IMPROVE- MENTS IN DEFENSIVE ARMOUR FOR WAR VESSELS AND FORTS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the "International Patent
Office," No. 8, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Consulting Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN DEFENSIVE ARMOUR FOR WAR VESSELS AND FORTS."-A communi-
cation from abroad by Obadiah Marland, of Boston, Massachusetts,
United States of America.
Sealed the 8th May 1868, and dated the 11th November 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th November 1867.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the "International Patent Office," No. 8,
Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Con-
sulting Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DEFENSIVE ARMOUR FOR WAR VESSELS AND FORTS," a com-
munication, to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the employment of metal plates made up of
alternate layers of iron and steel plates welded together. In practicing the
said Invention the welding is performed as usual in welding large surfaces of

page_text: iron and steel together, either by rolling or hammering. The plates thus
formed by welding are cooled slowly, so that the steel will be left soft enough
to be worked with drilling, planing, and other machinists' tools or engines to
fit them to the places on the vessels or forts which they are to occupy as
parts of defensive armour suits. When the compound plates of iron and
steel are fitted to their places they are heated and suddenly cooled to harden
the steel, all the precautions known to workers of steel being taken to prevent
springing, warping, or twisting of the plates from the fitted forms.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Robert Lake in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 8th May 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROBERT LAKE, of the "International Patent Office," No. 8, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Consulting Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Robert Lake, Her special licence that I, the said
William Robert Lake, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said William Robert Lake, 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 DEFENSIVE ARMOUR FOR WAR VESSELS AND
FORTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Robert Lake, 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, aud 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 William Robert Lake, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
This Invention consists in the employment of metal plates made up of
alternate layers of iron and steel plates welded together. In practising the
said Invention the welding is performed as usual in welding large surfaces of
iron and steel together, either by rolling or hammering. The plates thus
formed by welding are cooled slowly, so that the steel will be left soft enough
to be worked with drilling, planing, and other machinists' tools or engines to
fit them to the places on the vessels or forts which they are to occupy as parts
of defensive armour suits. When the compound plates of iron and steel are
fitted to their places they are heated and suddenly cooled to harden the steel,
all the precautions known to workers of steel being taken to prevent springing,
warping, or twisting of the plates from the fitted forms. After the compound
plates are hardened they are fixed in position by any of the well-known
methods employed for securing armour plates to vessels or forts.
Having now described the said Invention, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, and shown how the same may be conveniently and
advantageously carried into practice, I claim, the employment for defensive
armour for war vessels and forts of plates made up of layers of iron and steel
welded together and wrought and fitted to place while soft, and then hardened
and fixed in position, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
50
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE. (L.S.)
Witness,
THOS. W. PALMER,
Clerk to Messrs. Haseltine, Lake, & Co.
8, Southampton Buildings.
W. C.
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