A NEW METHOD OF CASTING OR CONSTRUCTING FOUNDATIONS, PIERS, WALLS, CEILINGS, ARCHES, COLUMNS, PILASTERS, MOULDINGS, AND OTHER ENRICHMENTS TO BUILDINGS
Year: 1822

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
FROST, of Finchley, in the County of Middlesex, Builder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of Sep-
tember now last past, did give and grant unto me, the said James Frost, my
exors, admors, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said, James Frost, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF CASTING OR CONSTRUCTING
FOUNDATIONS, PIERS, WALLS, CEILINGS, ARCHES, COLUMNS, PILASTERS, MOULDINGS,
AND OTHER ENRICHMENTS TO BUILDINGS;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said James Frost, under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery, within two calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same
Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Frost, do by this present writing,
under my hand and seal, and intended to be inrolled in the said Court of

page_text: Chancery, pursuant and in obedience to the condition contained in the said
Letters Patent as aforesaid, certify and declare that my said Invention consists
in casting or constructing foundations, piers, walls, ceilings, arches, columns,
pilasters, mouldings, and other enrichments to buildings, so that the same may
be finished at once, and in their places as the work proceeds; for which pur-
pose, I first construct moulds in convenient sizes, either of wood, metal, or
other substances with a finished face, either plain or enriched, exactly the
reverse or counterpart of the work designed to be executed, which moulds are
to be firmly fixed by the means of proper supports and braces as their intended
situations may require, so as to bound exactly the surface, or the part of the
surface of the intended work; and all void spaces through which the materials
to be used in the work can ooze, must be stopped with putty or other soft
substance. I make as few of the moulds answer the purposes of the intended
work as I possibly can, by removing them as the corresponding parts of the
work become set and solidified, and refixing them in the other parts of the
work in progressive continuation as the nature of it will permit. I divide the
surface of a circular ceiling or arch into parallel compartments, extending
from abutment to abutment; I also divide or subdivide domes or spherical
arched ceilings into compartments, and use three or more moulds at a time
for similar compartments, and when the correspondent parts of the work,
supported by their surface, become set and solidified, I remove the middle
mould only, and refix it in continuation, as before described. I also divide or
subdivide the surface of ceilings into compartments, with iron ribs, (such ribs
being strong enough to support flooring or roofing when required,) the bottom
parts thereof being furnished with small rims or mouldings to receive and
support the compartments of the ceilings. The face of each mould must,
before it be used, be covered or smeared over with some substance, which will
prevent any adhesion thereto of the materials to be used in the construction
of the work, and which substance will not act chemically either upon the
materials or the moulds; for example, when plaister of Paris or prepared
gypsum is used for the face of the work, I use grease or oil; when other quick
setting calcarous cements are used, fine linen or other cloth, or paper, or thin
glue, or thick size applied warm and suffered to cool before the mould be
used.
The required works are then formed by using hard and durable substances
embedded in such calcareous cement as will set quickly and without shrinking,
and will harden in a short period, such as Roman cement, Dobb's patent
cement, my British cement, Loriot's composition mortar and calcined gypsum,
or plaister of Paris. For aquatic purposes, or damp situations, I select such as

page_text: will readily set and harden under water, and for all external works, such as
will bear the vicissitudes of the weather; for ceilings and cornices and their
enrichments, which require a fine face, I mix, as quickly as possible, a small
quantity of plaister of Paris with water to a creamy consistency, and instantly
apply a thin coat thereof, with a soft brush, to the face of the mould fixed and
prepared for use, as aforesaid; and in the mean time another small quantity
of plaister or other cement having been quickly tempered with water to the
consistency of mortar, I apply it with a trowel, as a thicker coat at the back
of that first applied with a brush, and then instantly fill up the body of the
work with cement, in which bricks, tiles, or squared stones are introduced in
regular courses, or in which bricks, tiles, stones, clean washed gravel, ballast,
or shingle, or other hard and durable materials are introduced and hetero-
geneously incorporated, but in such manner as that the cement may be in
sufficient quantity to retain the distinguishing properties before enumerated
for walls, columns, pilasters, and other enrichments to buildings. The cement
is to be tempered with water to the consistency of thin mortar, and applied
and supported with a trowel to the prepared face of the mould, and the body
of the work instantly formed, as before described; and after the moulds are
removed, and the cement has acquired firmness, without being too hard, I
remove any little inequality of service, and smooth the same with a trowel or
hand float, using water and a little tempered cement when necessary in the
manner plaistered surfaces of walls are usually finished in casting foundations
and rough walls; I fill in the body of the work at once, omitting the fine
In constructing foundations, and walls, and piers, the parts of which
may be under water, I mix the required cement with the before-mentioned
hard and durable substances, and convey it from above the surface of the
water in boxes or bags, and discharge it at the surface of the work under the
water, or discharge it through perpendicular canvas or other tubes a few inches
in diameter, supported by a temporary level frame or open platform; and by
moving the upper end of the tubes horizontally, the composition is regularly
and gradually deposited in a soft state, which quickly hardens to a strong and
durable conglomerate rock; or I enclose the composition in bags lowered by
tackle to the surface of the work, and there dispose them in a regularly
stratified manner while the composition is in a soft state, and will take the
impression of the preceeding layer or strata, and thus form rough courses of a
well-imbedded conglomerate rock; when necessary to give a smooth face to
the work below the surface of the water, I drive piles, and make a framework
or mould round the same, in the manner before described as to buildings; but
in constructing foundations with the composition enclosed and left in bags, as
coats.

page_text: lastly herein-before described, no framework is necessary, and slower setting
cements may in some situations be used, such as terras or puzzalano mortars.
I intend to confine my said Patent to the casting or constructing the parts
of buildings and their enrichments, as aforesaid, in their places, and not to
extend it to the casting or constructing thereof separate or apart from the
building to which they are attached or belong; neither do I claim an exclusive
right to the introduction of iron beams in the ceilings, arches, or roofs of
buildings, but merely employ them in aid of my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Frost, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the within-
named James Frost, in the presence of
J. LYTHGOE, Essex St., Atty,
W. LYTIGOE, his clerk.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1822, the aforesaid James Frost came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in forin above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose..