IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND PROPULSION OF VESSELS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Bridges Adams at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
April 1864.
I, WILLIAM BRIDGES ADAMS, of Holly Mount, Hampstead, in the County
of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND PROPULSION OF VESSELS," to be
as follows:
In a new mode of applying armour plates, so as to elude more effectually
the destruction arising from the impact of shot or other projectiles, and for
this purpose I apply the external armour plates in a series of deep or short
steel. or iron or other metal tubes, which may be circular or square, or poly-
gonal, or of any other desirable form in section, and they may be in layers
one above another with or without supplementary plates between them and
the vessel's side, so that the structure will resemble in general appearance
the cells of a honeycomb, and the tubes may be so formed as to yield.
elastically with a resilient action under blows by being barrel-shaped, or convex,
or concave on the sides; and the whole may be connected together by bolts
passing through the plates, such bolts passing through the centres of the tubes,,
or between pairs or clusters of tubes; and the tubes may be solid or formed
with meeting edges unwelded or folding over each other, and the bolts which
connect the plates and tubes may be curved or otherwise formed, so as to be
elastic lengthwise, the nuts being countersunk, and covering the screw threads
to prevent breakage; and the hollow spaces may be filled with bitumen or
asphalte, or similar substances covering the whole surfaces; and the tubes

page_text: may rest on their sides in horizontal layers on shelves projected from the
vessel's side so as to carry the armour plates, or in any other convenient mode.
And this construction will be equally available for forts or floating batteries.
And for the purpose of propulsion on such vessels as are moved by the power
of heat, through the agency of water or other means, I use liquid fuel, such
as oil or melted grease, either animal, vegetable, or mineral, but I prefer what
is called coal oil, i.e., oil distilled from coal by low heat, and either refined or
not, or the oil known as petroleum or rock oil, or shale oil, or similar sub-
stances, and I prefer it to be in a condition of considerable fluidity. And for
the purpose of using it safely and conveniently I carry it in strong vessels or
tanks of metal, which may be disposed in any convenient part of the hold or
elsewhere, or may be a part of the vessel's structure. All these vessels have
air pipes or passages at the top, through which air may be injected at any
pressure required, regulated by a pressure valve. From the bottom of the
vessels pass other pipes, the ends of which communicate with the furnace
portion of the boiler, and may be pierced with fine holes like the spout of a
watering pot. Around these pipes are second pipes, concentric to them, and
through these air is ejected by pressure so as to form a cover of air round
the spray of oil and commingling with it. This compressed air and spray of
oil commingld are delivered upon a furnace hearth, which I prefer to grate
bars, though the latter may be used also with inandescent coke or coal, or
with a heated surface, so that the oil will become gas, and flash into flame
filling the whole of the fire-box and tubes, and generating steam more rapidly
than any red heated solid fuel. And by the arrangement of stop-cocks in
the air pipes and the oil pipes the outflow may be, so adjusted as to mix them
in the exact quantities to produce perfect combustion without smoke, and
thus the whole of the destructive labour of stokers may be dispensed with,
and the fire may be raised to a maximum, and lowered; to a minimum almost
instantaneously while the duration of the boiler will be greatly increased; and
although I have described the oil and air pipes, as concentric, they may be
applied in any other convenient mode, and the end of the pipe may be formed
into a kind of retort which being heated will convert the oil into gas before it
enters the furnace.