IMPROVEMENTS IN ATTACHING WOODSY PLAYING TO TRON SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Horatio Ritchie, junior, of Leadenhall Street,
in the City of London, for the Invention, of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ATTACHING
WOODSY PLAYING TO TRON SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS"
Sealed the 6th November 1866, and dated the 8th May 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Horatio Ritchie at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
8th May 1866.
I, JOSEPH HORATIO RITCHIE, junior, of Leadenhall Street, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN ATTACHING WOODEN PLANKING TO IRON SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in attaching wooden planking
to iron ships and other vessels.
The method I employ is as follows:-Holes are punched or drilled through
the bottom where bolts are required. Through these holes from the inside-the
counterpart holes in the plank can be very easily and correctly bored by putting
the plank temporarily in its place for that purpose, or if preferred these holes
may be marked and bored in the usual manner. In each of the holes through
the iron bottom above mentioned is then inserted (covered with suitable.cement)
a short socket bolt having a head projecting about a quarter of an inch above
the plate, covered with ebonite, and having a screw thread and nut on its.
inner end, the centre of the head being tapped to receive a screw bolt to be

page_text: after described. These socket bolts having been firmly screwed up with their
nuts and screws, the outside of the iron bottom of the ship or vessel receives
a coating of suitable cement the same thickness as the projection of the
heads of the socket bolts to protect the plates of the skin of the ship or
vessel from oxidation. The planking is then wrought and attached by means
of bolts with screws on their points which enter into the above-mentioned
screw socket of the socket bolts. These bolts have square or other conveniently
formed heads, and they are covered with ebonite as far as the screw in the
same manner as the heads of the socket bolts to protect them from oxidation.
The heads of the bolts may be recessed an inch or more under the outer
surface of the planking to admit of wood plugs being driven over them.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Horatio Ritchie in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 8th November 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
HORATIO RITCHIE, junior, of Leadenhall Street, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, er heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Joseph Horatio Ritchie, Her special licence that I, the said
Joseph Horatio Ritchie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Joseph Horatio Ritchie, 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 ATTACHING WOODEN PLANKING TO
IBON SHIPS AND OTHER VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Joseph Horatio Ritchie, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Horatio Ritchie, 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 :-
This Iuvention has for its object improvements in attaching planking to
iron ships and other vessels.
In the Drawings hereunto annexed Figure 1 represents a section of the
plating of an iron vessel with planks attached by bolts according to my Inven-
tion. A is the iron plate of the vessel; B, the plank; C, a coating of
cement (which may be used or not, or other substance may be interposed
between the iron and wood); H is the copper or yellow metal sheathing; D
is a bolt, shewn separately at Figure 2, and called hereafter a socket bolt,
merely passing through the plate, and being set up inside with a nut having a
female screw tapped into the head to receive the point of a bolt E, the form
shown on Drawing answers the purpose, but may be made of any other
convenient shape and dimensions, but I prefer that the breaking area of the
socket bolt should be twice as great as the bolt E. The socket bolts are of
iron or steel and have their heads covered, as shewn in the Drawing, with
ebonite to insulate them, and to prevent all influence from, the metal sheathing
to which they are contiguous; and to ensure a perfect junction of the
covered parts of the bolt Ẹ and of the socket bolt a washer of soft vul-
canized india-rubber, marked G, may be attached to the head of the socket
bolt, this soft washer being formed on or attached to the coating of ebonite.
The bolts E, shewn separately at Figures 3 and 4, are also of iron or steel
and are insulated similarly to the socket bolts with ebonite, as shewn, they may
be made with heads of various forms other than those shewn on Drawing,
so as to be grasped by a key or screwdriver, but the forms shewn on
Drawing answer the purpose. The heads of the bolts may, if it is thought
necessary, be countersunk and have a plug driven in over them with marine
glue.
In using these bolts I prefer to proceed as follows:-Holes having been
punched or.drilled through the plates of the vessel where bolts are required, a
convenient portion of the plank is put temporarily into its place, and (the
socket bolts not being in the holes,) the plank is accurately bored off from
within, and that the small holes for the bolts E may be exactly in the centre of
the larger hole in the iron plate (that is in the centre of the socket bolts), I
prefer to use an augur working inside a tube or guide, the outside of which
tube just fits into the holes in the plates, this is one method, but many others
may be adopted to accomplish the same object. The portion of plank being

page_text: thus bored off is taken down and the socket bolts inserted in the holes, having
previously been daubed with a little thick white zinc paint or other similar
cement, or if preferred having a thin washer of soft india-rubber put under the
leal, the nut inside is then screwed up. In place of the socket bolt being fixed
to the iron plating by a nut as above described, the holes through the iron
plate may have screw threads cut in them and the socket bolt be suitably
formed to screw into these holes, or the socket bolts may be otherwise affixed
to the iron plates. If the plates are to be coated with cement or other
substance it is then put on, and the holes in the plank are countersunk on
the outside to receive the heads of the bolts E, which must be very carefully
done if the bolts and socket bolts are covered with ebonite, so that the shoulder
of the head and the shoulder of the ebonite may meet at the same time and
require only a little white zinc paint or other similar substance to make
the joint quite tight, and if the heads of the socket bolts project beyond the
cement the plank must be countersunk on the inside also; the plank is then
finally placed in position and screwed up, this is one way of using the bolts, but
other methods may be adopted, as for instance in certain cases it may be found
better to bore the plank first, put it up, and mark and drill the holes in
the plates afterwards, or other variations may be necessary in the way of using
them.
In place of the socket bolts and bolts being of iron or steel insulated with
ebonite, they may in some cases be of copper, yellow metal, or galvanized
iron; I prefer, however, to form them of iron or steel insulated as above
described.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is the
attaching wood planking to iron ships and vessels by bolts and socket bolts, as
herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Horatio Ritchie, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
J. H. RITCHIE JUN (L.S.)