A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD OF PREPARING AND PUTTING ON COPPER SHEATHING FOR SHIPPING
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JonN
GRAY, Beaumorris, in the County of Anglesea, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did, by Petition, humbly represent to His most Excellent,
Majesty King George the Fourth that I had'invented "A NEW AND IMPROVED
METHOD OF PREPARING AND PUTTING ON COPPER SHEATHING FOR SHIPPING," and
His said Majesty, being graciously willing to give encouragement to all arts and
inventions which may be for the public good, was graciously pleased to issue
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date.
at Westminster, the Fourth day of February, in the eleventh year of
His reign, whereby His said Majesty did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Gray, His especial licenco
that I, the said John Gray, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Gray, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, (and no others), from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend my said Invention within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonics and
Plantations abroad, in such manner as to me, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, shall seem meet; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said John Gray, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and scal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters

page_text: Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Gray, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained in
manner following (that is to say):-
My improved method of preparing and putting on copper sheathing for
shipping consists in piercing nail holes through the copper sheathing (in a par-
ticular manner herein-after to be described) in order to receive the nails by
which the copper sheathing is to be fastened to the bottom of the ship, those
nail holes being disposed in rows at regular distances apart along, one side and
across one end of the border of each sheet, and other holes being dispersed
over the middle part of each sheet, each of the said nail holes being counter-
sunk (at that side of the copper which is to be outwards when it is put on the
ship), by causing such a depression of the copper around each of the nail holes
as will form suitable countersinks to receive the heads of the nails by which
the
copper
is to be fastened to the bottom of the ship, the same depression of
the copper from the outside also making a prominence around each nail hole
at the inside surface which is to be applied to the bottom of the ship, and those
prominences by entering into the surface against which the copper is applied
will cause it to adhere more firmly; that portion of the copper around each
nail which is so depressed from the outside and rendered prominent at the
inside being hardened by the pressure given to it between hard steel surfaces
in the operation of piercing the said nail holes, which operation I perform by
one or other of two simple machines which are represented in the Sheet of
Drawings hereunto annexed.
In Figures 1 and 2 A, A, B, B, is an iron bridge or frame which is
strongly fastened down to a firm wooden bench or plank by screws put through
the feet a, a, of the upright legs A, A, so that the horizontal bar B, B, is firmly
supported at a suitable height over the said bench, with ample space between the
upright legs A, A, to admit the sheet of copper between them. C is a perpen-
dicular screw, which works through a corresponding socket in the bar B, B,
and the lower end is made cylindrical to work through a guide socket in the
middle of an iron brace D, D, which turns up at its two ends, and they are
firmly fastened to the bar B, B, by which means the screw is securely retained-
in a perpendicular position over the hench. The lower end of the screw is
formed into a punch b, of a suitable size for the nail holes that are to be pierced
through the copper, and the shoulder of that punch is made conical or rather
egg-shaped, in order to depress the copper into a countersink suitable for the

page_text: head of the nail that is to be used. A plate of steel E, E, is fixed on the
bench beneath the bridge A; A, B, B, and it has a hole in it přecisely bencath
the screw;- which hole is exactly adapted to receive the punch at the lower
end of the screw when the same is screwed down, and the said hole is coun-
térsunk. to correspond to the conical or egg-shaped shoulder of the said punch.
After the sheets of copper have been laminated and dressed to the proper
dimensions with straight-edges; lines are drawn where the rows of holes are to
be made; then the copper so marked is placed flat on the bench beneath the
bridge A; A, B, B; the screw C being first turned back (by the handle F, at
the upper end of it) so much as to raise the punch 6 at the lower end of the
screw clear above the steel plate E; E; in order that the copper may be pro-
perly placed beneath the point of the punch to pierce a nail hole thereby at the
intended place,. which piercing is done by turning round the screw C by its
handle F, so as to force the punch 6 down upon the copper and deprèss the
same into the conical cavity that is countersunk in the steel plate E; and then
the punch 6 piercing through the copper drives before it a small round piéce
which drops down through the hole in the plate E.. The conical or egg-shape:l
shoulder to the punch 6 also presses the copper very hard down into tho
conical cavity that is countersunk in. the-plate E, thereby hardening the copper
that is depressed and giving a. true and permanent figure to the countersunk
depression around the hole at the upper side of the copper, and to the promi-
nence occasioned thereby at the under side: One hole with the countersink and
prominence being thus made the screw C is turned back by its handle F till the'
punch is raised clear above the copper, and the sheet of copper is then moved
or slided along the bench until the place for an adjoining hole is brought
under the end of the punch 6, the exact position for the sheet being deter-
mined by the prominence that was previously made beneath the sheet around
the former hole dropping into a cavity that is countersunk for its reception in
the plate E at such' a distance from the punch 6 as the holes are intended to
be apart one' from the other. The sheet of copper being thus placed; the
screw is turned by its handle to force the punch down through it, and make
another hole, countersink, and prominence as before. Note, there are other
cavities sunk in the plate' E' in a row, and at suitable distances apart, as shewn
at f, f, Figure 1, to receive the prominences formed' under the copper around
the several holes that have been previously pierced. Note, a ruler or strait-
edge may be fixed down upon the bench, and the edge of the sheet of copper
being applied against the same, it will insure that the holes which are pierced
in succession shall form a strait row at a proper distance from the edge of the
sliect

page_text: Figures 3 and 4 represent a tool or machine for the same purpose as the'
machine herein-before described. It does not require to be fixed on any bench.
or support, but is held by the workman in his hands; the sheet of copper being
laid on a bench with its edge projecting over the edge of that bench, the tool
is applied to that overhanging edge of the sheet to pierce countersunk nail.
holes through the copper. I is the handle by which the workman holds the
tool in one hand, the other hand being applied to the handle K, at the top of
the screw L, to turn the same round, in order to force the punch at the lower
end of the screw through the copper, and then to. withdraw the said punch
from the hole it has pierced through the copper. M is a part of the tool
which passes beneath the copper to support it during the piercing. The
part M is formed in the same solid piece with the part N which stands
opposite thereto, leaving only a narrow crevice or opening between the two
parts M and N, to admit the border of the sheet of copper. The screw L
works through a socket in the upper part N, and the punch at the lower end
of the screw, is received into a hole in the lower part M, having around that
whole a suitable countersink adapted to the conical or egg-shaped shoulder of
the punch, just in the same manner as before described of the machine repre-
sented by Figures 1 and 2. The upper part N of the tool; Figures 3 and 4;
is extended out each way.in length, in order to form a strait-edge or ruler,
which being held to correspond with a line previously marked along the
copper (at the proper place for the overlapping of the edges of the sheets when
they are put on the ship); the tool will be properly disposed on the edge of
the sheet of copper in order to pierce the countersunk nail holes at a proper
distance from that edge. In order to regulate the distances between the holes
that are to be pierced in succession by the tool, Figures 3 and 4, two small
sliding plugs 0, 0, are fitted into holes in the upper part N, so as to slido
freely therein, and the lower ends of the plugs O, O, are made of the same form
and size as the punch at the end of the screw L; also those lower ends fit
into corresponding holes made in the under part M. of the tool. After
one hole is pierced in the copper by the punch, the handle K of the screw L.
is turned back, and the whole tool is removed so far along the clge of the
copper that the pin at the end of one of the plugs O will drop into the hole
previously made, and then the punch will be exactly over the proper place to
pierce the next hole, which is done by turning the handle K of the screw L
as before. The plugs O, O, can be withdrawn from the holes into which their
points enter, in order to release the tool in preparation for removing it to
pierce a fresh hole; they are withdrawn by pressing the thumb of that hand
which holds the tool by its handle I upon the tail of a short lever P, which is

page_text: jointed to the top of the sliding plug O at one end, and is poised by its middle.
part upon a centre or support m, affixed to the top of the part N of the tool,.
the extremity of the lever P is borne up by a spring n, which is applied
beneath it, and that forces the plug O down upon the copper as soon as the
pressure of the thumb is removed, and thereby causes the pin at the lower
end of the plug O to enter into the hole previously pierced in the copper, as
soon as the point of the plug O arrives over that hole. There are two of the
plugs O, O, one on each side of the screw L, in order that the tool may be
used by proceeding in either direction along the edge of the sheet; each plug
has its lever P, and the tails of both of those levers are in reach of the thumb,
and the same spring n, having two prongs, serves for both levers. Q is a sort
of moveable hasp or turning button, which can be turned round to bring the
end of it over the tail of one or both of the levers P, when the same is
depressed, in order to confine that lever, and keep the plug O out of action
(notwithstanding the action of the spring n). Nail holes being thus pierced
through the copper, and countersunk therein, with prominences around each
hole at the under side, those holes forming rows along one side and across one
end of each sheet, as well as some holes in the middle part of each sheet of
the sheathing, the same is prepared for putting on shipping by driving nails.
through the holes so prepared into the wood bottom of the ship, the counter-
sink,.which is made as before described around each hole, receiving the head of
the nail, so that it will be flush with the surface of the copper without causing
any projection or indentation, which circumstance constitutes the improvement
in putting on copper sheathing for shipping. In applying the sheets, each one
is first fastened in the usual manner by nails through the holes in the middle
part of it, and that sido and end of each shect which has been previously
pierced with countersunk nail holes, as before described, must overlap the
adjoining sheets at those sides and ends thereof which have not been
previously pierced; and when each sheet has been adjusted to its intended
place, and fastened by a few nails at the middle of it, the underlapping side
and edge of the adjoining sheet which are not pierced must be pierced through
the holes in the overlapping edge at all the proper places, that piercing being
done by the same kind of hand punch and hammer as is commonly used to
pierce the nail holes through the copper and into the wood bottom of the ship.
Having now described my new and improved method, I do hereby declare
that what I claim as my Invention is the piercing of countersunk nail holes in
copper sheathing, as herein-before described, before the copper is fastened to
the vessel, and the heads of the nails by which the sheathing (so prepared) is
to be put ou shipping being received and lodged into the said countersinks

page_text: will make.a flush or even surface with the outside of the sheathing without
projection or indentation.
In witness. whereof, I, the said Jolin Gray, have hereunto. set my hand:
and seal, the Twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our Lörd
One thousand eight hundred and thirty..