CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE HULLS OF SHIPS AND OTHER BUOYANT STRUCTURES." MENTS IN THE HULLS OF SHIPS AND OTHER BUOYANT STRUctures
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Philip Brannon, of 54, Parliament Street, in
the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE HULLS OF SHIPS AND OTHER BUOYANT STRUCTURES."
MENTS IN THE HULLS OF SHIPS AND OTHER BUOYANT STRUctures."
Sealed the 5th December 1874, and dated the 10th June 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Philip Brannon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th June 1874.
I, PHILIP BRANNON, of 54, Parliament Street, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE HULLS OF SHIPS AND OTHER BUOYANT
STRUCTURES," to be as follows (that is to say):—
My Invention has reference to improvements in the hulls of ships
and other floating structures, both in their original construction and in
additions made to those already built, so as to render them fireproof,
durable, and healthy, and capable of resisting the action of the sun's
heat and the salt water, and consists in employing a composition of hard

page_text: insoluble substances and fibre strongly cemented and bound together,
and in forming therewith decks and skins, sheathings, planks, ceilings,
bulkheads, partitions, and other parts, or linings, coverings, or tanks, or
fittings of the hulls of the structures aforesaid and their compartments
or cabins.
.
In forming the inner skin of a new hull or a lining to an existing ship
I secure a continuous cavity behind the same around the whole hull or
each distinct compartment, and make it either a water jacket, filling it
or pumping it dry, or causing a circulation of water therein, as required, or
using it as an air jacket, cither continuous, cellular, or sub-divided, and
with or without a current of air forced through it. The said composition,
by varying some of its ingredients, is suited to the part of the vessel in
which it is employed, for inner skins and linings it is gaged specially
fire-resisting with burnt ballastings, strong argillaceous and sulphate
cements, and wire bonding work. In parts exposed to the direct action
of the sun or water I also employ any ordinary ballasting or sand
combined with hydraulic or bituminous cement, and in union with
cordage bonding net, and I form external skins or sheathings below the
load or water line with the composition, modified by a strong resinous
or asphalt cementing wrought to a very smooth face.
My mode of exercising the said Invention is also either to form planks
or slabs of the said material, with proper joints and fixings, and to attach
them to the ship's framing and to each other, or having fixed bolts or
holdfasts to the ship's sides or framings. I form thereon or affix theroto
a powerful taut-braced netting or bond, and setting behind or beneath
it a moveable planking, I force the said fibrous composition and firmly
condense and smoothly finish the surface by any of the well known
means, so as to secure close union with a complete investment of the
said netting thereby.
I compress the materials in all cases by any convenient form of
pressure in combination with the braced bonding netting, continuously
binding the said fibrous composition in all directions, and thus also form
sheets and spare plankings, or articles to be employed in repairs or
emergences of marine service.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Philip Brannon in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 9th December 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PHILIP
BRANNON, of 54, Parliament, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Philip Brannon, Her special licence,
that I, the said Philip Brannon, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Philip Brannon, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE HULLS OF SHIPS AND OTHER BUOYANT STRUCTURES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Philip Brannon, my exe-
cutors 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 Philip Brannon, 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, and the Drawings therein referred to (that is
to say):
My Invention has reference to an improved system of building the
hulls of ships, vessels, barges, boats, buoys, and other floating structures,
and employing the same in the repairs and alteration of existing
structures, with the view of partially or entirely superseeding the use
of wooden planking and metal plates, and thereby rendering such

page_text: vessels, under my improvements, more durable, fireproof, and healthy,
by covering, shielding, and protecting the hitherto exposed parts, and
better enable them to resist the action of solar heat, the destructive
effect of salt water, the oxidation of metal, or decay of the timbers and
other parts, as also the fouling of the bottoms of ships and other floating
structures, and consists in employing in the construction or repairs of
the said structures hard and densely compacted concreted and cemented
materials in union with fibre, sustained by an imbedded and strained
netting of wire or other fabric, and combined in one unbroken piece,
plank, or sheet; for example, in composing the said material I take a
ballasting or base of hard insoluble substances combined with fibre
strongly united by hydraulic cements, oils, resinous, bituminous, or
asphaltic matters mixed in a plastic or semi-fluid state, condensed
together in complete union as one substance, and employ the same for
forming inner and outer skins and sheathing of vessels' decks, ceilings,
and bulkheads, cabins, doors, fittings, or other parts.
For internal fittings, and other fireproofing work, a. bonding net or
web of strong wire is employed with crushed ballasting, burnt clay,
bricks, pottery, clinkers, or slag, in conjunction with the strongest
hydraulic limes and cements, and, when necessary, fine wire, asbestos,
and slag wool are mixed with or used in place of other fibre. I also
employ in like manner for the ordinary skins of vessels and general con-
struction thereof and crushed ballast, sandstone, limestone, ironstone,
chalk, flint, or grit and strong fibre, and where there is no liability of
fire the bonding net may be partly or wholly of cordage in lieu of wire;
and for tanks and other water skins, and flexible sheeting and the like,
I use either the aforesaid ballastings and cementing materials, or employ
comminuted wood, sawdust, spent bark, and cocoa fibre refuse, mixed
and cemented with drying oil, tar, or bitumen, whilst for sheathing I
employ drying oil with tar, bitumen, resin, or asphalt, cemented
together with the hardest grit, fibre, or metallic filiments, to imbed and
combine with a bonding net of metal and wire, and flush the same
with resin or indurating drying oil for giving a smooth and glosscy
surface.
I also construct the hulls of vessels or fire casings to wood and iron
ships, so as to form a cavity, which is arranged to be filled with air or
water by the ordinary means, and thereby form a circulating air or water
jacket by means of insulating blocks and washers of the same material

page_text: suitably disposed to cover the connecting bolts and rods, from the heads
of which the main bonding and bracing strands of the imbedded netting
arc stretched. The concreted and cemented fibrous material is forced
through and about the meshes and completely run together into a con-
tinuous skin secured on both sides of the said tension fabric.
When a separate flexible sheet is required the bonding net is made of
flexible brass wire or steel, and the selvage leech or bolt rope in like
manner of three or more twisted strands, all kept strained at its utmost
stretch whilst the compound materials are being compressed around
and about it during the setting of the same by rolling or percussive
force.
I also form slabs, panneled or relief pattern, pieces or sheets, safes,
tanks, lockers, seats, partitions, hatches, and similar fittings, in which
stiffness and rigidity are essential, with projecting ribs, stiles, or rails,
upon a bonding net strained upon angle or trussed tee iron or plain
stretching frames. And when in such frame the flanges of the tee iron
or flange of the angle iron is to form an external edge I provide stubs
or perforations in the web or flange, or other means of attaching the
bond net for stretching the same tightly thereon, and secure the locks,
hinges, and bolts, to the outer flanges by perforations and counter-
sinkings in the usual manner. All such pieces, such as doors or
panneled slabs, as aforesaid, when of convenient proportion are submitted
to direct hydraulic or screw pressure in moulds or between or upon
polished plates, and finished with smooth surfaces by running under
and above the fibre stuff a finely ground mixing of the desired
colors.
I also form small boats by direct pressure, with suitable modifications
of the above materials; I form ordinary boats as described for ships'
skins and life boats or launches with an inner and outer skin, having
between them deep internal projecting ribs substained by imbedded
framing of angle or tec iron, and to which the outer skin is attached and
contoured. The inner skin is then formed of compressed slabs or sheets,
made to scat on the ribs, and rendered air and water tight by a suitable
caulking fillet of fibrous putty laid on before screwing or keying down
the double skin, thus forming a series of air cells. Buoys, beacons, and
other tight floating structures I also form in a similar manner with air
compartments.

page_text: In fire-casing the interior of iron or wooden ships the screws, bolts,
and other attachments for the bonding net or sustaining frame passing
through insulating blocks and washers are secured to the bulkheads and
into the skin or ribbing of the vessel, and moveable planks or bed
clampings are inserted between the skin and bonding net, and the fibrous
compound pressed about the strained netting and forcibly trowelled down
into one continuous piece or sheeting around the floor, sides, and ceiling
of each compartment of the ship, the bed clampings being withdrawn
as the work proceeds, leaving a continuous cavity between the fire
casing and the original skin of the vessel, whilst at the ports, com-
panions, hatchways, gangways, and other openings the casing is brought
round the framing or coanings to unite with the fire casings on the
outside, or when forming a single compartment or cabin the water or
fire tight joints are made to pass through the openings to the outside
work with proper rebates, firc-stops, and water joints, and fitted with
hatches, doors, windows, and shutters, of the aforesaid or other materials,

page_text: skin and fire casing.
Fig. 3, corresponding section of an iron-framed ship with an internal
fire skin and external sheathing, and having perforations in the web of
the iron, preserving the continuity of the circulating cavity.
Fig. 4, transverse section of a boat with double or cellular skin,
shewing the internal bulkhead ribs forming the cavities.
Fig. 5, longitudinal section of a similar boat with transverse ribs
or bulk heads; and Fig. 6, a diagram showing a ship divided trans-
versely and longitudinally into fireproof compartments in accordance-
with my improvements, the thick lines representing the said fire skins.
In each Figure the same letters of reference denote similar corre-
sponding parts.
A, A, the ship's framing, of wood or iron; B, B, external skin, of iron
or wood planks; C, C, internal skin, lining, and ceiling, of ordinary con-
struction; D, D, decks of usual construction; E, E, cavity or space
forming the circulating jacket for air or water; F, F, fire skin of my
improved compound material; G, G, sustaining netting or web; H, H,
attachments of same to heads of any suitable bolts or screws; I, I,
insulating blocks and washers of fibrous compound, or of fireproof cloth
or felt; J, J, external compound sheathing.
Having now fully described and ascertained the nature of this my
said Invention and the manner in which the same is to be performed
and carried into effect, I would have it clearly understood that I do not
intend to confine myself to the precise details herein-before set forth and
described, as the same may be otherwise varied without departing from
the general principle of this my said Invention, nor do I claim as new,
and of my said Invention, the exclusive use of the several substances,
combinations, and processes, except when the same are employed in and
for the purposes of my said Invention, which I hereby declare to
consist,―
Firstly. In constructing, repairing, and protecting floating structures
with a compound composed of cemented ballastings or other hard com-
minuted material combined with fibre, bonded and sustained by a con-
tinuous open fabric or network, and condensed and formed into thin

page_text: sheets or skins, decks, planks, slabs, doors, and other constructural parts
and fittings of the hulls of ships in manner aforesaid.
Secondly. In employing modifications of the said compound adapted
to the different portions of the structure, as herein-before described.
Thirdly. In the employment of cavities between skins for continuous
air or water jacketings, as aforesaid.
Fourthly, and lastly. In the formation of boats or buoys, or other
floating structures, with the ribs or framings and other portions entirely
of the said compound material, substantially in the manner and for the
purposes herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Philip Brannon, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
Witness,
B. F. WEATHERDON,
Law Chambers,
Chancery Lane.
PHILIP BRANNON. (L.S.)