AN IMPROVED METALLIC FRAME AND LAP, APPLICABLE TO ALL HOTHOUSES, GREEN- HOUSES, HORTICULTURAL FRAMES AND GLASSES, SKYLIGHTS AND OTHER INCLINED LIGHTS AND GLASSES
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WRIGHT RICHARDS, of Caroline Street, Birmingham, in the County of War-
wick, Metallic Hothouse Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said James Wright Richards, have invented "AN
IMPROVED METALLIC FRAME AND LAP, APPLICABLE TO ALL HOTHOUSES, GREEN-
HOUSES, HORTICULTURAL FRAMES AND GLASSES, SKYLIGHTS AND OTHER INCLINED
LIGHTS AND GLASSES; and whereas His Majesty King George the Fourth, by
Letters Patent bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of
February, in the fifth year of His reign, after reciting my said Invention
and my Petition for the said Letters Patent for it, for the term of fourteen
years, hath given and granted unto me, the said James Wright Richards,
my exors, adñiors, and assigns, especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said James Wright Richards, my exors, admors,
and assigns, and every of them, by myself or themselves, or by my and their
deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said James
Wright Richards, my exors, admors, or assigns,, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term of years therein, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and
vend my said Invention, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all the Colonies and Plantations abroad,
in such manuer as to me, the said James Wright Richards, my exors, adiñors,

page_text: or assigns, or any of them, should in my or their discretion seem meet; and
it is by the said Letters Patent provided that if I, the said James Wright
Richards, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said,
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled
in the High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent, then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages thereby granted, should utterly cease, deter-
mine, and become void, anything therein contained to the contrary in anywise
notwithstanding, as in and by the said Letters Patent, inrolled in the High
Court of Chancery, may more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Wright Richards, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention or improvement, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, are particularly described in the Diagrams and words following:-
I make an elevated rib or bead on each side of the frame, formed of any
metal or mixture of metals, but I prefer wrought iron, as shewn at C in
Figure No. 1. To receive this elevated rib or bead I make a groove in the
rafter, as shewn in Figure No. 1 at A; and the cross bar, instead of being
fixed with a loop to the frame, as in common use, I pass through the frame
only, and rivet it on the outside, as shewn, Figure 1, B 6; in consequence,
the frames are free to slide up and down their whole length, and a space is
allowed for the expension and contraction of the frame according to the
variation of the temperature of the atmosphere, and the water or steam con-
densed on the frame runs along the groove underneath the elevated rib or
bead and is conveyed into the spout or gutter at the front, and does not fall
within the house. And to secure the passage of the water conveyed in the
manner before mentioned, and also the steam or water which collects on the
under side of the rafter itself, I place a copper or metallic tube angular on the
sides and semicircular underneath the rafter throughout its whole length, as
represented in Figure 1 at D, which ulso conveys the water into the spout or
gutter, and prevents it from dropping within the house. I make the metallic
lap, shewn Figure 2, in the following manner, that is to say:-I take a piece
of metal or metallic compound, but prefer copper rolled thin, of the length of
four inches and the width of an inch, or any other length or width depending
on the size of the panes, and by bending it form two grooves or cavities on
one side and one on the other. In the single groove or cavity I place the
edge of half the lower pane of glass, and in the highest on the other side the
edge of the corresponding half of the upper pane, and secure them in their

page_text: position by putty in the usual manner. I also place a similar lap on the other
halves of the upper and lower panes in the same manner, and leave an
aperture between the ends of the laps in the centre of the pane, as at E,
Figure No. 3. The halves of the panes I cut so as to form an angle in the
centre, as shewn at F; hence, the water or steam which forms or is condensed
on the under side of the glass is conveyed along the pane to the laps, and is
thence on each side carried along the centre groove or cavity in the laps to
the aperture and discharged on the pane below, and thus it proceeds from
pane to pane along this groove or cavity, and through the aperture from the
top of the lights to the spout or gutter, and does not fall within the house.
I have described the laps and panes according to those sizes which I
generally use, but I lay claim for my Invention of the lap to all forms and
sizes, and all metal or metallic compounds, and wood or other materials what-
ever of which it may be composed; and I delare that the putty, by being
confined in the grooves of the metallic lap, is much better secured from the
action of the air and frost, and more durable than when used in the common
method.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Wright Richards, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of August,
in the year of our Lord 1824, the aforesaid James Wright Richards came
before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord One