CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TILES FOR COVERING HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS
Year: 1829

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANCIS
HORATIO NELSON DRAKE, of Colydon House,.in the County of Devon, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS, in consequence of a communication made to me by a certain
Foreigner residing abroad, I am in possession of an Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN TILES FOR COVERING HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS;" and
whereas His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-fifth day of July, in the tenth year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Francis
Horatio Nelson Drake, His especial licence that I, the said Francis Horatio
Nelson Drake, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Francis Horatio. Nelson Drake, my executors, administrators, 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 expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise,,and-vend, within. England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the said Invention; in which said Letters Patent is.

page_text: contained a proviso obliging me, the said Francis Horatio Nelson Drake, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of the 'said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery, within six calendar iñonths next and immediately
after the date of the said 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
Francis Horatio Nelson Drake, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention to consist in a tile so formed as to present when formed into a roof
one plane surface to the weather, which renders it less liable to strip, and
partly to support the tiles next above it on a shelf or ledge, formed upon it for
that purpose, and also so formed as to shed or carry off the water, which
Invention applies to both the tiles hereafter explained. And in further com-
pliance with the said proviso, I, the said Francis Horatio Nelson Drake, do
hereby describe the manner in which the said Invention is to be performed
by the following description thereof, reference being had to the .Drawings
annexed, marked A and B, and to the figures and letters marked thereon

page_text: The Drawing marked B refers to the substitute for the pan tile. Figure 1
represents a single tile. Figure 2, a transverse section; Figure 3, a longi-
tudinal sextion; and Figure 4 shows the manner of uniting or combining
them to form a roof, by which plan it will bé found that every fourth tile that
is laid secures the other three from rising; thus, O being first laid, then P, and
then Q, it will be found that laying R secures the other three; in like manner,
that laying T secures P, S, R, and so on. It is only necessary further to state
that these tiles, both the substitute for the plain tile and the substitute for the
pan tile, are made in moulds in the ordinary way, which moulds any competent
workman will readily make from the drawing of the tile, except as regards the
hollows in the under side of the pan tile, shown at W, X, Figure 1, for
making which I have found corresponding bosses on one part of the striker is
the readiest mode. The clay being put into the mould as usual, that part of
the striker is first used which has the large boss on it, and then that part with
the small boss is run over it to complete the hollow marked W, X, which, it
will be observed, is smaller at the upper end in the Drawing marked B.
Figure 5 represents the striker. The parts marked V are small channels to
lead off the water from the joints where the upper and lower tiles meet or butt
against each other.
Now whereas I claim as the said improvements as regards the substitute for
the plain tile, first, the grooves or channels herein-before described for con-
ducting off the water; and, secondly, the inclined ledge or sheaf which helps to
support the tiles next above it, and which arrangement prevents the roof from
stripping with the wind. And as regards the substitute for the pan tile, the
improved form herein-before described, and manner of uniting them.
And such improvements being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely
new, and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my Specifica-
tion of the same, and that I do verily believe this my 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 the said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Horatio Nelson Drake, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty.
FRANCIS H. N. DRAKE. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of January, in
the year: of our Lord -1830, the aforesaid Francis Horatio Nelson Drake
came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein- contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was:
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty.-