IMPROVEMENTS IN COVERING SURFACES WITH WOOD
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANTOINE
MERTENS, of the London Coffee House, Publisher, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her.
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westmin-
ster, the Twenty-second day of January, in the fifth year of Her reign, did, for'
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Antoine
Mertens, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Antoine Mertens, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Antoine Mertens, my exors, alñiors, 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, my Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN COVERING SURFACES WITH WOOD;" in which said Letters'
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Antoine Mertens, shall
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 Her said 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 and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Antoine Mertens, do hereby declare that the nature of my said improvements,
and the manner in which the same are to be carried into effect, are fully
ascertained and set forth in the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed :—
My first improvement consists in certain methods of combining small pieces
of wood together to form blocks for flooring apartments and halls, paving
stables, streets, and other similar purposes. The first method of combining
the small pieces to form blocks is as follows:-First, the pieces of wood, which
may be of any shape or form, but should be all of the saine depth, are placed
in a frame side by side, and firmly wedged or screwed into close contact.
Grooves are next cut on the under surface, extending from side to side, and
traversing each of the pieces of which the block is composed, and in these
grooves are inserted laths or tongue pieces a, a, Figures 1 and 2. Other
grooves are then cut transversally to the former and partially cutting through
the
tongue pieces a, a, and into these grooves are inserted the tongue pieces b, b;
and lastly, asphaltum, mastic, gypsum, or any other suitable cement, is run
into the grooves and poured over the under surface, which completes the
process; and when the cement is set, the blocks may be removed from the
frames. The pieces of wood composing the blocks may be placed with their
fibres vertical or horizontal, according to the wear to which the surfaces are
exposed.
Another method of forming blocks for the purposes aforesaid is shewn in
Figures 3 and 4, in which a, a, is a plate of cast iron, having cast upon its
upper surfaces dovetailed ribs or fenthers b, b. c, c, are blocks of wood in breadth
equal to the distance between the centre of one rib and the centre of the next;
those pieces are driven in between the ribs, having suitable grooves cut along
their lower edges to receive the ribs. To retain the wood still more firmly to
the metal, any suitable cement may be applied.. If the length of the pieces
should be less than the length of the plate, they should be so arranged ns to
form break joints.
My second improvement consists in a method of combining small pieces of
thin plank so as to form plane or curved surfaces of great extent and strength,
and is applicable to the purposes of flooring and roofing houses, and to the
construction of wainscoting, doors, shutters, &c., as also to the covering of
domes, steeples, and other similar work. The pieces of wood employed for
this purpose may be from one sixteenth of an inch to an inch or more in
thickness, and of any dimensions, say from three to twelve inches square.
Several layers of these pieces are placed one upon the other, so as to produce

page_text: a surface of the intended size and thickness, taking care that the pieces in
each layer shall break joint, as respects each other, and that the pieces in one
layer shall break joint with the pieces in the other layers, as is shown in
Figures 5 and 6. The several layers are then fastened together by pegs,
nails, or screws; they may be further secured at the joints by a coat of
dissolved caoutchouc or of ordinary varnish, or any other suitable gluti-
nous substance; or, if deemed preferable, each layer may be glued to the
next.
In illustration of the above description, I may state that I construct planks
twelve feet long by ten feet wide and one inch thick, by means of pieces
of plank not exceeding ten inches square and one eighth of an inch in
thickness.
In the application of this method to the covering of cylindrical or other
continuous curvilinear forms, the pieces of which each layer is composed
may be arranged spirally around the object that is to be covered.
The third and last of my improvements consists in a method of covering
cast-iron rails for railways so as to protect them in a great measure from the
shocks and the consequent risk of fracture to which they are exposed when the
wheels of the carriages run in immediate contact with the iron rail. In order
to apply this my improvement, I form the cast-iron rail with a groove or
channel on its upper surface, running throughout its entire length, and this
groove or channel (which in its transverse section is of a dovetail form, as
shewn in Figure 7, I fill with blocks of wood, placed with the fibre vertical,
of about three to five inches long, and cut to fit the dovetail groove, so that
the whole of the dovetailed groove is covered by the wood, as shewn in Fig. 8.
I should observe, that according to the purposes to which the different combi-
nations of wood above described may be applied, I submit the wood to any of
the well-known processes for preserving it and augmenting its durability.
And I would further observe, that in some cases I introduce between the
layers or pieces of wood sheets of metal or of paper, felt, cloth, or other
fibrous substances.
Having thus described my Invention, I proceed to state my claims :—
First, I claim the method of forming blocks for covering surfaces by means
of small pieces of wood, joined together by means of keys or feathers crossing
each other on the under side, or by means of an iron plane with dovetailed
ribs, as described under the first head of my Invention.
Secondly, I claim the method of forming a species of continuous covering
for surfaces of almost any extent by the superposition of layers of small