The design of a floating battery by John William Couchman in 1862

The American annual cyclopaedia p. 623 mentioned that on the World Exhibition in 1862 J.W. Couchman presentended a model of a floating battery “combined with vertical ports the sloping side between ports, as attic windows are formed in the slooping roof. The necessity of rendering the sides and roofs also of these ports shot-proof, would probably make the proposed armor enormoulsy heavy.”

An catalogue supplies more specific details. Coucham lived at Tottenham Green, Middlesex, England and presented on the exhibition except for the floating battery models of a new principle of street making and an iron combination bridge. The model of the 12-gun battery had as scale 5 feet to 1 inch. That resulted in reality in a ship of 150 (over al) x 38.9 x 8 (height maindeck at sides) feet. The building material was oak timber of ribs in solid order 2 feet thick. The gunways and sided to 2 feet vertically below water level, to be covered with 3” iron plates and the flushdeck witt 2” dito, secured with bolts with mushroom-shaped heads of stee 8” in diameter. The interior was to be ventilatedthrough  gangways on the flush deck, by apertures at stem and Stern and by the port-holes, which open to the under side of the domed roofs.

His spouse described in her book that he made a model of a floating battery in a room of the former house of the father of reverend G.T, Thompson at Tottenham Green which he gave to the Royal Unted Service Institution and from there handed over to the South Kensington Museum. John William (13 March 1824 Kensington, London, England-10 August 1901 16 Pembury Road, Tottenham) was a civil engineer particular of waterworks and further surveyor and agent to the lords of the manors of Tottenham and Edmonton. The London Gazette dated 29 October 1875 mentioned him also as inventor of “improvements in the means of and apparatus for raising sunken vessels, and also for preventing them from sinking.”No. 3548.

Sources

Illustrated Catalogue of the International Exhibition of 1862. The Illustrated Catalogue of the Industrial Department. British division-vol. II. No. 2664.

Mrs. J.W. [Harriet] Couchman. Reminiscences of Tottenham, 1909.

The London Gazette 29-10-1875.

https://atom.aim25.com/index.php/couchmans-tottenham-surveyors-and-valuers seen 2-3-2026

The American annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year 1862. Volume II, New York, 1871.

The Practical Mechanic’s Journal. Record of the Great Exhibition, 1862.