AN IMPROVEMENT IN CONSTRUCTING WROUGHT-IRON MASTS, YARDS, BOWSPRITS, AND OTHER SHIPS' SPARS.
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Hodgson, of 16, Sweeting Street, Liverpool,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN CONSTRUCTING WROUGHT-IRON
MASTS, YARDS, BOWSPRITS, AND OTHER SHIPS' SPARS.."
Sealed the 3rd July 1857, and dated the 10th January 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Hodgson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th January 1857.
I, JAMES HODGSON, of 16, Sweeting Street, Liverpool, do hereby declaré
the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN CONSTRUCTING WROUGHT-
IRON MASTS, YARDS, BOWSPRITS, AND OTHER SHIPS' SPARS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in constructing wrought-
iron masts, yards, bowsprits, and other ships' spars. For these purposes, the
several sheets to be used in making a mast, or yard, or bowsprit, or other ships'
spars are to be bent to the curve or figure desired, the vertical edges being
bent or formed into flanches outwards, so that when they are fixed or rivetted
together the flanches will form outside longitudinal ribs.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Hodgson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
3rd July 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
HODGSON, of 16, Sweeting Street, Liverpool, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Hodgson, Her special licence that I, the said James Hodgson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Hodgson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agreo
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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
CONSTRUCTING WROUGHT-IRON MASTS, YARDS, BowSPRITS, AND OTHER SHIPS' SPARS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Hodgson, 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 per-
formed, 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 James Hodgson, 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 Invention has for its object an improvement in constructing wrought-
iron masts, yards, bowsprits, and other ships' spars. For these purposes, the
several sheets to be used in making a mast, or yard, or bowsprit, or other ships
spars are to be bent to the curve or figure desired, the vertical edges being
bent or formed into flanches outwards, so that when they are fixed or rivetted
together the flanches will form outside longitudinal ribs.
Figure 1 is a section of a mast constructed according to my Invention, and
Figure 2 is a side view of part of the same. a, a, are the plates of which the
mast is constructed; they are bent to a curve of a radius corresponding to that
of the mast to be constructed, and they are turned up at their edges, in the

page_text: way shown; these edges are rivetted together, and in the finished mast they
form longitudinal ribs, which give strength to the mast.
In building up a mast care must be taken to break joint between the plates
in the vertical direction, that is to say, so to arrange the plates that no two of
them shall terminate at the same distance from the end of the mast.
Figure 3 is a section, and Figure 4 is a side view, of a yard constructed in a
similar manner. By constructing wrought-iron masts, yards, bowsprits, and
other ships spars in this way much labor is saved, and the mast, yard,
bowsprit, or spar when made is stiffer than would be a similar article made
without exterior ribs.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Hodgson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousan eight hundred and fifty-seven.
5 Witness,
RICHARD HARWOOD.
JAMES HODGSON. (L.S.)