CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ROOFS
Year: 1822

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HUXHAM, of Exeter, in the County of Devon, Ironfounder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth day of June,
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two, in the third year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said William Huxham, my exors, adñiors, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said William Huxham, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, during the term of years therein men-
tioned, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention
of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ROOFS;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said William
Huxham, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court-of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same
(relation being thereunto had) may inore fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Huxham, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, by the
Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following description thereof (that is
to say) :-
My improvement in the construction of roofs consist in the employment of
cast-iron rafters, with caps of the same material united to them by means of
screws and screwed nuts, and between which said rafters and caps the sides
or ends of the slates or other coverings of the roofs are lodged.
In the Drawing, Fig. 1 is a section of one of the rafters, Fig. 2 a side
view, and Fig. 3 a top view of it. It will be seen that this rafter has a
hollowed surface (but it may also be made plain), in the middle of which a
rib is cast, and on each side of the rib the slates or other materials the roof
is to be covered with rest; underneath the rafter, and united to it, another
rib is cast, projecting from the middle of it, as on the upper surface. Through
the rafter at given distances holes are cast, as shewn at a, a, a, in Fig. 3.
Fig. 4 is a section of one of the forms of the caps; these may have either
plain, hollowed, or rounded surfaces above and below them. In this Fig.
the top is shewn hollowed, and the bottom flat, with a rim, ledge, or border on
each side of it; Fig: 5 is a top view of this cap, and Fig. 6 a side view of
it. A rib rises in the middle of this cap, and holes are cast in the cap, as
shewn at b, b, b, corresponding with the holes a, a, a, in the rafter. The ribs
of the caps may be either made plain at top or indented, as shewn in the
Drawing. Another form of the caps is shewn in section in Fig. 7, at c, in
which the under surface is flat.
Fig. 8 is one of the screws which serve to unite the rafters and caps by
being passed through the holes made therein for that purpose.
Fig. 9 is a wrought-iron washer to be placed between the under side of the
rib of the rafter and the screwed nut, Fig. 10.
In Fig. 7. the rafter, the cap c, the slates or other coverings imbedded and
covered with mortar or other cement, and the screw washer and screwed nut,
are shewn as united.
And in Fig. 11 is shewn parts of two caps, and the slates or other coverings
lying in their places upon the rafters.
The principal advantages of my said Invention I consider to be the better
securing of the slates or other coverings in their places, and the strengthening
of the rafters by the union of the caps thereto by means of the screws, as
aforesaid.
I do not mean or intend hereby to claim as my Invention the employment

page_text: of cast-iron rafters; but I do hereby claim as my Invention the said cast-iron
caps and the mode of fixing them to the rafters, as above specified, and which
said caps and mode of fixing I believe to be new.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Huxham, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two.