IMPROVEMENTS IN ARMOUR, AND IN MAKING AND APPLYING THE SAME FOR PROTECTING WOOD AND IRON SHIPS OF WAR AND BATTERIES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Tate, of Horsley Hill, near South Shields,
Durham, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARMOUR, AND IN
MAKING AND APPLYING THE SAME FOR PROTECTING WOOD AND IRON SHIPS
OF WAR AND BATTERIES,"
Sealed the 4th April 1862, and dated the 19th December 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Tate at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
December 1861.
I, WILLIAM TATE, of Horsley Hill, near South Shields, Durham, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARMOUR
AND IN MAKING AND APPLYING THE SAME FOR PROTECTING WOOD AND IRON SHIPS
OF WAR AND BATTERIES," to be as follows (that is to say):-
My Invention consists in the use and improvements in the manufacture and
mode of applying iron and steel flat wire (galvanized or ungalvanized) rope,
stranded flat belts (of small and large sized wire), applied singly in belts, iron
or steel, or intermixed as one belt, one-third steel, and two-thirds iron wire, as
armour for wood and iron ships of war and batteries in place of iron plates.
The iron and steel flat belts to be manufactured to suit the full length of
the ships or batteries (from 50 feet up to 600 feet if required), and from
four inches to thirty inches broad, and from half an inch to two inches in
thickness (more or less). These belts to be laid on in tiers as many as may
be required, and when the proper strength has been obtained, then planked
over with three-inch teak plank, and bolted through all, and then covered
neatly (over all) with half-inch steel plates twenty-four inches broad.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Tate in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 23rd
April 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
TATE, of Horsley Hill; near South Shields, Durham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Tate, Her special licence that I, the said William Tate,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Tate, 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 ARMOUR, AND IN MAKING AND APPLYING THE SAME FOR
PROTECTING WOOD AND IRON SHIPS OF WAR AND BATTERIES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said William Tate, 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 per-
formed, 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 William Tate, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement. :-
The nature of the said Invention, has hath been already intimated in and by
the Provisional Specification left and recorded on application for the said
Letters Patent, is this, that is to say :-
(No. I.) My Invention consists in the use of and improvements in the
manufacture and mode of applying iron and steel wire (galvanized or un-
galvanized) rope, stranded belts (of small and of large sized wires), round or flat,
applied singly in belts of iron or steel, or intermixed as one belt, being by pre-
ference one-third steel and two-thirds iron wire, as armour for wood and iron
ships of war and batteries, in place of iron plates, or in conjunction with iron
plates. The iron and steel flat belts should be manufactured to suit the full

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS,
which are upon a scale of half an inch to the foot.
No. 1. A mid-ship section Drawing from the model, eighteen feet long, and
seven feet down the ship's side (by seven inches in thickness), shewing part of
the thickness of the ship, also showing the mode of applying and fastening the
flat iron or steel, or one-third steel and two-thirds iron wire rope stranded
belts. The armour to be of all breadths, lengths, and thickness of the flat
wire, left and right-handed stranded ropes or belts, applying the same to the
sides of the wood and iron ships of war. Iron straps leading from the inside
of the ship coming over the top of the covering board or gunwale leading down
the side of the shipof war to the extent of the wire belt armour to be eight inches
or upwards in breadth,and half an inch to one inch in thickness, more or less,
as may be ordered or required, having three lines of holes properly drilled at
equal distances, as may be ordered or required, to suit the inside fastenings,
running down to the extent of the iron straps, with iron straps six or eight
inches broad running fore and aft, to secure the edges of the iron plates to
bolt and fasten the wire armour. The thickness of bolts as may be required
for same to fasten the various breadths of the three inch, or upwards, teak
wood, steel, or iron, half or three-quarter inch plates or dimensions (more or
less), as required, securing the same to the sides of the ships of war or
batteries. The iron straping to be six feet or upwards apart, or as ordered,
and in the middle of the main strapping additional iron straps six inches, or
more or less, in breadth, and half an inch or upwards in thickness, with the
same number of holes leading down from the edge of the covering board to
the extent of the flat wire rope stranded armour belts, with various lengths and
thickness of iron belts, with flat heads going through iron washer plates six

page_text: inches by six inches and three-quarters of an inch thick, more or less, running
through each tier or breadth of wire armour, as may be ordered, and applied
to further secure the within-named armour. The steel or iron plates to be of
length and breadths to suit the port-holes of the ships of war from stem to
stern in lengths, for example, of eighteen feet, more or less. For batteries
larger lengths, breadths, and thickness of the flat wire rope armour, or
smaller dimensions to be used if required, with large dimensions of teak wood,
or any other wood, with iron fastenings, strapping, or bolting, as may be
ordered, with iron or steel plates of any dimensions, of breadths, lengths, or
thicknesses, as may be ordered in the construction of the same.
No. 2. Drawing section, representing, for an example, a part of the thick-
ness of the mid-ships of a ship twenty-five feet long, and seven feet deep, by
ten and a half inches thick, showing the modes of applyingt he armour to the
sides of the ship, as described with regard to No. 1 section Drawing, shewing
the sides when finished, except the ports and adjuucts. Four solids of armour
wire under every seam, with iron fastenings, teak wood, steel, or other plates.
No.3. Section Drawing, showing another mode of applying the flatwire rope
stranded belts armour with the same irou strappings, bolts, and fastenings,
teak wood, iron, or steel plates, as in No. 2 section Drawing, shewing two
solids under every seam of the wire armour length of the section shewn by
this Drawing, being eighteen feet, and seven feet deep, by ten and a half
inches in thickness; as the Drawings contain seven tiers or thickness of the
flat wire rope stranded belts one inch thick each belt, and of varions breadths
(by mostly of twenty-one inches), and has to be of various lengths to suit
port-holes andother contingencies,as maybe required, the tiers of orthickness
of the within-named wire rope stranded flat belt armour is to be increased in
the number of tiers or thickness if required until the proper strength is
obtained. The wire belts to be applied to the sides of the ship in single or
double sheets full length of the ship if required, only where it does not come
in contact with the port-holes, there smaller and various lengths to be used, or
in short lengths in three or four tiers in thickness in various lengths, the ends
of each fitting close and overlapping or jointing each other, as may be ordered
and required, in all and every case attending the same. Note.-The flat wire
rope, stranded rope, or armour to be manufactured from patterns of the left
and right handed stranded iron or steel flat wire rope, or two-thirds iron and
one-third steel flat wire rope belts, or armour of small or large iron or steel
wires or cord twisted, small or large iron or steel wires from four inches and
all breadths upwards, and of various thickness, as named before, for any use
it might be applied to otherwise than armour. A small hemp yarn running

page_text: through the middle of each left and right handed strand of the above-named
wire flat belts rope stranded armour, and a small steel wire running through
the middle of every fifth right-handed strand of the iron flat wire rope; also a
small steel wire running through the crossing strand of the same, and a small
iron wire running through the middle of every third left-handed strand of the
steel Hat wire rope, stranded rope, or armour, with a small iron wire in the
crossing strand of the same; or a small brass wire ranning through the middle
of every seventh left-handed strand of the iron or steel flat wire rope, stranded
rope, or iron belts, with a small brass wire running through the crossing
strands of each; also a small cord twisted iron wire to be applied as bands,
three or four inches broad, to be applied to the ends of the within-named wire
rope when cut into lengths, to protect the ends of the same when applying it to
the sides of the ships or batteries.
As regards Figures placed on said Drawings, A denotes the ordinary side of
the vessel; B, the wire rope stranded flat belts, disposed in manner afore-
said; b, teak wood or other suitable substance interposed between the stranded
flat belts and the outer plates; C, the outer plates; D, the strapping. The
small circles shew the bolt holes for fastening the strapping; E; square
washers, some only marked, to the heads of the bolts which pass through the
flat stranded wire rope, and are secured in the ordinary side of the ship.
No. III. Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I would here remark that I reserve
to myself the right to use brass, zinc, and copper wire for the manufacture of
flat wire ropes, stranded rope belts, with the use of copper or zinc plates, and
also the right to use either flat wire ropes or round wire ropes, or plaited wire
ropes, that is, ropes of any and all kinds, what I claim being the Invention as
set forth in the outset (marked No. I., and extending to part No. II.,) of this
my Specification thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Tate, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Sixteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
WILLIAM TATE. (L.S.
Witness to the signature of said William Tate,
B. WALKER,
Clk. to General Patent Co., Limited.
Witness to the signature of said William Tate,
B. WALKER,
Clk. to General Patent Co., Limited.
71, Fleet St.