IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF VESSELS OF WAR AND OTHER STRUCTURES REQUIRING TO BE RENDERED SHOT PROOF
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Timothy Whitby, of Wellesley Road, in the County
of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF VESSELS OF WAR AND OTHER STRUCTURES REQUIRING TO BE RENDERED SHOT
PROOF."
Sealed the 26th February 1867, and dated the 20th December 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Timothy Whitby at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th.
December 1866.
I, TIMOTHY WHITBY, of Wellesley Road, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF VESSELS OF WAB AND OTHER STRUCTURES REQUIRING TO BE
RENDERED SHOT PROOF," to be as follows:-
In constructing vessels of war according to this Invention I coat or plate
the exterior of those parts of the skin of the vessel that are required to be
rendered shot proof with a combination of wrought plate and chill cast metal,
the wrought plate being employed for the purpose of enclosing and retaining
in position the chill cast pieces. I prefer that the chill cast pieces should be
cast of a cylindrical form, and that they should be secured side by side on the
exterior of the vessel by the wrought plates, which I prefer to bend to
an S curve. so that one portion of each curved plate may overlap one cylinder
of chill cast metal and the other portion pass behind the chill cast cylinder
next to it. The chill cast metal will thus be entirely surrounded and
03..מו

page_text: enclosed by the wrought plates. The wrought plates may be secured to
the side of the vessel in any suitable manner. Other structures requiring to
be rendered shot proof may be coated or plated in a similar manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Timothy Whitby in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 20th June 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, TIMOTHY
WHITBY, of Wellesley Road, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Timothy Whitby, Her special licence that I, the said Timothy Whitby, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Timothy
Whitby, my executors, administrators, 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 VESSELS OF WAR AND OTHER STRUCTURES REQUIRING TO BE RENDERED
SHOT PROOF," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Timothy
Whitby, 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 Timothy Whitby, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
In constructing vessels of war according to this Invention I coat or plate
the exterior of those parts of the skin of the vessel that are required to be
rendered shot proof with a combination of wrought plate and chill cast. metal,
the wrought plate being employed for the purpose of enclosing and retaining
in position the chill cast. pieces. I prefer that the chill cast pieces should be

page_text: cast of a cylindrical form, and that they should be secured side by side on the
exterior of the vessel by the wrought plates, which I prefer to bend to an
S curve, so that one portion of each curved plate may overlap one cylinder of
chill cast metal and the other portion pass behind the chill cast cylinder next to
it-;- the chill cast metal will thus be entirely surrounded and enclosed-by the
wrought plates. The wrought plates may be secured to the side of the vessel
in any suitable manner. Other structures requiring to be rendered shot proof
may be coated or plated in a similar manner.
The Drawings hereunto annexed shew three modes in which blocks of chill
cast metal may be combined with wrought-iron plate for protecting those
parts of the skin of a vessel that are required to be rendered shot-proof.
These modes of construction are the same as those shown in the Drawings of
a Specification to a former Patent granted to me on the 29th August 1866
(No. 2228), the blocks of chill cast metal being in each case so formed as in
offer deflecting surfaces to shot impinging upon them. The blocks of chill
cast metal might however, if preferred, be otherwise formed and be made
with flat faces in place of their exterior being of a curved form, as shewn in
the Drawings. In the arrangement shewn at Figures 1 and 2 the blocks of
chill cast metal are enclosed between plates of wrought iron bent to an
S curve, and these plates are again enclosed between the skin or plating of
the vessel and an exterior casing which serves to form an even surface on the
exterior of those parts of a vessel to which the chill cast blocks and S plates
are applied.
Figure shews a vertical section of the arrangement, and Figure 2 a side
view of the same. In these Figures a are the blocks of chill cast iron which
are cast in chill moulds in a similar way to that now employed for forming
chill cast projectiles and as is well understood; bare the S plates of wrought
metal which enclose the blocks a: the plates bare secured to the skin or
plating c of the vessel by bolts d. as shewn: e is the skin or casing which
forms an even surface on the exterior of the protected parts of the vessel.
Figure 3 is a vertical section. and Figure 4. a side view, partly in section,
of another arrangement of combining chill cast blocks with wrought plate for
protecting a vessel from shot. The mode of construction shewn in these
Figures only varies from the construction shewn at Figures 1 and 2 in the
form of the wrought plates employed for enclosing the blocks of chill cast
metal.
Figure 5 shows a horizontal section. Figure 6 a vertical section, and
Figure 7, a side view, partly in section, of a third mode of construction. In
this arrangement the chill cast blocks a, which are of a form similar to chill

page_text: cast projectiles are made hollow and are connected one to the other by
short lengths b of wrought-iron bars similar to the ordinary double-headed
railway rails. The short bars are placed in the moulds in which the
blocks a are to be cast, and the blocks a are cast upon them. A series of the
blocks are thus connected together in such manner as to form a kind of
chain in the manner represented in the Drawing. A series of chains so
formed are placed over the exterior of the skin of a vessel which may, in
addition be armour plated, as shewn, or such armour plating may be dispensed
with. The chains are held in position by bolts d, and exterior of the chains
is a skin or plating e so that the several series of chains composed of chill
cast blocks are enclosed between the skin of the vessel and the plating e. I
believe it however to be preferable in all cases to surround or almost entirely
surround each separate block of chill cast metal by wrought plating, as in the
arrangements shewn at Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4.
In witness whereof, I, the said Timothy Whitby, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
TIMOTHY WHITBY. (.S.)