Improvements in Iron-clad Ships Provided with Belt Armour.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Jan., 1894-Accepted, 3rd Mar., 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Iron-clad Ships Provided with Belt Armour..
A communication to me from EMIL GOECKE, of 18, Niemannsweg, Kiel, in the
Kingdom of Prussia.
I, EDMUND EDWARDS, of the Firm of Edwards and Co., Patent Agents and
Engineers, of 35, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement and accompanying drawing, that is to say :-
The present invention relates to improvements in iron-clad ships provided with
belt-armour and it has for its objects methods of construction which enable the
latter to serve as a horizontal ram. For this purpose the belt armour is of a
triangular shape, such as has been described, especially for iron-clads, in the
German Specification No. 18193.
The belt armour further resembles the drift keels such as are described in the
American Specification No. 267,051, inasmuch as its outer edge is situated below
the water level. This edge further-and this is the most important part of the
present invention-is constructed from a material hard enough to cut up the wall
of the man of war to be borne down upon.
In the annexed drawing Figure 1 is a part of the midship section of an iron-clad
provided with belt armour of the kind forming the subject of the present invention
Figure 2 is also a midship section drawn upon a smaller scale. Finally Figure 3
is a vertical section of the fore-part of the iron-clad.
In the method of construction illustrated by Figures 1 and 2, the armour-
plates a are arranged at an angle of about forty degrees with the horizontal
fine.
Resting upon a layer or backing e of wood they fit against and into a horizontal
bar b, the outer edge of which forms the ram edge proper. At its inner side
this bar b is made tapering so as to form shoulders for the reception of the
outer edges of the steel plates which serve as supports to the wood backing e.
These steel plates are themselves supported by stiffening frames g. The bar b
therefore in the construction shewn is fixed in the manner ordinarily used for stems.
The fastening of the bar b may however be effected in any other suitable manner;
for instance it may be arranged in the well known manner used for the armour
bows of the French navy. But in all cases care must be taken that the supports
of these armour-plates are arranged parallel with them in order that the armour
plates may be fixed by bolts and nuts.
It is obvious that an iron-clad provided with belt armour of the kind described
may also be prevented from being rammed by another vessel having a bow ram
by arranging the edge far enough outwards. This effect is still further increased
in cases where the hull has a shape such as is shewn in Figure 2 by the dotted
lines h h. An iron-clad provided with a belt armour of the above described kind
may further be enabled to ram another iron-clad below the vertical armour of the
latter by increasing the immersion of the ramming ironclad. For instance this
increase of immersion may be effected by means of water-ballast.
As will be seen from Figure 3, the bar may also be fastened to stiffening
angle irons and plates g' and fattached to plates a¹. In this manner the belt
armour of triangular shape can be conveniently reduced again to the usual
shape, as is sometimes necessary with reference to the fore and aft part of the
iron-clad.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
In iron-clad ships, the belt armour of a triangular shape in section, the outer
corner of the triangle being formed by a cutting edge 6¹ and situated below the
water level, substantially as set forth and illustrated, and for the purpose
specified.
Dated this 10th day of January 189
EDWARDS & Co.,
35, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.