IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- STRUCTION OF PORTABLE HOUSES, HUTS, AND OTHER SIMILAR PORTABLE BUILDINGS, AND IN THE FLOORS THEREOF, PARTS OF WHICH INVENTION ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Charlos Hill, of Arthur Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF PORTABLE HOUSES, HUTS, AND OTHER SIMILAR PORTABLE
BUILDINGS, AND IN THE FLOORS THEREOF, PARTS OF WHICH INVENTION ARE
APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES"
Sealed the 31st July 1877, in pursuance of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, and
Sealed the 31st July 1877, in pursuance of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, and
dated the with January 1877
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Charles Hill at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th January 1877.
HENRY CHARLES HILL, of Arthur Street, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PORTABLE HOUSES, HUTS, AND OTHER
SIMILAR PORTABLE BUILDINGS, AND IN THE FLOORS THEREOF, PARTS OF WHICH
INVENTION ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES."
The object of this Invention is to construct buildings of a portable nature, the
several sections or parts of which may be applied or adapted to a variety of other
useful purposes
In constructing buildings according to this Invention, wood rendered uninflammable
by means of chemical combinations, as herein-after described, is preferred as the
principal material, but the wood may be combined with any suitable metal, or
used in combination with other materials, as for example, cork or papier maché,
et cetera
The several sections of the building intended to form the walls are made in
These sections are so cut that
sections or parts which are duplicates of each other
they may be readily rabbetted or otherwise put together, and so form either plain
or ornamental panels, and where necessary or desuable, the panelled wall may be
lined with felt, papier maché, cork, india-iubber, or other suitable material; the
use of which material either a waterproof wall or one best calculated to deaden or
prevent the dissemination of sound, or to neutralize vibration In many cases these
panels would by preference be formed in narrow strips, so as to be capable of being
rolled up, and thus rendered very portable.

page_text: The several parts are so shaped that they may, if desired, overlap each other at
the edges, and united or connected together by means of pins or other equivalent
contrivance The insertion of a strip of india-rubber, or other water resisting
material, renders such a structure completely water-tight
If the building 15 constructed of two thicknesses of wood, or of other compound
material, the internal surfaces serves to receive, if required, a packing of any good
non-conducting material
The framing of the building is also made to fold up so as to be conveniently
portable, and the stair or ladder for reaching the upper part are constructed in like
inanner These folding frames may be applied and adapted to a great variety of
useful purposes, and in conjunction with the folding or jointed panels be made to
form a number of useful articles of furniture suited for military as well as civil
service
The materials used in the construction of these buildings and other structures,
are, where it is desuable and applicable, rendered non-inflammable by the application
of suitable chemical salts oi solutions, as, for example, the derivatives of sodium,
potassium, chlorine, sulphur, tannin, tungstic acid, silicon, aluminium, and other
bases.
In constructing and arranging the flooring of these and other buildings, where a
noiseless or elastic floor is desirable, the boards, laths, or blocks are laid down upon
india-rubber, felt, or suitable elastic material, the several parts of the flooring being
abbetted or bevelled, as may be found most suitable The surface of these floorings
may be plain, grooved, or otherwise indented to afford a firm hold for the foot, or tō
impart an ornamental appearance thereto
In certain situations, a substratum of asphalte or concrete would be found
advantageous as a damp resisting medium for basement floorings and other
Similar purposes
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Henry Charles Hill in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd
August 1877.
•
HENRY CHARLES HILL, of Arthur Street, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF PORTABLE HOUSES, HUTS, AND OTHER
SIMILAR PORTABLE BUILDINGS, AND IN THE FLOORS THEREOF, PARTS OF WHICH
INVENTION ARE APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES"
The object of this Invention is to construct portable houses, huts, ambulances,
telegraph signal, sentry, fire-escape boxes, and other buildings of a similar nature, and
the floors of halls, ambulances, and other like buildings, in duplicate interchangeable
sections or parts, and so to construct such buildings and floors that the several sections
or parts of the buildings or floors may be applied or adapted to a vanoty of other
useful purposes
In constructing buildings according to this Invention, non, steel, wood, or papier
mache, rendered uninflammable and impervious to wet by means of a chemical
combinations, as herein-before described, are preferred as the principal materials,
wood or papier mache may be combined with ion, steel, or other suitable inetal, or
used in combination with other materials, as, for example, with papier mache or
with prepared paper, card, or straw boards, cork, felt, india-rubber, floor cloth, o1
kamptulicon, which I employ as a lining or covering, and packing as a non-
conductor of heat, and to deaden sound, and as an elastic and noiseless packing and
covering for walls, roofs, and floors, and as a lining or covering in panels, plain or
oinamented, for walls and roofs
The several sections of the building intended to form the walls, roof, and floor,
whether constructed of 11on or of wood, 01 of a single or double substance of boards,

page_text: laths, or strips of wood, or other material are made in sections or parts,
which are duplicates of each other These sections are so shaped or cut that they
may be readily grooved or rabbetted or otherwise put together, and form either
plain or ornamental panels or sections, or where of a double substance, of boards or
laths, one side may be plain and the inside ornamental, and where desirable the
panelled walls or roof may be lined or covered with prepared papier mache, either
plain or ornamented, and lined or covered with cork, felt, india-rubber, floor cloth, or
other suitable material
In constructing buildings of wood, in some cases, these panels would be formed
of narrow boards, laths, or strips of wood to form plain or variegated or ornamental
panels or sections, and when put together, to fold in sections or panels similai to a
folding clothes frame, or so made as to be capable of being rolled up in sections or
otherwise, similar to a revolving shutter I sometimes face the laths of strips of
wood with steel or iron or other metal, and thus render them strong and very
portable I also construct these sections or panels of iron or steel, or of strips or
laths of iron or steel, or other metal lined with wood, papier mache, cork, folt, or
other suitable material The several parts are so shaped that they nay, if desired,
overlap each other at the edges, and aie connected together with clasps, hinges, or
other couplings, or by dowels, pins, or other equivalent contrivance The insertion
of a lining of papier macho, felt, or other water-resisting material renders such a
structure completely water-tight If the building is constructed of two thicknesses,
the interstice serves to receive, if required, a packing of non-conducting material
The framing of the building, whether of wood or non, is also made to fold up in
parts, so as to be conveniently portable, and in those constructed for military
purposes, these frames are employed for other useful purpose, for example, to form
a folding ladder or ladder-signal post The section or part of the frame to fold is
made of two or three pieces or parallel bars with cross ails or stay rods, between
which form the tread rails of the ladder or ladder frame Two coupled or put
together form a double flight of steps, and when closed up, a portable ladder and
telegraph signal post or flagstaff The several sections of the frame may also be
used as littei frames, hand barrows, pontoon-bearing frames, scaling ladders, or fol
other similar purposes, also stairs or ladders for reaching the upper part of a building
These folding frames may be applied and adapted to a variety of useful purposes,
and in conjunction with the folding or jointed panels, may be readily adapted to
form a variety of useful articles of furniture suited either for military or civil
service, such as tables, benches, folding and reclining seats, chairs, ambulance litters,
bedsteads, hand barrows, floors and footways, coverings and roofs for other tem-
porary buildings. The wood or other combustible material, used in the construction
of these buildings, are rendered non-inflammable and waterproof by the application
of suitable chemical sals
Another part of this Invention has reference to improvements in the construction
of portable telegraph stations, signal, sentry, and fire-escape boxes, and other similar
buildings having movable platforms or shifting floors and roofs to form elevated
platforms or lifts The floors and 100fs when open or closed form a covered platforin
or lift, which is elevated by mechanical means, and for military purposes it may
serve as an elongated observatory or sentry box These portable boxes may be used
for saving life and property from fire, the platform being fitted with suitable rails
and safe guards to prevent persons falling off, and they may be furnished with
suitable grappling ladders to fasten on to windows I prefer to employ as
the mechanical elevator, a series of levers or bars in the form of X links put together
on the lazy tongs principle, mounted on a suitable frame or bed plate attached to
the under side of the platform or floor of the lift, and actuated by any suitable
mechanical means, so that they are elongated vertically, and thus carry up or lift
the platform I employ for light buildings a double set of levers worked by a
compound lever, or with a right and left handed screw, to which is attached tho
series of lifting levers. The metal screw blocks, with the lifting levers attached,

page_text: are fitted up to slide or travel in slots or guides towards a common centre formed
on the bed plate or metal fiame fixed to the under side of the platform or movable
floor
For heavy lifts or platforms I employ a tuple fiame with a treble set of levers
worked with screws inoving in slots or guides to a centie fitted with pinions and
spur oi ratchet wheel attached to a fiame or bed plate, the treble set of lifting levers
by this arrangement work collectively by one movement to elongate the lift or plat-
form, this forms a powerful vertical lift I employ this lift in signal and sentry
and fire-escape boxes, and other portable buildings, and for military and other
purposes
For some purposes these mechanical lifts may be reversed and attached overhead
to a suitable staging or framework, or in a building, the person or the object may be
diawn up in place of being raised above the box or building
I employ the duplicate parts or sections, before referred to, in plain or variegated
panels or sections fitted up to open and close, similar to a Venetian blind or
louvre boards for ventilation or sanitary purposes, the boards or laths rabbetted or
bevilled on their edges reversely, that when put together in the frame section or
mounted on centre pins to half turn, to open and shut so that panels when closed
they will form a tight and sold joint
,
I also employ these plain or variegated and ornamental duplicate parts or
sections in constructing and arranging the flooring of portable and other buildings,
to produce an ornamental or semi-parquet flooring, either of plain or coloured woods
to produce artistic floors, as herein described, and where a noiseless or elastic floor
1s desuable, the boards or laths or blocks of wood are laid down upon papier mache, or
upon asphalted or other prepared paper packing, or card board, felt, coik, india-rubber,
kamptulicon, or other elastic material as an elastic underlay to deaden sound, so
that it forms a pleasant and noiseless floor, footh path, or carriage way These floors
may be employed in panels or sections for portable houses, halls, conservatories,
pavillions, theatres, stage floors, and skating rinks, and skating floois
The improved skating rink floor is constructed for the purpose of creating greater
amusement and attraction, the skating floor, as a skating maze or puzzle, 18 con-
structed with one or more or with any number of skating paths formed with raised
or ornamental borders to be the distinguishing paths of the maze or skating
puzzle
In constructing the puzzle skating 1ink, floor, or maze, the outline may be defined
by the raised or coloured path or borders, or, where desuable, by light rails, or gauzo,
oi galvanized, or other metal wire or its equivalent, fastened to standards to be in
a line with and of the shape and form of the skating path of the maze, which may
converge to a common centre The floor and skating inaze may be constructed of wood,
asphalte, marble, or other material, and of any design, that of wood being preferred
to other material
In constructing parquet and other floorings, according to this Invention, of plain
or stained and coloured wood, in ornamental panels or sections for portable buildings
and other purposes, and that of the semi-paiquet flooring, the pieces or strips or
blocks of wood of any suitable shape or design are gooved or indented on their
edges either of a half round or V shape, and they are framed together, and small
metal tongues or key pieces introduced to keep them apart, and a prepared
composition of marine glue and sawdust cement or other adhesive material is run
in while hot or in a liquid state to form a solid joint
For pavement I employ blocks of wood solid and hollow and stout 1ngs, or hollow
circles, or hexagon, oi octagon shape, hollow and solid blocks, the blocks or 1ngs
carved or indented, or grooved, or other wise ornamented on their surface to afford
a firm foothold, and to impart an ornamental appearance thereto for floors and other
purposes These improved blocks are laid either on a floor of a single or double
substance of boards or laths 1abbetted to overlap and form a solid floor, and where
desirable for an elastic oi noiseless floor or pavement, the blocks are laid upon

page_text: asphalted papier mache, felt, cork, india-rubber or other elastic material, and in
certain situations the blocks are embedded in a substiatum of asphalte upon a
bed of concrete as a damp resisting medium, and where required the blocks are laid
upon an elastic oi noiseless inaterial of prepared papier mache, felt, or india-1ubber
I find the simplest and most efficient system to be the laying the prepared wood
blocks upon asphalted papier mache or paper, card, or strawboard, which are
rendered thoroughly water proof and hardened, and then laid upon an even bed of
concrete or asphalte to form an elastic and noiseless foundation for the wood
blocks to rest upon
'
The materials used in the construction of these improved portable buildings and
other structures, and in the floors thereof, are, where it is desuable and applicable,
rendered non-inflammable and impervious to wet or damp by the application of
suitable chemical salts or solutions, for example, the suitable salts of sodium,
potassium, chlorine, sulphur, ainmonium, tannin, tungstatos, tungstic acid, silicon,
aluminium, and other bases in rendering timber and joinery wood work, papier
mache, cork, felt, oil cloth, kamptulicon, and other materials uninflammable and
impervious to wet or damp I also employ the various non-combustible chemical
salts and solutions or agents in colored solutions of the tint or color required, and
I steep under the pressure timber or other material and wood work in the chemical
coloured solution, for example, I may combine any of the tungstatos with a
silicate or a phosphate of tungstatos separately or combined as a tungstato of am-
monia, or with any of the chlorides, or the sulphates, or annoniate with other salts
may be found suitable and most convenient to employ with the various colors for
the purposes hercin described
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is 01 may be used and carried into practical effect, in conclusion I wish it to
be understood that what I consider to be novel, and therefore claim under the
herein-before recited Letters Patent is,-
Firstly I claim constructing portable houses and other buildings, as herein-before
descubed for greater safety and utility of iron, wood, papier mache, or other
suitable material in duplicate conversion parts or sections, the flames of iron or
wood to fold, or otherwise the parts oi sections forming the supports in the form of a
folding ladder, post, or fiamo of parallel bais, with cross rails or tie rods between, to
fold, collapse, or distend to form a folding ladder support, or ladder post, and a
folding ladder, signal, or telegraph post.
purposes,
Secondly I claim the covering of walls, roofs, and floors of wood of plain or colored
boards, laths, or strips, or blocks of wood in plain or ornamented and variegated
panels, for ventilation, to open and close (similar to louvre boards or Venetian blinds)
the parts or sections interchangeable and duplicates of each other for altering or en-
larging or constructing that of another building, those for military and other
the covering of walls, 100fs, and floors in convertible and interchangeable duplicate
parts or sections, to be readily put together or taken to pieces to construct that of
another, the several parts or sections employed for ambulance and other purposes, as
folding itters, chairs, seats, table, or benches, and for the tread floors and roofs of
sheds, and other buildings
Thirdly The application of papier maché, paper, card, and strawboards, and other
pulped materials, to be employed as the coverings of roofs and walls for buildings
and other purposes, and as coverings, linings, or panels I prepare these materials
by saturating, 01 other steeping, the material in plain or coloured solution
of india-rubber, asphalte, tar, oil, or varnish, glue, or other adhesive composition or
solution, and also rendered uninflammable.
Fourthly I also claim the portable buildings, signal, sentry, and fire-escape
boxes, and other similar structures with raised or elevated platforms, roofs, and floors
by levers and screws, the levers or lever being similar worked on the lazy-tong
movement or system.
Fifthly. I also claim the improved floor and flooring ornamented or indented

page_text: wood blocks laid on prepared papier mache, card, or straw or other pulped material,
as herein described I also claim the raised or ornamental skating puzzle or maze
or maze rink, and other skating floors, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Charles Hill, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven