substance put in solid, the vessel may be built with the
longitudinal ribs fastened to the external plating of the vessel alone, the ribs
being made so narrow as not to touch the middle plating at any part, but to
be of any convenient width short of such contact; and I sometimes prefer
to have such ribs four-fifths of the width between the external and middle
plating.
9. When narrow ribs, as described in the last paragraph, are used, and the
filling is put in in a liquid state, the spaces that would have been occupied by
the extra breadths of rib will be filled with the filling so poured in. In other
cases such spaces would be left empty, or be filled with a tough or elastic
material.
10. Decks, cupolas, and bulkheads may be constructed on principles cor-
responding to those above described with reference to making the complete

page_text: sides of vessels by means of external, middle, and internal plates, or external
and internal plates only, with ribs, and, where desired, with filling, such as
mentioned above.
11. Decks of vessels may also be formed of single or double plating fastened
to beams of T-iron, or sheet iron, or other convenient material by screws or
rivets, with angle iron added where convenient.
12: Beams, keels, stems, and stern posts to any kind of vessel may be made
of pieces or plates of metal rivetted together, and in such manner as to be
solid or hollow.
13.. Wherever joints are made in the plating of vessels, or any part of
them, whether in forming the sides of vessels external, middle, inner, armour,
or deck plating, bulkheads, keels, stems, stern posts, cupolas, or otherwise,
and of whatever form the plates or the object to be constructed may be, as
flat, square, curved, cylindrical, as the case of chimnies and funnels, the layers
of plates may be so arranged as to form their own laps or joints, and so that
one joint will never, either in vertical, longitudinal, or other lines, except at
a point of crossing, or other case of necessity, be opposite another joint, and
the fastening of such layers will be by rivetting plates to plates or plates
to angle iron, with tongues, grooves, rebates, joggles, or otherwise, as may be
required.
14. Bulwarks may be made moveable by means of hinges, joints, pins, or
bolts in order that they may lie flat on the decks, or on the exterior side of
the vessels, or passed below, and the decks or sides of the vessels may be
countersunk to receive them. Stand bars or iron stanchions may be applied
with or without back stay bars to support the bulwarks. The stand bars or
the iron stanchions may have joints or hinges, and may have holes therein for
wire ropes to pass through, and canvass with eyelet holes may be fastened to
the wire ropes and the stand bars or stanchions.
15. When the bulwarks are constructed as fixtures, iron or wood may be
applied in place of the wire ropes and canvass. Iron stanchions or columns
will be applied as required to support the deck beams.
16. Armour plates may be made of iron and steel in two or four distinct
parts, which may be put together, as follows:-
17. If made of two parts, the first portion of the armour plate is "the back"
of forged or rolled iron of suitable length, width, and thickness required. The
second portion is the steel face of cast or wrought steel, or Bessemer steel, of
suitable length, width, and substance. The steel face may be laid on the
iron back," and the two plates may be then subjected to the heat of a blast

page_text: furnace, or otherwise, till heated to the requisite degree for welding; the two
portions may then be hammered or rolled into one solid armour plate.
18. If made of four portions, I add to the first series of two portions, already
described, a second series of two portions of like materials in the same order
as before and heat and weld, as before described.
19. The armour plates may be put on the sides, decks, or cupolas of
vessels, and jointed as before-mentioned; they may also be laid on the
exposed deck plates, if thought advisable, and they may also be applied in the
formation of the hulls in lieu of the external plating already described.
20. Armour plates may be fastened by means of long rivets or countersunk
screwed bolts and nuts.
21. The bolts or rivets used to fasten the armour plates may pass through
fixed iron tubes, when they pass through any space which has been filled with
a composition poured in in a loose or liquid state.
22. The vessel may be armour plated, according to this Invention, either
entirely from stem to stern, and as low down the sides as desirable, or the
vessel may be partially protected at those situations most liable to danger from
an enemy's fire.
23. My armour plates are also applicable to vessels of iron or wood already
constructed or to be constructed.
24. If the armour plates are fixed to the deck by countersunk screw bolts
and nuts, then packing may be applied of wrought or cast lead, or other
material applicable to such purposes.
25. Cupolas may be formed with domes or roofs or with flat tops, and may
have beams to receive the plating, and may have armour, external, middle,
and internal plates, or any or either of them with ribs and fillings of spaces,
where desired, on the same principles in previously described constructions,
and may have port holes, frames, doors, or flaps made on the same principle
as those for vessels.
26. The cupolas may be ventilated by means of slip bars or plates to work
by screw gear or otherwise.
27. The cupolas may be made to rotate by means of wheels and toothed
gearing on a flat or table surface, and may be raised or lowered by hydraulic,
screw, or lever power, by racks, toothed wheels, lifts or falls, or purchases, or
by other mechanical power, together with the table surface on which they
rotate.
28. The port hole frames, and doors or flaps of vessels or cupolas, may be
opened as one door or in two halves by means of joints, binges, or blind

page_text: joints, worked by means of male and female screws and pins, plummer blocks,
eyes, collars, boxes, wheels, and levers, and other gearing and chains, so as to
pass the doors or flaps out and over the rebates, in order that they may rise
or fall. When the doors or flaps are closed, they will form their own fasten-
ings, and will be flush with the sides.
In witness whereof, I, the said Barnabas Russ, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thonsand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Witness,
ALEX. PRINCE,
Office for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross.
BARNABAS RUSS. (L.s.)