ARTIFICIALLY AND EXPEDITIOUSLY DRYING THE BOTTOMS OF SHIPS, IN DRY OR OTHER DOCKS OR ELSEWHERE, AND APPARATUS FOR THE PURPOSE
Year: 1884

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION,
We ROBERT FELL, ANDREW MEYER COHEN, General Merchants, and ROBERT
TURNBULL, Naval Architect, all of Swing Bridge End, Sandhill, Newcastle upon
Tyne in the County of Northumberland do hereby declare the nature of our said
invention for "ARTIFICIALLY AND EXPEDITIOUSLY DRYING THE BOTTOMS OF SHIPS,
IN DRY OR OTHER DOCKS OR ELSEWHERE, AND APPARATUS FOR THE PURPOSE to
be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to dry or evaporate the wet and moisture from
the bottoms of iron and like ships and vessels (steam and sailing) while in dock, on
slip, on gridirons, on pontoons, or on the shore after the tide has receded by means
of heated air blown through pipes, so arranged that their nozzles can be directed to
any part of a ships bottom up to the load water line, or fixed pipes can be arranged
from a furnace along the dock at any desired part, in tiers of necessary, for the
proper distribution of the heated air.
In order to carry our invention into practice, we arrange a broad flat tube in or
above the fire of a smith's forge, or other fire, or a series of such tubes in a specially
made furnace or in the smoke way of an ordinary furnace, and instead of the flat
tube which may if desired be partitioned off, to make it of many chambers, a coil
or coils of tubing may be arranged in contact with the fire or otherwise so that air
from a blower or fan can be forced through it or them to the nozzles,
Dated this 11th day of February 1884.

page_text: We ROBERT FELL, ANDREW MEYER COHEN, General Merchants, and ROBERT
TURNBULL, Naval Architect all of Swing Bridge End, Sandhill, Newcastle upon
Tyne in the county of Northumberland, do hereby declare the nature of our said
invention for " ARTIFICIALLY AND EXPEDITIOUSLY DRYING THE BOTTOMS OF SHIPS,
IN DRY OR OTHER DOCKS OR ELSEWHERE AND APPARATUS FOR THE PURPOSE "
and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement:—
The object of this invention is to dry or evaporate the wet and moisture from
the bottoms of iron and like ships and vessels (steam and sailing) while in dock on
slips, on gridirons, on pontoons or on the shore after the tide has receded by. means
of heated air blown through pipes so arranged that their nozzles can be directed to
any part of a ships bottom up to the load water line or fixed pipes can be arranged
from a furnace along the dock at any desired part, in tiers if necessary, for the
proper distribution of the heated air.
In order to carry our invention into practice we arrange a broad flat tube in or
above the fire of a smiths forge or other fire or a series of such tubes in a specially
made furnace or in the smoke way of an ordinary furnace and instead of the flat
tube which may if desired be partitioned off to make it of many chambers, & coil
or coils of tubing may be arranged in contact with the fire or otherwise so that air
from a blower or fan can be forced through it or them to the nozzles.
Our invention will be clearly understood by the annexed drawings in which we
show an example of the apparatus by which it can be carried into practice..
Figure 1 is a half midship sectional view of a vessel in dock with our apparatus
Figure 2 in position for drying the bottom.
:
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The apparatus is composed of casing A in which are tubes or partitions and also
´a fire place or furnace by which such tubes or partitions forming chambers can be
heated. The casing A containing the tubes or partitions is supported on wheels
'B, B, so that it can be moved about as desired.
In the view we show it on the floor of the dock but it may be suspended or be
'otherwise fitted as found convenient.
The frame C which supports the casing A has also a blower or fan and jacket D
for sucking air in and forcing it out by the pipe E into and through the heated
chamber or chambers for distribution by the pipe F, a small pipe G being fitted
from the blower jacket to the ash pit of the furnace to keep the fire alive.
This will be more particularly understood by referring to Figures 3 and 4
which show the apparatus in side elevation and in plan respectively.
We prefer to arrange the pipe F from the side of the casing and to so joint or
sleeve a connection H on it that the sleeve or connection H can be slewed-round
so as to be set or moved over to any desired angle, the outer end being supported
by rods or by a crane I. This sleeve or connection H has a double joint J on its
outer end with an extension piece K which joint enables the extension piece to be
raised or lowered and slewed round so as to adjust the nozzle L to any part of the
ships bottom within reach of it. This nozzle we make flat in order that the heated
air shall issue from it in a thin flat stream or a series of streams if more than one
nozzle be fitted on the end of the extension piece K.
To prevent an undue escape of the heated air after issuing from the nozzle or
nozzles we purpose surrounding it or them with a screen M which is temporarilly
fitted or arranged on axle pins to allow, it to adjust itself to the contour or curve of
the ships bottoms at any part.

page_text: The blower can be operated in any convenient manner but we prefer the hand
power wheel N and instead of the air being forced through the beater A from the
fan D it can be drawn through the heater and be then distributed by a pipe or
pipes attached to the fan jacket, we however prefer the first named method.
Any system of arranging the pipes or partitions can be adopted within the heater
casing A and the air can be caused to travel circuitously as in a coil or by the plan
shown by Figures 5, 6 and 7.
Any of the pipes can be provided with taps and in some cases a series of pipes
can be fitted to one casing so that the heated air can be distributed over several
parts of a vessels bottom at the same time so as to rapidly dry off the damp
previous to painting or spreading composition on the surface.
The pipes may be of copper or of iron and in some cases they may be arranged
permanently along the dock wall with flexible pipe attachments or extensions to
direct the heated air. which heating may be effected on the dock such as from a
smiths shop.
The pipes affixed to the dock wall such as those used for water for washing the
mud from the steps or from a "Palmer Dock" can readily be utilized for the purpose
of our invention.
The temperature of the air can be so regulated that the old paint shall not be
blistered nor the old cement cracked.
By our invention, viz, that of using heated air to dry a ships bottom the process
of painting can be carried on as the drying is complete, the painters following the
drying which process will obviate many of the obstacles now and hitherto
experienced by docking a vessel for repainting. In many cases dry docking will
not be necessary it being just as easy to arrange my invention to a ship or other
structure on a slip, a gridiron, on a pontoon, or even on the shore when the tide
has receded, the paint generally used having the property of drying rapidly when
the surface is free from damp.
In large yards our system of artificially and expeditiously drying the bottoms of
ships either inside or outside or both inside and outside especially ships whose hulls
are built of iron or steel will be found of great advantage.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is
The method of artificially and expeditiously drying the bottoms of ships in dry
or other docks or elsewhere as herein set forth and as a means for that purpose we
claim
Secondly The apparatus hereinbefore described and substantially as shown on
the annexed drawings.