IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WOODEN PAVEMENTS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Mansfield Lloyd at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th June 1877.
CHARLES MANSFIELD LLOYD, of Nine Elms, in the County of Surrey. " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WOODEN PAVEMENTS."
The object of this Invention is the construction of a wooden pavement or road-
way for vehicular traffic, which will form an uniform permanent structure of great
durability and compactness, not liable to shrink or get loose, and thoroughly
impervious to damp and the action of the weather.
The improvements relate,-
First. To the formation or shape of the wooden blocks employed in the construc-
tion of the roadway.
And, Secondly. To the laying down and construction of the pavement or roadway
by means of such blocks in combination with granular substances and cement.
The length or lengths of timber from which the peculiar form of block is cut,
forming the first part of these improvements, is somewhat similar to the lengths of
timber out of which the brick-like blocks are formed, as now employed in the
construction of wooden pavements; but in lieu of cutting such blocks off in oblong
section I first separately subject them to the action of cutting tools similar to those
described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me in 1874, No. 3622.
The action of these cutters reduce the sides or thickness of that portion of the
lengths of wood subsequently intended to form the upper surface of the roadway,
such said reduction of the sides being carried down a distance equal to about one-
half or two-thirds of their depth, giving their transverse section an irregular
appearance; the object of these irregular surfaces is to form projecting key pieces,
the use of which are herein-after described. These lengths of wood when so
reduced are then rapidly cut into shorter lengths of one uniform size by means of a
vibrating circular saw or other equivalent contrivance.
Secondly. The Invention relates to the construction of a roadway out of the
novel form of blocks previously described, and consists, first, in making the sub-
stratum or bed upon which the said blocks are placed, of concrete floated in cement,
or planks of timber placed in layers one above the other as is usual and well known,
or in a direction diagonal to the line of road, or other suitable bed or foundation

page_text: may be made, upon which when set the said blocks are placed in sets either in a
longitudinal, transverse, or diagonal direction to the line of road, and in a position
which will bring the sides of their thickest lower portions into contact. When
the blocks are so set the keyed recesses or channels formed by the reduced thickness
of the upper portions of the same are filled in with granular concrete or small
stones, which have been previously washed and thoroughly cleansed from all
exterior impurities. Into these channels or recesses when filled as described
Portland or other cement is poured, which first passing through the stones fills up
the interstices formed between the layers of the thickest lower portions of the
blocks, and then as the pouring is continued the whole of the upper space receives
the fluid cement in a manner which fills in the crevices formed by the stones and
key pieces projecting from the sides of the blocks before mentioned, thus firmly
knitting together in one compact, mass the whole of the wooden blocks and under
stratuin, which when set not only presents one uniform even upper surface, but forms
a structure or pavement of great durability and permanence, which is not liable to
shrink or otherwise deteriorate under the influence of the weather.