IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF WOOD BLOCKS FOR INLAID FLOORS OR SURFACES AND PAVEMENTS, AND OF WEDGES OR KEYS FOR RAILWAY CHAIRS AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edwin Powley Alexander at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd March 1877. A communi-
cation from abroad by Henri Théodore Maximilien Hermann de Faulong, of
Paris, in the Republic of France.
EDWIN POWLEY ALEXANDER, of 14, Southampton Buildings, in the County of
Middlesex, Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF WOOD BLOCKS FOR INLAID FLOORS OR SURFACES AND PAVEMENTS,
AND OF WEDGES OR KEYS FOR RAILWAY CHAIRS AND OTHER PURPOSES." A
communication from abroad by Henri Théodore Maximilien Hermann de Faulong,
of Paris, in the Republic of France.
This Invention consists in first cutting the wood blocks intended to be used for
inlaid floors or other surfaces, or for wood pavements, to any desired height or
thickness, and shape or contour, with the grain of the wood running endwise (the
blocks being cut across the grain), and in subsequently compressing such blocks
laterally or parallel to the grain or fibres by powerful pressure or blows applied by
any well known or suitable mechanical means so as to close up the pores and increase
the compactness of the wood.
In practice it has been found that such compression may be conveniently effected
by forcing the blocks through a metal tube having an internal cross section of corre-
sponding form and dimensions to the finished blocks, the blocks before compression
being slightly larger than the interior of such tube. The compressed blocks are
then to be stoved.
In some cases the blocks may be injected or saturated with any well known
preservative liquid or pickle, or may be stained or colored, according to taste, before
being compressed.
An undercut or dovetailed recess or cross groove is made in the under side of each
compressed block, in order to receive the bitumen, cement, or other plastic material
used as a bedding surface, so that when set or hardened the said material will
securely hold each individual block down in its place.
By consolidating the blocks by compression soft wood, such as fir or pine and waste
pieces otherwise suitable for fire-wood only, may be utilized for the purposes above
mentioned, and will be found to be fully as durable as the more expensive hurd
woods.

page_text: In making wedges or keys for railway chairs, according to this Invention, the
same cheap and soft woods may be utilized by reason of the increased hardness and
compactness imparted thereto by the process of compression. Having cut the soft
wood into the form of elongated cubes, of the requisite length for wedges, they are
powerfully compressed laterally or parallel to the grain, which runs longitudinally,
thereby consolidating the wood, and at the same time imparting the proper taper
thereto towards one end, and rounding off slightly the angles, the wood being
previously injected or saturated with any good preservative liquor or not, as
preferred. The rough compressed blanks or wedges thus obtained may be sub-
sequently finished or shaped by existing machinery.