IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIREPROOF HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Philip Brannon, of Bouverie Street, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIREPROOF HOUSES AND OTHER
BUILDINGS."
Sealed the 26th March 1872, and dated the 12th October 1871.
i
..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Philip Brannon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th October 1871.
I, PHILIP BRANNON, of Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, in the City
of London, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF FIREPROOF HOUSES AND
OTHER BUILDINGS," to be as follows (that is to say) :-
..
My Invention has reference to the mode of forming roofs, floors;
ceilings, stairs, doors, walls, and other parts of buildings or other
structures of cement or concreted materials in combination with metallic,

page_text: fibrous, or lamellated substances with a view to render them more
durable, fireproof, and healthy; and consists in employing for the said
purposes a sustaining metallic framework or skeleton firmly fixed and
bolted or bound together, and upon which is stretched wirework so
as to partially enclose or be completely imbedded in the said concreted
materials which compose the body of a structuro, or any part thereof,
and thereby perfectly bonding the same into a solid and coherent mass;
and in order to still further increase the coherency of the masses, and
render the same capable of resisting transverse and tensile strains,
I intimately commingle with the concreted materials and interpose
between layers thereof or between layers of bricks, tiles, slates, or
stones, wire or fibrous substances; and in the construction of retaining
walls, embankments, piers, and other marine works I also employ
separate sacks or encasements of wirework filled with the concrete
material, and rammed together in a solid mass.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Philip Brannon in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th April 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PHILIP
BRANNON, of Bouveric Street, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Philip Brannon, Her special licence
that I, the said Philip Brannon, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Philip Brannon, 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 THE CON-
STRUCTION OF FIREPROOF HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGs," upon the condition

page_text: (amongst others) that I, the said Philip Brannon, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Philip Brannon, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement and the Drawings therein referred to (that is
to say) :-
My Invention has reference to the mode of forming the roofs, tiles,
slabs, or flagstones, floors, ceilings, stairs, doors, walls, and other. parts
of buildings or other structures upon the principle which I term
monolithic construction of cement, concrete or concreted earthy or other
materials, in combination with metallic, fibrous, or lamellated substances,
with a view to render the said buildings more durable, fireproof, and
healthy than those of the present construction, and consists in
employing for the above purposes a sustaining metallic skeleton or
framework firmly bolted or bound together, upon which is stretched open
wirework, the whole so arranged as to admit of being entirely or partially
enclosed or embedded in the said concreted or other materials composing
the structure or portions thereof, and thus secure perfect bonding of the
same into a solid and coherent mass, and to further increase the
coherency and solidity of the mass and render the same capable of
resisting transverse and tensile strains when applied to floors, roofs,
arches, bridges, viaducts, and aqueducts, I intimately comminglo with
the concreted materials upon the principle which I term stone felting or
litho-felting process, and interpose between successive layers thereof or
between courses or layers of bricks, tiles, or stones, or any lamellated
material, strands or fabrics of wire or fibrous substances, and in the
construction of fortifications and retaining walls or embankments, piers,
and other marine works to effect the bonding of the mass.
I employ separate sacks or encasements of wirework filled with tho
said concreted or other materials, in all cases compacting the aforesaid
materials either by treading pressure or percussion, and thus forcing
them together into a dense and tenacious mass.

page_text: And in order that my said Invention may be more fully understood
and readily carried into effect, I now proceed to describe the same by
aid of the accompanying Drawings, reference being had to the letters
and figures thereon marked (that is to say):
Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation of a building on my principle of con-
struction, showing the position and form of the vertical standards or
stanchion, trussed framing within the walls, in connection with the
bedding plate pieces and heels of the joisting truss frames which
permeate and sustain the solid roofs or floors, together with the bracket-
ings which support projecting roofs or platforms, balconies, cornices,
mouldings, and other corbelled out parts of a structure by means of the
embedded trussed skeleton framings and wire attached to the stanchion
and joisting framing.
Fig. 2 is a similar section of a floor or roof on my principle, "as
constructed for fireproofing purposes in an otherwise ordinary building
of brick, stone, or concrete, or one on my principle, but which has no
skeleton framing in the walls, and represents the outside rim or bedding.
plate of the skeleton framing sustaining the floor or roof, simply
imbedded in and resting on the centre of the wall as nearly as
possible.
Fig. 3 is an isometrical plan view of a skeleton framing for a floor or
roof, either in a building on my construction or on any other mode with
the joisting and brace trussing adopted for a small area, and showing
the continuous bedding plate resting on the centre of the walls.
Fig. 4 shows a skeleton frame for light constructions such as landings
or passages, with stretching rods only in place of joisting trusses, and
with the saffit wirework strained between the plates.
Fig. 5 is an isometric sectional view of a portion of a building showing
the relative position of the stanchion and joisting trusses and wirework,
the concreted body of the walls, and the plastering finish.
Fig. 6 is an enlarged transverse vertical section of a portion of roof or
floor of concrete or other concreted material, shewing the cross section
of joisting truss, the position of the saffit, strained wire, and the alter-
nation of the tension beds and seams.
Fig. 7 is a similar section of a floor where the materials are chiefly
bricks, tiles, or stones, showing the tension seams between the courses,

page_text: and especially exhibiting the mode of fixing wooden floors over the
concrete upon fillets or battens of wood, bolted or keyed on to the
joisting trusses.
Fig. 8 is an isometric sectional view of a staircase as attached to any
wall, and formed with a close ramping parapet in place of ballusters and
hand rail, shewn as finished with cement moulded work, and the upper
part as having the imbedded framing and wirework exposed to view.
Fig. 9 is a door formed with a metal frame and embedded skeleton
and wirework, the body being composed of fibre and concrete, or cement
cast or compressed in a mould, and rendered ornamental by coloured
materials, and otherwise decorated as required.
Fig. 10 shews a mode of forming or constructing pillars or piles with
trussed framing and wirework both enclosing and incorporated with
heavily rammed concrete, the lower section shewing the arrangement
for marine piling; by bolting the stanchion framing to a shoe.
Fig. 11 shews the mode of constructing girder bridges, viaducts, or
aqueducts, over openings of any span, or upon morasses or marine mud,
in one piece, without joint or leakage, also sbewing the trussing and
wire of the flank girder framing, the floor joistings, tension beds, and
seams, and the cemented finish of mouldings or pannelling, the whole of
the construction being adapted for combination with bracket trussing
from the abutments so as to form when requisite a solid arch.
Fig. 12 shews the employment of the framing and strained wirework
in the operations of foreshore defence, the stanchions thereof being
driven as piling, and the wirework arresting the materials brought.up
by the sea.
Fig. 13 shews the formation upon my improved principle of sea walls,
cmbankments or picrs, when the work is above low water mark, the
stanchions being either driven or bolted and braced upon the bedding
plate of the trussed skeleton, and the solid mass finished with or without
clamping, so as to render the whole work one continuous beam of any
required length.
:
Fig. 14 shows a sack or encasement filled and wire looped for being
monition

page_text: Fig. 15, similar sack lined or coated with slow setting concrete for
containing sand.
Fig. 16 illustrates the method of obtaining a concreted mass, adapted
to works in deep water by the employment of the aforesaid sacks or
encasements with or without the rigid skeleton and pile stanchions, but
so as in either case to form a more perfect wire tension, framing,
bonding and trussing than can be otherwise secured, and Fig 17' shows
the employment of the said sack form of wire encasement and bonding
for the conversion of, any concrete or excavated earthy or sandy
materials into blocks for ramparts, retaining walls, bond courses, arches,
embrasures, casemates and vaultings for fortifications and other heavy
works.
In each Figure the same letters of reference denote similar corre-
sponding parts.
A, A, joisting trusses or frames; B, B, bedding plates; C, C, ceiling
or soffit strained wire; D, D, bracing trusses or frames; E, E, stretching
bars; F, F, solid floor cemented and finished; G, G, girder or bressomer
trussed frame; H, H, upright wall and trussed frame; I, I, stanchion
on which the wire is strained; J, J, strained wire for faces of work
aforesaid; K, K, bracketing trussed frames; L, L, flat roof or external
floors asphalted upon the upper surfaces; M, M, boarding laid over solid
floor; N, N, wooden fillits to receive boarding; O, O, wirework encase-
ment or sack; P, P, sand or cearth; Q, Q, ordinary building materials
such as bricks or otherwise; R, R, rough concrete work; S, S, tension
seams; T, T, tension beds.
The mode of exercising the said Invention is as follows:-When the
whole of the building or other work is constructed according thereto, the
framework will commence with the bedding plate, pieces of metal
scantling laid on the footings or foundations at the required height.
To these plate pieces the stanchion feet and heels of the joisting and
bracing trusses, or scantlings, or straining rods of the floor, are attached
by bolts cr other fastenings. The wirework is then strained over the
whole extent of the floor on its under side or soffit from plate to plate,
and made fast also to the under or tie rod of every joisting, and wire is
in like manner strained upon the exterior side of the wall framing.
Before laying in the concrete or other solid material, a centering or
platform made of boards or metal plates is laid under the floor, and a

page_text: similar enclosure fixed round the outside to form the wall face. The
soffit or lower part of the floor is formed by the first tension bed of the
stone felt, which is a layer of thoroughly mingled cement and fibre or
strongly cemented and well wrought concrete and fibre spread over the
whole area enclosed by the wall boards or clamps, imbedding the soffit
and facing wirework, and very firmly compacted about it by treading
and other pressure. Next upon this is formed a tension seam of any
long fibre or wire, or textile or wirework sheets either loose or strained,
laid in liquid mortar or cement. Other tension beds and seams are laid
alternately to the depth of about one-third or half the thickness of the
proposed solid floor, the upper part thereof being formed of any coarse
or hard concrete, tiles, bricks, slates or stones laid in suitable cement
and forced together very solidly.
In some cases floors and other bridging over constructions are com-..
pleted upon the skeleton framing and wire in one homogenious bed of
the said fibre concrete, or entirely with tiles or slates, having the cement
The final
between the layers formed as either tension beds or seams.
set coat of cementing to the floor is if desired decorated by coloring
the cement used with different clays and fireproof colors, and either
disposing and blending them to imitato marble, or laying in prepared
ornaments or putting patterns in, and when the floor is dry removing
them and filling in the patterns with other colors for borders, flowers,
and other devices. Wall plastering is decorated in a similar manner.
If a wood floor is to be laid over the concrete wooden fillets are attached
to the joisting trusses and flushed with concrete and cement so as to be
imbedded therein and the boarding nailed on subsequently. When the
ground floor is made another stage of the framing is bolted on to the
preceding and another height of wirework strained on; the boarding or
other clamping is next fixed each side of the intended wall, and very
firmly held and cramped together so as to bear the heaviest percussion
that can be given to the concreted material, which is laid in successivo
thin beds and powerfully rammed and flush grouted. When the walling
is carried up to the levels of the respective floors they are constructed
exactly as before described.

page_text: I
even in the centre, and are either covered with asphalte or otherwise
waterproofed.
The metal framing used for the above purposes in its design and mode
of trussing in the cross section of the scantlings employed, but which
are preferably rolled angular iron in the fastening and bracing together,
and the numbers of and spaces between the joisting and walling trusses,
is arranged just as the strains to be resisted render advisable.
For ordinary floors the common gable truss with king and queen
trussing is most powerful and economical. But for floors of railway or
canal girder bridges and other heavy engineering work the lattice or
Warren's, the united gable and suspension and other forms of girder
trusses are used. The wirework is wrought according to the circum-
stances and purposes of the structure either as warp or sheets of lattice
web or net, and is strained and made fast and taut by turning, whipping,
or other convenient mode of tension and attachment to the stanchions,
plates, and tie rods of the wall floor, joist, and other framings.
The frames for windows and doors I prefer to make of strong angle
iron of suitable section, and they can be either built in as the work goes
up or fastenings for them built into the walls, or where the walls are
of sound brick ballast concrete they are spiked on afterwards.
Doors on my system I form by an angle iron and wirework skeleton ·
which, except in certain cases where an external rim or edge is
visible, is completely enveloped in a mass of the stone felt composed of
fibre, cement, or concrete laid in a mould formed to the desired pattern
and subjected to pressure, and in these and other parts of structures
excessively susceptible of injury in case of fire the fibre preferably
employed is lithic or vitric such as asbestos or glass.
Staircases, partitions, closets, cisterns, shelfing fire-places, chimnies,
parapets, pillars, porches, brackets, cantalivas, balconies, verandahs, and
other parts of dwelling houses, stall boards, mangers, ground racks, and a
other parts of stables and other buildings, are all made in the same way
as the walls and floors, and in one framing and mass with the building
to which they belong.
Bressummer arrangements are made simply by imbedding in the wall
over an opening two or more joisting trusses of the proper thickness of
metal and arrangement for strength, with effectual transverse bracing

page_text: beds and seams.
Flues for smoke and ventilation I form in structures of concrete or
concreted materials simply by the use of divisible or collapsible cores
which are continually raised as the work ascends. All exterior and
interior surfaces of walls, ceilings, and the like plastered and finished
in the usual way, except in cases where ornamentation on my principle
is adopted.
To render buildings on my system capable of removal in such case
each partition or wall is made in separate pieces and attached or detached
by any convenient mode of fastening.
To render them still further capable of rapid setting up and removal
so as to be adapted to military campaigns for fireproof encampments, the
edges of the framing pieces are made with ears and slots or loops into
which slip keys, bolts, or rods. The wirework is formed to fit such
frames in separate sheets, which are also fixed by the said keys, bolts, or
rods, or by whipping. On the setting up of the frame each hut is walled,
floored, and roofed with turf or earth from the site, and when the
cantonment is to be broken up the detachment of the pieces composing
the metal frame throws aside all the earthy material.
When a building erected with other materials is to have floors or roofs
on my system, the plate is simply laid on the wall and all framing wire
and concrete of the floor made as described, and so on with other
separate portions constructed on the principles of my Invention in
connection with ordinary building.
In constructing the solid mass of large girders or girder and arched
works such as for viaducts, bridges, and aquaducts or other works
constructed in the manner of my floors, I give any required strength,
firstly, by the form and thickness of the trussing and wirework, and
secondly by compacting the whole of the solid part in thin layers, using
strong fibre concrete for tension beds in the lower part, and employing
powerful tension seams between them and any courses of bricks, tiles,
or stones used, and in all such cases and in all floors and in bressummer
work over wide openings for shops and so forth, the said lower and
5 tension beds are made thicker in the middle, both as there requisite for
their own effectiveness, and as giving an arch form to the upper or

page_text: compression beds, which thus bear more completely on the heels of the
joistings and the plating and therefore on the abutments.
In order to execute works on this principle on the sea coast, especially
in the tide way, the iron framing and wirework is formed by driving
the stanchions and fixing the trussing and wirework thereto. By this
means I either arrest the materials brought up by the sea and thus raise
a bank of sand and shingle, or sustain my concrete work; but in some
cases, as in foundations and sea works, to effectually prevent the water
from removing the cement and to secure the proper formation of the
bonding and tension scams throughout the entire mass, I first enclose 1
the concrete material in separate iron wire sacks or encasements and
then depositing them in their final position, forcibly condense and shape
them by suitable rammers or monkeys of pile-drawing machines, and in
the application of my framing and wirework the oxidation of the iron
cements the materials and converts them into ferruginous sandstone, so
that on sandy shores I use the sand alone in the said encasements, eitlier
by such a fine mesh as to hold ordinary sea sand, or by using a coarse
mesh and lining each encasement with a coat of slow setting concrete
or cement.
And in the construction of fortifications and other heavy works I'
prefer to construct the whole with the excavated materials formed into
dense blocks and bonded together by wire encasements and forciblo
condensation by heavy ramming as for sea works.
Having now fully described and ascertained the nature of this my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed
and carried into effect, I would have it clearly understood that I do not
intend by any means to confine myself to the precise details herein-
before set forth and described, as the same may be otherwise varied
without departing from the general principle of these my said improve-
ments, nor do I claim as new and of my said Invention the exclusive
use of the several parts, combinations, and processes above referred to,
except when the same are employed in and for the purposes of my
said Invention, which I hereby declare to consist,-
Firstly. In the employment of a trussed metallic skeleton composed
of scantlings and strained wirework arranged to be wholly or partially
embedded in the solid masses of earth, concrete, or any ordinary building
materials composing the walls, fireproof floors, and other parts of
buildings and other structures.

page_text: materials in separate encasements or sacks, and then forcing them
together in their final position and form by suitable rammers and
monkeys, in the manner and for the purposes herein-before set forth
and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Philip Brannon, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Third day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
Witness,
B. F. WEATHERDON,
77, Chancery Lane.
PHILIP BRANNON. (L.S.)