Improved Wood Block Flooring.
Year: 1893

page_text: Late of Application, 25th May, 1893
Complete Specification Left, 17th Jan., 1894-Accepted, 7th Apr., 1894
Improved Wood Block Flooring.
WILLIAM SHEPHERD Asphalter, Concretor and Wood Pavement Contractor
4 Equitable Street Rochdale Lancashire do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
The object of my invention is to introduce a self locking system of keying or
bonding together of wood block flooring each block having a tenon or tenant worked
on the two ends of each block out of the solid block and on the two sides a grooved
joint for the purpose of inserting the tenon or tenant thus gaining a self locking joint
principle & resulting in a well bonded floor. Also when the ends of two blocks
come together in forming a border or pattern I claim the right of having a tenon
or tenant at one end only and a grooved joint at the other end to receive the tenon
or tenant.
Dated thin ond day of Vow 1902
WILLIAM SHEPHERD.
WILLIAM SHEPHERD 4 Equitable Street Rochdale County of Lancashire
Asphalter, Concretor and Wood Pavement Contractor 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 :-
The object of my invention is to introduce a self locking system of bonding the
wood blocks on all sides with a tenon or tenant joint and perinanently secure same
to ordinary floated concrete surface or other bed of wood or stone with a damp-
proof composition the tenacious nature of which renders the joints under and about
the blocks perfectly unbreakable and which is known in the trade and hereinafter
as Shepherds stickfast composition which is a plastic cement composed of bitumen
and minerals which produces a bituminous mixture.
My system applies to all the usual geometrical and ornamental shape of blocks
made in all kinds of woods.
In my tenon or tenant jointed self-locking system each block as a tenon or tenant
worked on the two ends out of the solid block and on the two sides a grooved joint
worked for the purpose of inserting the tenon or tenant thus gaining a self-locking
principle and resulting in a well bonded floor.
In order that ny invention may be more readily understood, I have annexed a
sheet of drawings illustrative of my improvements and which I adopt along with this
my Complete Specification.
Fig. 1 is an end elevation of a block with the tenon or tenant groove shown as
running the whole length of the side and marked B. B.
Fig. 2 is a longitudinal elevation of the block with the tenon or tenant
marked A A projecting at the ends and the tenon or tenant grooves marked B.
Fig. 3 is an end elevation of a hardwood block shewing the tenon or tenant
groove D D running the full length of the sides and letter shews the tenon or
tenant in elevation.

page_text: Fig. 4 is a longitudinal elevation of a hardwood block shewing the tenon or tenant
groove D in elevation running the full length of the block and the tenon or
tenant C. C. projecting at the ends as shewn.
Fig. 1 & 2 also shews the stickfast composition in which the blocks are laid on
the prepared concrete or other hard surface.
Fig. 5 & 6 are two different designs of wood block flooring one half of each
design having the upper portion of the blocks removed to shew the tenon's or
tenant's projecting at the ends, and the grooves running along the sides of each
block (all shewn by dotted lines) in the con-tructional position it occupies in the
patterns demonstrating my system of keying or bonding the wood blocks together
as A the tenon or tenant and B the tenon or tenant groove.
When two blocks come end to end as in a running border or otherwise in working
out a pattern to have the tenon or tenant worked on one end only and a grooved
joint on the other end.
For thin blocks as in hardwood when it is requisite to have the tenon or tenant
joint worked as near the bottom as possible, I claim the right to run one or more
dovetail grooves along the bottom side or bed of each block so as to afford increased
adhesiveness of the stickfast composition between the concrete bed or other surface
and the tenon or tenant jointed wood block flooring.
In my system I run an angle shaped joint along the two sides of each block and
under the grooved joint (worked for the purpose of receiving the tenon or tenant)
so as to afford when two blocks are placed together a bond or keying of the stick-
fast composition to the concrete or other prepared surface and the wood blocks.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my inven-
tion and in what inanner the same is performed, I declare that what I
claim is
The introduction of a perfect system of keying or bonding of the wood block
flooring on all sides with a tenon or tenant joint in the recesses made in the sides for
that purpose thus forming a self-locking principle to the whole.
Dated this 16th day of January 1894.
WILLIAM SHEPHERD,
4, Equitable Street, Rochdale, Lancashire.