Improvements in Materials for the Manufacture of Bricks and other Articles, the Building of Fortifications, and the Protection of Vessels.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd July, 1891-Accepted, 8th Aug., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Materials for the Manufacture of Bricks and other
Articles, the Building of Fortifications, and the Protection of
Vessels.
I, EMILE EUGENE ALBERT SOREL, of 40, Rue Louis Blanc, Paris, in the
Republic of France, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to materials for the manufacture of bricks and other articles,
the building of fortifications, and the protection of vessels, and it consists firstly in
the application of a light substance such as wood, bark, straw, cork or leather (or a
combination of two or more of these, mixed or not with other materials) agglome-
rated with oxychloride of magnesium cement to the manufacture of materials having
the property of being non-conductors of sound, cold, heat and electricity.
These materials will constitute insulating cement or mortar or will serve to make
insulating bricks, tiles, slabs, rubble floors, coverings, supports etc.
The degree of solidity of the products can be regulated by varying the proportion
of oxychloride of magnesium.
The following is an example of a formula suitable for the manufacture of light
bricks.
Pulverized magnesia about 1 part by volume,
Chopped wood, bark, straw or cork about 10 parts by volume,
Solution of chloride of magnesium of about 20° Beaumé in sufficient quantity
to form mortar.
I mix and knead these ingredients in the same way as when making ordinary
mortar and then mould the composition into the desired forms.
The following formula will be found suitable for light materials which are required
to resist great crushing and breaking strain.
Magnesia about 100 parts by weight,
Limestone or other inert substance about 50 parts by weight,
Chopped wood or other fibrous material about 50 parts by weight,
Solution of chloride of magnesium of about 30° Beaumé about 100 parts
by weight.
This formula is especially suitable for the manufacture of light columns, fences
or enclosures, doors, shutters, chests, etc., which will possess great resistance to
fracture.
These articles may be strengthened with metal bars or casings.
For tiles I employ the formula first referred to but decrease the proportion of
wood, bark, cork or straw to about 4 or 5 parts by volume. I can thus produce a
strong and light roofing tile of a thickness of 4 to 6 centimetres and which can be
nailed direct to the rafters thereby dispensing with the use of laths.
I render these tiles weather-proof by covering them with a suitable water-proof
coating such for example as tar, silicates of potash or soda combined with carbonate
of lime, etc.
My invention consists secondly in replacing ordinary cement when constructing
land and marine fortifications, by other very much harder oxychloride of magnesium
cements which will be found to offer very great resistance to the penetration of
projectiles and to the effects of explosives.
For example, for the protection of forts I can employ a cement made according
to the second mentioned formula which gives an elastic, and at the same time, a
hard agglomerate.
To lessen the cost of this cement I sometimes add thereto a quantity of hard

page_text: flint stones amounting to several times the weight of the magnesia. The fibrous
material might be dispensed with, but then there would be no elasticity.
Walls made partly of the composition prepared according to the second named
formula and partly of hard flint cement will be found suitable for resisting loaded
shells.
The hard part in front would shiver the shell before it could penetrate and the
clastic part would deaden the force of the explosion.
Plates of from 0.06m. to 0.12m. in thickness made in this manner would easily
arrest the bullets from military small arms.
These plates could be employed with advantage in connection with targets for
preventing the balls from straying.
'
To give greater resistance to my cement I, in some cases. provide the mass. with
a core of metal wire or rods or line it with an iron or steel plate.
.
Cements prepared according to either of the said formulas or to both of them in
combination are suitable for employment for protecting vessels from torpedoes. In
this case I make the submerged part of the hull as shewn in section in the accom-
panying drawing, in which
is the outer sheet metal covering of the vessel and c, d is an inner wall
between which covering and wall I place, for example, side by side, the cements A
and B prepared according to the said two formule.
Should a torpedo explode against the outer casing a, b, this latter would be
destroyed, and the compressible cork cement A would be compressed between the
water and the resistible cement B. During this time the gases resulting from the
explosion would gradually expand and displace the water so that if the cement B
were sufficiently thick the sheet-metal cd would remain intact and leakage be
prevented.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed. I declare that what I
claim is
The application of oxychloride of cement,
1. To the manufacture of light insulating materials particularly of tiles allowing
of employing the arrangement of covering hereinbefore described, substantially as
set forth.
2. To the building of fortifications and to the protection of vessels, substantially
as hereinbefore described.
Datod +1
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.