IMPROVEMENTS IN SHEATHING SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Betteley, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Iron Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SHEATHING SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS."
Sealed the 10th May 1864, and dated the 17th Noven:ber 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Betteley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
November 1863.
I, JOSEPH BETTELEY, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Iron
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SHEATHING SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in sheathing ships and other
vessels. For this purpose I employ sheets of copper, or an alloy of copper
coated at the back with zinc, or an alloy of zinc or other alloy which is readily
fusible and electrically positive to copper. I produce such sheets by casting
on to a thick plate of copper or alloy of copper the zinc or readily fusible
alloy, and I roll out the compound slab so produced into sheets of the thickness
required, or a compound slab suitable to be so extended may be otherwise
produced; or thin sheets of copper or alloy of copper may be coated on one
side with zinc or readily fusible alloy by a process similar to that of galvanizing
iron or otherwise. Or I employ for sheathing ships sheets of copper or alloy of
copper japanned at the back, that is to say, coated with a varnish which is dried

page_text: and rendered hard by heating in an oven or stove, or other varnish may be
m ployed which will resist the action of the water and adhere firmly to the
copper or metal sheet; or I employ sheets of copper or alloy of copper coated
at the back with a vitreous composition fused by heat, so as to cause it to
flow uniformly over the surface; or I employ sheets of copper or alloy of
copper coated at the back with woven fabric or fibrous material, which is
caused to adhere to the back of the sheathing plates by means of a waterproof
cement. By using sheathing thus coated at the back the injurious action
which ordinary sheathing has on iron fastenings is avoided, besides which
weight for weight the sheathing is rendered both cheaper and more durable,
especially when zine or a fusible alloy is used to form the back of the sheathing.
In applying the sheathing so coated at the back with fusible alloy the plates
are not lapped, or otherwise injurious galvanic action might ensue, but the
plates are butted together, and a strip of zinc or other metal or alloy applied
at the back under the joint. The nails employed for securing the sheathing
should be japanned.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Betteley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th May 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
BETTELEY, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Iron Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Joseph Betteley, Her special licence that I, the
said Joseph Betteley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Joseph Betteley, 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 SHEATHING SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Betteley, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of

page_text: 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 Joseph Betteley, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in sheathing ships with copper or yellow metal sheets,
the back surfaces of which are coated with lead, tin, or zinc, or alloys of such
metals.
This system of sheathing is peculiarly applicable for sheathing iron fastened
ships and vessels, but may be also applied to ships and vessels otherwise
fastened, and also to ships and vessels built of iron or partly of iron, the object
being to prevent the injurious action which ordinary sheathing has on iron
fastenings. There are various modes by which sheets of copper and of yellow
metal may be produced with their back surfaces coated with lead, tin, or zinc,
or with alloys of those metals, but I prefer to prepare the sheathing when
carrying out my Invention by coating such sheathing metals with tin, or lead,
or zinc, by first obtaining a thin coating of tin on the back surfaces, as is well
understood. It is not, however, at all times necessary that such a thin coating
should be first obtained, as amongst other cases, when coating the back surfaces
of such sheathing metal with tin or with zinc by immersing the sheets of
sheathing metal in a bath of either of such fused coating metals. It will, how-
ever, be found desirable thus to employ a thin coating of tin before passing the
sheets of sheathing metal into a bath of the coating metal used. In order that
only one side of each sheet of the copper or of the yellow sheathing metal shall
be coated with the white metal, the front or outer surface of each sheet is first
well coated with chalk or with blacklead, or other similar matter which will
prevent the melted metal adhering when the sheets of sheathing metal are
immersed in a bath of the white coating metal.
I would remark that although I have thus described the mode by which I
prefer to coat one side of each sheet of the sheathing metal with one of the
metals or alloys above mentioned, I do not confine myself thereto, as sheets of
like sheathing metal coated on one surface (the back surface) may be other-
wise prepared and used in carrying out my Invention. In nailing or fastening
such sheets of sheathing metal on to a ship's bottom I prefer that the edges
thereof should not overlap, but that their edges should butt against each other,

page_text: a strip of the white metal being placed at the back of each of the butt joints,
and the stems of the nails, which are of copper or yellow metal, are coated
with the white metal. I sometimes apply at the back of the sheets of metal
woven fabric or fibrous material, which is caused to adhere to the back of the
sheathing plates by means of a waterproof cement.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Betteley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
JOSEPH BETTELEY. (L.S.)