AN IMPROVED MANNER OF COMBINING WOOD AND METAL, SO AS TO FORM RAILS OR RODS ADAPTED FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BEDSTEADS, CORNICES, AND OTHER WORKS WHOSE STRENGTH AND LIGHTNESS ARE DESIRABLE, WHICH HE DENOMINATES UNION OR COMPOUND RODS
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
PRATT, of New Bond Street, in the County of Middlesex, Camp Equipage
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of May, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-five, in the sixth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Pratt, His especial
licence, that I, the said Samel Pratt, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Samuel Pratt, my exors, admors, and 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, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED MANNER OF COMBINING
WOOD AND METAL, SO AS TO FORM RAILS OR RODS ADAPTED FOR THE MANUFACTURE
OF BEDSTEADS, CORNICES, AND OTHER WORKS WHOSE STRENGTH AND LIGHTNESS ARE
DESIRABLE, WHICH HE DENOMINATES UNION OR COMPOUND RODS;'" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Samuel Pratt,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describo
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Pratt, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which my improvement is to be performed and carried into effect,
is ascertained and particularly described in and by the sheet of Drawings
chereunto annexed, and the following description thereof (that is to say) :-
My improved manner of combining wood and metal for producing strong
and light rails, rods, or other slender or long component parts of furniture,
utensils, erections, or works, consists in inserting within the substance of the
wood composing my said union rods, throughout the whole length of such
wood, a three-ribbed or three-leaved bar of iron or of any other suitable metal;
to prepare for the inserting of which said ribbed metal bar I employ circular
or other saws, and sometimes use chisels or planes in opening and removing
parts of the said wood exactly corresponding in shape and size with the ribbed
metal bar intended to be inserted; and such ribbed metal bars I prepare of
their exact proper shapes and sizes throughout their lengths (for being so
inserted) either by rolling, drawing, or any other fit means.
Figure 1 represents one of my cylindrical union rods, in which Figure, for
the purpose of explanation, an outer ring of the wood A, A, at each end is
supposed to be removed for the purpose of shewing at such end the edge B, B,
of one of the three ribs of metal composing the internal three-ribbed bar,
which is represented in my several sectional Figures.
Fig. 2 represents a transverse or end section of the rod Fig. 1, wherein
A, A, A, (as before) is the wood, and B, C, D, the edges of its three-ribbed bar
of metal inserted therein for the purpose of increasing its stiffness or strength.
The insertion of the three-ribbed bar of metal is effected by removing, by
means of the saw cut a, b, d, the sector of the wood A, a, b, d, as will be
further explained in describing Fig. 4.
Fig. 3 and 4.represent a similar rod with that already described, except
having a sector thereof removed; and in Fig. 4 is explained the inanner-
(after the sector of wood A, a, b, d, is-removed) of sawing and chiseling or
plancing out the groove e, f, g, h, i, k, l, m, exactly fitted for and ready to
receive the three-ribbed bar of metal, or else by making a second saw-
cut o, n, in Fig. 2, so as to divide the wood into three sectors, the required
grooves in these sectors may be performed whole by sawing, (and without the
necessity of chiseling or planeing, ready and fitted for receiving the three-
ribbed bar of metal.
Figs. 5 and 6 represent in view and section one of my union rods, the
woods of which rods, instead of being cylindrical (as in the cases already
mentioned) is spindle-formed or swelling in the middle parts of its length, but
the same is furnished internally with a parallel ribbed bar of metal, or being
of the same size throughout its length.
Figures 7 and 8 nowise differ, but as to size, from Figs. 1 to 4, except

page_text: in representing an external tube E, E, of brass, of turned iron, or of any
plated or other. fit metal, drawn or drove tightly over the cylinder of
wood and its internally contained three-ribbed bar of metal, which external
tube is represented (merely for displaying it,, in Fig. 7) as being some-
what shorter than the outer ring of wood (A, A,) at each end, and such.
outer ring of wood is (for like purpose of display in the Drawing) repre-
sented as shorter than the internal sectors of wood between the ribs of
inetal. Such external tube (E, E,) is used when very considerable stiffness
is required, and serves (in addition to glueing, as further is mentioned herein).
for effectually binding the parts of my said union rod together, and for
giving it very great strength in proportion to its size and weight.. Thin
external tubes are sometimes used on my said union rods for the purpose of
ornament. In cases where less considerable degrees of stiffness in my said
union rods will suffice for the purposes to which they are to be applied, instead
of the external tube before mentioned I substitute any fit number of hoops.
or terrules of metal tightly drawn or drove over the glued wood. But in
ordinary cases the careful fitting and glueing together of the surfaces in
Fig. 4, a, m, and e, d, (and h, o, when requisite) sufficiently connects or
binds together the wood around its inclosed three-ribbed bar of metal, and
gives the requisite stiffness and strength to my said union rods. The three-
ribbed bars of metal intended for being inserted within my union rods are in
some cases prepared in two parts by hammering and swaging, or by rolling
the said separate parts, and then I join these parts together, either by screws,
by riveting, by soldering, or by brazing, or by other fit means; that is to say,
in Fig. 4 two of the ribs or leaves m, b, e, f, g, k, l, are formed in one piece,
and the other rib g, h, i, k, in another piece, and these pieces are afterwards,
joined together, as already is mentioned herein. The smaller sizes of my said
three-ribbed bars for the purposes aforesaid may be drawn into shape in the
manner of forming pinion wire, but for larger purposes I prefer rolling of the
iron in a hot state in order to form such bars,, using for this purpose a pair of
rollers such as are represented in section in Fig. 9, wherein F, F, represents
the projecting or male roller, and G, G, the sunk or female roller, mounted in
close contact on their respective gudgeons, adjustable in the usual manner
of rollings mills, and to be turned by any adequate power. The similarly
placed letters of reference in this Figure (9), and in Figure 4, will render
it plain to any person conversant with rolling that the spaces between the
rollers here represented will at the same time roll out and finish three of
the said three-ribbed bars of different sizes ready for insertion within my said
union rods accordingly as described. A less or a great number than three
°

page_text: bars, and either of one size or of different sizes, may be rolled at the same
I do not limit
time, adapted to the power and size of the rolling mill used.
myself to any particular dimensions of wood combined in or with my said
union rods, or as to its external or outside shape, making such union rods
externally either round, elliptical, or polygonal, such outside being either of
the same or of different dimensions in different parts of its length, and I
encase with a tube, or else I hoop or otherwise join and finish the outsides
thereof as occasion may require. In like manner, as to the internal three-
ribbed bar of metal, I occasionally vary the width and thickness of the said
ribs according to circumstances and the different uses to which my said union
rods are intended to be applied. Now whereas such a combination of wood
and iron as is herein-before described for the purposes aforesaid, and which
I call union or compound rods, is, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do therefore hereby
declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe
this my said Specification doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve
or disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and
privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Pratt, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.