A METHOD OF CASING OR FACING BRICK AND OTHER BUILDINGS WITH STONE
Year: 1813

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WYATT, of Bedford Row, in the County of Middlesex, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS is present Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifth day of June,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirteen, and
in the fifty-third of Ilis reign, for Himself and His successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Charles Wyatt, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Charles Wyatt, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within those parts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
called England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "A METHOD OF CASING OR FACING BRICK AND OTHER BUILDINGS WITH STONE;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
Charles Wyatt, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the sanie (relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Wyatt, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described as follows (that
is to say):
This Invention consists in casing or veneering buildings with stone, so as
to keep the walls perfectly dry, however bibulous or thin the stone may be, yet

page_text: without letting the casing into the walls, or bonding it together in the way usually
practised. For this purpose I use for plain surfaces stone slabs, or plates no
thicker than is necessary to keep them from breaking, that is, about half or
three quarters of an inch in general, and scarcely ever exceeding an inch in
thickness. These slabs I fasten to the wall with some substance that shall
attach them (the stone and the wall) firmly together, and keep the water from
penetrating beyond the stone. The substance now called and known by the
name of Roman Cement, first manufactured by James Parker in 1796, and
then called Aquatic Cement, answers this purpose better than any other now
known to me. This substance, then, I prefer as a medium for this purpose to
any other, and use it thus:-I plaster one side of the slab and so much of the
wall as is to receive it (or the wall, or the slab only), and while the cement is
in the soft state I apply the slab to the wall, adjust it to its proper position,
and retain it there by gentle pressure until the cement will sustain it of itself,
which will be in a few minutes. All the slabs are to be successively applied in
the same way, taking especial care to clean and wet both the brickwork and
the stone thoroughly before or during the operation, particularly in hot
weather. The stone intended for plain, curved, or angular parts of building
I cut into corresponding forms (about three quarters of an inch, more or less, in
thickness), as Figures 1 and 2, or for
with an architrave, as Figure 3, or the
FIG. 1.
FIG.2
a reveal
FIG. 3.
architrave
may be put
on separately. Arch stones may be cut out in the same way; cornices may
be cut out in one block or Figure 4,
with cement at the back part a, b, as
FIG. 4
2
plates; or in order to lighten it, it
.dotted line, and attached by the
and attached to the wall
described for the flat
may be cut off at the
same means to projecting
as 1, 2, 3, Figure 4,
brickwork, or those mouldings may be divided into parts,
and stuck on separately. Other ornamental parts may be applied in the same
way. The great advantage attending this mode of forming a stone casing is,
that the Roman cement not only unites the stone most firmly to the building,
but being both plastic and waterproof, it ensures perfect solidity to the work,
and completely defends the walls from the penetration of water. Any other
substance, however, or composition of substances possessing similar or nearly
similar properties (such for example as puzzolano, or Dutch terras, when
mixed with lime, or plaster of Paris,) may answer the purpose; but-the nearer
that substance or composition approaches to the characters of the Roman

page_text: cement the better. I apply this Invention to old stone buildings in a state of
decay, as well as to brick walls either old or new, and to any parts of buildings,
internal or external, where it may be advantageous, particularly where the
cure or prevention of damp walls is desirable. New brick walls faced with
stone, and impervious to water, may be constructed by building separate blocks
of brick, and cementing a slab or thin piece of stone on the face of each
block, and laying those blocks only or partially in cement, or some other
waterproof mortar, or even by fixing single bricks with stone; but each of
these methods would be more expensive, without being better, than the way
first described.
Another method of forming a stone facing, coming within the description of
this Invention, though greatly inferior to the first method, and in no case to be
recommended, is, to make the slabs or plates waterproof on the posterior.
surface with Roman cement, or some other substance, and apply them to the
wall on a plastic substance not waterproof, such as good mortar, using
Roman cement, or some other body of equal effect, in the joints, to keep out
the water. In this case the water might be kept out, but there would be no
firm bond of union between the stone and the wall.
This Invention, when properly executed, gives to buildings a durable surface
of stone, and keeps the walls in a dry state, at less expense than those joint
effects have ever been produced by other means.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Wyatt, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirtoon