IMPROVEMENTS IN MILITARY HUTS AND OTHER BUILDINGS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Alexander Innes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th May 1880.
CHARLES ALEXANDER INNES, of Shoeburyness, in the County of Essex,
Surgeon Major in the Army. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MILITARY HUTS AND OTHER
BUILDINGS."
This Invention relates more especially to the construction of military huts and
other buildings intended for use in hot climates, the object being to secure greater
coolness and more active ventilation in the interior of such huts or buildings than
can be obtained by the usual methods of construction.
As regards the means of securing coolness in such huts or buildings, the Invention
consists in constructing the walls thereof of an inner and an outer part, the inner
part to be of wood, sun dried brick, or other suitable material, preferably as non
conductive of heat as possible, the outer part or casing to be of sheet metal or other
good conductor of heat, fixed at some little distance from the inner part, and leaving
an air space between the two, suitable openings being left at the bottom of the outer
part or casing to admit of the entrance of air into the said air space, which is left open
at the top so as to communicate with the upper part of the interior of the hut or
building for the purpose of creating a current of air therein, as will be hereafter
explained. In buildings of the ordinary construction, whether with single or
double walls, the said walls absorb the radiant heat of the sun, storing it up in the
day and giving it out in the night, to the great inconvenience of the occupants.
In buildings constructed according to my Invention, the radiant heat of the sun
impinging upon the outer part or casing of sheet metal heats the air contained in
the air space and occasions an upward current of such air, the outer air rushing in
through the openings at the bottom of the said outer part or casing. The current
of air thus set up carries away more or less of the heat which would otherwise be
absorbed by the inner part of the walls, and thereby preserves the interior of the
building comparatively cool.
As regards the means of securing more active ventilation in such buildings, the
Invention consists in causing the aforesaid current of air which rises through the
air space in the walls of the building to escape into the upper part of such building,
then to travel up the underside of the roof and to escape through louvres or other
apertures at the ridge thereof, whereby an induced current of air is caused to enter

page_text: the building through the usual openings, and to escape along with the inducing
current through the ridge, and thus secure an efficient ventilation.
The roof may be constructed in a manner similar to the walls, that is, with an
inner part of non-conducting material, and an outer part or casing of sheet metal
or other good conductor of heat, and an air space between the two open at bottom
and top.
In some cases, where sheet metal would not be suitable for the roof by reason of
the noise that would be occasioned by rain or hail striking against it, it may be
covered by thin sheets of asphalted felt to deaden the sound.