IMPROVEMENTS IN PROTECTING THE BOTTOMS AND SIDES OF WOODEN AND IRON SHIPS AND OTHER SUBMERGED STRUCTURES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Cowper Phipps Coles, of Southsea, in the County of
Hants, Captain in the Royal Navy, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PROTECTING THE BOTTOMS AND SIDES OF WOODEN AND IRON SHIPS AND
OTHER SUBMERGED STRUCTURES."
Sealed the 18th November 1864, and dated the 21st May 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by tho said Cowper Phipps Coles
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st May 1864.
I, COWPER PHIPPS COLES, of Southsea, in the County of Hants, Captain
in the Royal Navy, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PROTECTING THE BOTTOMS AND SIDES OF WOODEN AND IRON
SHIPS AND OTHER SUBMERGED STRUCTURES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in means of affixing to the bottoms and such portions
of the sides as are submerged of iron and wooden ships, caissons, and like
structures, cements, mortars, stuccos, and concretes, or other like substances.
In wooden ships and structures I first drive nails, brads, tacks, eyes, spikes,.
or other like holding agents into such portions of the structure as are to be
protected at about one inch apart more or less, and leave about half an inch.
protruding. The holding agents can be driven in at an incline, or they may
be more or less bent after having been driven in. The cement or other
substance or composition is applied after the holding agents have been
inserted. With iron ships and structures I first apply a light sheathing of

page_text: wood to receive the nails or other holding agents, and I then apply the cement
or other like protecting substance or composition. Or I sometimes cause
studs to be rolled or formed on the plating for iron ships and other iron
structures, and use these studs as the agents for holding the protecting
substance or composition.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Cowper Phipps Coles in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st November 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Cowper
PHIPPS COLES, of Southsea, in the County of Hants, Captain in the Royal
Navy, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of May in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Cowper Phipps Coles, Her special licence that I, the said Cowper
Phipps Coles, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Cowper Phipps Coles, 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 PROTECTING THE BOTTOMS AND SIDES OF WOODEN AND IRON
SHIPS AND OTHER SUBMERGED STRUCTURES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Cowper Phipps Coles, 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 Cowper Phipps Coles, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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 means of affixing to the bottoms and such portions
of the sides as are liable to be submerged of iron and wooden ships, caissons,

page_text: and like structures, cements, mortars, stuccos, and concretes, or other like
substances. In wooden ships and structures I first drive nails, brads, tacks,
eyes, spikes, or other like holding agents into such portions of the structure
as are to be protected at about one inch apart, more or less, and having about
half an inch protruding. The holding agents can be driven in-at an incline,
or they may be more or less bent after having been driven in. The cement
or other substance or composition is applied after the holding agents have
been inserted. With iron ships and structures I first apply a light sheathing
of wood to receive the nails or other holding agents, and I then apply the
cement or other like protecting substance or composition. Or I sometimes
cause studs to be rolled or formed on the plating for iron ships and other iron
structures, and use these studs as the agents for holding the protecting
substance or composition. Or I fix on a thin metal plate by means of screws
tapped into the ship's sides or bottom proper; this plate before being put on
has flaps cut in it about half an inch square, and about one inch or one inch
and a half apart. After the plate is on I turn these flaps up at an angle of
about 45°; these flaps or portions of the plate so turned up take the place
of studs or nails for holding on the cement or other protesting substances.
In witness whereof, I, the said Cowper Phipps Coles, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this 19th day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-four.
COWPER P. COLES. (L.8.)