AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PAVING STREETS, LANES, ROADS, AND CARRIAGE WAYS IN GENERAL
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HOBSON, of Mark Field, Stamford Hill, in the County of Middlesex, Gentle-
man, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of January now
last past, did give and grant unto me, the said William Hobson, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William
Hobson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said William Hobson, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
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 METHOD OF PAVING STREETS,
LANES, ROADS, AND CARRIAGE WAYS IN GENERAL;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Hobson, by an in-
strument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited

page_text: Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Hobson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
as follows, that is to say :-
Instead of picking up the ground loose (as is the practice in the present
mode of paving), ram the ground on which the paving is to be placed well
down until it is as solid as possible, to a form corresponding with the form the
surface of the paving is to take when finished. The stones should be sorted so
as to be nearly of an equal depth. Mix up gravel or small fragments of stones
with lime and water into a composition or kind of coarse mortar, and lay a bed
(of sufficient thickness to allow for the irregularity of form in the bottom of the
stones) of this composition on the ground which has been previously rammed, and
in this composition place the paving stones and grout them full with finely sifted
gravel or coarse sand mixed up into a liquid state with lime and water, in tho
same proportions as the composition the stones are laid in.
All the paving
done in one day must, on the same day, be well rammed to an even surface,
and when so done it must be again grouted full with fine gravel or coarse sand
mixed up with lime and water as before. This must be done with each portion
of paving on the day on which the paving is executed, and this method of
ramming and grouting must be followed up on each day as the paving proceeds,
and when so done it would (if practicable) be desirable that the part paved
should be left without carriages being permitted to go over it for three or four
days, in order to let the composition of lime and gravel or stone set and harden,
and it will then become firm and solid, and, if the lime is of a proper quality,
impervious to water. This method, if applied to paving done with pebbles or
unsquared stones, will be found advantageous in a proportionate degree to
paving done with squared stones. I recommend that the lime to be used in
this method of paving should be stone or grey chalk lime, as lime of that
description will set and harden in water, and if of a good quality the proportions
of one measure of lime to four or five measures of gravel or small fragments of
stones will be sufficient.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hobson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven.
WILLIAM (L.S.) HOBSON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Seventh day of March, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Hobson came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statuto
in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Seventh day of March, in the year above written.