IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS AND OTHER FLOATING VESSELS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Atkin at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
October 1871.
I, ROBERT ATKIN, of Crawford Street, Portman Square, in the County
of Middlesex, Master Mariner, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS AND OTHER
FLOATING VESSELS," to be as follows:
-
The Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
ships and other vessels. For this purpose I use iron or steel in the
construction of the frame of the vessel as is now well known, and I form
the ribs by preference of a T section, or a section having a trough on
cach side may be used. These ribs may be rolled to the shape required,
or they may be built up of parts rivetted or otherwise fastened together.
I carry the ribs up from the keel to the upper part of the vessel and
bend them over to form deck beams, or the deck beams may be rivetted
to the ribs to effect a similar object. The part where the ribs and deck
beams join is rounded and a longitudinal plate joins them all together at
that part, such plate being by preference of an arched section.

page_text: oramarny employed.
The langes of the
on the inside of the vessel, and I plate the
on the inside of these flanges.
ribs and deck beams 1 place
sides and deck of the vessel
The ribs may be arranged either vertically from the keel as heretofore
or they may be arranged diagonally, but I prefer to arrange them in
radial lines struck from a point above the centre of the vessel, by which
means I obtain great strength of construction, thereby supporting the
ends of the vessel and preventing what is technically called "hogging."
The deck beams pass direct across the vessel and the plating is arranged
so as to cross the path of the ribs and deck beams. The "breast hooks"
and "crutches," if required, will be arranged on the outside of the
plating and between the ribs.
The spaces between the ribs and deck beams I fill in with pieces of
wood cut to fit, and formed with a dovetail groove at their outer edges
which will project boyond the ribs and deck beams; when using T iron
for the ribs and deck beams I place iron or steel plates in the dovetail
space between the wood filling, and I rivet or otherwise fasten such
plates to the ribs and deck beams through the plates, thereby securely
holding the wood filling to the frame of the vessel. On the outside of
the last mentioned plates I drive into the dovetail spaces wood of
corresponding form to protect these plates and make a flush surface on
the outside, on to which I fasten wooden planking by means of coppor
or composition screws, or nails passing into but not through the wood
filling. Between the iron plating and wood filling, and between the wood
filling and the planking, I place all over the vessel a covering of hair
felt, and on the outside of the wood filling over the ribs I place sheet
spelter or other protecting metal fastened to the "filling" by suitable nails
or screws, and on the outside of the wood planking I fasten sheathing in
the ordinary way of sheathing wooden ships. The wood filling and
planking I glue on the edges and I also glue the planking on the inside
with marine glue.

page_text: The "rudder case" I form as follows:-I form the case of an iron or
steel tube with a flange at each end which I rivet to the deck plates,
and to the plates under the "counter." On the inside of this iron tube
I place a spelter or other protecting metal tube, also having a flange at
each end which is nailed or screwed to the "filling in," and on the inside
of the last mentioned tube I place a copper tube also having a flange at
each end which is nailed or screwed to the outside of the wood planking.
In cases where pipes pass through the vessel I protect them in a
similar manner to the rudder case.