IMPROVEMENTS IN CONSTRUCTING BUILDINGS OF CONCRETE AND OTHER PLASTIC MATERIALS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Malcolm Macleod, of the City of Manchester,
Manager of the Limmer Asphalte and Concrete Company, Limited,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONSTRUCTING BUILDINGS OF
CONCRETE AND OTHER PLASTIC MATERIALS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED
THEREIN."
Sealed the 22nd January 1875, and dated the 20th November 1874.
-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Malcolm Macleod at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th November 1874.
I, MALCOLM MACLEOD, of the City of Manchester, Manager of the
Limmer Asphalte and Concrete Company, Limited, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONSTRUCTING
BUILDINGS OF CONCRETE AND OTHER PLASTIC MATERIALS, AND IN APPARATUS EM-
PLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
These improvements have for their objects the simplification of appa-
ratus for concrete building, and improvements in the method of using
concrete, asphalte, plaster, and other cementing materials, by these
means to reduce the cost and improve the structure of buildings.

page_text: In carrying out my improvements I use "wall guages" and "wall
braces," in combination or with other clamping plates, to secure boards,
planks, or other framing, and by the aid of wedges, screws, or packing I
form the said boards and other framing into moulds for concrete building,
thus dispensing with ordinary frames and supports. I also use tie rods,
mostly with reduced slotted ends, and fitted with movable collars.
For angular or circular work I employ a kind of continuous belt,
having slotted rods with bolts through to secure the ends.
For flue cores and other work I use shells slotted on one edge and.
looped to fit on the other, secured by a rod.
1
To carry scaffolding, clamping plates, wall guages, and other similar
articles I also use pudlocks passing through the walls to be built. I
sometimes build into the walls cores, leaving holes to fit these pudlocks.
I also form taper socket joints for the various supports. I use guide
plates, against which I clamp the boards or other framing. By means of 1
T or other clamping plates, the webb being slotted or drilled for wedges,
bolts, or other fastenings, packing, or by grooved plates to hold bolt
heads, I also secure boards, planks, or other framing.
At present cement, asphalte, plaster, and other cementing materials
having no affinity for each other readily separate or fracture and break 2
up. This I prevent, and make all or any two of them into a solid mass
by spreading one of the substances on small gravel or material for
which both have an affinity, thereby producing a kind of roughcast, to
which the other substances will readily and firmly adhere.
The following tools form part of the apparatus employed in the con- 2
struction of concrete buildings:
First. Sliding tools, which I imbed in the concrete so as to support
parts of the apparatus by means of arms.
Second. A clip bolt with packings to form angles or circles, as
required.
Third. rods, one angle being slotted; two of these are bolted
together to form a clamp and wall guage.
Fourthi. Iron bent S and other shapes as frame supports, also hook-
ended bolts for same.
Fifth. Angle clamping plates for clamping boards and other framing 3
of different thicknesses.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Malcolm Macleod in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 19th May 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MALCOLM
MACLEOD, of the City of Manchester, Manager of the Limmer Asphalte
and Concrete Company, Limited, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Malcolm Macleod, Her
special licence that I, the said Malcolm Macleod, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Malcolm Macleod,
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 CONSTRUCTING BUILDINGS OF CONCRETE AND OTHER PLASTIC
MATERIALS, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN,' upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Malcolm Macleod, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or
one of their hands and seals, 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.
"
ATO UNAW VE that I the coid Malcolm Macleod. do hereby declare

page_text: £
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say).:—
My improvements in the construction of buildings of concrete and.
other plastic materials, and in apparatus employed therein, are repre-
sented in the two accompanying Sheets of Drawings.
On Sheet 1 Fig. 1 represents the wall braces with the tie rods and
socket joints for scaffolding applied. a, a, are the clamping plates,
between which the ends of the framing b, see Figs. 2 and 3, are entered
and wedged by wedges c, or otherwise fastened, as hereafter described.
The clamping plates or uprights a are drawn together by the tie rods or
bolts d, which have reduced ends, as shewn, so that the framing is
cramped against the wall gauges e, see Fig. 4, which gauges at once
determine the thickness of the walls, and also serve to make the mould
or framing, as the case may be, rigid and firm. These wall gauges are
put inside the frame at proper distances apart, and as near the tie rods d
as possible. At the inner angles the wall gauges e, e, are put into the
wall space or mould, and the wedges c are driven in such a way as to
hold the ends or angle of the framing against the end of the said wall
gauges.
When it is desired, as for very rapid building, to joint two clamping
plates or uprights a, as shewn at Figs. 2 and 3, the open joint of the
top upright a is dropped over the upper edge of the framing b, and the
extra space between the guide plates is taken up by the wedge or
packing, as shewn in section at Fig. 3. Any of the wall braces g,
shewn at Fig. 6, are placed at the outside of the frame b, see Fig. 7, and
a tie rod or bolt his passed through, thereby clamping the frame b to
the wall gauge e, shewn detached in Fig. 8. At the inner angles of the
framing, as shown in Fig. 4, the wall gauges e, e, are put into the wall
space or mould, and the wedges c are driven in such a way as to hold
the end corner or angle of the framing against the end of the said wall
gauges.
Fig. 9 shews an angle secured by a latch i dropped into the loop j. A
pin may then be put into the latch to keep it in its place.
Fig. 10 (and in Fig. 4) shews a common tower or shot bolt applied for
the same purpose, and also shews the method of supporting the framing
by the intermediate wall brace g and taper tie rods d, cramping the
framing against the wall gauges e, as shewn in Fig. 11. In this view

page_text: the centre taper tie rod d is secured by cotters passing through the
reduced slotted ends of the tie rod, instead of screw and nut.
.
k
In Fig. 12 pudlocks are used instead of the tie rods d. In this case
the uprights a, a, are wood, and the framing 6 is wedged directly against
the wall gauge e.
A core allows the pudlocks to be raised into the
hole left by this core, which core also serves to hold the ends of the
úprights a by means of screws m passing through the said cores, as
shewn by dotted lines. The wall gauges e I sometimes make into plumb
rules, as shewn at Fig. 8, by which to test the framing.
In Figs. 1 and 4, between the nut n. and the clamping plate a, and
fitting over the tie rods d, are placed movable collars or washers o, to
allow the claw feet p, see Fig. 5, to slip in between the flange of the said
collars and the uprights. The wall brackets can thus be moved on or
off by simply tapping them upwards or 'downwards into the socket joints
thus formed. When the concrete has been formed into the moulds the
pressure is outwards, and the wall gauges c are then removed.
The following are various modifications of the clamping plates a, a,
which may be made of T, H, L, and other sections of iron :-
Fig. 13. The inner clamping plate a' is a flat bar; the outer clamping
plates a, a, are of angle iron, secured together by the bolt g close
enough to allow the tie rod d to pass easily through. The framing b is
jointed and fastened in the space r, as sliewn in section in Fig. 4, the
inner and outer plates a, a¹, are connected by rivets.
:
Fig. 14. The inner clamping plate a' is grooved to receive a T headed
bolts for clamping the plate a to a¹. bis the framing, and c the wedges,
as before described. A similar V groove may be formed, as shewn at
Fig. 14ª, by rivetting angle irons as to the plate a¹.
Fig. 15. The inner clamping plate a¹ is made of T iron, the web being
pierced or slotted to receive the hook bolt 8.
Fig. 16. The clamping plate a is made of two pieces of angle iron
secured by the rivet or bolt q. A tube between the angles preserves
space for a hook bolt, as at Fig. 15.
Fig. 17 is like Fig. 16, except that the tie rods pass through inner
and outer plates a, a¹. By packing between the angle irons a' they
describe an angle, as shewn by dotted lines, or the reverse. This is used

page_text: Fig. 32 shews an expanding wall gauge, which I use to force the
framing 6 against the uprights a; the gauge is then removed by simply
pulling up or forcing down the handles e¹. The altered position by
expansion is indicated by dotted lines.
Fig. 33. This expanding gauge is shewn as applied to flue cores which
are made of rolled iron, as shewn at Fig. 31. When the handle e¹ is
pushed down the sheet iron expands, and is contracted when the handle
is drawn upwards.
In Fig. 34 a¹ are the angle iron outside clamping plates, and a the
inside guide clamping plates; b is the framing, and c are wedges
fastening the said frame. The wall bracket is here formed by bolting to
the ends of the tie rods d another tie rod d, and d³ forms a support, as
shewn.
To unite asphalte, cement, plaster, and other cementous materials
having little or no affinity for cach other I spread one of the materials
to be united upon a little spar, gravel, or such like material, to form a
kind of roughcast (or I reverse the process); the spar will partly project
and form a surface, to which the other material will readily and firmly
adhere. By this process ordinary natural or artificial asphalte pave-
ments and similar works are prevented from fracturing. These substances
I also form in a similar way into tiles, slabs, and other articles for paving,
lining tanks, roofing, and other purposes.
Figs. 35 and 36 shew the sliding tubes for supports for hoisting
purposes. v is the concrete wall; to is the tube imbedded therein; x is
the rod or tube sliding up the tube to as the work progresses. A rope is
passed over the block a¹ for hoisting cement and other materials.
Figs. 37 and 38 represent a modification of the mode of applying the
clamping plates shewn in Fig. 4, as applied to angles with clip bolt y.
b, b, are the frames; á, a¹, are the clamping plates. On the main wall
there is also another clamping upright a³, set so as to receive the outside
frame of the return angle, which is wedged at c. The hook bolt y clips
the rivet of the upright a at a, and is passed through the upright a³ and
secured by a nut n, having beneath it the socket collar o. The wall
gauge e in this case is made to fit the angle joint at A. Acute or obtuse
angles may thus be formed. I sometimes use the cramps shewn at
Fig. 6 instead of the uprights a³.

page_text: MALCOLM MACLEOD. (L.S.)