CERTAIN ARTICLES WHICH WE HAVE DENOMINATED TATHAM'S CLUMPS,'
Year: 1802

page_text: SCOTT, CLARKSON, TATHAM, & MELLISH'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
SCOTT and JAMES CLARKSON, of Lower Street, Islington, in the County of
Middlesex, Brick Makers, WILLIAM TATHAM, of Staples Inn Buildings,
Holborn, in the said County of Middlesex, Esquire, and SAMUEL MELLISH, of
Holborn Court, Gray's Inn, in the said County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of
December, in the forty-third year of His said Majesty's reign, did give and
grant unto us, the said John Scott and James Clarkson, William Tatham
and Samuel Mellish, our executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of
them, by ourselves, our deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others
as we, the said John Scott and James Clarkson, William Tatham and Samuel
Mellish, our executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term of years therein expressed, that we and they should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend "CERTAIN ARTICLES WHICH WE HAVE DENOMINATED
TATHAM'S CLUMPS,' (FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONSTRUCTING WATER PIPES, SEWERS,
TUNNELS, WELLS, CONDUITS, RESERVOIRS, OR OTHER CIRCULAR WALLS, SHELLS, OR
BUILDINGS, BY VARIOUS MODIFICATIONS OF THE SAID INVENTION, BY MEANS OF DIVERS
METHODS OF SHOULDERINGS, SECURINGS, AND COMBINATIONS OF EARTH, STONE,
PLAISTER, CEMENTS, COMPOSITION, KILN-BURNT MATERIALS, &C., KEYED TOGETHER BY
MEANS OF WEDGES, JOINTS, CLAMPS, OR OTHER FASTENINGS, SO THAT ALL THE PIECES

page_text: MAY BE COMBINED TOGETHER IN FORMING ONE STRONG AND SECURE UTENSIL, APPA-
RATUS, OR CONTRIVANCE FOR CONSTRUCTING CIRCULAR WALLS, COLUMNS, ROLLERS,
AND FOR ATTAINING HYDRAULIC COMMUNICATIONS OR RESISTING THE APPLICATION OF
ANY REASONABLE FORCE WITH EFFECT)," within that part of His United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Colonies and Plantations
abroad, and that we, the said John Scott and James Clarkson, William
Tatham and Samuel Mellish, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should
and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and
advantage from time to time coming, growing, accruing, and arising by reason
of the said Invention, for and during the term of years therein mentioned,
to have and to hold, exercise and enjoy the licence, powers, priviledges,
and advantages therein-before granted unto us, the said John Scott, James
Clarkson, William Tatham, and Samuel Mellish, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen
years from the date of the said Patent next and immediately ensuing, and
fully to be compleat and ended according to the Statute in such case made
and provided; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that
if we, the said John Scott and James Clarkson, William Tatham and Samuel
Mellish, or one of us, should not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or the
hand and seal of one of us, and cause the same to be enrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages, should utterly cease, deter-
mine, and become void, as in and by the said Letters Patent, reference being
thereunto bad, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John Scott and James Clarkson, William Tatham and Samuel Mellish, do
hereby declare that the Invention claimed and set forth by us, does and do
consist in so forming, shaping, moulding, modelling, hewing, or cutting the
material intending to be formed in Tatham's Clumps, to be used in construct-
ing the building utensil or apparatus designed, that the sides or edges thereof,
when made and compleated, shall join and fit to each other on an exact radius
of a circle, terminating of its centre so that when all the said parts are put
together, with or without mortar or cement, the said several clumps will form
a direct circle, bearing pressure inwards on the principal of an arch, and that
when the several layers, courses, or distinct circles thereof shall be fitted and

page_text: adjusted in their proper places, such will forn what is termed a broken joint
in the wall or shell, so that the same will alternately clamp or join the courses
next adjacent to them together, to prevent their removal sideways; and
farther, that being fitted into each other on their flat sides, alternate, male
and female (see Drawing in the margin hereof) by means of the shoulderings
or wedgewise securings and abutments, which will be better and more clearly
understood by a view of the Drawings in the margin of these Presents, and
to which we hereafter particularly refer, the same will bear and resist a
pressure outwards from any application of a reasonable force.
And we do further declare, that such and the foregoing is the principle or
principles on which we claim and assert our Patent right, the same admitting
of various and easy modifications for the joining and connecting of branches,
terminations, abutments, shoulderings, fastenings, girders, returns, or other
modifications of the work where it may be necessary to terminate or break the
circle or segment thereof, or in any way to secure the same by means of key
clumps, blanck sides, iron flaunches, bolts, nutts, screws, or other securings.
And further we declare, that we have agreed to make known the same by the
name or technical term of "Tatham's Clumps," in honor and respect of the
said William Tatham the principal Inventor thereof.
And morcover we do declare, that we hold and consider the same peculiarly
superior for the formation of the following articles or buildings (with or with-
out fastenings or cements, according to the nature of the case), if used and
applied according to the principles exemplied by the Drawings in the margin
hereof, viz, water pipes, sewers, tunnels, wells, conduits, cesspools, culverts,
cylenders for bridge work (thereby strengthening the structure, and relieving
the waterway), columns, pillars, colonades (either hollow or solid work), steam
engine pitts, capstan wells, arches, particularly reversed arches for the floors
of pound locks, waterways, &c. in soft grounds, circular windows or other
appertures in warehouses or other walls requiring strength, light, air, and
security, conical or ovaler buildings, such as glasshouses, tile or limekilns,
icehouses, &c. (where such will bear the expense of separate moulds), stair-
cases (hereby capable of being formed into one detached piece of masonry
entire, and secure from 'conflagration), towers, turrets, summer houses, and all
other circular shells and buildings.
And further we declare, that it is practicable and our intention to form and
make the said clumps out of or from any or all of the following materials,
viz, earth, stone, clay, plaster, cements, composition, kiln-burnt material,
masonry, and in all other materials applicable to the construction of the
aforesaid several buildings exemplified in the margin hereof or other circular
buildings.

page_text: And lastly we declare, that the said Drawings are Specifications of our
principles as applied to the cases exemplified, and as applicable to each and
every case respectively according to its particular modification.
In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Thirteenth day of January, in the forty-third year of the reign of His
present Majesty King George the Third, and in the of our Lord
year
One thousand eight hundred and three.
EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1. a is a single clump, having its male point inwards in the side in
view; b, ditto, with the female point inwards on the reverse of the same
clump. Fig. 2, a, ditto, with the male point outwards; b, ditto, with female
point outwards.-N.B. Each of these Figures, 1 & 2, represent a separate
kind of clump, which, being laid, one kind at a time, in a circular form with
the same sides uppermost, will make one course, see Fig. No. 5 for an
example of one course of clumps, Fig. 1 (a); then add one course of Fig. 2,
fitted in, male and female (or joggled), and so on, alternate circles, Fig. 1 &
Fig. 2, to the end of the length designed, terminating the same with a cast-
iron plate, flaunch piece, or key clump, with two male sides, so as to admit of
taking down for repairs, &c. This method will form a broken joint, such as
the one exhibited in perspective view, Fig. 9.
Fig. 3 is an elongated clump for forming solid columns, colonades, &c.,
(a) having its male point inwards, and (b) having its female point inwards.
Fig. 4, a clump elongated, as in Fig. 3. (a) shews the view with the male
point outwards; (b) the reverse of the same clump with female point out-
wards. N.B. These kind of clumps are an elongation of the clumps described
in Fig. 1 & 2, & are to be laid into each other in the same manner, to form a
column of solid work, as represented in Fig. 8, which shows the method of laying
the elongated clump (a), Fig. 4. If it is intended to construct a circular staircase
with the dome light, &c. on this principle, one or more clumps in each course of
work (be the same of brick, earth, stone, or other material, according to the
design and extent) must be of the elongated kind to form the stop of the stairs,
all the rest being short clumps to admit light & access through the apperture of
a spiral ascent. Fig. 5 shews the position of the clumps (a), Fig. 1, according
to the mode of laying them with the male point inwards, as represented in
the view; (b), shews the reverse of the same clump, with the female point
inward. The bottom circle in this & the next Figure shews merely the
position which a continuation of the clumps would take. Fig. 6 shews three
blank sides uppermost. These are merely for laying the first course on the
ground, or (in some instances) for saving the expence of a cast-iron rim next

page_text: the flaunch of a branch piece. Their reverse must be always indented (or
joggled) to fit the next course of clumps. If it is required to form a flush
edge (such as the cheek of a window or door), it can be done by cutting
down the clumps into half clumps, as represented by the dotted lines X, X,
Fig. 9. Raviels, rabbits, grooves, &c., and returns of corners, eliptics, &c,
must be specifically moulded on the same principle, or girders, ties, &c. may
secure any variation by means of suitable cast-iron clamps modified according
to the particular contingency.
Fig. 7 shews the plan of a well or pipe, &c, the surface of the circle in
view being put together with clumps, Fig. 2, the male side (a) pointing
outwards.
Fig. 8 shews the plan of a solid column, formed of elongated clumps of the
kind (a) Fig. 4, the male point outwards being in view. As this same modi-
fication contracts the circle to a smaller column, in that case fewer pieces will
be required.
Fig. 9 is a perspective view shewing a segment of the work (part of a
circle), formed out of six clumps laid in their order from Figures 1 and 2, the
bottom course having a blank side, as described in Figure 6.
Fig. 10, part of a clump main pipe, shewing the method of flaunching in a
cast-iron branch piece, in order to join the same to a branch main. This
can be performed with the help of an iron rim (joggled), as represented in
Figure 11, or it can be fitted to blank sides next the flaunch, and the opposite
end of the bolt can be countersunk into perforated clumps.
Fig. 11, a cast-iron rim, indented or (joggled) to fit a course of clumps, as
represented on the surface in view, in order to admit the flaunch to slip in
and out, as required, on its smooth surface.
Fig. 12, a plain cast-iron flaunch for joining a clump main in suitable
lengths, to be occasionally taken down. They may also be laid in lengths by
means of a key clump having two male sides to have the joint banded with an
iron hoop.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Thirteenth day of January,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Tatham and Samuel
Mellish came before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to 5
the tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.

page_text: N.B. Rollers for Gardens, or for Agricultural purposes ke are to be made in the manner of the solid werk fig: &, facing an Tren
Auletree or Gudgans in the Centre of the Work; and launching a Cast Iron Bim on each end.
N.B. in fitting in the flaunch of the Joint or Branch Pipe the end of the bolt Iron must be out off, even with the Inner flaunch
Plate or blank sided Champ, and a female Screw must be made in that end of the belt to receive one end of the prominent point.
the flaunching Nutt being screwed on the other. By this means the smooth surfaces of the flaunch plates
will admit the Joints
to slip in or out of their birth at option
thus