IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BRIDGES
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEPHEN
MOULTON, of Norfolk Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of April
(One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven), in the tenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Stephen Moulton, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Stephen Moulton, my
exors,
admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Stephen Moulton, my exors,
admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF BRIDGES," being a communication from a certain Foreigner
residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I,
the said Stephen Moulton, should cause a particular description of the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: Stephen Moulton, do hereby declare that the nature of the Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 9 shews a side view of a bridge constructed according to the
Invention; Figure 8 shows a plan of the beams for the floor of the bridge;
and Figure 10 shews two transverse sections thereof, by which it will be seen
that the top rail B and bottom rail A are combined together by a series of
diagonal bars D, so that the bottom rail A is suspended from the upper rail B
by means of such diagonal bars D, and the rails A and B are kept apart by
means of the uprights C, which uprights are not fixed to the upper or lower
rails B, A, but simply come in between them as supports to retain the parts
A, B, at the correct distance apart, and in the event of the strain being
formed to act unequally on any of the diagonal bars D, by driving in wedges,
as shewn at E, Figure 1, the whole may be correctly adjusted. The diagonal
bars D proceed in opposite directions and cross each other, as is shewn, but
they are not fixed to each other, they being simply fixed at their ends by
means of pins passing through them and the top and bottom rail B, A.
Figure 1 shows part of the side framing of the bridge.
The lower
Figure 2 shows the diagonal bars D with the screw pins and nuts by which
they are attached to the rails A, B. The upper rail may be formed of two
angle irons, as shewn at Figure 5, or in one double angle iron, as shewn at
Figure 8, the diagonal bars D passing between the parts B, B, as is shewn, and
the parts will be held together by the pins and nuts J, as shewn.
rail is composed of two bars A, A, shewn clearly in Figure 6, and the end of
the bars D are placed between them and held by the screw pins and nuts J,
as shewn. K, K, are the beams for receiving the floor of the bridge, the
manner of fixing which on the lower rail B and to the uprights C is clearly
shewn in the Drawing. F are caps which cover the upper edges of the two
bars of which the bottom rail A is composed. At the ends of a bridge I
prefer to use additional bars D*, D*, as shewn at Figures 7, 8, and 9, and
also holding-down bars G with adjusting screws and nuts, as at H, but these
may be dispensed with. There are openings through the uprights C for the
passage of the diagonal bars D, and these bars D should be free and not confined
in such openings. It will be found by examining the peculiar arrangement of