Description
Physical description
Scale model of one design air raid shelter consisting of 12 side semi-arch panels, 2 base plates, 2 spreaders, 1 ridge joiner.
History note
Model of the first prototype design for a Householder's Sectional Steel Shelter made by Mr (later Sir) William Paterson MIME, Chairman of the Paterson Engineering Company, and a personal friend of Sir John Anderson, Minister of Home Security, and embodying the latter's idea of a housholder's shelter.
Sir John Anderson was convinced that the problem of providing air-raid shelter for the civil population could never be fully solved without finding some way of bringing the shelter to the people, instead of trying to bring all the people to communal shelter. When he became responsible for the organisation of Civil Defence in November 1938, Sir John made it his first task to try to devise some form of domestic shelter which could be produced in large numbers and rapidly distributed to people who could not be expected themselves to provide shelter at their own homes. It soon became clear to him that the most practical form of shelter for this purpose would be a sectional steel shelter, of simple construction , which could be delivered in parts and easily assembled on the spot by the householder.
The original ideas embodied in Mr Paterson's design, and in this model, were patented and Mr Paterson made over the rights to the Ministry of Home Security as a free gift in December 1938. At the same time the model and the design were submitted to three civil engineers of acknowledged eminence in their profession nominated by the President of the Institute of Civil Engineers.
As a result of their Report, which was submitted to Parliament in December 1938, certain modifications were made in the original design, mainly in order to facilitate rapid mass production on a large scale.
Orders for the manufacture of 2,000,000 shelters of the revised design were given and by February 1939 "Anderson" shelters were being distributed to the public. By June 1940 2,300,000 of the shelters had been distributed in the vulnerable areas throughout the country. These prefabricated shelters were known as 'Anderson Shelters'.
The prototype model consists of twelve curved steel sections, grooved for strength, which are fastened together at the apex of the roof by a hinge-rod which passes through the hinge at one end of the section. At the base end of the section are two flanges which hook into a grooved base-plate. The sections are held firmly together laterally by two clamping-rods. Two cross-pieces, or stretchers, engage in the inside grooves of the base-plates. The whole structure is thus quite rigid. The floor-space thus provided is a square but both ends of the structure are open.
The design adopted was made from six curved sheets bolted together at the top, with steel plates at either end, and measuring 6ft 6in by 4ft 6in (1.95m by 1.35m) the shelter could accommodate six people. These shelters were half buried in the ground with earth heaped on top. The entrance was protected by a steel shield and an earthen blast wall.
Model presented by The Right Honorable The Viscount Waverley, GCB, GCSI, GCIE, FRS