IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ARMOUR TO BE USED FOR THE DEFENCE OR PROTECTION OF IRONCLAD AND OTHER VESSELS, LAND BATTERIES, AND OTHER FORTIFICATIONS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Mac Lellan and William Jones
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th April 1878.
GEORGE MAC LELLAN, Manufacturer, and WILLIAM JONES, Rubber Works Manager,
both of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF ARMOUR TO BE USED FOR THE DEFENCE OR PROTECTION OF
IRONCLAD AND OTHER VESSELS, LAND BATTERIES, AND OTHER FORTIFICATIONS."
This Invention has principally for its object the construction of defensive armour
for ironclad and other vessels, and for fortifications on land, in a novel and simple
manner, and so as to render such armour capable of offering greatly increased
resistance to penetration by projectiles without adding to the thickness or weight of
plates presently employed.
The improvements are also designed to make the hulls of mercantile and other
vessels less liable than heretofore to injury by collision or grounding.
In carrying out the Invention according to one modification applicable to war
vessels and floating batteries, blocks or buffers of vulcanised rubber are interposed
at short intervals apart between the hull of the vessel and the armour plating, two
or more blocks being placed behind each plate and the plating itself, which may be
of the ordinary kind, instead of being rigidly bolted to the vessel's hull; or the
usual teak backing is held in rectangular frames of angle or T iron bolted to the
vessel's sides, and having overlapping flanges to retain the plates, suitable packing
being provided, when necessary, to keep the rubber spaces water-tight. Strong
bolts or studs passing through the hull and having heads or nuts on their inner ends
may also be employed to retain the plates, these bolts or studs being free to slide in
their holes and admitting of a short lateral or transverse movement of the armour
plates to which they are attached.
With this construction of armour when any plate is struck by a projectile or
other body the force of the blow causes the rubber block or buffer at that point to
give way to some extent, and the plate assumes a position slightly oblique to the
direction of impact, giving the projectile a tendency to rebound or glance off, and
greatly diminishing its destructive effect.

page_text: The safety of the vessel may be still further insured by making water-tight
compartments or spaces behind each plate within the hull; and instead of separate
blocks of rubber being used a strong cushion of corrugated rubber may be fitted
between the vessel's hull and the plating, which cushion, in the event of the plating
being pierced, would close up after or on to a projectile, and still render the vessel
water-tight.
In applying the present improvements to merchant ships or unarmoured vessels,
no alteration in the construction of the vessel is required, ordinary iron or steel
plates being bolted to the hull with an interposed cushion or series of rubber blocks,
so that each plate may be free to give way laterally on being struck by or coming
in contact with any extraneous body. In this manner merchant ships may also
be readily converted into light armoured vessels impervious to any but heavy
projectiles.
In the case of land batteries and other fortifications the improved armour may be
applied in a manner similar to that described as adapted for ironclad vessels and
floating batteries, but obviously without any provision for rendering the structure
water-tight.
When preferred; metallic springs of any suitable form may be substituted for or
used in addition to the buffing blocks or cushions of rubber described.