1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class VIII.: Jeffery, Walsh and Co
188. JEFFERY, WALSH, and CO., Marine Glue Works, Limehouse — Inventors.
Specimens of patent elastic, adhesive, and insoluble marine glue, showing its utility in naval architecture, and its durability and cleanliness.
Piece of the mast of the "Curacoa," found inseparable, even by the wedge, on return from South America.
Piece of mast tested by the hydraulic press - 22 tons required to remove one splinter — joints remaining perfect, giving an additional strength dispersed over the internal surfaces of a first-rate's main of 3,304 tons.
Section of the same, showing fracture.
Jib tongued and joined with glue.
Block of elm joined with glue and exploded with powder; the joint remaining entire.
Piece of glued deck; the interior of the vessel destroyed by fire.
Oak cannon ball joined and fired with 8 oz. powder at Woolwich, in 1842, at an angle of 45 degrees, at the request of the late Sir I. M. Brunel, to try the effect of concussion on the joint when rebounding on the earth in its fall; the joint remaining entire.
Deal block; square foot of surface glued; wood broke at 4 tons, thus giving, at 3 tons per foot, upwards of 25,000 tons additional strength dispersed over the hull of a first-rate.
Model mast exploded with powder, rending the timber but not the joints; the glue confining the splinters; with section of the same.
Model mast, made of northern seasoned timber; durable and strong; with section of the same.
Circular timber, converted from the straight by means of the glue.
Mahogany deck, payed with marine glue.
Two seams payed with glue, and two with pitch, exposed to the same temperature; showing the effect of the sun on topsides of vessels under the line.
In the construction of made-masts, the marine glue admits of small seasoned Dantzic, or northern timber, being used instead of yellow pine. Upwards of £200 is said to be saved in one mast, in its first construction, and upwards of 25,000 tons additional strength dispersed over the hull, and 6,384 tons over the internal surfaces of the masts of a first-rate ship. This calculation is under the actual strength, being calculated at three tons per square foot instead of four—the timber's breaking strain.
A Commission recently appointed by the Admiralty, to collect evidence and report their opinion on the value of the marine glue, for the use of the invention in Her Majesty's Navy, collected evidence to this effect, viz.:— That out of the 130 vessels which have been glued in the Royal Navy, one caulking and paying with glue has been found equal to three times with pitch; besides other valuable evidence as to its cleanliness, security, and comfort to crews.
At an examination, some months since, in Sheerness yard, of the masts and bowsprits of five line-of-battle ships, all made since 1841-2, of yellow pine timber without marine glue, 16 out of 20 were found rotten and condemned, although the masts of three of the ships had never been in commission; while all the masts and yards made with marine glue, in 1842-3, have been found, on their return from foreign service, inseparable even by the wedge, as testified in official reports.
The rapid rotting of yellow pine masts made on the old method is well known; and it was as a remedy for this that the committee of master shipwrights attached the highest importance to the marine glue; stating— "that should it be found to retain its great adhesive force, after years of trial in a tropical climate, masts for the future might be made of small seasoned timber, and a great saving effected throughout the navy."
[Decks, or rather the joints between the planks which form the floors or decks of ships, are usually caulked with oakum; the joints being merely narrow spaces which the caulking fills up. The joints are made open, that the planks, being of wood, may have room to swell when wetted, and the caulking ought to be so elastic as to yield to compression, and return again upon the shrinking of the planks in dry weather, and capable at the same time of resisting water. These requisites, oakum, with the admixture of a little tar, is found to possess in a great degree, and, aided by a paving of pitch on the surface of the seam, answers very well for the caulking of lower decks. Pitch is useless for this purpose on upper decks. Any substance possessing the qualities above alluded to as requisites, being impervious to the weather, not liable to be destroyed by moisture, as ordinary animal glue is, and yet capable of being used and of acting adhesively as being durable and cleanly, must be of value.
"Made-masts" are masts not in one tree, log, or spar, as to its transverse section, but made up or built of several pieces fitted together and hooped, as a cask is. It is difficult in practice to fit and bring together the parts of a made-mast so closely as not to require some packing in the joints, to aid the hoops in preventing movement among them, and to keep out water from the body of the mast. The glue referred to is intended to supply the packing, to cause adhesion of the parts of a made-mast, and to exclude the weather.— W. H.]