IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS FOR WAR PURPOSES, APPLICABLE ALSO TO THE MERCANTILE MARINE
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Wilson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th June
1862.
I, JOHN WILSON, of 7, Albert Square, Clapham Road, in the County of
Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHIPS FOR WAR PURPOSES, APPLICABLE ALSO TO THE
MERCANTILE MARINE," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in a novel and improved arrangement of wood, iron,
or steel in the construction of war or other ships. In order to explain more
clearly my Invention I would remark that according to the method of con-
struction adopted in such vessels as the "Warrior," for example, there is
external to the framework of the vessel an inner plating of iron called the
"skin" of the ship; externally to that a certain thickness of oak, teak, or
other timber, and on the outside, over all, plates of metal called "armour-
plates" of greater or lesser thickness, as may be considered necessary.
So far as regards the framework of the ship and the iron "skin" above-
mentioned, I do not claim any improvement; but my Invention has reference
to the arrangement of the materials externally to the skin, that is to say,
instead of using armour-plates externally to a wooden lining, or externally to a
lining of any other material, I arrange wood and iron or steel in alternate
layers, either horizontally, diagonally, vertically, or otherwise, as may be found
niost advantageous, so that the force of the blow of a projectile shall not

page_text: impinge against the side of a metal plate, but against the edge thereof. I
propose also to form a certain distance below the water line, according to the
power of the projectiles to which any vessel might be exposed, to place and
bolt firmly together alternately plates of wood and iron or steel, either hori-
zontally to the keel of the ship, or perpendicularly to it, as may be found most
convenient or advantageous. In either case it is not the side of the plate
which would be subjected to the blow of a projectile, but the edge, and this
constitutes the essential feature of this Invention. I also propose to place
over all an external plating of iron or steel, so as to distribute the force of the
blow over several of the iron or steel plates, and thus prevent them from being
bent or twisted, or the wood between them from being shattered or otherwise
injured, as. they might be without such external protection, but such external
plates will not require to be of such thickness and weight as they are in such
vessels as the "Warrior," but only of such thickness as is necessary to dis-
tribute the force of a projectile over several of the plates whose edges are
presented in the direction of the blow; and although I prefer to employ alter-
nate layers of three inches of iron or steel and three inches of teak or other
wood, each of twelve inches in breadth, with an inner skin of inch iron and an
outer plating of two inches of steel or iron, I do not intend to limit myself to
those proportions, which may be varied according to circumstances, this
Invention consisting essentially in arranging alternate layers of wood, and iron
or steel in such a manner as that the edges and not the sides of such said
plates shall receive the blow of a projectile.