A METHOD OF CON- STRUCTING OF ARCHES, VAULTED ROOFS, AND CIELINGS, EITHER IN IRON OR WOOD, ON PRINCIPLES NEW AND DIFFERENT TO ANYTHING HITHERTO PRACTICED, BY MEANS OF WHICH CONSTRUCTION ARCHES, VAULTED ROOFS, AND CIELINGS MAY BE ERECTED TO THE EXTENT OF SEVERAL HUNDRED FEET BEYOND WHAT CAN BE PERFORMED IN THE PRESENT PRACTICE OF ARCHITECTURE
Year: 1788

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
PAINE, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most. Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Twenty-sixth day of August, in the Twenty-eighth year of His reign, did
give unto me, the said Thomas Paine, His special licence that I, the said
Thomas Paine, during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A METHOD OF CON-
STRUCTING OF ARCHES, VAULTED ROOFS, AND CIELINGS, EITHER IN IRON OR WOOD,
ON PRINCIPLES NEW AND DIFFERENT TO ANYTHING HITHERTO PRACTICED, BY MEANS
OF WHICH CONSTRUCTION ARCHES, VAULTED ROOFS, AND CIELINGS MAY BE ERECTED
TO THE EXTENT OF SEVERAL HUNDRED FEET BEYOND WHAT CAN BE PERFORMED IN THE
PRESENT PRACTICE OF ARCHITECTURE;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said Thomas Paine, to 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 His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one
calendar month next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Paine, do hereby declare that my said Invention of A Method of
Constructing of Arches, Vaulted Roofs, and Cielings, either in Iron-or Wood,..

page_text: on Principles New and Different to anything hitherto practiced, by means of
which Construction, Arches, Vaulted Roofs, and Cielings may be Erected to
the Extent of several Hundred Feet beyond what can be performed in the
present practice of Architecture, is described in manner following (that is
to say):
The idea and construction of this arch is taken from the figure of a spider's
circular web, of which it resembles a section, and from a conviction that when
nature empowered this insect to make a web she also instructed her in the
strongest mechanical method of constructing it.
Another idea, taken from nature in the construction of this arch, is that of
increasing the strength of matter by dividing and combining it, and thereby
causing it to act over a larger space than it would occupy in a solid state, as
is seen in the quills of birds, bones of animals, reeds, canes, &c. The curved
bars of the arch are composed of pieces of any length joined together to the
whole extent of the arch, and take curveture by bending. Those curves, to
any number, height, or thickness, as the extent of the arch may require, are
raised concentrically one above another, and separated, when the extent of the
arch requires it, by the interposition of blocks, tubes, or pins, and the whole
bolted close and fast together (the direction of the radius is the best) through
the whole thickness of the arch, the bolts being made fast by a head pin or
screw at each end of them. This connection forms one arched rib, and the
number of ribs to be used is in proportion to the breadth and extent of the
arch, and those separate ribs are also combined and braced together by bars
passing 'cross all the ribs, and made fast thereto above and below, and as often
and wherever the arch, from its extent, depth, and breadth, requires. When
this arch is to be applied to the purpose of a bridge, which requires more
arches than one, they are to be connected in the following manner (that is to
say) Wood piles are to be driven into the earth; over each of those piles
are to be let fall a hollow iron or metal case, with a broad foot let into a
bed; the interspace between the case and the wood pile to be filled up with
a cement and pinned together. The whole number of those pillars are to be
braced together, and formed into a platform for receiving and connecting the
arches. The interspaces of those pillars may be filled with plates of iron or
lattice work so as to resemble a pier, or left open so as to resemble a colonade
of any of the orders of architecture. Among the advantages of this construc-.
tion is that of rendering the construction of bridges into a portable manufac
ture, as the bars and parts of which it is composed need not be longer or
larger than is convenient to be stowed in a vessell, boat, or waggon, and that
with as much compactness as iron or timber is transported to or from Great

page_text: Britain; and a bridge of any extent upon this construction may be manu-
factured in Great Britain and sent to any part of the world to be erected.
For the purpose of preserving the iron from dust it is to be varnished over
with a coat of melted glass. It ought to be observed, that extreme simplicity,
through striking to the view, is difficult to be conceived from description,
although such description exactly accords, upon inspection, with the thing
described. A practicable method of constructing arches to several hundred feet
span, with a small elevation, is the desideratum of bridge architecture, and it
is the principle and practicability of constructing and connecting such arches
so as totally to remove or effectually lessen the danger and inconvenience of
obstructing the channel of rivers, together with that of adding a new and
important manufacture to the iron works of the nation, capable of transporta-
tion and exportation, that is herein described. When this arch is to be
applied to the purpose of a roof and cieling cords may be added to the arch
to supply the want of butments, which are to be braced to or connected with
the arch by perpendiculars.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Paine, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight.
Inrolled the said Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year last above
written.