IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC WINDOW FRAMES AND SKYLIGHTS."
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Thomas Harris, of the City and County of Bristol,
Engineer, for the Invention of " IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
METALLIC WINDOW FRAMES AND SKYLIGHTS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Thomas Harris at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th April 1877.
JOSEPH THOMAS HARRIS, of the City and County of Bristol, Engineer.
IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC WINDOW FRAMES AND SKY-
LIGHTS."
CE
The methods usually adopted in the construction of wrought and cast netal and
wood sashes, window frames, and roof or side lights, whether hung to run, or with
ventilators, or as entire fixtures, are all subject to very serious defects and objections,
as is well known, and are besides expensive. There is also a very great and general
objection to the construction of window frames and skylights, as described in the
Specification of the Patent of David Moline, dated January 30th 1855, No. 227,
owing to the greatly increased cost and trouble that must be incurred, from the fact
that all sheets or panes of glass have to be cut to suit the shape of the boss at the
junction, which boss is run on to or around the fillet of the sash bar inside the
rebate; there is besides an unsightly appearance presented on that side.
As regards roof, or other circular, angular, or slanting laid or fixed lights, the
impossibility of allowing or setting the glass to pass or overlap at the junctions of
the different sash bars and cross pieces presents an obstacle fatal to the adoption of
the said David Moline's Invention.
Now the present Invention consists in forming the sash or other bars of which
the window frame or skylight has to be made with a bend, turn, or dovetail in their
moulded or thicker part, at every place where a junction has to be made. These
bars are laid out on to moulds formed of sand, loam, or metal, or partly of one or
partly of another of these or any other suitable materials, and of any desired shape
or design on front, but dispensing altogether with the objectionable and unsightly
back part of the boss. The metal of which this junction is to be formed is then

page_text: run at a proper temperature into these moulds; which metal rises to and embraces
the bend, turn, or dovetail before named up to the rebate only of the bar, except in
the central or meeting points of the fillet, where only sufficient metal rises to perfect
the meeting of the fillets, bearing a continuous bearing surface or rebate for the
glass into a clean angle or point. I thus dispense with any second cutting or fitting
of the glass, add to the cleanness and finish, and make a stronger connection with
much less size of junction and consequent obstruction to light, while offering
opportunities for the introduction of any design. Weather-tight, double rebated, or
other opening parts are attached at all junctions, in the same manner as above
described.
The sash or other bars and junctions may be made of any suitable metal or
allow
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Joseph Thomas Harris in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th
October 1877.
JOSEPH THOMAS HARRIS, of the City and County of Bristol, Engineer.
"IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC WINDOW FRAMES AND SKY-
LIGHTS.
"
My Invention has reference to the manufacture of metallic frames of windows
and skylights from a number of detached pieces of bar laid together in the required
form, and then united by casting a boss and dovetail on to the bars at each of the
junctions. Some such mode of manufacture is partly described in the Specification
of David Moline's Letters Patent, dated 30th January 1855, No. 227, but has hitherto
possessed several objections which it is the object of the present Invention to
overcome.
These objections are as follows:-
First. The sheets or panes of glass have to be cut to suit the shape of the boss at
the junction, the boss being run on to or around the fillet of the sash bar inside tho
rebate; the cost and trouble of glazing are thus increased.
Second. There is an unsightly appearance presented on the inside of the boss, and
it can only be made of very large size.
Thirdly. As it is impossible to allow the glass to pass or overlap at the junctions
of the different sash bars and cross pieces the mode of manufacturo is not adapted
for roof or other circular, angular, or slanting lights.
Now my Invention consists in forming the sash or other bars of which the frame
of the window or skylight has to be made with projecting portions at a lower level
than the rebate of the bars, and a dovetail in the fillet or tongue, such projecting
portions being situated at every place where a junction has to be made, as shewn
in the annexed Drawings. These projecting portions may conveniently be made by
giving a bend, turn, or dovetail to the thicker or rebate portion of the said bars, or
by inserting studs or pins into the bars, and the dovetail may be made by punching
or otherwise forming a hole in the fillet or tongue. The bars being laid in a mould
of any desired design in front, but without any part to form an objectionable and
unsightly back to the boss, the metal for forming the junction is run into the mould,
and rises to and embraces or surrounds the bend, turn, dovetail, or projection before
named up to the rebate only of the bar, except in the central or meeting points and
dovetail of the fillets, where sufficient metal rises to perfect the meeting of the
fillets, leaving a continuous bearing surface or rebate for the glass into a clean angle
or point.
My Invention will be fully understood by the accompanying Drawings,-
Figure 1 is a side view, and Figure 2 an end view of a piece of sash bar a, the
rebate or thicker portion b of which is formed at the end with a bend, turn, or
dovetail c, and there is also a dovetail hole d, as above explained.

page_text: Figure 3 shews four of these sash bars placed in the same relative position as
they would occupy in a mould when they have to be joined together; Figure 4
shews the same in external view, and Figure 5 in section, after the boss e has been
formed around their ends so as to effect the junction.
It will be seen that the cast metal has risen above the bends c, c, up to the rebate
of the bar and no further, except into the dovetails & and at the meeting points,
where the space or interval between the ends of the bars of, say, 1/rd of an inch,
more or less, is filled up with the metal, so as to perfect the junction.
Figures 6 and 7 represent the mode of making a half boss, such as is required at
the side or top of the window frame. The side or top sash bar a may either have
a bend given to its rebate b, as before described, or (as I prefer) a portion of the
rebate may be cut away, as shewn, and one or more studs d¹ be inserted below the
line of the fillet and dovetails or recesses formed at d, d. The end of the bar a¹ to
be joined thereto being placed in position in the mould with the bar a, the cast
metal is run in, so as to form a half boss, which extends only up to the top line of
the fillet b. In making a quarter boss, such as is required for the corner, see
Figures 8 and 9, I prefer to fit the two bars together by a dovetail or similar joint,
as shown, then to place them in a suitable mould and run in the cast metal, so as to
surround the studs up to the line of the rebates b. Where a portion of the
window frame is required to be capable of opening I make the main portion of the
frame as seen in Figures 10 and 11, and the opening portion, as seen Figures 12
and 13, so as to correspond with and fit into the main portion, having dovetail
holes.
Frames for skylights and for lights for the roofs of cellars or floor gratings are
made in the same manner as the frames for windows, except that in the transverse
bars or cross pieces a', a³, (see Figures 14, 15, and 16,) the portion above the
moulded or rebated part b does not exist, so that the glass may pass or overlap at
the junctions without obstruction. The longitudinal bars a, a, are each made in one
or any number of pieces, with the rebates partly cut away at the junctions, and
studs inserted, or with rebates bent or turned down, and with dovetail holes, as
before described; and in window frames also it will generally be found best to
make each of the longitudinal bars and the top and bottom bars in one piece, the
transverse or cross pieces being fitted in between them and the junctions, made as
above explained.
Without limiting myself to any particular way of making the mould and
casting the metal boss therein I will describe what I have found to answer best in
practice.
A. (Figures 17 and 18) is a lower chill which I place, as shewn, over a pattern
consisting of a boss portion B (of the design desired in the boss of the window
frame), and of 4 arms C, C, corresponding with the sash bars. The pattern rests on
a bed D, over which the chill fits, and the chill is formed with openings E to fit
over the arins C, C; the stand for forming the mould is then rammed in from above,
so as to fill the chill. F (Figures 19 and 20) is an upper chill, having gaps G, G, to
receive a movable piece H (shewn separately in Figures 21 and 22). This chill
with the piece H therein is likewise filled with sand. Upon a suitable frame or
floor I attach, at positions corresponding with the bosses in the window frame to be
made, a number of frames, such as that shewn at I in plan in Figure 23, and in
vertical section in Figure 24. I remove the lower chill A (Figures 17 and 18) from
the pattern, and having reversed it, place it (with the sand mould therein) upon one
of the frames I (see Figure 24), the recesses k, k, fitting upon the studs L, L, so that
the chill may be in its right position. The four sash bars M, M, to be united are then
laid in position (see Figures 24 and 25), the said bars fitting in the recesses left in
the sand inould by the arms C; I then take the upper chill F (Figures 19 and 20),
and having removed the piece H and made a runner or gate N in the centre (see
Figure 24), I place this chill over the chill C, as shewn in Figure 24, the gaps left
by the piece H fitting over the bars M; the liquid metal is then run in by the

page_text: runner or gate N, and filling all parts of the mould not occupied by the bars M, M,
unites these bars, and at the same time forms the boss.
The method above described is adopted at all the various forms of junction,
whether for half, quarter, or three-quarter bosses, angles, or otherwise, and where
any number of bars meet.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, the manufacture of metallic
frames for windows and skylights by forming the sash or other bars with a part or
parts below the line of the rebate or moulding, to receive and be held by the cast
metal boss, which boss extends only up to the said rebate or moulding, substantially
as and for the purpose herein-before described and shewn in the annexed Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Thomas Harris, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-seven.
JOS. T. HARRIS. (L.S.)
1