AN IMPROVED SHIELD FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROTECTING FORTIFICATIONS, VESSELS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES OF BUILDINGS AGAINST PROJECTILES OR OTHER MISSILES OF WAR
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Kirk, of Woolwich, in the County of Kent,
Contractor, and John Batstone, of the City of Westminster,
Surveyor, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED SHIELD FOR THE PURPOSE
OF PROTECTING FORTIFICATIONS, VESSELS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES OF
BUILDINGS AGAINST PROJECTILES OR OTHER MISSILES OF WAR."
Sealed the 10th November 1868, and dated the 8th August 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Kirk and John
Batstone at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 8th August 1868.
We, JOHN KIRK, of Woolwich, in the County of Kent, Contractor,
and JOHN BATSTONE, of the City of Westminster, Surveyor, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED SHIELD FOR
THE PURPOSE OF PROTECTING FORTIFICATIONS, VESSELS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES OR
BUILDINGS AGAINST PROJECTILES OR OTHER MISSILES OF WAR," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to the novel and peculiar application and use
of a hydraulic shield to be attached to and placed outside fortifications,
vessels, and other structures or buildings in order to protect the same

page_text: from and give increased resistance to projectiles or other missiles of war.
The improved shield is strongly constructed of metal, wrought or rolled
iron being preferred, and is divided into a convenient number of cells or
chambers so constructed and arranged that they can be readily filled or
charged with water which is forced into them under sufficiently high
pressure to permeate through the metal, and by the employment and
use of this shield permanently or temporarily affixed outside fortifications,
vessels, or other similar structures or buildings, increased resistance will
be given to projectiles or other missiles of war by the reduction of the
the force of concussion, such force being simultaneously diffused through
what we would term the "water packing" to all the sides of the cells or
chambers of the shield.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Kirk and John Batstone in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 8th February 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
KIRK, of Woolwich, in the County of Kent, Contractor, and JOHN
BATSTONE, of the City of Westminster, Surveyor, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto we, the said John Kirk and John Batstone, Her
special licence that we, the said John Kirk and John Batstone, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
John Kirk and John Batstone, our 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 "AN IMPROVED SHIELD FOR THE PURPOSE OF
PROTECTING FORTIFICATIONS, VESSELS, AND OTHER STRUCTURES OR BUILDINGS
AGAINST PROJECTILES OR OTHER MISSILES OF WAR," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said John Kirk and John Batstone,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under

page_text: our, or one of our, 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 we, the said John Kirk and John Batstone,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement in writing, and on reference being had
to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to the novel and peculiar application and use
of a hydraulic shield to be attached to and placed outside fortifications,
vessels, and other structures or buildings in order to protect the same
from and give increased resistance to projectiles or other missiles of war.
The improved shield is strongly constructed of metal, wrought or
rolled iron being preferred, and is divided into a convenient number of
cells or chambers so constructed and arranged that they can be readily
filled or charged with water, which is forced into them under sufficiently
high pressure to permeate through the metal, and by the employment
and use of this shield permanently or temporarily affixed outside forti-
fications, vessels, or other similar structures or buildings, increased
resistance will be given to projectiles or other missiles of war by the
reduction of the force of concussion, such force being simultaneously
diffused through what we would term the "water packing" to all the
sides of the cells or chambers of the shield.
Such being the nature and object of our said Invention for "An
Improved Shield for the Purpose of Protecting Fortifications, Vessels,
and other Structures or Buildings against Projectiles or other Missiles of
War," we will now proceed to describe more in detail the manner in
which the same is to be or may be performed or carried into practical
effect; and in order that the same may be distinctly understood we have
annexed hereunto a Sheet of Drawings, illustrative thereof and have
marked the same with figures and letters of reference corresponding.
with those in the following explanation thereof, that is to say :-
In the accompanying Drawings, Figure 1 is a sectional plan of our
improved shield through the line E, F, (Figure 3,) showing "Lewis " and
bar fastenings entire; Figure 2, a vertical section through A, B,
Figures 1 and 3; Figure 2*, a side view of "dowel" fastening; Figure 3,.

page_text: a vertical section through C, D, Figure 1; Figures 4 and 5, sectional
views of the cocks for the water tubes; Figure 6, a sectional plan of
the water pipes for charging the cells; and Figure 7 is a plan of
the breeching pipe. Figures 1, 2, and 3 are drawn th full size;
Figures 4, 5, and 7, one-fourth full size; and Figure 6 one-half full
size. This shield is made so as to form a substantial structure composed
of any convenient number of cells which
may be filled with water for
resisting projectiles or other missiles by a suitable apparatus herein-after
more particularly described.
The shield is composed of a cellular iron shell built up with a bottom
plate a, angle plates 6, end plates c, top plate d, iron glands or collars e,
valve plates F, back plate h, and armour plates g, all firmly secured and
rivetted to each other.
In the Drawings the shield is represented as composed of only twelve
cells in all (the dimensions of which can be varied as may be found
requisite). It is composed of three cells in thickness (Figures 1 and 2),
two in length (Figures 1 and 3), and two in height (Figures 2 and 3),
but where required it may be composed of one cell only in thickness or
two or any convenient number, as the case may be. The cells are
vertically divided from each other by "valve" plates f fitted between
the ends of the glands or collars e (which with the angle plates b
longitudinally divide the cells), and the outer set are fronted with armour
plates 9 of any required thickness, and at the rear of all the cells is
placed a back plate h, Figures 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7. The armour plates g
are attached to the cells by bar fastenings (fixed to the valve plates f)
having either "Lewis" heads i (Figures 1, 2, and 3) let into dovetail
mortices in the back of the armour plates, or having circular ends housed
into the armour plates, and secured with dowels j (Figures 2 and 2*).
The other ends of either of the bar fastenings are passed through the
valve plates (which are slotted for that purpose) at the back of the front
cells and fastened with a cotter and wedge k ratcheted together. The
back plates h are attached to the cells by bar fastenings 7 (rivetted to the
glands e, angle plates b, and end plates c) which are passed through the
back plates and fastened with a cotter and wedge ', as above described.
The angle plates 6 (Figures 1, 2, and 3) are reversed in position in the
adjoining cells (see Figure 3) forming lap joints, so that when rivetted
they will hold the more firmly together. The glands e are rivetted inside
these angle plates, securing between their ends the valve plates f,
Ligures 1, 2, and 3. The joints between the valve plates and glands e

page_text: are packed with sound cork 8 which must first be well steeped in oil
(or they may be packed with lead, tin, or zinc, either in pipe or any
other section, or they may be caulked with iron, cement, or pitch and
tallow so as to prevent any leakage of the water), as also are all the
other joints together with the shouldered ends m of the bar fastenings i,j,
and / next to the valve plates and back plates to make the same water-
light. The edges and faces of all the plates in juxtaposition and the
ends of the glands e are truly planed so as to secure a perfect fitting
amongst the various parts composing the shield.
The apparatus for charging the cells with water under high pressure
(and for discharging the same when required) consists of wrought-iron
pipes n, one being fitted to each cell, as shown on the Drawings,
Figures 1, 2 and 6 (which are screwed into the valve plates and
back plates h, and are fitted with tin or other suitable washers v,
(Figure 6) between the ends of the pipes and faces of the plates to
form perfectly water-tight joints). Air pipes g', Figures 2 & 3,
extending from the back plates h to the front cell adjoining the armour
plates g are caused to pass through the valve plates fat the other end
of the cell in which the water pipes are placed so as to allow a passage
for the air when the cells are being charged. The ends of these
pipes outside the back plate are secured by caps x screwed thereon to
prevent the passage of the water when the cells are fully charged.
These pipes are of very small diameter (say th of an inch); the
cells may be provided with these air pipes in the same way as the water
pipes, viz., one being provided for each cell and screwed into the
valve plates and back plates. The screwed ends of the pipes (for
charging the cells with water) are fitted with gun-metal high-pressure
gland cocks p (Figures 4, 5, and 6) screwed on the pipes with tin or
other suitable washers o placed next the back plate h, and having
screwed ends q for the union of the breeching pipe t', Figure 7. The
short pipes y for charging the back cells have their circular orifices
enlarged and squared so as to form a square tapering mortice r, Figure 6,
for the reception of a movable turning key. The heads y' of the above-
mentioned cocks are fitted with shackles x morticed to receive the same,
and hinged at one end, and fastened at the other with padlocks to staples
screwed into the back plate, so as to secure the cocks from being im-
properly opened or interfered with. The cells are charged with water by
means of the wrought-iron breeching piece t¹ (Figure 7), having unions
to connect with the cocks and with the pipe from the hydraulic press.

page_text: It will be evident to the practical man that our improved shield
may be applied with suitable modifications to all descriptions of
fortifications or batteries, also to vessels afloat, and to structures or
buildings such as powder magazines or other erections requiring
protection in time of war against projectiles or other missiles and by
the employment of this shield the possibility of live shell exploding
within a vessel, magazine, or other structure will be prevented should
the live shell happen to penetrate through the shield.
It will also be evident that a ship or other vessel to which our
improved shield may be applied by charging the cells with water could
have her armour put on at pleasure, and the effect of charging would be
to so submerge the vessel that it would be unnecessary to apply the
shield below the water-line.
Having now described the nature and object of our said Invention
for "An Improved Shield for the Purpose of Protecting Fortifications,
Vessels, and other Structures or Buildings against Projectiles or other
Missiles of War," together with the manner in which the same is to
be or may be performed or carried into practical effect, we would remark
in conclusion that we claim as our Invention, the general construction,
arrangement, and employment of a hydraulic shield for the purposes
above mentioned, substantially as herein-before described and shewn
on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, or any modification thereof
constructed, arranged, or to be used in a similar or analogous manner.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Kirk and John Batstone,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Sixth day of
February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-nine.
Witness,
BRISTOW HUNT,
Solicitor and Patent Agent,
1, Serle Street,
Lincoln's Inn.
JOHN IRK.
JOHN BATSTONE.
(L.S.)
(L.S.)