IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF APPLYING OR AFFIXING WOOD AND METAL SHEATHING TO IRON, STEEL, OR WOODEN SHIPS, AND OTHER FLOATING STRUCTURES, AND ALSO IN SUCH SHEATHING
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Benjamin Bell at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st June
1869.
I, BENJAMIN BELL, of No. 2, Park Village East, Regent's Park, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of my said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF APPLYING OR AFFIXING WOOD AND
METAL SHEATHING TO IRON, STEEL, OR WOODEN SHIPS, AND OTHER FLOATING
STRUCTURES, AND ALSO IN SUCH SHEATHING," to be as follows:-
.This Invention relates to the use of an external sheathing of zinc or
other metal not destructive to iron or steel in sea water, and to the mode
of affixing such sheathing.
For the purpose of affixing such sheathing to iron or steel ships and
such like structures I fill in the hollows formed by the lapping of the
outside strakes of plates over the inside strakes with wood, and I make
this wood filling thicker in substance than the outside plate, so that
when fixed in position such wood filling is in relief or stands out from
the outside plate. I fix the sheets of zinc or other metal close to the

page_text: iron, and I bend the edges of the sheets over the projection of wood,
and secure them thereto by nails driven vertically, or nearly so, in the
hollows. Where the sheets pass over the external wood the sheets are
secured thereto in the usual manner, the wood being of a thickness
suficient for a good fastening.
In some cases I propose to make the wood covering for the insido
plates thinuer than in the plan herein-before described, but to stand out
in relief from the outside plates, and of sufficicut thickness to carry the
zine or other metal sheathing. When I do this I bring over such wood
covering at each edge of the same a stout plank or ribband of wood.
This plank or ribband has one edge rabbetted so as to lap over and hold
in place the wood covering of the inside strakes. This plank or ribband
also covers a portion of the outside plate, diminishing the exposed
surface of the same. The edges of this plank or ribband stand out in
relief both from the wood covering of the inside plates and the exposed
outside plates. The zinc or other metal sheathing is then attached in
the same manner as before described. In either or both of these plans
I, for the purpose of securing the metal sheets, sometimes fix over them,.
in the angles formed by the use of the wood covering or by the plank or
ribband, angle bars or flat bars of zine or other suitable metal, and in
both cases the metal sheathing may have additional fastenings to the
iron and wood. Between the sheets and the outside plates, as well as
between the sheets and the wood surface, felt or other material may be
interposed if found desirable,
In fixing the sheets to vessels which I have provided with the wood
covering, and in fixing them to vessels formed of wood only, I some-
times fasten over the wood surface bands or strips of thin sheet iron or
steel, and over these bands (with or without felt interposed) are placed
the sheets. This plan I adopt for the purpose of increasing the galvanic
action, and thereby increasing the exfoliation of the sheathing and the
keeping clean of the ship's bottom.
I purpose in some cases uniting thin sheets of iron or stect to the
zine or other metal sheathing, so that a part or the whole of the inside
surface may be so covered. This union may be effected either in the
manufacture or by cementing. This is done sometimes for the purpose
of preventing any corrosion or waste on the interior surface of the zine:
or other metallic sheathing. The same object may be effected by coating
the insido surface of the metal sheathing with varnish, cement, paint, or

page_text: anti-corrosive composition. Thus protected nearly all waste will take
place exteriorly.
The metallic sheathing plates herein-before alluded to may be of zinc,
but I sometimes use zinc combined with copper in such proportions that
the compound thus formed shall not be galvanically destructive to iron
or steel, but shall he electro-positive thereto.