IMPROVEMENTS IN ROOFING TILES AND SLABS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Ransome, of Queen Street Place, in the
City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROOFING TILES
AND SLABS."
Scaled the 26th January 1866, and dated the 1st August 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Fiderick Ransome at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st August 1865.
I, FREDERICK RANSOME, of Queen Street Place, in the City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ROOFING TILES AND SLABS," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is so to construct roofing tiles or slabs that
when the said tiles or slabs are used to form a roof air spaces may be left in
such manner as to ensure ventilation, and prevent the heat of the sun being
conducted from the exterior surface of the roof to the inside of the building.
For this purpose I form on the tile or slab ribs or distance pieces, which when
the tile o slab is in its place in a roof prevent it resting directly in contact
with the tile or slab beneath, so that when the sun heats the upper tile or slab
the heat is not conducted directly to the tile or slab beneath, but is cut off by
the air space between the two. I form at the upper edge of the tile or slab
on its under side a flange or rib to catch over the tile lath, and the tile or slab
is in this manner supported in its place. About midway of the length of the

page_text: tile or slab I form another ridge parallel with the first to act as a distance piece,
as before mentioned, and keep the tile or slab at a distance from those which
in the roof are immediately beneath it, and with a similar object I form a
lump or projection at the lower end of the tile or slab on its under side. I
also employ to strengthen the tile or slab a longitudinal rib running down its
centre on its under side, and connecting the upper flange, the central rib, and
the lump at the lower end.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick Ransome in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st February 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
RANSOME, of Queen Street Place, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Hor Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Frederick Ransome, Her special licence that I, the said Frederick
Ransome, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
the said Frederick Ransome, 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 ROOFING TILES AND SLABS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Frederick Ransome, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly descube 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 Frederick Ransome, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
The object of this Invention is so to construct roofing tiles or slabs that
when the sand tiles or slabs are used to form a roof an spaces may be left in

page_text: the form of these tiles or slabs may be varied, so long as there is a top flange
or projection to catch over the tile lath, and other flanges, ribs, or projections
to support its lower end above the tile beneath, as already described, or the
top flange or projection may be dispensed with, nails or fastenings alone being
depended on for holding the tile in its place.
Although other materials may be used, I prefer to make these tiles or slabs
of artificial stone. I employ moulds of the shape of the tile or slab, and fill
them with the stone composition when in a plastic state. The following com-
pound I find to be suitable :--I take 5 parts of fine siliceous sand and one
part of powdered limestone, and I mix a bushel of this compound with one
gallon and a quarter of soluble silica or silicate of soda of sp. gr. 1-700.
This makes a composition like thick mortar, with which 1 fill the mould, and
when moulded I turn out the slab or tile on to a slate or other surface,
and harden it by watering it with a saturated solution of chloride of
calcium, afterwards, to complete the hardening, I boil the tile or slab in the
chloride of calcium solution. Frequently I introduce glass into these tiles or
slabs, as the Drawing shows at d, d, to allow light to pass to the floor imme-
diately beneath the roof. When making glazed tiles in this manner it is
convenient to form a lump on the bottom of the mould of the shape of the
aperture to be left in the tile or slab on this lump; when filling the mould the
glass is laid, and over it there is placed a filling piece corresponding in form
with the lump in the mould to keep the composition off the face of the glass.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Ransome, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Thirty-first day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.