IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF IRON SHIPS AND VESSELS, AND IN SHEATHING THE SAME."
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Barnabas Daft, of Harlesden, in the County
of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF IRON SHIPS AND VESSELS, AND IN SHEATHING THE SAME."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Barnabas Daft
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st September 1863.
I, THOMAS BARNABAS DAFT, of Harlesden, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF IRON SHIPS AND VESSELS, AND IN SHEATHING THE SAME," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of iron
ships and vessels, and in sheathing the same. For this purpose I construct
iron ships or vessels with plates of iron of the usual thickness and size, and
upon the principle of what is termed "butt" or "flush" joints, horizontally as
well as vertically, having strips or bands on the inside of the plates, and with
a double row of rivets, or two double rows of rivets, as is usual with flush
joints; but I do not allow the edges of the plates to touch each other, on the
contrary they must be kept a certain distance apart, say half an inch, for the
purpose of being caulked or filled in between and around the plates with strips
of hard india-rubber or other suitable insulating material, into which I bore
holes if necessary, and with suitable short nails fix on metal sheathing, taking
care to interpose a sheet or sheets of insulating material between the metal

page_text: sheathing and the iron plating of the ship or vessel. When ships or vessels
are plated in other ways, as for instance when rebated or flanged, plating is
used for the purpose of avoiding rivets on the outside, I arrange to leave a
space or groove between the plates both vertically and horizontally in order to
receive a caulking or filling up of insulating material for the purpose of
nailing or otherwise fixing on metal sheathing to the sides or bottom of the
ship or vessel. Other modes of constructing or plating iron ships or vessels
may also be employed so long as grooves are produced on the exterior of
the vessel for the purpose of receiving insulating material on to which to
nail or fix metal sheathing.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Barnabas Daft in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st March 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
BARNABAS DAFT, of Harlsden, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Thomas Barnabas Daft, Her special licence that I, the
said Thomas Barnabas Daft, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Thomas Barnaby Daft, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 THE CONSTRUCTION OF IRON SHIPS
AND VESSELS, AND IN SHEATHING THE SAME," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Thomas Barnabas Daft, 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 Thomas Barnabas Daft, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: 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 improvements in the construction of iron
ships and vessels, and in sheathing the same. For this purpose I construct
iron ships or vessels with plates of iron of the usual thickness and size, and
upon the principle of what is termed "butt" or flush joints horizontally as
well as vertically, having strips or bands on the inside of the plates, and with
a double row of rivets or two double rows of rivets as is usual with flush
joints; but I do not allow the edges of the plates to touch each other, on the
contrary they must be kept a certain distance apart, say half an inch, for the
purpose of being caulked or filled in between and around the plates with
strips of hard india-rubber or other suitable insulating material, into which I
bore holes if necessary, and with suitable short nails fix on metal sheathing,
taking care to interpose a sheet or sheets of insulating material between the
metal sheathing and the iron plating of the ship or vessel. When ships or
vessels are plated in other ways, as for instance when rebated or flanged
plating is used, for the purpose of avoiding rivets on the outside, I arrange to
leave a space or groove between the plates both vertically and horizontally in
order to receive a caulking or filling up of insulating material for the purpose
of nailing or otherwise fixing on metal sheathing to the sides or bottom of the
ship or vessel. Other modes of constructing or plating iron ships or vessels
may also be employed so long as grooves are produced on the exterior of the
vessel for the purpose of receiving insulating material on to which to nail or
fix metal sheathing.
According to this Invention iron vessels may be built with a fair flush
surface all over the hull, or at least that part of the vessel to be immersed,
without the edges of the plates "butting" or touching cach other or
accurately fitting as is necessary in the case of ordinary."butt" and strip
work. In what is termed a lap plated vessel the vertical joints are invariably
and at considerable expense made flush with fair fitted "butt" joints; now
by this Invention a fair flush surface may be produced both vertically and
horizontally without the edges of the plates being made to touch or fit each
other, on the contrary they are to be kept a certain distance apart, varying
according to the thickness of the plates used, and so as to produce grooves of
a convenient width for caulking or filling in with ebonite or hard or semi-
hard india-rubber or wood, such as teak, or any suitable wood that like teak
is durable and will not injure iron, or the grooves may be caulked by suitable
waterproof cements, but I prefer vulcanite or ebonite, otherwise called hard
india-rubber, or wood such as teak.

page_text: And according to this Invention the plates may be used with their edges
rough from the shears, as the roughness. serves the better to hold in the
caulking material. When shearing the plates a bevil may be given to their
edges, and the plates so arranged as to produce dovetailed grooves, that is,
wider at the base than at the surface, so that when certain dry and hard
materials such as teak, and which may be stoved and compressed, be driven
or "caulked" in with force it will afterwards expand and thoroughly fill up
the grooves at the base as well as at the surface. A waterproof cement may
be usefully employed in conjunction with the caulking of teak or other
material.
And vessels constructed according to this Invention may be sheathed with
copper, yellow metal, zinc, or any other suitable material with great facility
and safety. Short nails or screws being driven through the sheathing
material into the caulking material the sheathing material is very firmly held
on. When the sheathing is of copper or yellow metal it will be necessary to
employ an insulating material between such metal sheathing and the iron, and
to use suitable nails or screws accordingly, care being taken that they are all
short enough to escape touching the iron when driven into the caulking
material of the grooves. But if zinc be the sheathing employed, then as zinc
preserves iron there is no necessity for insulating it and no danger in zinc
nails touching the iron. If it be desirable to use a caulking material of a
hard or non-elastic character, or of very hard india-rubber, it may be done by
preparing it to suit the distance that the edges of the plates are required to be
apart, and laying it between the edges of the plates as they are put together,
so that the caulking material is fixed in its place as the building of the hull
proceeds. In this way a considerable dovetail may be given to the grooves
and the caulking material.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Barnabas Daft, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
THOMAS B. DAFT. (L.S.)