A METHOD OF INCREASING THE STRENGTH OF TIMBER
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
GLADSTONE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Ironmonger, do send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty 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 Twentieth day of September now
last past, did give and grant unto me, the said James Gladstone, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His special license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said James Gladstone, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, 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, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, my Invention of "A METHOD OF INCREASING THE STRENGTH OF
TIMBER;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said James Gladstone, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said recited Letters Patent, otherwise the same utterly to cease, determine,
and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Gladstone, do declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be carried into effect and performed, is
described as follows (that is to say) :—
.
My method of increasing the strength of timber intended to be used in the
construction of bridges, beams, rafters, and roofs of buildings, is by trussing
and combining them together in the following manner:-For constructing
bridges I place longitudinally, and join together by means of iron fastenings
(as represented in Figs. 1 and 2, which will be more fully described hereafter),
as many pieces of timber as will be necessary to reach from one abutment or
pier to another, the ends of which I properly secure, and draw the timbers so
connected to the tension or tightness. I desire, forming thereby a catenarian
curve between the piers or abutments; and, according to the width of the road
or way I desire to make, I place as many of these combined timbers parallel
to each other, and on the same plain, as I think necessary. From the joints of
each timber so connected I suspend other timbers of various lengths, to the
lower ends of which I secure horizontal timbers in order to form the roadway.
For the purpose of constructing beams, rafters, and other parts of buildings,
I take three pieces of timber, all of them the required length and scantling,
and place them either close together side by side, or a little distance apart, and
at the ends of the two outermost, see a, a, I cut dovetails to fit into corre-
.sponding mortises b, b, cut into and near the ends of two short cross pieces c,
as shewn at Fig. 3. Through the middle of each a powerful screw d having
been placed, I then subtend the middle timber by means of the screws acting
on the ends (previously prepared with iron) of the middle timber, as shewn at
Z, Z, Fig. 4, which causes the two end pieces to belly and press upon the ends
of the two outside timbers, thereby causing them to rise or camber upwards in
the middle. I then wedge up the ends of the middle timber (or the screws
may be left in), and I proceed to brace the three timbers in their places, as
.shewn in the sections Figs. 5 and 6. In Figs. 1 and 2 are represented plates
of iron a, a, properly secured to the ends of each longitudinal timber, having
such a corresponding hole through them to receive the pin-b so as to form a
joint. Likewise in Figs. 1 and 2 is represented the perpendicular or suspended
timber C, destined to support its part of the road by having at the lower end
a mortice to receive the cross timbers to form the road.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Gladstone; have hereunto set his
hand and seal, the Eleventh day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-two.
JAMES (L.s.) GLADSTONE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eleventh day of March, in the
third year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth, the said
James Gladstone came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument afore-
said was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth
year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of March, One, thousand eight hundred and
twenty-two.