CONSTRUCTING BEAMS, MASTS, YARDS, BOWSPRITS, AND OTHER PARTS OF SHIPS, VESSELS, AND CRAFT, USED FOR THE PURPOSES OF NAVIGATION, AND OF OTHER PARTS OF THE RIGGING OF SUCH SHIPS, VESSELS, AND CRAFT
Year: 1820

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT BILL,
of Newman Street, Oxford Street, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, send.
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifteenth day of May, in the first year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Robert
Bill, His especial licence, that I, the said Robert Bill, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Bill, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also within all His
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CONSTRUCTING
BEAMS, MASTS, YARDS, BOWSPRITS, AND OTHER PARTS OF SHIPS, VESSELS, AND
CRAFT, USED FOR THE PURPOSES OF NAVIGATION, AND OF OTHER PARTS OF THE
RIGGING OF SUCH SHIPS, VESSELS, AND CRAFT;" in which said Letters Patent-
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Robert Bill, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference,
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Robert Bill, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
in the following explanation thereof (that is to say):-
My Invention consists in making masts, yards, or bowsprits of metal,
either cast, beat, or roll'd, but I prefer maleable iron; and to effect this there
are a great variety of modes. I will describe some of those modes for con-
structing a mast for a line-of-battle ship. I take plate iron of a good quality,
of the thickness of three quarters of an inch, and screw or rivet the sheets or
plates together, so as to form a hollow cyllender or other form fit for a mast of
necessary dimensions, videlicit, of thirty inches diameter, or of any other
diameter which may be found sufficient for the purpose, and of the require
length; and this may either be combined or connected together so as to form
one continued tube in the usual mode or method of contructing strong iron
tubes or cyllenders, or it may be composed of several lengths or parts, which
parts may be combined or connected by flanges and screws, or by any other
of the usual modes of uniting parts of machinery made of iron or other
metal, so as to be readily seperated if required; or the the mast may be
made by erecting four or more upright standards of this form
or any other proper form; but if this form
if adopted, I
propose to make the standards six inches broad and one inch thick, with a
rib of two inches square, so as to strengthen the standard. These standards
being combined by flangs at the junction of each bar, at the junction of each
range of pillars, it may be well to surround them with iron plates, to act as
hoops or junction circles of great strength, videlicit, twelve inches broad and
one inch thick, or as the manufacturer may deem sufficient for the purpose his
mast, yard, or bowsprit is intended for; these plates being rivetted or screwed
to the standards, so that half the plate shall be connected with one end of the
separate bars forming the pillars, the other part with the end of the other bar
immediately above it, thus giving strength to the union of the separate bars
which constitute the pillars and forming part of the cyllender. The remain-
ing openings must be made good by iron plates rivetted to the uprights and
to each other, as well as to the strong plates at the junction of the upright
But these
bars, so as to form a cyllender or other form fit for a mast.
plates need not be of the same strength as the hoops or junction circles, but
of less thickness, say two eights of an inch more or less, as shall be found
necessary. If a manufacturer thinks fit he may adopt uprights or standards

page_text: made of wood in any form he pleases; interior circles, cross bracings, or other
modes may be adopted to give addition strength if required. But I object to
any obstruction being given to the passage of air through the mast from the
lower part of the ship, proper ventilation being of great consequence to the
health of the crew and and the duration of the ship. Whichever mode may
be thought best, I advise that an opening be made in, the mast near the
bottom of sufficient size to admit a free circulation of air, and another as near
the top of the gun and upper decks as convenient. The object of each
opening being to promote the. circulation of air and to ventilate the ship,
these openings should be large, say three feet deep and one foot six inches
wide, and the mast should receive at these openings additional strengthen-
ing, so as to prevent weaking the mast by those openings. It is not my
intention to enumerate all the modes by which masts may be constructed, nor
do I claim any novelty, save the introduction of iron as the sole or chief
material for constructing masts, bowsprits, or yards; and what I have said is
sufficient to instruct any workmen to effect the object required.
I have also specified another mode in the following Drawing,

page_text: "
bowsprits, and other parts of ships, vessels, and other craft used for the
purpose of navigation.
My improved mode of constructing other parts of the rigging of ships,
vessels, and craft, used for the purposes of navigation, consists in preparing
the ropes or rope yarn in the usual mode in a heated composition of mineral
tar boiled to nearly the consistency of pitch, to which add as much crude
or raw turpentine as shall render it of a proper consistence for immercing the
rope or rope yarns in; and the proportions I prefer is three fourths well
boiled mineral stiff tar, and one fourth turpentine, but the proportions will
necessarily vary according to the consistence of the tar or turpentine; and
that no misunderstanding may take place, I include cables. When the rope
requires great pliability, I add the oil or spirit of tar to render the composition
sufficiently soft. Instead of mineral tar mineral pitch may be used, with a
sufficiency of tar, oil, or spirit to render of a proper consistency..
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Bill, have herèunto set my hand
and seal, the Fourteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty.
I have not described the checks and hound pieces, because they do not
differ from those attached to masts made of wood, except that, if throught
better, iron hound pieces may be made instead of wood, but I claim nothing
new on that account..
DORT DILL