A METHOD TO SUSTAIN OR RESIST THE WEIGHT OR PRESSURE OF SOLIDS AND FLUIDS IN ANY LATERAL OR ANTIVERTICAL DIRECTION
Year: 1791

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ISAAC
ASHTON, of Arundel Street, in the Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Surveyor, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the thirty-first year of
His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Isaac Ashton, His especial licence
that I, the said Isaac Ashton, during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A METHOD TO SUSTAIN
OR RESIST THE WEIGHT OR PRESSURE OF SOLIDS AND FLUIDS IN ANY LATERAL OR
ANTIVERTICAL DIRECTION;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Isaac Ashton, under my hand and seal, to
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within one calendar month 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
Isaac Ashton, do hereby declare that my said Invention of a Method to Sustain
or Resist the Weight or Pressure of Solids and Fluids in any Lateral or Anti-
vertical Direction is described in the Plan and description thereof hereunto
annexed, and in manner following, that is to say:―

page_text: It is universally known that all kinds of arches, from the horizontal or flat
arch to the semicircle, are applied with success in sustaining any weight from
above in a perpendicular direction, provided the abutments are sufficiently
strong to resist the pressure of the weight placed upon the arch. Now, the
intention of this Invention is to apply an arch either sidoways so as to resist
the pressure of arches or groins turned over rooms, Figures Nos. 1; the
earth, &c., to form wharfs, embankments of rivers, &c., Figures Nos. 2; or
antivertically, as in keels of ships, barges, and other vessels' bottoms,
Figures Nos. 3. It is also applicable in foundations for walls of every deno-
mination where art is necessary to prevent the superstructure from giving
way, as also in a great variety of other cases, which on reference to the
Drawings must be sufficiently obvious. The peculiarity of the Invention does
not consist in the arch itself, but in the providing an abutment for the arch, so
as to enable it to resist or sustain any weight or pressure which may come
against it. This abutment is usually called the springing or skewback of the
arch. The position of this springing or skewback for the arch, and the method
of securing the same, both of which must be varied according to the nature of
the work (the principle, however, being uniformly adhered to), will moro
clearly appear by the Drawings, in which the skewback is applied in several
instances.
In witness whereof, I, the said Isanc Ashton, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of March, One thousand seven
hundred and ninety-one.