Ships, Boilers, &c. and App for
Year: 1853

page_text: Template for Setting out Rivet Holes of Plates
used in Construction of Iron Ships, Boilers,
&c., and Apparatus for Determining Curve
required for certain Plates so used.
LETTERS PATENT to John Getty, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Ship Builder, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTE
APPLICABLE TO THE PLATING OF IRON SHIPS, PART OF WHICH IMPROVE-
MENTS IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF BOILERS."
Scaled the 1st February 1854, and dated the 7th December 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Getty at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th December 1858.
I, JOHN GETTY, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE PLATING OF IRON SHIPS, PART OF
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF BOILERS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, firstly, to certain means for facilitating the
marking of the holes required to be punched in the plates in the plating

page_text: i
of iron ships; and, secondly, to a mode of determining the curve
required for plates intended to fit those parts of the vessel where (as at
the head and stern) a sharp bend in the lines of the vessel occurs. In
order to ascertain the position of the bolt holes, it is usual to hoist up
into its intended position the plate to be fitted, and to mark with chalk
through the bolt holes of the adjacent plates and ribs, after which the
plate is let down and pierced. To avoid this hauling up of the plate, I
provide frames equal in length to the length or the breadth of the plate
to be marked, and sufficiently wide to carry a strip of strained paper or
cloth, which will cover a double line of bolt holes. Having applied this
frame to a double line of holes in an adjoining plate, I mark on the
paper or cloth, with chalk or other material applied through the bolt
holes, and where these marks occur I cut out holes in the cloth or
paper, and thereby form a template, which will guide me in punching
the holes through the plate of iron. In order to ascertain the position
of the holes in the metal ribs of the ship, I use a separate frame, or
form this frame of a capacity equal to the size of the plate to be fitted.
In either case I provide the frame along its length and breadth with
fixed or removable pins, and stretch across the frame, and over these
pins a chalked string, so as to cut the line of centres of the rows of
holes, and then, at right angles to these lines, I stretch a length of chalked
string, so as to cut the centres of the individual holes. By pressing,
therefore, the intersections of the strings on the plate to be pierced, the
centres for the bolt holes will be marked thereon, or in lieu of the frame
and paper, I may employ stiff pasteboard or other board capable of
receiving studs, which, when the board is applied to the place destined
for the pierced plate, are stuck into the board in positions exactly
corresponding to the bolt holes in the adjacent plates and ribs, and thus
a template is formed, from which an impress of the bolt holes may be
made on the plate to be pierced.
It will be understood that the above described means is equally
applicable to boiler makers as to ship builders.
For obtaining the counterpart of the curved form which certain of
the plates will require to receive, I employ a reticulated board or plate,
somewhat larger than the plate to be shaped, and fit the holes in the

page_text: board or plate with gauge screws or rods. By applying this apparatus
to the ship, and protruding the screws or rods, so that their ends will
produce a kind of mould that fits the place to be covered, I am enabled
to obtain a counterpart of the figure to which the plate is required
to be fashioned.