IMPROVEMENTS IN GLASS LIGHTS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Theodore Defflis, of Rue Richer, Paris, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GLASS LIGHTS."-A communication
from abroad by Victor Eugene Mauger, of the City, County, and
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Theodore Defflis at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 22nd September 1871, pursuant to the 9th
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, BE IT KNOWN,
I, THEDORE DEFFLIS, of Rue Richer, Paris, am in possession of an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GLASS LIGHTS," which has been com-
municated to me from abroad by Victor Eugene Mauger, of the City,
County, and State of New York, one of the United States of America.
And I, the said Théodore Defflis, having petitioned Her most excellent
Majesty Queen Victoria to grant unto me, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, Her Letters Patent for the said Invention, do. hereby,

page_text: declare the following written statement to be a full, clear, and exact
description of the construction and operation of the same, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawings, making a part of the
Specification, in which Figure 1 is a front view, and Figure 2 is also
a front elevation of one of the improved glass lights; and Figure 3 is a
vertical section of the same taken in a line from X to X, Figure 1.
The object of this Invention is to construct a beautiful cheap glass
light for windows, lanterns, and other purposes, which shall be more
ornamental and less expensive than plate glass, and which shall be
less liable to damage by fracture than any other glass lights now in
use.
In the Drawings S represents the sash, and A the glass light which
it supports. This light is composed of a series of parallel bars, rods, or
sticks A, A, A, of solid glass, the ends of which are confined in the sash
by any suitable means. The rods may be of any color according to the
fancy of the proprietor. By arranging rods of different and variegated
colors a beautiful effect may be obtained. The cross section of the rods
may be round, square, hexagonal, or any other form preferred; their
ends, extending into the sash, may be packed or protected with rubber,
felt, or cloth, or in any other suitable manner if desired, to counteract
any sudden shock or jar of the window or door.
The advantages of thus constructing the lights are manifold and
obvious, besides the beautiful appearance it gives the windows. The
original cost of a light thus constructed is not more than one-third as
compared with the cost of the plate glass commonly used for windows,
and in the larger sizes of lights not more than one-fifth. The lights
thus constructed can be made of any kind of glass. The purest and
finest varieties of colorless flint glass can be employed as easily as any
other kind, whereas if the lights are constructed as heretofore; whether
plate glass be used or not, only the poorer qualities of glass can be
employed at all, as it has hitherto been found impracticable to make
window lights of flint glass; and a kind of glass not colorless, but that
having a greenish or pinkish tinge, has always been used for the
purpose. This difficulty is entirely obviated by my Invention.
It is obvious that if a stone be thrown through my improved light,
or it be fractured at any point by the contact of any hard substance,
the fracture will be merely local, not extending beyond the rods with

page_text: which the stone or other object comes in actual contact. The rods
thus broken can be readily taken out, and their places filled by others
at the most trifling expense; whereas if the lights were of plate glass,
a costly and valuable plate would be entirely ruined by the accident.
The lights can by these means be made of any thickness which will
ever be required, one-eighth of an inch, one inch, two inches, or even
thicker if needed. They can thus be made to answer not only for doors
or windows, but for sky lights, vault lights, and so forth.
By doubling the series of rods, and arranging one series across the
other at different inclinations as shown in Figures 1 and 3, very beautiful
effects may be obtained.
Variegated colors may, according to the inclination of the two series
of rods, be thrown into squares or spirals, the beauty of which can be
appreciated only by an actual view.
Having now fully described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the
same into practical effect, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by
Letters Patent is, a glass light constructed of solid glass rods arranged
in the manner described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Theodore Defflis, have hereunto
set my hand and affixed my seal, this Eighteenth day of Sep-
tember in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-one.