Adjustable Level or Inclined Floor.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Dec., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 18th Mar., 1895-Accepted, 27th Apr., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Adjustable Level or Inclined Floor.
I, JAMES BARNET, Cabinet Maker, Number One hundred and twenty-six
High Street, Kirkcaldy, N.B. do hereby declare the nature of this invention to
be as follows:-
£6
A system for constructing a hall floor in such a manner that said floor may be
either level, (to suit it for dancing or other purposes), or that it may be lowered at
the front end and raised at the other or back end, so as to suit, for instance, an
audience sitting looking towards a stage. The floor itself is practically of ordinary
construction, (slightly varied to meet the strain of temporarily hanging over the
centre), but it is balanced, and the power required is so little that for a fairly large
ball, say fifty feet by forty feet, the ordinary hall-keeper would be quite able to
move the floor and give it the necessary slope by manual labour, without assistance.
The construction of the dwarf walls on the ground is such that when the floor is
to be level, a series of wedges, screws, or cams "between the girders and dwarf
walls support the front half; and when wanted sloping, the wedges, screws or
" cams
are withdrawn in front, and put on the dwarf walls at the back half, all
fitted and marked to position. The construction of the main bearers or girders
will differ according to the length of floor, but in every case the principle of the
invention is the working over the centre, and so adjusting the floor, propping up
the one half by wedges, screws or "cams," whether the floor be in a raised or level
position. The dwarf walls of the back half will be level, and the walls of the
front half will slope from the centre or pivot of the floor to the front, the amount
of the "dip" at the front being exactly one half of the total height to which the
back of the floor will be raised above the front when on a slope.
"
Dated this Tenth day of December 1894.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Adjustable Level or Inclined Floor.
I, JAMES BARNET, of 126 High Street, Kirkcaldy, North Britain, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My invention has for its object to construct the floors of halls or other buildings
so that they may be either made level for dancing or other purposes for which a
level floor is necessary or to lie on an incline or slope the back end being higher
than the front, so as to suit for instance an audience sitting looking towards a stage
or platform.
In order that my invention may be properly understood and readily carried
into effect I have appended a sheet of drawing in the several figures of which
corresponding parts are marked with the same letters of reference.
Figure 1 is a side view showing the floor on an incline or slope.

page_text: Figure 2 is a similar view showing the floor level.
Figure 3 is a plan showing the shaft passing between the dwarf walls and
girders.
Figure 4 is an enlarged view of the cam and lever connection.
The floor A is practically of ordinary construction (slightly varied to meet the
strain of temporarily hanging over the centre) and is balanced over the centre on
the V-shaped projection B, working in a corresponding V-shaped recess C' in the
bearing C fixed to the block D on the dwarf wall E. At equi-distances apart
there is a series of screws or cams F carried on the shafts G passing between the
dwarf walls E and girders H and which rest on the bearings C of the blocks D,
and to the ends of each shaft there is connected a lever I.
Supposing the floor to be built all on the slope, as shown in Figure 1, when it is
required to have the floor on the level, the cams F on the back part are lowered by
means of the levers I operating on the shaft G carrying the cams, which frees the
back part, and the cams F on the front portion are raised or brought upright in
the same manner, and this brings the floor to the level, the back part then resting
solidly on the after part of the dwarf wall E as shown in Figure 2, and the floor
being balanced over the centre as already described the power required is so little
that for a fairly large hall, say 50 feet by 40, the ordinary hall keeper would be
quite capable of operating the cams to give the floor the necessary slope or to make
it level without other assistance.
Although I have shown levers for operating the shafts carrying the cams
independently, other convenient means may be readily adopted whereby the series
of shafts with camз on the back portion of the floor, or those on the front, may be
operated simultaneously.
It will be observed from Figures 1 and 2 of the drawing that I have not shown
the floor movable to the extreme end of the hall, the object of this being to always
have the entrance on the same level. In this case when the floor is on the level
I provide a step or steps Q leading from the fixed portion K of the floor to the
movable portion.
It will be observed from Figure 3 that I have shown in the left hand side of the
drawing the lever in the corridor, but where there would be no room for it there, a
small recess could be cut out for this purpose, as shown in the right hand side of the
same figure.
In the case of the floor not being the ground floor, the same arrangement could
be used on beams in place of dwarf walls.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
In the floors of halls or other buildings, so constructing them that they can with
very little power be made level or on a slope or incline as may be desired, sub-
stantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore described and shown on the
accompanying sheet of drawings.
Dated this 16th day of March 1895.
BOTTOMLEY & LIDDLE,
154, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, Applicant's Agents.