Published Resources Details
Journal Article
- Title
- Docks and Slips
- In
- Practical Mechanic's Journal
- Imprint
- vol. 4, Apr 1851 - Mar 1852, Practical Mechanic's Journal and Patent Office, 1851, p. 12
- Url
- https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/practicalmec418511852glas
- Description
Digital edition courtesy of the Smithsonian Libraries and the Internet Archive.
- Abstract
Article quoted in full:
DOCKS AND SLIPS.
James Scott, Shipwright, Falkirk. - Enrolled March 20, 1851.
The very valuable improvements specified under this patent, comprehend four general heads, - an arrangement of a hydrostatic dry dock - an improved "arm" for the carriages of slips - hydrostatic keel-blocks for supporting vessels in dock or on slips - and a steam-heated pan for boiling pitch. In the side of the river, or harbour, is formed a recess of sufficient capacity to receive the largest vessel to be lifted, and on each side of this recess is erected a row of piles, placed two and two, and projecting high enough to carry a long hydrostatic lifting cylinder between each pair. These cylinders rest on the heads of the piles by top flanges, and the cylinder rams are fitted with saddle-heads to fit under bent connecting-rods supporting the elevating platform of the ship beneath. Water being pumped into each of the cylinders, the two ranges of rams simultaneously rise, and thus elevate the vessel, which is supported by keelblocks and shores on the platform. When elevated to the proper height, the carriage is run on to the platform to receive the vessel, and the whole is then traversed off landward for repair, by another arrangement of hydrostatic cylinders.The improvement in the "arms" of slips consists in attaching them by joint-bolts to the timbers of the carriage, so that, when the latter is to be run beneath the vessel, the arm may be conveniently laid parallel with the timbers, presenting no obstruction to the passage of the carriage. By this plan the arms are never disconnected from the carriage, and hence a very great source of inconvenience is removed. The hydrostatic keel-blocks for supporting vessels when received on the slip, present a beautifully ingenious mode of obviating all risk of straining the vessel when removed from the yielding bosom of the deep, to a hard and, perhaps, uneven bearing surface. Instead of a solid block of wood, Mr. Scott adopts a short hydrostatic cylinder, fitted with a ram, just as in an ordinary pressure apparatus. These cylinders are all connected by a water-pipe, so that when a vessel's keel comes to rest upon a line of them, they give an equal support to the entire keel. If the keel is what shipwrights term " hog-backed," then the convex portions, pressing first on one or two rams only, force water into the others, which are yet out of reach of the concavity of the keel. In this way, however irregular or uneven the keel-line may be, an equal support is obtained throughout. The steam-heated pan is simply a double vessel, with a steam space between for the admission of the heating steam. We propose to illustrate these valuable improvements very fully in a future number.
Related Published resources
isRelated
- 'Scott's hydrostatic dry dock and keel-blocks [Illustrated by Plate 73]', Practical Mechanic's Journal, 4 (Apr 1851 - Mar 1852) (1851), 60-61, https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/practicalmec418511852glas. Details