CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND FASTENING OF THE FRAME TIMBERS OR BENDS OF SHIPS OR VESSELS, WHETHER BUILDING. OR UNDER REPAIR
Year: 1814

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
WALTERS, of Fenchurch Buildings, in the City of London, Architect and Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Gracious Majesty King George the Third, did, by His
Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of November last
past, give and grant to me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves, or
by my other deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I,
my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times hereafter during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND FASTENING
OF THE FRAME TIMBERS OR BENDS OF SHIPS OR VESSELS, WHETHER BUILDING.
OR UNDER REPAIR," within England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging me particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and how and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
enrolled in the High Court of Chancery within four calendar months next and-
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Walters, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be carried into effect, are stated and
ascertained in the following description or Specification, and in the elevation,
sections, plans, Figures, or Drawings, hereunto attached, that is to say:-
In constructing the frame, timbers, or bends, I affix to the sides of each, at
the butting joints of the timbers of which it is composed, a plate of iron or
other metal covering, each joint extending above and below, and bolted
through the frame as at a (Figure 3); and for fastening or connecting
together the frames or bends, and thereby giving general strength throughout
the whole frame or carcase of the vessel, I introduce, through some section
athwart the ship or vessel to be built or repaired, somewhere near the centre
of gravity, a principal frame A (Figures 1 and 2, or Figure 3), secured to the
keel, having internal diagonal braces B (Figure 2 or 3), and being connected
across ship by one or more tie-bars or tie-beams C (Figure 2 or 3), at the
height of the deck or decks, which principal frame and braces, and tie-bar or
tie-bars, tie-beam or tie-beams, may be constructed of iron or other metal (see
Figures 1 and 2), or of wood and metal (see Figure 3), or I strengthen one
of the common frames or bends of the ship or vessel with riders and internal
diagonal braces to constitute a principal frame similar to Figure 3, and in this.
case, as well as in Figure 3, the deck beams may be used for the tie-bar or
beam C; and further, I annex or affix to the sides of the ship or vessel
certain braces D (Figure 1), which I denominate principal hull braces, made of
iron or other metal let in flush on the outside of the frame timbers, and bolted
to them, descending in an inclined direction from the upper part of the said
principal frame (to which they are made fast) in the line of shortest distance
over the curved surface down to the lower extremities of the vessel, and
terminating at such points Z, Z, (Figure 1) in the bottom as may be found to
afford the greatest facilities or convenience for being there fixed in a secure
manner, so as to give support to the said extremities and the whole of the
intermediate frames from the said principal frame A.
not constructed with the spaces between the frames
better stiffening of the whole hull, I introduce behind or within the said
principal hull, braces, chocks, or strutting pieces, E. (Figure 1), of timber
scantling, tailed in between frame and frame, acting as arches in the direction
of the said braces; and for the more effectually tying or binding together the
whole structure I employ, in addition to the foregoing braces, one or more
braces K. (Figure 1), which I denominate horizontal hull braces; the said.
horizontal hull braces are let in flush with the frame timbers (to which they
Also (if the vessel is
filled in solid) for the

page_text: are bolted or made fast, as also in some cases to the principal frame A), and
extend the whole length of the vessel on both sides, passing round the bow, and
having the stern ends connected by a tie-bar or tie-beam (similar to C, already
described), the whole forming a kind of longitudinal hoop, behind or within
which chocks or strutting pieces may be tailed in between timber and timber,
as described above for the principal hull braces.
said
Such is the general arrangement which I adopt in the application of: my
Invention to practice, and the result, as will appear obvious to any competent
mechanician, is a system of framing which resembles, in some of its qualities, and
in its effects and operation, the trussing employed in the construction of roofs,
bridges, and other framed carpentry of great span, so that the vessel to which
it is applied may not improperly be termed a trussed ship or vessel.
In the foregoing description of the trussing, I have, for the sake of
perspicuity, confined myself to one principal frame A, with its internal diagonal
braces B and tie-bar or beam C, to the principal hull braces D, to the horizontal
hull braces K, and to the chocks or strutting pieces tailed in between frame
and frame behind the braces; but still more to strengthen ships of larger
classes, I apply to the sides additional inclined braces G (Figure 1), which I
call auxiliary hull braces, made fast to the said principal frame A, and carried
down (in the lime of shortest distance over the curved surface) to some
convenient intermediate points in the bottom, between the said principal frame
and the lower extremities of the aforesaid principal hull braces, and there
made fast; the said auxiliary hull braces, like the principal hull braces, are let
in flush with and bolted to the frame timbers or bends. And further, I
introduce, when the length or size of the vessel may require it, two minor
principal frames (one afore and one aft), of the same description as the
principal frame A; (or I strengthen for this purpose any convenient frames
of the vessel H (Figure 1), and connect them by one or more tie-bars or
beams (see C, before described), and from that part, L, of each of the minor
principal frames over which the horizontal hull braces K
pass, I carry down
(in the line of shortest distance over the curved surface) inclined braces I,
which I call minor hull braces, let in flush and bolted to the frame timbers,
and terminating in the bottom at points (Q, Q.) more remote from the centre
than the lower extremities Z, Z, of the principal hull braces.
Such is the manner in which I extend the system of bracing or trussing
when the size of the ship requires it, taking care properly to join and fasten
all the inclined hull braces in a firm and substantial manner, not only to their
respective principal and minor principal frames, and to the bends over which
they pass, and to the bottom, but also to the said horizontal hull braces K

page_text: (when these horizontal hull braces and the minor hull braces are employed);
the outer surface to be kept flush with the frames, and the bolt-holes in all
the braces countersunk to receive the heads of the bolts, so that no part may
project to present any obstruction to the planking.
For joining and fastening together in a proper manner the different parts
that have been described, I employ such methods as are commonly used and
practised by shipbuilders, architects, and civil engineers, adapting them to the
nature and direction of the strain upon the different parts respectively.
Respecting the aforesaid hull braces, it may be proper to remark that they
are made in pieces of any convenient length, so adjusted that the parts
at which the said pieces are joined fall in the spaces between the frames or
bends of the vessel, and their ends so formed at the place of junction as
to be flush outside with the said bends. This may be effected by various ways
well known to mechanicians and engineers, and among others by such an
arrangement as the following:-Let the pieces be connected by scarf joints, let
the outside top of the one be flush (as already said), and let the inside of the
other that is to be joined to it knuckle back its whole thickness (see M,
Figures 4, 5, and 6), let each joint be made with butments, the butment of
the outside lap in the form of a half staple, to pass through a mortice in the
inside lap, and the butment of the inside lap going quite across its whole
breadth to make the wedges 1 and 2 (Figures 4 and 5) drive steadily, which,
when drove in tight, serve to bring home the joint. The joint should be at
such an angle to the brace as to allow the wedges to be driven in parallel to the
sides of the bends. I need hardly add, that in place of two wedges, one only may
be used, if, instead of making the butments of any joint parallel to each other,
they be made to present faces answerable to the angle of the wedge. It may
be useful also to remark that the junction of the principal and auxiliary hull
braces with the principal frame A may be very conveniently effected by means
of the saddle piece F (Figures 1, 6, and 7), having a solid bearing upon the
said principal frame, with a hole through to receive the tie-bar C, or for being
bolted to the said principal frame, should the tie-bar or bars, beam or beams,
or saddle pieces for any reason be placed higher or lower. The lower extre-
mities of the braces in the concave parts of the bottom may be secured
by being strongly bolted to the dead wood and frame timbers, and connected
(each with its opposite) by bolting through from the one to the other, or by
any other convenient method.
Having now described the general arrangement of the means I employ for,
strengthening ships or vessels, in which only a certain number of frames and
braces with their respective fastenings are made use of, I shall further observe

page_text: that upon the same principle, in cases which require it, I augment the number
and vary the relative positions of the parts in such manner as may best suit
the vessel to which it is to be applied. I need hardly mention, what must
appear obvious to every mechanic, that though I have described the aforesaid
braces as being sunk into and made flush with the timbers or bends, cases
may occur in which it may be very desirable to give to a vessel the security
which these braces are calculated to afford, when, from circumstances, it may be
inconvenient or impossible to have them so applied; in such cases the afore-
said braces may be applied outside of the planking, but I think that by so
applying them they will not produce the effect in the same degree.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Walters, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of February, in the
year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Walters 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 Third day of March, in the year above written.