IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF CONSTRUCTING SHIPS OR VESSELS OF WAR OR OTHER SHIPS OF VESSELS, EITHER OF WOOD OR IRON, OR PARTLY OF WOOD AND PARTLY OF IRON OR OTHER METAL OR MATERIAL TO PROTECT THE SAME AGAINST SHOT OR SHELL, TORPEDOES, OR RAMS
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Brookes at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd
November 1875.
I, HENRY BROOKES, of "the Firs," Varden Road, New Wandsworth,
in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF CONSTRUCTING SHIPS OR VESSELS
OF WAR OR OTHER SHIPS OF VESSELS, EITHER OF WOOD OR IRON, OR PARTLY OF
WOOD AND PARTLY OF IRON OR OTHER METAL OR MATERIAL TO PROTECT THE SAME
AGAINST SHOT OR SHELL, TORPEDOES, OR RAMS," to be as follows:-
--
The principle on which ironclads are at present constructed is that of
opposing to the force of the shot or shell, the thickest plates of iron
which the vessel can carry supported by the most solid backing of oak
or teak.
This may be called the hard solid or inflexible principle of
resistance. I propose to substitute for this a yielding flexible or elastic
principle of resistance.
The outer skin of the ship as well as the inner skin may be either of
wood or iron, and of any thickness the designer may think fit, but the
distance between the outer and inner skins should not be less than twọ

page_text: feet and need not be more than six feet, and the space between them
should be as clear from obstruction as the design and structure of the
vessel will permit. Immediately inside the outer skin I propose to
suspend an iron reticulated curtain, or a curtain made in the strongest
manner of chain cable, the meshes of which must be adapted as to
dimensions to the diameter of the shot, shell, or bolt to which the
vessel is likely to be opposed. This curtain should extend as far as
possible over the whole of the inner surface of the outer skin and should
be firmly fastened at the top, and may be extended downwards to the
keel if desired and firmly fastened there, but should otherwise be loose
and unattached. Next to this reticulated iron curtain I propose to have
successive layers of hay, straw, or horsehair, or of hay, straw, or horse-
hair matting loosely constructed, but firmly or closely packed, so that
the space between the outer and inner skins may be completely
filled up.
It is assumed that any shot or shell penetrating the outer skin would
at once strike upon the ring or rim of one of the meshes, that if it struck
upon the ring, the ring being a convex surface and yielding to the
initial force the shot would inevitably slip into one of the meshes and
be caught or hung there. But whether the shot adhered to the point of
first contact or slipped into a mesh, in either case the force or momentum
of the shot would be expended in forcing the rim or the mesh in its own
direction forward against the elastic backing of the curtain, and there-
fore it would not break or penetrate them as it might do if the backing
were solid oak or teak. Carrying the reticulated curtain forward
against its elastic backing would involve an enormous and an ever
increasing expenditure of its force or momentum. At the instant of
contact it would involve only the point of contact. At the next instant
it would involve a circumference of two or three feet, and in the next
and next, and so on, it would involve a circumference of 10, 20, or 50
feet or perhaps more. By the time the power of the shot had been
extended and expended so far it would be exhausted, and it would never
reach the inner skin.
It may be objected that it will not be possible to protect the whole
broadside by this reticulated curtain, because, and especially in ships
built in water-tight compartments, of the frequent divisions which must
cross the space between the outer and inner skins of the vessel. No
doubt that to the extent to which those divisions or interruptions are

page_text: essential the effectiveness of the protection would be interfered with.
But it may be possible to construct the vessel in compartments, confining
the compartments to the space within the inner skin, with only a few
main groins intersecting the space between the outer and inner skins
for the purpose of holding the whole together.
In regard to those intersections whenever they occur it may very
easily be so designed that the surface externally corresponding should be
so sharp and angular as to deflect any shot striking upon that spot
laterally, so that it would not penetrate there but upon the lateral
portions, where it would have to encounter the curtain. It may also be
objected that a Whitworth shell might penetrate so far as to explode
amongst the hay, straw, or horsehair, and set them on fire. But in the
first place a Whitworth shell would I think require to pass through the
ships' side before it exploded, and would not explode if it were caught
in the mesh of the curtain, and in the next place that the hay, straw, or
horsehair might easily be rendered non-combustible or non-inflamable so
as to obviate that danger.
To provide against the possibility of the shot or bolt passing through
the mesh of the curtain it may be advisable to have a second curtain
with a layer of compressible material between them, and this second
curtain may be of a lighter character, and with smaller meshes as a
large proportion of the force of the shot will have been expended before
the second curtain be reached. If deemed advisable a third curtain
might be added of still lighter material and smaller meshes; and in that
case perhaps the compressible backing might be dispensed with
altogether; or better still, the elastic backing may be constructed like a
spring mattress, the covering being of wire netting; the whole would
then be incombustible.
The iron curtain or curtains with the spring backing will be the
defensive armour, and I calculate that a curtain with rings of 2 inches
diameter, with the spring backing, would certainly be equal to 18 inches
of solid iron with 18 inches of solid teak backing.