IMPROVEMENTS IN. THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARTITIONS OR WALLS."
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Beard, of Bury St. Edmunds, in the
County of Suffolk, J. P., for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARTITIONS OR WALLS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Beard at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th April 1870.
I, CHARLES BEARD, of Bury St. Edmunds, in the County of Suffolk,
J. P., do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARTITIONS OR WALLS," to be as follows :—
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
partitions or walls. For this purpose I employ slabs or sheets, either,
of millboard or felt made sufficiently hard and stiff, or of glass or slate.
or similar suitable material, and I hold such slabs or sheets between
uprights formed of T iron or iron of other form of sufficient stiffness.

page_text: The iron is doubled or bent over into a long-like form, and the two
extremities are fixed to a sleeper or foot let into the ground, or otherwise
solidly fixed, and the slabs are inserted between the two limbs of the
tong-like standard, and there clipped and held by bolts drawing the limbs
together. I in some cases connect these standards together by a bar or
tic, which I prefer to be of a tubular form, passing from the top or how
of one standard to that of the next. In this way glass walls for
horticultural purposes may very advantageously be constructed, and
various other descriptions of walls and partitions, either transparent or
opaque.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Beard in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 13th October 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
BEARD, of Bury St. Edmonds, in the County of Suffolk, J. P., send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Charles Beard, Her special licence that I, the
said Charles Beard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Charles Beard, my 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF PARTITIONS On Walls," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Charles Beard, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Beard, do hereby declare
the nature of the 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, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
partitions or walls.
The Drawings A and B illustrate my Invention, and the Figures
marked on the Drawings relate to the following explanations of the same.
A is a front view of a portion of a partition or wall constructed
according to my Invention; B is a transverse section thereof.
Figure 1 represents one of the tong-like iron standard bars which I
employ, it is bent round the horizontal iron bar at the top. Both its
ends are fixed on the bottom bar.
Figure 2 is the bottom bar, it is T form in section.
Figure 3 represents glass, slate, millboard, or felt in sheets or slabs,
held firmly in position between the sides of the standards which are
drawn or nipped together.
Figure 4 is the bent end of the standard, which yields to allow its
sides to be drawn together.
Figure 5, 5, exhibits sections of sheet metal, which I sometimes employ
when using felt or millboard, it is held between the felt and millboard
to strengthen the same.
Figure 6 shows screws, bolts, or pins, to draw the upright bars towards
each other.
Figure 7 is an iron brace or support attached to a wood plug or any
other suitable sleeper.
The forming partitions or walls with felt or millboard and the
strengthening it with shect iron in this manner is an important feature
of my Invention independently of the tong-like standards, for which I may
) substitute two separate side bars connected with the top and bottom
bars. This description of partition will be found extremely valuable
where space is an importance for ship building or internal divisions of
property, this metal plate enclosed between felt or millboard may be
bent in curved partition walls. Another merit is the natural resistance
3 of millboard to take fire, and the great difficulty of igniting the same,
especially as the sheet metal forms a barrier between the inner surfaces

page_text: of felt or millboard. A substantial partition or wall need not occupy
more than from one or one and a half inches in width.
Where thin glass is employed I use an elastic substance, such as felt,
to protect the glass from fractures by the pressure of the sides of the
upright standard, as set forth in the Specification of the Patent granted
to me, and dated the 7th day of April 1864, No. 875, for improvements
in glazing horticultural and other structures.
I do not confine myself to the use of any substance or shape of iron
as T, angle, half round, or other suitable form may be used, and the glass,
slate, millboard, or felt may be of any required substance.
I claim the tong-like iron standards or uprights drawn together and
fastened to a running horizontal top and bottom bar of iron, and holding
securely slabs of glass, slate, millboard, or felt, substantially as described..
I also claim the construction of partitions or walls with felt and mill-
board, substantially as described, with or without sheet metal with 1
upright standards or ribs.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Beard, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Eleventh day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.