A NEW OR IMPROVED BRICK TO BE USED FOR THE BORDERS OF PATHS, WALKS, OR ALLEYS IN GARDENS OR PARKS
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and Foreign
Patent Offices, 18, Rue de la Chausseć d'Antin, Paris, France, and 6, Piccadilly,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "A NEW OR
IMPROVED BRICK TO BE USED FOR THE BORDERS OF PATHS, WALKS, OR
ALLEYS IN GARDENS OR PARKS." A communication from Emile Beaucantin,
of Rouen, France.
Sealed the 25th April 1879, and dated the 28th October 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th October 1878.
HENRI ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Rue
de la Chausseé d'Antin, Paris, France, and 6, Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent.
A NEW OR IMPROVED BRICK TO BE USED FOR THE BORDERS OF
PATHS, WALKS, OR ALLEYS IN GARDENS OR PARKS." A communication from Emile
Beaucantin, of Rouen, France.
The Invention communicated to me relates to a hollow brick provided with a
channel at the top, designed for bordering the paths, walks, and alleys of parks and
gardens, so that when bricks thus made are placed side by side they present at their
top a continuous channel into which the rain water or the superfluous water used in
watering flows and is collected, and afterwards drops through vertical grooves formed
by the juxtaposition of the bricks into a continuous inner chamber formed by the
bollow of the bricks.
The said new or improved brick is illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, in
which Fig. 1 is a perspective side view in elevatiou, in which the channel is marked
by the letters A, B, C; Fig. 2 is a front view of the same, and a partial view of the
two adjoining bricks. Fig. 3 is a section through the line E, F, Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a
lower side view following the line G, H, Fig. 1; and Fig. 5, the same view of
bricks in juxtaposition showing the common chamber. Fig. 6 and 7 are views of a
modified-shape of brick; Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a brick of the first shape
as applied to an alley; Fig. 9, the same view for the modified shape of brick; and
Fig. 10, a sectional view of a path arranged with the latter brick.

page_text: -SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Henri Adrien Bonneville in the Great Seal-Patent-Office-on-the_
26th April 1879.
HENRI ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Rue
de la Chausseé d'Antin, Paris, France, and-6,-Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent.
"A NEW OR IMPROVED BRICK TO BE USED FOR THE BORDERS
OF PATHS, WALKS, OR ALLEYS IN GARDENS OR PARKS." A communication from
Emile Beaucantin, of Rouen, France.
The Invention communicated-to-me-relates_to_a_hollow brick provided with a
channel at the top designed for bordering the paths, walks, and alleys of parks and
gardens, so that when bricks thus made are placed side by side they present at their
top a continuous channel into which the rain water or the superfluous water used
in watering flows and is collected, and afterwards drops through vertical grooves
formed by the juxtaposition of the bricks into a continuous inner chamber formed
by the hollow of the bricks.
The said new or improved brick is illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, in
which Fig. 1 is a perspective side view in elevation in which the channel is marked
by the letters A, B, C; Fig. 2 is a front view of the same and a partial view of the
two adjoining bricks; Fig. 3 is a section through the line E, F, Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a
lower side view following the line G, H, Fig. 1; and Fig. 5, the same view of bricks
in juxtaposition showing the common chamber; Figs. 6 and 7 are views of a
modified shape of brick; Fig. 8 is a perspective view of a brick of the first shape as
applied to an alley; Fig. 9, the same view for the modified shape of brick; and
Fig. 10, a sectional view of a walk arranged with the latter brick.
The Invention as shewn consists of a border brick which is both preservative and
economical, as it preserves the purity of the lines of the borders of the paths, walks,
or alleys in gardens or parks of every kind. The said new or improved brick, by
the arrangement of its chamber and the slopes of the channel at the top which
absorbs the dampness and rain water, considerably diminishes the cost of keeping
the gardens or parks in repair, whilst at the same time it adds to the beauty of
their appearance.
The new border brick is incontestably economical; it admits of the infiltration
and absorption of the rain and other water, and performs to a certain extent the
function of a drainage pipe.
The infiltration and absorption of the water is principally effected by the slopes
in the channel at the top of the brick. The introduction of the water is facilitated
by a common chamber or retiring vacuum with an inclined plane or escape on the
sides of the surfaces in juxtaposition.
The said brick permanently maintains and preserves the purity of the straight or
curved lines of the side borders of all sorts of garden paths, walks, or alleys.
The use of this side brick greatly reduces the expense of keeping in order the
borders of whatever kind of walks and paths.
The two new or improved kinds of border bricks are manufactured by machinery
with ordinary brick earth.
Although the arrangement of these two kinds of bricks may appear somewhat
complicated, the lines they present are very clear and perfect owing to the operation
of repressing which they undergo before being baked.
The brick illustrated in Fig. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 of the accompanying Drawings
is specially designed for bordering the alleys of parks and gardens, whilst the brick
shown in Figs. 6, 7, 9, and 10 may be applied as a border and for keeping together
the blades of grass in a path or the grass borders of a walk of whatever kind, and
to protect them from the damage or corrosion usually occasioned by the rain
water.

page_text: In order to lay down the bricks along the border as shown in Fig. 10, a drain or
little trench I is made at the beginning of the walk of an average width of about
1 foot, and about 8 or 9 inches deep. The bottom is firmly dammed up so as to
enable the border bricks to penetrate therein, which are placed in simple juxta-
position without any mortar. A layer, about an inch in thickness, of concrete J,
consisting of lime dust and gravel sand, on which must be sprinkled about a quarter
of an inch of fine sifted sand, is first spread in the bottom of the trench thus
arranged and dammed up; it is afterwards filled up tightly in order to obtain a
perfectly straight and neat surface. In this way the laying down of the new or
improved brick is quickly and very regularly effected. The trench is filled up layer
by layer and finally covered with a gravel concrete K of about an inch in
thickness; this concrete is made flush with the round part of the channel of the
said bricks.
The level of the grass is made to project a little above the top part of this new
or improved border.
As has been already stated, the rain water is collected in the channel A, B, C, the
angles of which are bevelled.
The modified shape of brick shown in Fig. 6 is manufactured with as much care
and by the same process as that shown in Fig. 1, and is designed for vegetable and
fruit gardens, for public gardens, and especially for the flower beds of schools
intended for the study of botany, or the cultivation of fruit, forest, or ornamental
trees.
The shape of this latter kind of brick is a little different from that shown in Fig. 1,
for instead of being cut at the top in the form of an inclined plane or slope, its
upper part is made round and in imitation of a real plinth or edging of stone with
the best effect.
The level of the soil cultivated is maintained by this edging and slopes down to
the beginning of the right part where the level or inclination D of the buried
surfaces begins. The level of the path is made flush with the same point as in the
first-mentioned kind of brick. The modified brick is laid down exactly in the same
way, and a like number is required to the yard of border line. The advantages it
presents are the same, as the channel contains the same sloping angles in which the
water infiltrates.
Having thus fully described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner of
carrying it into effect, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself to
the precise details above enumerated, as these may obviously be modified without
departing from the principle of the Invention; but what I claim is, a new or improved
hollow border brick, provided with a channel at the top, designed for bordering the
paths, walks, and alleys of parks and gardens, substantially as above described, and
represented in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.