CERTAIN NEW AND USEFUL IMPROVEMENTS IN THAT CLASS OF NAVAL WAR VESSELS TERMED MONITORS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Louis Goddu, of the State of Massachusetts, of
the United States of America, for the Invention of "CERTAIN NEW
AND USEFUL IMPROVEMENTS IN THAT CLASS OF NAVAL WAR VESSELS
TERMED MONITORS.”
ealed the 30th May 1873, and dated the 9th April 1873. ·
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Louis Goddu, at the
.
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 9th April 1873, pursuant to the 9th Section of
the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LOUIS
GODDU, of the State of Massachusetts, of the United States of America,
send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention of "CERTAIN NEW AND
USEFUL IMPROVEMENTS IN THAT CLASS OF NAVAL WAR VESSELS TERMED MONITORS,"
and have petitioned Her Most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria to
grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal
Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that
I am the first and true Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Louis Goddu, do hereby declare
the said Invention, or the nature thereof, to be fully described in the
following Specification, and represented in the accompanying Drawings

page_text: of which Figure 1 is a top view; Figure 2 a side elevation; Figure 3
a medial transverse section of a monitor embodying my Invention;
Figure 4 is a transverse section taken between the turret and stern;
Figure 5 is a similar section taken between the turret and the
bow; Figure 6 is a front view; Figure 7, a rear view; and Figure 8, a
section showing the mode of constructing the turret or the armor
thereof, or such parts of the vessel as may require to be armored.
In making my Invention I have endeavored to produce a vessel or
monitor whose entire surface exposed or to be exposed to the shot of an
enemy while the vessel may be in action shall be deflective of such shot.
To accomplish this I employ a tapering or conical turret or roof to the
gun room or chamber, and base such upon a conical or tapering
deflecting glacis, extended in opposite ways from a gun room or chamber
arranged below the turret or roof. The deck is sloped upward in
opposite directions to its longitudinal medial line where it also slopes
downward from the turret or glacis to the bow and to the stern. The
wales of the monitor are also curved or sloped so as to deflect a shot
downward into the water. The bow and the stern'are also deflective or
curved.
In the Drawings the hull is shown at A, and the conical rotary turret
or turret roof is exhibited at B, the gun room C being a cylindrical or
other proper shaped chamber beneath the turret, and provided with a
conical glacis or slope D encompassing it, and extending down to the
sides of the hull at its middle as shown.
The double deflecting deck is shown with slopes a, a¹, a, a¹, extending
upward from the sides to the medial longitudinal plane of the hull, the
crown of the deck being sloped in opposite directions from the turret
base or glacis to the bow c and stern d, the latter being also curved as
shown.
The deflecting wales are represented at e, e, it being intended that the
monitor when prepared for action shall have its plane of flotation at or a
little above the base of the deck.
The turret or its rotary conical roof may be prepared with one or more
port holes f, each to be provided with a closing slide or port g arranged
as shown.
A toothed rack h, extended from such slide in manner
as represented may be used with a pinion to effect the requisite longi-
tudinal movements of the slide.

page_text: The armor is composed first of two layers of metallic plates 1, l, m, m,
one layer of which is laid on so as to break joints with the other, the
whole being secured together by rivets. Next outside of these plates is
an elastic sheathing n which may be of vulcanized rubber, or gutta
percha, or other suitable elastic material. Next, the said sheathing is to
be covered by a course of metallic plates o secured to the first and
second courses by screws p going through them and the elastic course,
and being screwed into the covering course o. On this covering course
another elastic sheathing is to be arranged, to be in turn covered by
metallic plates a held to all the courses by screws, the heads of all the
screws being on the inner side of the armor..
This mode of constructing the armor ensures an elasticity to it which
operates, to prevent it from being broken when struck by a projectile.
Besides, it prevents the connections from being driven out of the armor
to the injury of persons when in the turret.
The gun room may be fixed to the turret so as to revolve with it, or
the gun room may be stationary relatively to the turret, and be provided.
with means of supporting the gun or guns and enabling such to be
revolved with the turret.
A monitor so constructed will generally have greater room below the
deck than one having a flat deck. Its turret by being conical instead of
cylindrical will be less liable to be perforated by the shot of an enemy,
and being deflective can be made lighter than a cylindrical one. Its
conical glacis and peculiarly sloped deck are not only deflective of shot
or shell but readily discharge water when thrown upon them.
On and around the deck of the vessel I prefer to raise a strong
bulwark A', of timber arranged as or about as shown, or in any other
proper manner, the same being to resist waves and serve as a protector
to the deck or persons when thereon. It is also advantageous in other
respects.
To the discharge opening f of the turret and to extend within the
turret I apply an embrasure D¹, having a vertical opening at its rear of
or about of a width corresponding to that of the muzzle of the gun, but
of a length vertically such as may be desirable. This embrasure I
usually make of sheet iron. Its object is to prevent as far as possible
the concussion of air outside of the turret due to a discharge of the gun
from acting on the air within the turret to the detriment of persons
thercin.

page_text: In the construction of the hull of the vessel the ribs are to run or may
run longitudinally of it instead of transversely of it, such ribs being shown
at r', r, in the Drawings which also show the arrangement of the outer
and inner casings with such ribs. These ribs so arranged with the outer
and inner casings form spaces or chambers between the said casings into
which water may be let in order to sink the hull more or less as occasion
may require preparatory to the monitor going into action. Holes may
be made through the ribs so as to let the water from one space into the
other in order to enable it to be pumped out or extracted.