IMPROVEMENTS IN SCREWS. OR EAR
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander. Brown, of the
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SCREWS.
Isle of Wight,
GROUND OR EARTH
Sealed the 28th January 1870, and dated the 18th August 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Brown at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th August 1869.
I, ALEXANDER BROWN, of the Isle of Wight, Engineer, do hereby
5 declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GROUND
OR EARTH SCREWS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in forming the threads of ground or earth
screws for screw piles, moorings, and other similar purposes so that the
pile or mooring can be driven perpendicularly and accurately into the earth,

page_text: instead of canting to one side or becoming displaced during the process
of driving as is the case with the present mode of construction.
I make the threads of the screw in two or more segments, and in
such position relatively to each other that when the pressure caused by
the screwing or driving the piles or moorings into the earth acts against
one face of a segment of a thread of the screw the said pressure is
counterbalanced by pressure acting in a contrary direction on the face
of a segment of a second thread on the opposite side of the pile or
mooring, so that the pressure on the one side being counterbalanced by
the pressure on the other side the pile or mooring is driven perpen-
dicularly and accurately into the earth. If desirable 3, 4, or any suitable
number of threads or segments of threads may be used, and the said
threads can be made of wrought iron, and connected to a cast iron boss.
or the threads and boss can be made wholly of wrought or cast iron or
other metal.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alexander Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 18th February 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
BROWN, of the Isle of Wight, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Alexander Brown, Her special licence
that I, the said Alexander Brown, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Brown, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GROUND
OR EARTH SCREWS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said

page_text: Alexander Brown, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander Brown, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement and accompanying Sheet of Drawings (that is
to say):-
This Invention consists in forming the threads of ground or carth
screws for screw piles, moorings, and other similar purposes so that the
pile or mooring can be driven perpendicularly and accurately into the
earth, instead of canting to one side or becoming displaced during the
process of driving as is the case with the present mode of construction.
In order that my Invention may be clearly understood, I will
describe the same with reference to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings,.
in which Fig. 1 represents an elevation of the lower part of a hollow
pile; Fig. 2 a plan of the same; Fig. 3 a view of a solid pile; and
Fig. 4 a plan of the same.
I make the threads of the screw in two or more segments a, b, and in
such position relatively to each other that when the pressure caused by
the screwing or driving the piles or moorings into the earth acts against
one face of a segment a of the thread of the screw in the direction of
the arrow and tends to cant it on one side the said pressure is counter-
balanced by pressure acting on the face of a segment of the second
thread on the opposite side of the pile or mooring and having a tendency
to force it in a contrary direction, so that the pressure on the one side
being counterbalanced by the pressure on the other side the pile or
mooring is driven perpendicularly and accurately into the earth. If
desirable 3, 4, or any other suitable number of threads or segments of
threads may be used, and the said threads can be made of wrought iron
and connected to a cast-iron boss, or the threads and boss can be made
wholly of wrought or cast iron or other metal.
Having thus described the nature and particulars of my said Invention
I claim, forming ground or earth screws of two or more segments so

page_text: that the pressure on one side of the screw is counterbalanced by an equal
pressure on the other side of the said screw, and the pile thereby driven
into the earth in the required direction, as herein described and illus-
trated in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Brown, have hereunto !
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of January, in the
year of our Lord 1870.
ALEXANDER BROWN. (L.S.)