Year: 1887

page_text: I ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex,
M.I.M.E. do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
This invention relates to an improvement in wire lathing and the object of this
invention is to provide a new article of manufacture made by the insertion, in ordi-
nary woven or netted wire-cloth, and at stated distances, of a thin flat strip of metal
or equivalent material, flexible in the direction of its least diameter but stiff and
inflexible in the direction of its breadth.
To provide a surface for lathing which shall not only be light in weight but shall
also present great stiffness and be capable of supporting a weight and pressure out of
proportion to the resistance of ordinary wire lathing is the aim of the invention.
There have been some attempts previously to achieve this, but such attempts, though
they were improvements upon ordinary wire lathing, have been restricted in use by
many disadvantages. In one kind of such improvement ribs or V shaped bars are
inserted during the weaving of the structure. These bars are necessarily heavy and
Lulky, they are hard to insert and can only be inserted during the process of weaving
by stopping the loom at the proper intervals and inserting them in a direction across
the meshes of the continuous fabric, and owing to the thickness of these metal strips
n

page_text: or bars, a perfect and continuous key is prevented besides increasing both the
expense of material and labor of construction.
After their insertion in the process of weaving they make so bulky a fabric to roll
up that the further process of weaving the subsequently made portions of the fabric
is delayed and made inconvenient.
It
Another lathing has been described in which is shown the use of round or square
bars of metal as stiffeners but this structure is more defective than the other.
presents the same difficulties in weaving and it is heavier and more bulky and cannot
sustain a weight and pressure of which the V shaped insertions render the first
named lathing capable.
It has been found that by inserting thin flat flexible strips of metal or equivalent
material in the meshes of ordinary woven wire-cloth each strip separated at a set
distance from the others and if the compound structure thus produced be bent or
corrugated into ridges at which each flat strip is held vertically to the plane of the
wire-cloth, a new lathing will be produced which will possess every desirable quality
of a light and strong lathing and be free from the defects of the wire-cloth
heretofore used.
The wire fabric with the improvement is illustrated in the accompanying drawings
in which similar parts in the several views are designated by similar letters.
Figure 1 is a view of ordinary wire-cloth; Figure 2 represents the stiffener, a
thin flat, flexible strip of metal or equivalent material; Figures 3, 4, and 5 are cross
sectional views of various forms of wire lathing embodying the improvement.
The meshes of any ordinary wire cloth A A A are crimped ridged or corrugated
at the points ccc where the flexible strips B B B were interwoven or inserted.
Owing to the flexibility of the flat strips they may if desired be woven in con-
tinuously as strands, in the direction of the length of the fabric with little or no
more trouble and expense than is met with in making plain wire cloth and the
fabric can be handled and rolled up after such strips are woven in with the same
ease as if they were not inserted; or if inserted after the time the cloth is woven
their thinness and flatness render their insertion in either direction into the meshes
or into the folds crimps or ridges of the wire cloth comparatively easy.
After inserting such thin flat strips, the wire cloth is passed, with the strips of
flat metal inserted at regular intervals, through any suitable machine (such as rollers
grooved so as to form vertical crimps or ridges of sufficient size to hold the strips
vertically therein) which will form it into ridges at the points where the flexible
strips are inserted in such a manner as to bring each strip to a vertical position in
regard to the plane of the uncrimped portions of the wire-cloth, or the ridges, in
question, are first formed, in the plain wire cloth and then the strips are inserted
in a vertical position.
The use in the structure of flat strips thin enough to be flexible in one direction
but broad and stiff in the transverse direction is much more advantageous than the
structures previously described because with less weight of metal much greater
stiffness is obtained and the labor and expense of making the compound structure is
less and it presents no obstacle to a perfect and continuous key.
By means of the invention a difficulty experienced with V shaped stiffeners is
obviated which is that their shape was such as to prevent them from being held
vertically and therefore made them liable to be flattened out by blows or pressure-
the meshes being thereby spread and the tension of the structure altered the stiffness
being also destroyed in a large degree.
Wire cloth made with this improvement presents a surface for lathing the tension
of which is evenly distributed and it will resist more firmly by reason of the breadth
of the thin stiffeners the weight of the adhering plaster and the pressure of the
trowel. Longer distances may be spanned owing to the possibility of inserting
such thin strips lengthwise in the fabric and the lathing is readily attachable to the
bearings by stapling or other fastening which may also assist in holding the stiffeners
in vertical position.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent and in what manner
the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is :-
1. As a new article of manufacture, a wire lathing consisting of a flat surface of
wire meshes stiffened by a series of thin flat flexible bands held in a position
vertical to the plane of the lathing at ridges formed on such surfaces substantially
as described.
2. The process of forming wire lathing which consists of first inserting flat flexible
parallel strips of stiffening material in the meshes of wire fabric in the direction of
the length of such fabric during the process of formation and second crimping the
fabric into ridges or corrugations so as to hold such strips vertically to the plane
surface of the fabric substantially as described.