AN IMPROVED METHOD OR METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION APPLICABLE TO ARCHI- TECTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
EWING, of Bodorgan, in the County of Anglesea, Steward and Gardener,.
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the fifteenth year'
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto]
me, the said Charles Ewing, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Charles'
Ewing, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles"
Ewing, my exors, adiñors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OR METHODS OF CONSTRUCTION APPLICABLE TO ARCHI-
TECTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a proviso that I, the said Charles Ewing, shall cause a particular
description of 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, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Ewing, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the present Specification thereof, that is to
.say:―
My Invention consists of an improved method or methods of constructing
the walls of gardens and other horticultural structures, whereby I am enabled
to obtain for the plants or fruit trees grown thereunder, thereon, or therein,
all the protection afforded by a close greenhouse combined with that free
exposure to solar light and heat which is essential to the perfect maturation
of flowers and fruit, and thus ensure the production of crops without reference
to variableness of climate.
My method or methods of construction are distinguishable from all others
in two principal particulars-First, in the materials used being transparent, as
glass, combined or held together by metallic or wooden framework, or in part
only transparent and in part opaque; and, second, in the wall or other
structure being in every case made hollow, and interiorly accessible more or
less from the outside.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of a wall for fruit trees entirely composed of
glass (the framework exclusive); Figure 2, an elevation of the same, shewing the
alternate sliding sashes open; Figures 3 and 4 are part ground plans, shewing
the sashes closed and the alternate sashes open; Figures 5, 6, and 7, cross
sections, shewing two methods of constructing the top lights of the glass wall;
and Figure 8, an end elevation of the wall. A, A, are two sets of sliding
sashes fitted with panes or plates of glass B, B, which sashes rest upon a
grooved bar of iron, which is supported by rollers in a framework of wood
or metal C, C, supported on blocks of stone or concrete D, D, sunk in the
ground, so as to prevent access of air, except when the sashes are opened. The
lights E, E, of the wall may be either flat, as shewn in the Figures, or they
may be of an arched or other suitable form, and made to open by one portion
being slid under another. When flat they may be composed of a single
glass plate set in a frame hinged to one side of the general framework (and
provided with a cord and pulley or other mechanism for raising and lowering
the same), as in Figures 5 and 6, or they may be formed by two plates
hinged to the opposite sides of the framework, and each provided with a cord
and pulley, so that they may each be raised independent of the other, as
shewn in Figure 7. For the support of the plants or fruit trees to be grown
under my improved glass wall a double wire trellis is carried along the centre
of the space between the two sets of sashes constituting the wall, and the

page_text: trees are trained on each side of the same, as shewn in the sections, Figures
5 and 6. Panels of slate, wood, or tile can be let in between the double
trellis, as shewn in Figure 20%, to produce reflection of heat on the plants.
The upright supports of the trellis would in this case require to be provided
with grooves to receive the panels. Or the trellis may be attached to the
uprights of the framework in such manner as to leave a space in the centre
of the wall wide enough to admit a person to walk or pass between them';
this method is shewn in Figure 7. It will be seen that in addition to the
advantages above mentioned, which are obtained by the use of my hollow
glass walls, their transparency does not at all hinder the passage through them
of solar heat, and consequently the growth of plants or trees contained in
them will be little affected by the local aspect of the wall, those which face
the north receiving almost as great an amount of warmth as those which
face the south; and when the wall runs north and south the plants grown
therein will receive the full benefit of the sun's heat during the entire day,
and no.shade is produced, as must invariably be the case with stone walls;
the appearance of my glass walls, too, is highly ornamental, and they may with
propriety be used where a non-transparent wall would be objectionable.
Figure 9 shews a boundary wall, having one side only furnished with slides
or sashes (for which doors opening outwards may be substituted). A, A, is
the framework; B, B, the sashes; C, C, the panes or plates of glass; the
fixed side of the wall is composed of plates or panes of glass set in a suitable.
framework; or it may be constructed of slate, wood, tile, or metallic panels
instead of plates of glass, in which case the same uprights carry two trellises,
one for training trees against the outside of the non-transparent side of the
wall, and the other for the trees grown in the hollow of the wall.
Figures 10, 11, and 11, 12, and 13, 14, and 15, are respectively front
elevations, part ground plans, and sections of another method of carrying
out my Invention. In this case, instead of having sliding sashes, as before
described, I form one or both sides of the wall of a series of doors, opening
outwards, by which means I am enabled to expose the whole of the tree
contained in the wall to the unobstructed heat of the sun, and obtain also
increased facility of access from the outside, or by placing the sides of the
wall at a sufficient distance apart to allow a person to pass along between
them, they may be readily got at from the inside. A, A, is the framework
supported on blocks of stone or brickwork B, B; C, C, are doors hinged to
the framework at a, a. The top lights of this form of wall are constructed
in the same manner as those represented in Figures 5, 6, and 7.
こ

page_text: Figure 11 shows a method of opening and closing simultaneously all the doors
of one side of a wall. b, b, is a spindle or shaft which runs the whole length
of the wall, and is placed near the bottom of the doors; c, c, is another
similar spindle placed near the top of the doors; d is a bevil wheel on the
spindle b, which gears into a corresponding bevil wheel e on a vertical shaft f
which has also another bevil wheel g, which gears into a bevil wheel h on the
shaft c; i is a winch handle, by turning which the shaft band (through the
intervention of the bevil wheel gearing on the upright shaft) the shaft c, c,
are set in motion; k, k, are cords by which the motion of the spindles b and c
is communicated to the doors, which are thereby opened or shut at pleasure.
Although I have described the top lights of the two several constructions of
glass wall before specified as being hinged to the upper edges of the frame-
work, and opened by lifting, I make them also to open by sliding one portion
or sash over another, as shewn in Figures 16 and 20, and this whether of
a flat or arched form; and in either case I adopt suitable arrangements of
cords and pulleys, or other mechanism, for moving simultaneously every alter-
nate portion of the lights, and for closing them when requisite.
Figures 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20, shew modifications of my system of construc-
tion, in which the walls are partly composed of glass, or other transparent
material, and partly of opaque materials, as brick, slate, or zinc. A, A (in
these Figures), represents the wall; B, B, the glass front, which may be com-
posed either of slides or doors, as before described; C, C, the top lights,
which may be made to open by lifting or by being slit one over another. In
some cases I find it desirable to construct the front of the glass walls, as
shewn in Figures 16 and 17, every alternate slide or sash being composed of
two parts, the lower one of which is hinged to the upper at its upper edge,
and opens outwards. For the purpose of opening these moveable fronts I
employ a circular rack and pinion, as shown in the Figures, by tarning which
the moveable front is opened to any desired extent, and readily closed when
it is wished so to do. For the purpose of glazing the slides or sashes, doors,
ends, and top lights of my hollow walls, I employ common sheet glass,
but other glass (such as plate glass), either colored, ground, or plain, may
be used.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is,
the making of the walls of gardens and other horticultural and architectural
structures hollow, and of glass or other transparent material combined or
held together by metallic or wooden framework, or composed in part only of

page_text: glass or other transparent material, and in part of opaque substances, as brick
or slate, as before variously exemplified and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Ewing, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this the Tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord Ono
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
of our Lord 1852, the aforesaid Charles Ewing came before our said Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Fifteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.