IMPROVED CONSTRUCTIONS OF BLOCKS SUITABLE FOR PAVING ROADS, STREETS, AND OTHER PLACES.
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Austin, Civil Engineer, and Hubert
Dynes Ellis, both of Fenchurch Street, in the City of London, for
the Invention of "IMPROVED CONSTRUCTIONS OF BLOCKS SUITABLE FOR
PAVING ROADS, STREETS, AND OTHER PLACES.
Sealed the 8th March 1872, and dated the 28th November 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Austin and
Hubert Dynes Ellis at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 28th November 1871.
We, WILLIAM AUSTIN, Civil Engineer, and HUBERT DYNES ELLIS,
both of Fenchurch Street, in the City of London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED CONSTRUCTIONS OF BLOCKS
SUITABLE FOR PAVING ROADS, STREETS, AND OTHER PLACES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the construction of blocks suitable for paving
roads, streets, and other places, the blocks being according to one
method composed of asphalte, artificial or natural, or a compound of
asphalte and other ingredients and blocks of wood, preferably set on end,

page_text: the surfaces of the asphalte or the compound and the wood being arranged
in alternate order, to give a good grip to the horses' feet, and to
prevent them slipping.
The blocks are made in moulds of suitable sizes in the following
manner-We take a mould of a given size and place one or more pieces
or logs of wood in the interior, so as to leave a space all round each of
them, into which liquid asphalte or a compound can be poured, one end
of the wood resting upon the mould, the other being flush with the top
of the mould, or of such a height as the finished block is intended to be,
in order that the wood should be flush with the asphalte or the compound
on the top as well as on the bottom; by this means the blocks are
reversible. According to another method we first partially fill the
mould with the asphalte or the compound, and then push the wood into
it to the required depth, keeping the top of the wood only flush with
the asphalte; the reverse of this plan may however be adopted, in that
case the wood could rest upon pins or other supports.
The compound may be composed of asphaltes, earths, stones, cements,
scoriæ, slag, skimpings, or other ingredients capable of binding with an
asphalte, the proportions of either or of all of them being regulated to
suit the position or the traffic which has to pass over the blocks.
We have mentioned wood as forming the central portion of our blocks,
but pieces or blocks of other material may be used in lieu thereof if
desired.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Austin and Hubert Dynes Ellis, in the 2
Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th May 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
AUSTIN, Civil Engineer, and HUBERT DYNES ELLIS, both of Fenchurch
Street, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 3
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in
the thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said William Austin and Hubert

page_text: Dynes Ellis, Her special licence that we, the said William Austin and
Hubert Dynes Ellis, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said William Austin and Hubert Dynes Ellis,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVED CONSTRUCTIONS OF BLOCKS SUITABLE FOR PAVING ROADS, STREETS, AND
OTHER PLACES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
William Austin and Hubert Dynes Ellis, or one of us, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or one of our,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Austin and Hubert
Dynes Ellis, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :—
This Invention relates to the construction of blocks suitable for
paving roads, streets, and other places, such as courts, stables, railway
and other platforms, and so on, the blocks being according to one
method composed of asphalte, artificial or natural, or a compound of
asphalte and other ingredients and blocks of wood preferably set on end,
the surfaces of the asphalte or the compound and the wood being
arranged in alternate order to give a good grip to the horses' feet and to
prevent their slipping.
The blocks are made in moulds of suitable sizes in the following
manner-We take a mould of a given size and place one or more pieces
or logs of wood in the interior so as to leave a space all round each of
them, into which liquid asphalte or a compound can be poured, one end
of the wood resting upon the mould, the other being flush with the top
of the mould or of such a height as the finished block is intended to be,
in order that the wood may be flush with the asphalte or the compound
on the top as well as on the bottom; by this means the blocks are

page_text: reversible. According to another method we first partially fill the mould
with the asphalte or the compound, and then push the wood into it to
the required depth, keeping the top of the wood only flush with the
asphalte; the reverse of this plan may however be adopted, in that case
the wood could rest upon pins or other supports.
The compound may be composed of asphaltes, earths, stones, cements,
scoriæ, broken flints, gravel or slag, skimpings, or other ingredients
capable of binding with an asphalte or compound, the proportions of
either or of all of them being regulated to suit the position or the traffic
which has to pass over the blocks.
We have mentioned wood as forming the central portion of our blocks,
but pieces or blocks of other material may be used in lieu thereof, if
desired.
The form of the block we make will be understood by reference to
Figure 1, which is of the kind proposed for paving roads and streets over
which heavy traffic is free to pass. The block here shewn is composed
of two bodies, wood and asphalte, a, b, one being enclosed in the other
so as to bind them together in a permanent manner as before explained,
the top and the bottom faces of both materials being flush as in Figure 2,
so that they can be turned either end upwards, or they can be so made
that only one face is available for wear as shown in Figure 3, where the
blocks are imbedded in the asphalte to a certain depth only. In paving
a street or roadway with these blocks we prefer to lay them in the
manner shown in Figure 4, which represents a portion of a roadway and
one path c, with the kerb d for preventing the wheels of passing vehicles
rising up on to the path, and also to form an abutment for the rain water
which would flow from the centre of the road by the slight arched form
given to it whilst being laid. The blocks we prefer should break joint
as far as possible to give a firm tread to the feet of horses, and to
prevent them slipping at whatever pace they may be travelling, and also
whether they are drawing a heavy load or a light one.
We have shown the blocks as square, but they may be of lozenge or
other shape, so that the wooden pieces appear to be set in a diagonal
direction, or they may be shaped as to break joint in any manner, some
of them being square and others round, with separate corner or
filling in pieces.
In making the blocks we prefer to set at least two wooden pieces on

page_text: end in the mould, and then to pour liquid asphalte into the spaces around
them, so as to divide the edge surface into equal parts or divisions, and
to make the central space between the wood of double width; by this
means the blocks when laid become equally divided in alternate ribs, so
to speak, of asphalte and wood.
There is no limit to the sizes at which the blocks can be prepared, nor
to the proportions of the wood or other material or asphalte, pure or
mixed, that may show itself upon the surface, the main feature of
our Invention being that of preparing blocks composed of a bituminous
body or compound, and another body, such as wood, to which the
bituminous body will attach itself when poured into moulds, substan-
tially as described and shown.
Figure 5 represents a comparatively thin block suitable for paths of
streets, platforms, or other parts of railway stations or wharves, back
yards of private dwellings, also cellars and passages of warehouses, or
gateways, or for stabling.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim the
construction and employment of blocks composed of asphalte or a com-
pound of asphalte and other ingredients and wood, or its equivalent,
arranged in the manner herein-before explained and shown.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Austin and Hubert Dynes
Ellis, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-eighth
day of May, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.