IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXAMINING, CLEANING, AND REPAIRING THE BOTTOMS AND SIDES OF SHIPS WHILE AFLOAT, WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Rudolph Frederick Moll at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
January 1865.
I, RUDOLPH FREDERICK MOLL, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR EXAMINING, CLEANING, AND REPAIRING THE BOTTOMS AND
SIDES OF SHIPS WHILE AFLOAT, WHICH APPARATUS IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR OTHER
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
To obtain access to the bottom and sides of a ship for examining,
repairing, cleaning, or painting the bottom and sides, or for other purposes,
the vessel has now to be taken out of the water by placing her in a dry dock,
whereas the apparatus of this Invention will afford access to her bottom and
sides for the above or any other purposes while she is in the water and
floating.
According to this Invention instead of making the whole of a ship's bottom
and sides accessible at the same time, as done in the dry docks, I make only
a part (but any part) of a floating vessel's bottom and sides under the water
line accessible at the time by isolating the part from the water line on the
one side to the water line on the other across the keel.
This is intended to be done by one or more apparatus (if more than one
they are to be connected or not connected with each other) and to be made of
two or more parallel flexible or elastic bars or substances connected at their
outer parts with material which bends and may be thin but must be suf-

page_text: ficiently strong to resist the pressure of the water. Such apparatus will
accommodate itself to any vessel, but it is further intended to construct another
kind to be used for one particular or similar vessel only, in the shape of a
part of a false bottom (extending from side to side) of such vessel or vessels ;
the solid or stiff parallel beams are to fit the bottom and sides of the vessel,
and the inner part of said beams are, if found necessary, covered with
flexible, or elastic, or any other material in such a way as to secure close or
water-tight fitting.
The apparatus is to be lowered into the water under that part of the ship's
bottom (passing from the stem or stern) to which access is to be had, and
the inner parts of the beams drawn to the ship's bottom and sides sufficiently
so that the beams fit closely on the bottom and sides water tight, and the
apparatus must be of sufficient extent to reach above the water line on both
sides.
The apparatus thus fixed isolates the water it contains from the water
surrounding it, and by pumping the water out of the apparatus an empty
hollow girdle like open space of air round part of the ship's bottom and sides -
extending under and above the water line on both sides will exist, making
that part of the bottom and sides accessible for all purposes, and it will also
keep the vessel afloat when damaged in that part. The covering part of the
apparatus, although flexible in the one direction, must be sufficiently rigid in
the other, or otherwise supported to resist the pressure of the water on the
exterior. This apparatus, in addition to being used for access to a ship's
bottom, may also be employed for the application of metal plates or other
forms of iron to ship's sides in order to resist shot. For this purpose I simply
make the apparatus of stronger construction, and instead of using this hollow
space as an access to the ship's side, I fill or partially fill such enclosed space
with the metal protecting plates or other material, and I apply such apparatus
over the entire or any part of a ship's sides. If the apparatus has sufficient
displacement it will carry the weight of the plates it contains, or it may be further
lashed or bolted through the top sides of the ship or otherwise secured thereto,
for this purpose a number of these apparatus are used placed in close continuity
through the length of the vessel or over as much of her sides as it is
desired to protect. Instead of placing the shot-proof plates within the appa-
ratus, the flexible beams may be narrow without capacity and placed at
distances apart. In either case I provide grooves for slipping the plates
down in position, and which would only-extend some little distance below the
water line (about four or five feet) but may be carried up to the bulwarks
where the upper ends of the bending beams are secured, but which pass quit

page_text: under the bottom of the vessel, that is to say are in continuous length from
side to side of the ship as before described. The bending or flexible appa-
ratus may be made of gutta percha or thicknesses of india cloth or other imper-
vious material stiffened at short intervals by narrow rigid supports so disposed
as not to interfere with the flexibility of the structure, while for the rigid appa-
ratus any suitable rigid impervious material may be employed. The flexible
apparatus, by reason of the flexibility being in the direction of its length
(round the bottom of the vessel) and otherwise, accommodates itself to the
shape of the bottom to which it is compressed by the pressure of the water on
its outside.