IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COMBINATION OF MATERIALS FOR PAVING, BUILDING, RAILWAY SLEEPERS, AND OTHER ANALOGOUS PURPOSES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th October 1876. A communication
from abroad by Thomas Smith, of Rotterdam, in the Kingdom of Holland.
WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE COMBINATION OF MATERIALS
FOR PAVING, BUILDING, RAILWAY SLEEPERS, AND OTHER ANALOGOUS PURPOSES."
A communication from abroad by Thomas Smith, of Rotterdam, in the Kingdom of
Holland.
The object of this Invention is to obtain at a comparatively small cost a strong
and durable material for paving, for building, for railway sleepers, and a variety of
other purposes, by combining blocks of wood, of stone, or of other material with
plates of metal in suchwise that the blocks shall be held by the grip of the metal
without the aid of any other fastening; the grip of the metal in the case of a block
of wood or other material liable to contraction when dry following this contraction,
so that the block is always held firmly in its proper position.
For paving for roads or footways I propose to use a metal plate which may have
a double angle at each side or all round. I propose to perforate this plate with
holes of whatever form I may find most suitable, either not cutting away any of
the metal, or only a portion of it, and driving the metal down so as to form a series
of funnel-shaped holes deeper than the thickness of the plate; through these holes
I propose to force blocks of wood of greater diameter than these holes, so that they
will contract in their passage through the thickness of the plate, and re-expauding
as their lower end passes beyond the thickness of the plate force back the lower
edges of the funnel forming spurs, which will act as springs, always pressing against
this part of the block of wood, a part of which, say one half, will project on one
side, the other on the opposite side of the plate. The plate being thus fitted with
blocks of wood, I may plunge the whole into a hot bath, and then fill up the spaces
between the blocks with stone, pieces of wood, slag, or any suitable material, binding
the whole together with a bituminous grouting or any other binding matter, or I may
dispense with the hot bath. I may further secure the whole by bending inward the
end of each of the lower angle irons.
In combining blocks of stone with iron plates I may find it desirable to cut out
holes instead of punching them through the plate, and to slit these holes at the
corners to permit the block of stone to carry a portion of the metal down with it
in its passage through the plate.

page_text: I may set blocks of woods and of stone alternately in the plates or in any order;
or fill up with wood and bituminous or other adhesive material between the blocks
of stone.
For railway sleepers and other purposes I may use girder iron, or fix one or more
horizontal plates to vertical side pieces, and force blocks of wood partly through
one or more of them, filling up with stones and bitumen or other suitable material.
These paving or building blocks may be ornamented by giving the blocks various
shapes and the application of various coloured materials.