IMPROVEMENTS. IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS OR VESSELS
Year: 1852

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Provis at the Offico
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st
October 1852.
(Void by reason of notice to proceed not having been given within the
ime prescribed by the Act.)
I, JOHN PROVIS, of Chippenhamn, in the County of Wilts, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS.
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS OR VESSELS" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates principally to the construction of the hull of
the ship, and is subdivided into various improvements applicable to
different parts of the ship and its accessories. By means of these
improvements increased strength and stability, combined with greater
sailing power, is obtained at less cost than by the ordinary plan of con-
structing and rigging ships.
The first improvement relates to an improved mode of constructing
the hull of a ship. The ship is widened and lengthened, and its depth
lessened, and by this means the lower part of the ship is raised from
deep water (where thero is the greatest resistance to motion) to the top
water, where there is the least; by thus extending the length and

page_text: breadth of the vessel compensation is made for the lost stowage room;
by this means a better security for goods and a greater stability and
sailing power for the ship is also obtained.
The second improvement consists in making the keel of the ship of
cast iron, in three pieces, thin, but of great depth, say, for a vessel of
1000 tons, five feet deep, and nine by three inches in thickness. By
this means a ballast power is obtained in the centre of the vessel, and a
great resisting power on a side wind, but a non-resisting power to its
sailing one, is the result.
The third improvement relates to a mode of strengthening ships or
vessels by employing a tubular truss division in the centre of the ship;
this tubular truss is fixed on the keel, into which are fixed five iron
masts (to be presently described), and connected with which would be
the deep heavy keel, the floors, and beams of the vessel; and by this
application of power, like the vertebra of an animal, a greater strength
is given to the ship than any ship ever before possessed.
The fourth improvement consists in building the hull of the new
ship with wood and iron combined, the latter being applied in the form
of thin plates placed on edge to form the framework of the vessel,
instead of the present frame timber and futtocks of wood.
For a vessel of 1000 tons these plates should be about nine inches
in depth, and five eighths or three quarters in thickness; these plates
constitute the strength of the floor and sides of the ship, and the spaces
betwixt the plates are filled in with wood of any description or length;
the ship is then to be planked with oak outside and inside, and these
planks are held together with iron screw pins. The inside planks
should be fixed diagonally, and will then form a kind of truss; the iron
screw pins are passed through both planks.
If the same principle of construction is to be applied to construct a
ship wholly of iron, then the plates must be corrugated, and the ribs
and floors made of tubular iron.
The next improvement refers more particularly to a mode of con-
structing the external bulwarks of a ship. As the ship constructed in
the manner described would lie low in the water, and would be liable
to be struck on its side by the waves, this improvement consists of a

page_text: method of breaking the force of the waves by giving an acute angle to
the upper works of the ship; by so doing the wave would be cut in
two, a part being thrown over the canvas covering of the upper deck
of the ship, and the force of the lower part would be carried under the
vessel.
It is also proposed to adapt a false keel or a number of small keels
to the iron keel of the vessel; these false keel are enclosed between
the plates which form the fixed keel, and they may be lowered down
as required.