johnsmachines

A reader responded to one of my posts on another site with this photo of a copper plate spiking machine from early in the 19th century.

Thankyou Tony Hunt for sharing this very interesting photo which he took in the Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, Maine, USA. (another entry on my bucket list. Bath is a bit north of Boston )

The perforator appears to be man powered, by pushing down on the bar. I suspect that it was used on merchant marine ships where the copper plate was not as thick as on the navy ships. My references to the coppering process in the Napoleonic era state that the nail holes in the copper were made with a spike which was hammered through one or two layers of the ~6mm thick copper sheet.

Another titbit from one of my readers is that in the Napoleonic era most of the copper on British warships came from a mine on the isle of Anglesea, off the coast of north Wales. Prior to that the copper was mined mostly in Cornish mines, but the Anglesea lode was so rich that it replaced Cornwall as the main supplier.

And another thing…. this time about my copper tape impressor.

I decided to add extra slots in the base of my jig design, so it can accomodate tape of 4mm and 5mm widths, as well as the 6mm which I am intending to use on HMS Bellerophon. Extra impression wheels will have to be made (3D printed) for the 4 and 5mm tapes, but the same 6mm stl files can be used just by scaling them down in size, and reaming the shaft holes in the wheels to 6mm. Those narrower tapes will be useful for smaller scale models such as 1:96

Now. I must make a start on actually coppering my Bellerophon…