CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN BUILDING THE WALLS OP HOUSES AND OTHER EDIFICES
Year: 1839

page_text: MOGERS, OT
Dristor, Merenant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixteenth day of September, in the third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Stephen Rogers, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Stephen Rogers, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, and such others as I, the said Stephen Rogers, my executors,
adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN BUILDING THE WALLS OP HOUSES AND OTHER EDIFICES;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Stephen
Rogers, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe 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 Her
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

page_text: 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
Stephen Rogers, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed and to the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The object of my Invention is to economise both materials and time in the
building of walls of bricks or other regularly formed blocks of earth or stone
or other suitable materials; and this I effect in the following manner :-Let
it be supposed that an ordinary nine-inch wall is required to be constructed,
I commence by forming a foundation in the usual manner, that is, by laying
single bricks or other material, so as to constitute solid nine-inch work. This
done, I place on the foundation the large portion of the bricks or other blocks
edgewise in close connection at their ends and sides, their broad flat faces
standing perpendicularly, and leaving a hollow space between the back and
front ranges of such bricks, &c. placed edgewise; and in order to strengthen the
work and give it a sufficient degree of stability, I place a tye brick trans-
versely in the wall at every third brick of the back and front ranges, and thus
hold or connect the two sides or faces of the wall firmly together.
In order that my Invention may be more perfectly understood, I have shewn
in the annexed Drawing the manner of placing the bricks or other blocks
of which the wall is constructed.
Fig. 1, a plan of a portion of a brick wall, and Fig. 2, an elevation of
the same, in progress of erection according to my improvements. a, a, a,
is the foundation, formed of solid work in the ordinary manner, as above
described; b, b, b, b, the bricks placed on their edges upon this foundation,
which are tied or firmly connected together in their proper situations by
the transverse bricks c, c, c. The ordinary dimensions of bricks are as
follows: Nine inches long, four and a half inches wide, and two and a half
inches deep. It is therefore obvious from the difference between the width
and depth of a brick, that if the bricks are placed on edge instead of being
laid flat, as heretofore has been the practice, that fewer courses of bricks
will be required to construct a wall of a certain height and thickness. For
instance, if it be desired to build a wall six feet in height, it would require,
according to the old method, rather more than twenty-eight courses of bricks
each brick being two and a half inches deep; but according to my method, I

page_text: construct a wall of the same height with no more than sixteen courses; each
brick being placed on its side, forms a surface of four and a half inches deep.
It must also be understood, that by this method I not only economize the
bricks or construct a wall of a certain altitude and length with a smaller
number, but a lesser quantity of mortar is required, and owing to the materials
and work being thus economized, a bricklayer will be able to construct a wall
in a much shorter time, and at a considerable reduced cost. When houses
have been erected upon this plan, the internal surfaces of the walls may be
finished by the workmen rubbing off or removing by the friction of a common
brick any inequalities that may be observed on the surface of the work, and
it will then be found that the internal surfaces of the wall may be papered in
the ordinary manner without having received any coating of plaister, which
will be a further saving of materials and workmanship. If a wall of greater
thickness be required, such extra thickness may be obtained by making the
tie bricks of a length equal to the thickness required. From calculations and
experiments that I have made, I find that a saving of one-third in bricks,
one-third in mortar, and the whole of the internal plastering may be obtained;
thus making a total saving of at least twenty-five per cent. in building a house,
with the further advantage of the house being dry enough to inhabit without
danger within a short space of time from the period of its erection, as owing.
to the walls being hollow, they dry much quicker than walls constructed in
the ordinary solid manner.
Having now described my Invention, and the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I wish it to be understood that I claim, as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, the sole right of
constructing hollow walls of bricks, or other blocks, in any situations and
for any purpose, in the manner above described, that is, by placing the bricks
or blocks on edge, and securing them in their position by transverse tie bricks
placed at intervals, by means of which contrivance I economize both labor
and materials in such erections.
In witness whereof, I, the said Stephen Rogers, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty.
STEPHEN (L.S.) ROGERS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of March, in the
third year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Stephen
Rogers came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained
and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of
of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of March, One thousand eight hundred
and forty.