IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HORTICULTURAL And Other BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Parham, of Northgate Street, Bath, in
the County of Somerset, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF HORTICULTURAL And Other BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES.”
"
Sealed the 25th January 1870, and dated the 29th November 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Parham at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 29th November 1869.
I, WILLIAM PARHAM, of Northgate Street, Bath, in the County of
Somerset, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF HORTICULTURAL AND OTHER BUILDINGS AND
STRUCTURES," to be as follows:-
In constructing the roof of a horticultural or other building or
structure I form the rafters of angle iron, or of iron of other trough
section with the channel placed upwards. The covering material, which
for horticultural buildings or structures would usually be of glass, rests
on the edges of the channel gutters, and is held down, but not nipped

page_text: by strips of metal or other material laid over them; these strips are held
in place by screws passed through them, and screwed into the rafters, or
by pins standing up from the rafters and carrying turn buttons, or they
may be held in place by other suitable fastenings. The sheets of glass
may be of any suitable length, and are of a width for their side edges to
rest on two adjacent rafters. The cover plates are also in lengths corre-
sponding with the lengths of the sheets of glass. The sheets of glass
are laid on the rafters with the lower edge of one sheet overlapping the
upper edge of the sheet below it, and they are prevented from sliding
down the roof by their lower edge resting on the upper edges of the
cover plates by which the tier of glass below them is held down. In
this way the sheets of glass or other material are laid as usual with their
ends overlapping one another, and are securely kept in place without the
use of putty or other adhesive substance. Any rain finding its way into
the channel of the rafter will run down it, and may pass into a gutter
laid along the bottom of the roof. The rafters may have rivetted to
them strips of metal to pass through slots in the cover plates, and to
stand up sufficiently above them to support a plank laid across them
without allowing the plank to bear upon the cover plates. By this
means easy access to all parts of the roof for the purpose of repair is
afforded, as the weight of a man can be borne on the rafters without
causing any compression of the cover plates or fracture of the glass
below them; or other provision may be made for allowing a plank to be
laid across the cover plates without putting stress upon the glass.. The
sides of a horticultural or other building or structure I also construct in
the manner above described. In place of sheets of glass sheets or slabs
of other material may be employed as the covering material.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Parham in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 28th May 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
PARHAM, of Northgate Street, Bath, in the County of Somerset, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of November, in the

page_text: year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Parham, Her special licence
that I, the said William Parham, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Parham, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF HORTICULTURAL AND OTHER BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Parham,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters. Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Parham, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:
In constructing the roof of a horticultural or other building or
structure I form the rafters of angle iron, or of iron of other trough
section with the channel placed upwards. The covering material, which
for horticultural buildings or structures would usually be of glass, rests
on the edges of the channel gutters, and is held down, but not nipped
by strips of metal or other material laid over them; these strips are
held in place by screws passed through them and screwed into the
rafters, or by pins standing up from the rafters and carrying turn
buttons, or they may be held in place by other suitable fastenings. The
sheets of glass may be of any suitable length, and are of a width for
their side edges to rest on two adjacent rafters. The cover plates are
also in lengths corresponding with the lengths of the sheets of glass.
The sheets of glass are laid on the rafters with the lower edge of one
sheet overlapping the upper edge of the sheet below it, and they are
prevented from sliding down the roof by their lower edge resting on the
upper edges of the cover plates by which the tier of glass below them is

page_text: onservatory
a lean-to roof and vertical front, with the glass supported on angle iron
rafters and uprights in the manner above described; Figure 2 shows a
section taken through two of the rafters of the roof.
a, a, are the angle iron rafters and uprights; b, the sheets of glass;
and c, the cover plates by which the sheets of glass are held down on to
the rafters; d, d, are screws passed through holes in the cover plates
and screwed into the angle iron rafters, as shewn; a* are projections
fixed to every third or fourth rafter to support boards a**, as shewn,
when repairs are needed. The upper and lower ends of the rafters may
be fixed in position in any convenient manner. In the arrangement
shown in the Drawing they are received in cast-iron socket pieces.
e, e, the socket pieces in which the upper ends of the rafters are held,
and which are shown separately at Figure 3, may be fixed to the face
of a wall in any convenient manner. I prefer to fix them to a bar of
flat iron f, and to fix this bar to the face of the wall.
The socket pieces

page_text: in which the lower ends of the rafters are held are each formed in one
piece with a socket in which the upper ends of the uprights aro to bo
held, as shown at Figure 4, and they are also suitably formed to have a
front plate g fixed to them, and to this front plate a gutter may be fixed.
The trough-iron rafters receive and carry off any rain which may drop
down between the sides of the adjoining sheets of glass. The lower
end of each upright in the arrangement shown in the Drawing is formed
with projecting feet or flanges h, to be screwed down on to a bed plate
on the top of a wall, or otherwise; these feet are formed by bending the
two sides of the angle iron outwards at right angles, in the manner
shown; or in place of thus forming feet on the lower end of the upright
the lower ends of the uprights might similarly be held in cast socket
pieces fixed to a bed plate.
Various well known arrangements for ventilating a glazed structure
such as above described may be adopted, and I have therefore not
thought it necessary to shew in the Drawing any way of effecting
ventilation. Span roofs may be formed in a similar manner to that
abovo described, the upper ends of the angle iron rafters being suitably
fixed to a ridge piece.
At Figure 5 is shown a modification of the arrangement of cover
plates for holding down the sheets of glass on to the uprights and
rafters. In this modification the cover plates are formed to overlap one
another, as in the arrangement first described; but in place of the lower
edges of each sheet of glass resting on the upper edge of the cover
plates of the sheet of glass below it, each cover plate has rivetted to it
near its lower end a projection to form a stop for the lower edges of the
sheets of glass which are held down by such cover plates to rest against.
The advantage of this arrangement is, that any one sheet of glass may
be removed and replaced by simply removing its covering plates without
in any way disturbing the sheets of glass above or below it. In place of
the rafters and uprights being formed of angle iron they might be of
other trough section. In place also of the rafters, uprights, and covering
plates being of iron they might be of other material, as, for example, of
wood; also in some glazed structures where it is not essential to prevent
a small quantity of rain dropping down through the roof the rafters
and uprights need not be of a trough section, but they might be
formed with a suitable surface for the edges of the sheets of glass to
rest on.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that what I
claim is, the construction of horticultural and other structures, sub-
stantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Parham, have hereunto 5
set my hand and seal, this 26th day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
WILLIAM PARHAM. (L.S.)