A METHOD OF COMBINING MASTS, YARDS, BOWSPRITS, &C. HOLLOW, SO AS TO GIVE THEM LIGHTNESS AND STRENGTH
Year: 1800

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
SMART, of Camden Town, in the Parish of St. Pancras, in the County of
Middlesex, Timber Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did; by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventeenth day of June, in the fortieth year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said George Smart, His especial license that I,
the said George Smart, during the term of years therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A METHOD OF COMBINING
MASTS, YARDS, BOWSPRITS, &C. HOLLOW, SO AS TO GIVE THEM LIGHTNESS AND
STRENGTH;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said George Smart, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed; to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date of 'the
said recited Letters Patent, as in and by 'the same, relation being 'thereunto
had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Smart, do hereby declare that my said Invention of a new application
of tubical-framed timbers for masts, yards, bowsprits, and other hollow timbers,

page_text: In witness whereof, I, the said George Smart, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1, A, the section of a small tree or spier cut into four quarters to
form the corners or the framing pieces, morticed to receive the rails, Figure 2, B,
which are tenanted to fit the mortices tight. The rails ought to be well
seasoned and drove hard into the grooves of the covering planks, Figures 3
and 4, C, C, so as to truss them tight, and at distances from each other,
according to the thickness of the outside planking, and when one plank in
width fills one side, they are to be joined lengthways with a scarfe or heading
joint, and with a tube or hoops fitted tight and flush with the surface of the
planking, as at H, Figure 4; but if two or more planks are wanted in width to
fill one side they may be bolted or pinned together, as at I, Figure 12,
observing to shift the end joints of the plank the distance of three or four rails
from each other, and the joints to be over the rails and under the hoops which
bind all together. G is a tube to fit the corner pieces A, to join them length-
ways either by a scarf or heading joint. C, Figure 3, is a view of the inside
of the planking with the rails in the grooves. H, a view of the edge of the
planking C, with the depth of the grooves and the thickness of one rail in the
bottom groove. A, Figure 5, is a view of one of the corner pieces with the
mortices to receive the rails B, the corner pieces or planking to be cut from
square or round timber, as best suits the shape of the figure to be framed.
D, Figure 6, is a section of a round mast. Figure 7, c, c, A, c, c, is part of a
mast. covered with the planks and hoops, and part without the planks.
Figure 8 is a section framed from small timber curved on the side, sufficient
for the hoops to bind, and may be much lighter in the planking and equally
strong, as a greater number of the fibres of the wood on a square takes the
strain equally, and resists on the opposite side more regular than those of a
circle; or to make it still lighter-by-framing_the_rails_flush with the corner
pieces, and to form the curve intended, one plank in width to be halved tight
into the rails, leaving openings on each side of the planks, so that the masts, &c.,
may not hold more wind than a solid mast of one half the diameter. By the
above plans the top mast slides into the lower mast and the top gallant mast
into the top mast. And Figure 9 is a section, with a spindle in the centre, with
eight sides, which is morticed to receive planks Figure 9. K and L is the

page_text: outside planking, which is fayed into each other on the edges. Figure 10 is a
section of planks only, fayed on the edges and hoop'd. Figure 11 is a section
with braces, fitted opposite to each hoop and halved into each other, so as to
prevent the mast from wringing; but Figures 6, 8, and 11, are the best, and
so simple that any carpenter, with planks and spars, might make masts, &c.,
of any dimensions.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fifteenth day of July, in the
year above mentioned, the aforesaid George Smart came before our Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Fifteenth day of July, in the year above written.