IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIP BUILDING
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
WHITE and ROBERT WHITE, of Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, Ship Builders,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of
March, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the fifteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John White and Robert White, our exors, admors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said
John White and Robert White, our exors, adñors, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said John White and Robert White, our exors, adiiors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
our Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIP BUILDING;" in which said Letters.
Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said John White and Robert
White, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and scal
of one of us, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within

page_text: six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John White and Robert White, hereby declare that the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
Whereas in ships as now built with diagonal planking the main piece of
the keel is much weakened to allow of the diagonal planks being carried over
and across it, the keel becoming, in fact, a hanging keel brought on after the
diagonal planking has been laid, supported only by the outer skin or coat of
longitudinal planks, together with bolts; now our Invention consists in form-
ing a solid keel from stem to stern of the same thickness and depth through-
out, with grooves or rabbits cut therein for the reception of the diagonal
planks, which do not cross the keel, but terminate on each side of it in the
grooves or rabbits. The keel being laid in a continuous length, the floor
timbers crossed, and the kelson laid and bolted thereto at the commencement
of building, we obtain a permanent solid foundation on which to construct the
ship, the planking of the bottom is facilitated, and one length of planking
extends from the keel to the gunwale, the ship is much stronger than if
the keel were cut to allow of the diagonal planks being carried across it, and
we are also enabled to build ships with diagonal skins or coats of any rise of
floor.
Figure 1 is part of a midship section of a vessel constructed according to
the present method of diagonal ship building. A is the hanging keel; B, B,
the diagonal planking; C, C, the outer and longitudinal planking, by which,
together with bolts, the hanging keel is supported; D, D, are the floor timbers;
and E is the kelson.
Figure 2 is part of a midship section of a vessel constructed according to
our improvements. A is the keel, solid throughout, having rabbits on each
side for the reception of the ends of the diagonal planks B, B, and the outer
planks C, C; D, D, are the floor timbers; and E is the kelson. The keel is
here supported by both the diagonal and longitudinal planks, and the ship is
thereby, consequently, much strengthened.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim as our improve-
ments in ship building the formation of the keels of ships where diagonal
planks are used solid, and of the same thickness and depth throughout the