MENTS IN INTERLACING BARS OR RODS OF METAL, AND IN THE FORMATION OF A FABRIC OR STRUCTURE SUITABLE FOR SHIPS' ARMOUR AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Davidson Plimsoll at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th February 1877.
HENRY DAVIDSON PLIMSOLL, of Sheffield, in the County of York. "IMPROVE
MENTS IN INTERLACING BARS OR RODS OF METAL, AND IN THE FORMATION OF A
FABRIC OR STRUCTURE SUITABLE FOR SHIPS' ARMOUR AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
My Invention relates to a method of interlacing corrugated bars of iron or other
metal, so as to form a continuous fabric or structure of any desired dimensions
suitable for ships' armour and backing therefor; for mantlets, hatchways, screens
for port boles, for bridge girders and other structures, coal screens, grates, park and
other gates and fencing, for paving streets and for other purposes. By this method
the fibre of the metal is disposed in the most favorable direction to develop its
strength and tenacity in the highest degree.
The bars may be of any thickness, according to the nature and purpose of the
fabric or structure to be produced, which may range from, say, a park gate or fence
to ships' armour. In either case a reticulated fabric or structure resembling a woven
fabric is produced in the following manner :-The bars are first rolled, forged, cast,
or pressed into a corrugated or wavy form, the curve of each corrugation being more
or less nearly semicircuular in form. The two sets of bars are placed transversely
to one another, and interlaced to form the fabric or structure as follows:-The one
set, which I will for the sake of distinction call the longitudinal bars, have rather
deeper corrugations than the other set, which I will call the transverse bars. I
take one-half the number of the longitudinal bars, that is to say, every alternate
one, and arrange them in parallel rows at suitable intervals apart on a table with
their corrugations upwards and downwards; then across the longitudinal bars I lay
the whole of the transverse bars, a corrugation of the latter resting in or inter-
locking with a corrugation of the former. I then lay upon the transverse bars the
remaining half of the longitudinal bars, each one being placed intermediate of those
already in position; thus, the longitudinal bars are alternately over and under the
transverse bars, and the whole are then tied or knit together by the introduction of
straight (or but very slightly corrugated) bars between the transverse bars, the
said straight bars being slid endwise through the spaces or hollows of the corruga-
tions of the longitudinal bars, passing alternately over and under the latter, so
as to unite and lock the whole fabric together. When these bars are slightly cor-
rugated instead of straight the corrugations of the longitudinal bars are made

page_text: deeper than in the former case, and flattened down or deflected by pressure after
the bars are inserted, so as to render them immovable. If the longitudinal bars are
of unequal lengths in the first instance, and others added as required so as to break
joint, a fabric of any desired length may be constructed; or in the case of street
paving laid down in slabs they may be connected together by making the straight t
bars alone break joint with adjoining slabs.
By the occasional omission of some of the bars, corrugated or otherwise, a pattern
may be formed for ornamental purposes.
The fabric so constructed may be used for ships' armour without further pre-
paration; or by welding or rolling together two or more such fabrics a single plate 1
of great strength and tenacity is produced.