IMPROVE- MENTS IN WINDOW SASHES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Clement Lawrence West, of No. 25, Rupert Street,
Haymarket, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN WINDOW SASHES."-A communication.
Sealed the 18th May 1858, and dated the 19th November 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Clement Lawrence West,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th November 1857.
I, CLEMENT LAWRENCE WEST, of No. 25, Rupert Street, Haymarket, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WINDOW SASHES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in constructing window sashes upon the combined
principle of a sliding sash and French casement. The mode heretofore
commonly practised of constructing French casements has been to hang them
upon hinges screwed to a fixed piece of wood, constituting a portion of the
fixed framework of the window.
Now, the principle of this Invention consists, first, in fixing the hinges of
French casements to a piece or pieces of wood which have liberty of sliding
up and down said framework, similar to an ordinary sliding sash, and having
sash weights connected therewith; and, secondly, in combining a French
casement thus constructed with a sliding sash placed above the aforesaid
French casement. By thus combining these two descriptions of sashes in

page_text: one, it enables sashes to be more easily cleaned and repaired than sliding
sashes as heretofore constructed, and affords the advantage of being able to
use the sash as a sliding sash only, or as a French casement, or both combined.
The vertical meeting and sliding rails of these improved sashes I propose to
make with tongues and grooves, thereby dispensing with the necessity for 5
employing metal catches or fastenings, as heretofore practised.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Clement Lawrence West in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 19th May 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CLEMENT
LAWRENCE WEST, of No. 25, Rupert Street, Haymarket, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Clement Lawrence West, Her especial licence that I, the said
Clement Lawrence West, my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Clement Lawrence West, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WINDOW SASHES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Clement Lawrence West, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and scals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Clement Lawrence West, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:
This Invention consists in constructing window sashes upon the combined

page_text: principle of a sliding sash and French casement. The mode heretofore
commonly practised of constructing French casements has been to hang them
upon hinges screwed to a fixed piece of wood, constituting a portion of the
fixed framework of the window.
Now, the principle of this Invention consists, first, in fixing the hinges of
French casements to a piece or pieces of wood which have liberty of sliding
up and down said framework similar to an ordinary sliding sash, and having
sash weights connected therewith; and, secondly, in combining a French
casenient thus constructed with a sliding sash placed above the aforesaid
> French casement. By thus combining these two descriptions of sashes in
one, it enables sashes to be more easily cleaned and repaired than sliding
sashes as heretofore constructed, and affords the advantage of being able to
use the sash as a sliding sash only, or as a French casement, or both combined.
The vertical meeting and sliding rails of these improved sashes I propose to
make with tongues and grooves, thereby dispensing with the necessity for
employing metal catches or fastenings, as heretofore practised.
In order to explain my said Invention as completely as possible, I now
proceed to describe the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the
same into practical effect, reference being had to the illustrative Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the numeral figures and letters of reference marked
thereon respectively as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of a window sash constructed according to my
said Invention, and as it would appear when closed; Figure 2 represents the
5 window open, the top sash partly lowered, and the bottom sash-raised and
swinging; Figure 3, horizontal section of oak slide and boxing, drawn enlarged.
Similar letters of reference are employed to denote corresponding parts in all
of the above Figures.
A, A, is the framework of the window, in which the sashes B and C slide;
D, the parting bead (shewn only at Figure 3), of which there are two, but
only one is shewn; E, the inside beading, and G, the outside beading, between
which and the parting rail D the window sashes B and C slide. The upper
sash B is made and slides in the ordinary manner, but the lower sash C is
formed in two parts, and connected together and to the framework A, A, of
the window in the following manner :-I form the parting beads D and
inside.beadings E dovetailed, and fit thereinto oak slides H, to which I hinge
the two parts of the sash C, and I form the meeting rails of each of these
said parts with a tongue and groove joint, and a projecting piece c, and

page_text: recess d, by which, when the window is closed, it is as near as may be
air-tight, and at the same time allows one lialf: part of the lower sash to bo
raised and lowered as an ordinary sash. Tliese improved saslics are fitted
with lines and weights similar to ordinary sashes. One of these lines is
shewn at Figure 3, and marked c.
Having now .described the nature and object of my said Invention for
"Improvements in Window Sashes," together with the best means I am
acquainted with for carrying the samo into practical effect, I hereby declare
my Invention to consist in, and I claim the construction of folding hinged
or French windows, as herein shewn, or any equivalent way, so that the
hinged sashes may be raised and lowered the same as ordinary sliding sashes,
and also be allowed to swing as French sashes, whereby the said sashes are
kept closed without the application of any special fastening, and rendered
perfectly weatherproof, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Clement Lawrence West, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
LEVI LYNAN PIERCE,
Airdrie, Scotland.
CLEMENT LAWRENCE WEST. (L.S.)