AN IMPROVEMENT IN ARMOUR PLATES FOR VESSELS OF WAR
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lano, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for.
the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN ARMOUR PLATES FOR VESSELS OF
WAR." A communication from abroad by Edward Cox, of Coving-
ton. State of Kentucky. United States of America.
Scaled the 15th July 1862, and dated the 13th March 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th March 1862. .
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN ARMOUR PLATES FOR
VESSELS OF WAR," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to fit together and combine the marginal
portions of armour plates that adjacent plates will lock into and hold each
O other both in a direction lengthwise of the vessel to which they are applied,
and also in a vertical direction, and thereby assist in holding each other to the
sides or frame of the vessel, and in strengthening the vessel; the necessity
likewise of using plates of very large size will be, by the adoption of this
improvement, obviated. The plates are made of or will approach a quad-
5 rangular. form; they are formed with a groove near to and parallel with

page_text: each edge, adjoining which and formed thereby is a tongue of corresponding
width on the edge of the marginal portion of the plate. Two of these grooves
and tongues are on one face of the armour plate, and two on the opposite
face to allow of the interlocking of the edges of adjacent plates, which are
similarly formed and arranged in rows so as to break joints" with adjacent
rows.
The faces of the tongues stand back from the corresponding face of the
plate a distance equal to the thickness of the plate at the bottom of the
grooves, in order that when a tongue on one plate is inserted in the groove of
another they may fit together so as to be flush on both sides. To produce a
continuous solid plating, each horizontal groove is continued the whole length
of the plate, but the vertical groove on the same side is made to terminate
in the horizontal groove, and the two corners of the plate where the vertical
groove of one side and the horizontal groove of the other side come together
are cut away in angular form from the inner sides of the two grooves.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 13th September 1862:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William Edward
Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN ARMOUR PLATES FOR VESSELS OF WAR," being a communication
from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said' William
Edward Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should'
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and. in

page_text: what manner the same was to be performed; and cause the same to be filed in
the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates both to armour plates applied on the outside of
wooden hulls and to iron plates attached directly to the frame of the vessel,
whether such frame be constructed either of timber or iron. The Invention'
consists in an improved mode of fitting together and combining the marginal
portions of the armour plates, whereby the plates will be so locked as to hold
each other both in a direction lengthwise of the vessel to which they are
applied, and also in a vertical direction, and thereby assist in holding each
other to the sides or frames of the vessel, and in strengthening the vessel; the
necessity of using plates of very large size will also be obviated..
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is an exterior view, of a portion of
the side of a vessel plated according to the Invention; Fig. 2 is a vertical
section corresponding with Figure 1; and Fig. 3 is a horizontal section ;
Fig. 4 is a face view of one of the plates.
In the example represented, the plates A, A, are bolted to the exterior of'
a wooden vessel by bolts g, g, which pass through the timbers. The plates
are of a quadrangular form, or nearly so, and they are formed with a groove a
near to and parallel with each edge. The grooves form tongues b, b, of a
width corresponding to that of the marginal portion of the plate ouside of it,
but the face of the tongue stands back from the corresponding face of the
plate a distance equal to the thickness of the plate at the bottom of the
grooves, in order that when a tongue on one plate is inserted in the groove of
another one they may fit together so as to be flush on both sides, as shewn in
Figs. 2 and 3. This mode of fitting the plates together, it is obvious, will
lock them together both lengthwise of the vessel and vertically; and in order
to make them all assist in holding each other to the plate, each plate has
one of its horizontal grooves and one of its vertical ones in the outer side, and
the other two grooves on the inner side, as shewn in Figs. 2, 3, and 4, the
grooves in the inner side being represented by dotted lines in Fig. 4. To
enable the plates to be arranged in tiers, one above another, and to enable
the plates of each tier to break joints with those of the tiers immediately above
and below, yet to make all the plates combine to form a continuous solid

page_text: plating, each horizontal groove is continued the whole length of the plate, but
the vertical groove on the same side is made to terminate in the horizontal
groove, as shewn at c, in Figs. 1 and 4, and the two corners of the plate
where the vertical groove of one side and the horizontal groove of the other
side come together are cut away in angular form from the inner sides of the
two grooves, as shewn at d, d, in the last-mentioned Figures..
Having now described this Invention of an improvement in armour plates
for vessels of war, and having explained the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent, as
aforesaid, fitting the marginal portions of the plates together, with a system
of grooves and tongues a, b, in the manner herein specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have here-
.
unto set my hand and seal, the Fifth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
FRED. WALKDEN,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)