US771185A - Floating naval battery. - Google Patents

Description

No. 771,186. Q PATENTED SEPT. 27, 1904. A. P. STOKES.

FLOATING NAVAL BATTERY.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 27. 1904. 4

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PATENTED SEPTL2-7, 1904.

.No. 771,185. 7 A. P.. STOKES.

FLOATING NAVAL BATTERY;

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 27, 1904.

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UNITED STATES Patented September 27, 1904.

PATENT Drums. 1

FLOATING NAVAL BATTERY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 771,185, dated September 27-, 1904.

Application filed January 27, 1904. Serial No. 190,844. (No model.)

To aZZ whmn it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANsoN PHELPS STOKES, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Floating Naval Batteries for Use on Coasts and in Harbors, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the drawings accompanying and forming part of the same.

In a prior patent, No. 7 2 1,7 56, granted to me April 7, 1903, I have described a battery of substantially spherical shape for use on coasts and in harbors in which are embodied certain novel features. The present invention is intended for thesame purpose and may also embody the same features described in the patent mentioned. It includes, however, improvements in construction which are applicable to spherical or hemispherical vessels in general and is designed to render such vessels practically impregnable to attack and to afford special protection against torpedoes.

In carrying out my invention I prefer to make the bottom of the vessel flattened for the purpose of lightening the draft. At the vertical axis of the battery is located a tube, the upper part of which serves as a smoke-stack, the lower part being used to discharge ashes and other refuse into the sea. Around the tube are one or more air-passages for the ventilation of the ship.

The vessel itself, although an integral whole, is yet a plurality of vessels, inasmuch as it consists of three or more substantially equal main divisions each completely equipped. This arrangement is effected by means of radial water-tight bulkheads extending from the bottom to a plane Well above the load water-line. There are preferably no openings whatever between the main divisions. A strong watertight subdivision (composed of the compartments marked A in the accompanying drawings) in each of these main divisions contains a complete outfit of boilers, pumps, engines, stores, and apparatus of various kinds and is supplied with coal and water, &c. ,so that one of these complete subdivisions (comprising all the compartments marked A) may be filled with water or otherwise disabled and the vessel still be able to maneuver and light and can be kept on an approximately even keel by manipulating water ballast and counterpoises. Water-tight subdivisions and smaller watertight compartments are arranged as follows: In addition to the radial divisions the battery is divided by one or more concentric circular partitions into arc-shaped water-tight sections, which are in turn subdivided by radial water tight bulkheads extending outward from the central tube or from the innermost circular partition. The main and sub divisions are divided also by a water-tight deck or decks.

Referring now to the drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical fore-and-aft section of a vessel embodying my invention, and Fig. 2 is asection on line 11 11 of Fig. 1, showing the lower deck in plan.

The embodiment described herein I have designed with considerable care and consider it well adapted for the purposes mentioned. As will be seen, the battery is circular in plan, substantially hemispherical in shape, the radius of the base and the distance from the base to the top of the conning-tower being each seventy-five feet. The bottom is fiat or nearly so. The framework of the structure is preferably steel, and the walls or sides, the bottom and upper deck, &c., are suitably armored. The central tube is indicated by 1, from the lower enlarged end of which an anchor or anchors may be let down, as in my prior patent above mentioned.

2, 3, and 4 indicate the ventilating-passages around the tube. On the upper deck I arrange a conning-tower 5 and one or more gunturrets, as 6. The large guns, one of which is shown at 7, are elevated and depressed by shifting the entire vessel by means of counterpoises, as 8, Fig. 1, in the manner described in my prior patent referred to.

In Fig. 2, 9, 10, and 11 indicate radial bulkheads, which with the tube 1 divide the battery into three water-tight main divisions and extend well above the water-line, as to the gun-deck 12, Fig. 1. A circular bulkhead 13, Figs. 1 and 2, also extending to the gundeck, and a second circular partition 14:, extending to the platform-deck 15, divide each main division into concentric subdivisions, as. shown. In each inner one of these are boilers and furnaces 16, connected by pipe 17 to the smoke-stack 18. The boilers and furnaces are located on the lower deck which is also water-tight and divides the concentric subdivisions horizontally. The platform-deck 15 is also water-tight and further divides the subdivisions mentioned.

Extending from the inner circular bulkhead 13 to the outer wall of the vessel are radial bulkheads 21, dividing the arc-shaped sections into smaller compartments. In the middle and largest of these on the lower deck arethe engines, (indicated by 22 23 24 25,)

driving the propeller-shafts 26 27 28 29. The

end compartments between the circular bulkheads 13 and14-in each of the main divisions on this deck constitute the magazines 3O 31 32 33 34 35, entered only from above, as by the stairs indicated. Lifts, as 35 35 35, to the gun and upper decks are provided. The compartments 36 37 38 39 4O 41 on the lower deck between the engine-rooms and magazines contain coal and machinery of various kinds, such as pumps, dynamos, hydraulic gear to operate the turrets, air-compressors, &c. The outer compartments on this deck between the walls of the vessel and the circular bulkhead 14 serve as storage-tanks for fresh water,

those below these being used to contain wacompartments, reached only by water-tight manholes, as 48, Fig. 2, are intended for reserve coal, reserve stores, &c. The compartments below the magazines may be used for water, &c. On the platform-deck are comparments, as 42 43, Fig.1, for the crews quarters, stores, &c. Above these on the berthdeck are compartments, as 44, for stokers and, as .45, for counterpoises, as 8, which are movable on arc-shaped tracks and manipulated as described in my prior patent before mentioned. On the same deckabove the boiler-rooms are rooms, as 46, for the non-commissioned ofiicers and crew. On the main deck are rooms, as 47, for ofificersquarters. The space marked 50 is reserved to accommodate coal-chutes, ammunition hoists. pipes, lockers, &c.

The armor is distributed so as to be most effective. The belt-armor is eighteen inches thick. The sides above the'belt have fifteeninch armor.- The turret-armor is fifteen inches thick on the sides and three inches on top. The conning-tower is protected by fifteen inches on the sides and four inches on top. Elsewhere on the sides and on the bottom of the battery three-inch armor is used. The armoreddecks are the berth-deck from the central tube to the circular bulkhead 13 two inches, and the platform-deck one inch. Armor 49 is also placed under the lower-deck beams, where it will afford additional protection against torpedoes, &c., as also on bulkhead-partition 14. The bulkhead 13 between the platform and berth decks is armored with two-inch plates. The three main divisions of the battery formed by the radial bulkheads 9,

10, 11 are, as shown, substantially identical ments marked A form an independent water -tight subdivision of the main division which lies between the radial bulkheads 10 and 11. The compartments marked B are also intercommunicating, but not with any others, and form another independent wa-. ter-tight subdivision. Similarly, the compartments markedC form the third independent and water-tight subdivision. Each of these subdivisions just described contains less cubic feet of space than the surplus buoyancy of the battery, and one of the subdivisionsA or B might be filled with water, even if accompanied by the filling of some of the cells or compartments below the lower deck, without causing the battery to sink or to be disabled. The surplus buoyancy may be in creased byclosing the lower parts of the ports on gun-deck. The shape of the battery gives a large interior capacity for the extent of external surface, or, stated otherwise, a smaller amount of heavy armor is needed than would be necessary to afford the same protection to a vessel of non-spherical shape.

The disposition of the interior is convenient and utilizes advantageously the available space. The armor shown below the belt and v on the bottom of the battery affords protection against torpedoes, as does also the cellular form of the hold and the armor under the lower-deck beams and on bulkhead 14.

What I claim is- 1. A floating battery, circular in plan and presenting a substantially spherical shape above the water-line, having main water-tight divisions formed by radial bulkheads extending from a central tube to the sides or outer walls, each main division being subdivided by one or more concentric, circular water-tight bulkheads, by radial water-tight bulkheads between the concentric bulkheads and by one or more water-tight decks, as set forth.

2. A floating battery, circular in plan and presenting a .substantially spherical shape above the water-line, having a plurality of water-tight main divisions formed by radial bulkheads extending from a central tube to IIS the outer walls, each main division being subdivided by one or more concentric circular water-tight bulkheads, by radial, water-tight bulkheads between the concentric bulkheads, and by one or more water-tight decks below the water-line, as set forth.

3. A floating battery, circular in plan and presenting a substantially spherical shape above the water-line, having a plurality of water-tight main divisions formed by radial bulkheads extending from a central tube to the outer walls, each main division being subdivided into a plurality of water-tight subdivisions by circular, concentric bulkheads, by radial bulkheads between the concentric bulkheads, and by one or more decks, the main divisions being substantially identical with each other in arrangement and equipment, as set forth.

4. Afloating battery, circular in plan and presenting a substantially spherical shape above the water-line, having three water-tight main divisions, formed by radial bulkheads; a central tube common to said divisions; steamgenerating apparatus in each division ad jacent to the central tube; one or more circular bulkheads, radial bulkheads extending from the circular bulkheads, and one or more watertight decks below the water-line, forming subdivisions and compartments in concentric tiers and rows between the steam-generating apparatus and the outer walls; and means in each main division for propelling and maneuvering the battery; as and for the purposes set forth.

5. An armored floating battery, circular in plan and presenting a substantially spherical shape above the water-line, having a plurality of water-tight main divisions formed by radial bulkheads; a water-tight circular bulkhead between the outer walls and a tube surrounding the vertical axis, extending from the bottom to above the water-line; a watertight deck extending from the circular bulkhead to the outer walls; armor-protecting parts of the circular bulkheads, a water-tight deck below that first mentioned extending from the central tube to the outer walls; a second water-tight circular bulkhead between the first and theouter walls, extending from the bottom of the battery to a deck above the last-mentioned deck; armor-protecting parts of said bulkheads; and a complete equipment of power and other apparatus in an interior water-tight and armor-protected subdivision in each main division, as and for the purposes set forth.

6. A floating battery circular in plan and presenting a substantially spherical shape above the waterline,. having a plurality of Water-tight main divisions formed by radial bulkheads extending from about the vertical axis to the outer walls, a plurality of water tight decks, circular bulkheads and radial bulkheads, dividing each main division into a plurality of independent water-tight subdivisions, and a plurality of bulkheads dividing each subdivision into compartments, and a complete equipment of power and other apparatus in each main division, as set forth. ANSON PHELPS STOKES. Witnesses:

J. R. JOHNSON, M. J. BRAGE.

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