IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONCRETE WALLS AND BUILDINGS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREIN
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Mingay Tall, of 1, Belvour Road, East
Dulwich, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONCRETE WALLS AND BUILDINGS, AND IN
APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREIN."
Sealed the 2nd December 1873, and dated the 18th August 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Mingay Tall
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 18th August 1878.
I, JOSEPH MINGAY TALL, of 1, Belvour Road, East Dulwich, in the
County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONCRETE WALLS AND BUILDINGS,
AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREIN, "to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements-in the construction
of concrete walls and buildings, and in apparatus to be used therein.
In the construction of a concrete building I proceed as follows:-
Having laid the foundation I erect uprights of angle iron along its outer

page_text: "
and inner faces; the flanges of the angle irons are inwards and in each
case the two uprights forming a pair are connected together by hoop
iron ties or wall gauges. These ties or gauges are of such a length as to
hold the uprights at a distance apart equal to the thickness of the wall,
and they are placed at distances of about 20 inches apart from top to
bottom of the uprights which may conveniently be about 25 feet long.
These short hoop iron ties or wall gauges are connected with the uprights
by long bolts with heads which are passed through holes punched in
them and in the uprights. The bolts are inserted on the inner side of
the uprights and receive nuts of a conical form on the outer side. The
uprights of each pair are further connected by diagonal irons passed
through holes in the inner flanges of the uprights, and secured by screws
and nuts. The several pairs of uprights are tied together by horizontal
hoop irons rivetted to the hoop iron wall ties, and also by diagonals
temporarily fixed to the uprights. The frame having been thus erected, :
panels formed of stout deal boards are clamped to it; they may be
conveniently say 2 feet wide and 20 feet long, and the boards are trussed
to stiffen them. The panel has four holes at its corners, it is placed in
position so that four of the conical nuts already mentioned enter these
four holes and it is fixed by other nuts and washers, which the bolts
receive in addition to and beyond the conical nuts. The front and back
panels are also connected together midway of their length by long coach
screws clamping them up to a distance piece inserted between the
panels; this distance piece is a grooved piece of wood which covers the
stem of the bolt. Panels having been thus fixed along the foundation
and on both sides of it a trough-like space will have been enclosed and
this is then filled with concrete. When the concrete is hardened the
panels are shifted up to the next row of conical nuts and again fixed,
and concrete is filled in as before until the work is complete or until the
the top of the uprights is reached. At this point the uprights are
removed (a wooden filling piece is used to facilitate this operation), but
the wall gauges and other hoop iron is left in the wall, the ends only of
the wall gauges being broken off to free the bolts. The uprights are
refixed if the work is to be carried higher. At the ends of the panels
there are spaces between one panel and the next; tapered filling pieces
are employed to fill these spaces, and they are connected with the
adjacent panels by tongues of hoop iron entering grooves. Before
removing the panels the filling pieces are loosened by driving them
upwards in the direction opposite to the taper.

page_text: The scaffold platforms are formed of trussed planks and are suspended
from over head by suspending rods made in lengths. The platforms are
drawn up after each round of the work has been completed, and a
length is removed from each of the suspending rods.
Where flues occur they are produced by means of cores formed of
sheet metal bent to a cylindrical form, the edges overlapping and being
temporarily held together by studs. Afterwards when the concrete
around the core has set, the edges of the plate forming the core are
disconnected and the core then easily draws.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Mingay Tall in the Great Seal Patent
Office on 18th February 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
MINGAY TALL, of 1, Belvour Road, East Dulwich, in the County of
Surrey, 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 seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Mingay Tall, Her special
license, that I, the said Joseph Mingay Tall, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Mingay Tall,
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 THE CONSERUCTION OF CONCRETE WALLS AND BUILDINGS, AND
IN APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Joseph Mingay Tall, 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.

page_text: .
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Mingay Tall, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :—
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
concrete walls and buildings, and in apparatus to be used therein.
In the construction of a concrete building I proceed as follows :—
Having laid the foundation I erect uprights of angle iron along its outer
and inner faces. The flanges of the angle irons are inwards, and in each
case the two uprights forming a pair are connected together by hoop
iron ties or wall gauges. These ties or gauges are of such a length as
to hold the uprights at a distance apart equal to the thickness of the
wall, and they are placed at distances of about twenty inches apart from
top to bottom of the uprights which may conveniently be about twenty-
five feet long. These short hoop iron ties or wall gauges are connected
with the uprights by long bolts with heads which are passed through
holes punched in them and in the uprights. The bolts are inserted on
the inner side of the uprights and receive nuts of a conical form on the
outer side. The uprights of cach pair are further connected by diagonal
irons passed through holes in the inner flanges of the uprights and
secured by screws and nuts. The several pairs of uprights are tied
together by horizontal hoop irons rivited to the hoop iron wall ties and
also by diagonals temporarily fixed to the uprights. The frame having
been thus erected panels formed of stout deal boards are clamped to it;
they may be conveniently, say two feet wide and twenty feet long and
the boards are trussed to stiffen them. The panel has four holes at its
corners; it is placed in position, so that four of the conical nuts already
mentioned enter these four holes and it is fixed by other nuts and
washers, which the bolts receive in addition to and beyond the conical
nuts. Panels having been thus fixed along the foundation and on both
sides of it a trough-like space will have been enclosed, and this is then
filled with concrete. When the concrete is hardened the panels are
shifted up to the next row of conical nuts and again fixed, and concrete
is filled in as before until the work is complete or until the top of the
uprights is reached. At this point the uprights are removed (a wooden

page_text: Figure 1 is an elevation and Figure 2, a plan; a¹, a¹, a³, a³, &c., are
angle iron uprights which are erected around the foundation, which is
first laid in concrete. They are set in pairs, one at the front and one at
the back of the wall at a distance apart such that the narrower flange
shall project into the wall, and the broader lies flush with its sur-
face. They are so set as to take the ends of the panels, and for this
purpose two pair of uprights a³, a¹, and a³, a³, are set comparatively close
together, say, at a distance of two feet apart, and then there is a long
space, say, about eighteen feet between the uprights a³, a³, and the next
pair a', a. The succeeding pair a', a', is again placed at the shorter
distance, and if the wall be straight the uprights a³ and a will occupy
the same relative positions as a¹ and a³, but in the Drawings, Figures 1
and 2, a corner is shown; and so one pair of these uprights is set at right
angles to the other. The uprights of each pair are held at a distance apart
corresponding with the thickness of the wall by hoop-iron ties or wall
gauges b, b, which are secured by the bolts c, c, and the conical nuts d, d.
Figures 3 and 4 shew these parts to a scale about one-half the actual size,
Figure 3 being a vertical transverse section, and Figure 4 a plan in
section. I prefer that the wall gauges should be dished to stiffen them, as
is shown more clearly by the Figures 5. The wall gauges I also connect

page_text: together horizontally (say, once in every twenty feet from top to bottom
of the building) by other hoop irons e, e, riveted to them. The uprights
are also stayed by diagonals; the diagonals f.f, (see also Figure 6) are
employed to brace together the uprights forming a pair, and 9, 9, are
diagonals extending from one pair of uprights to another; they may be
fixed by the bolts c, c, or separate bolts may be employed. The
diagonals ƒ, ƒ, and 9, 9, are removed when the work reaches them;
h, h, are the panels. One of them is shown separately by the Figures 7;
they are made of inch planks held together_by cross pieces, and braced.
When the frame has been erected these panels are secured to it all round, 1
so as to form a trough to receive the concrete immediately over the
foundations

page_text: walls without shifting the uprights, but when they are higer and must
be shifted twelve feet will be found a convenient length for the
uprights
If the flange of the angle iron is of such a form that it will not draw
easily out of the face of the wall I place a small taper wooden fillet by
the. side of it before the concrete is laid around the upright.
In place of angle iron channel iron formed thus may be used.
These forms of iron are very stiff, and have flat faces, against which to
receive the panels; i, i, shews a scaffold platform, which may be trussed
like one of the panels if desired, it is suspended from over the tops of
the uprights from cross beams k, k, supported on upright poles 2, l; m,
m, are the suspending links. Each is of a length of about twenty inches,
equal to one course of the work. Differential pulleys are used to raise the
platform; they can be worked by the men standing upon it. In this
way the platform is lifted sufficiently to allow of one of the links m to
be removed, and the chain to be again hooked up. This is done first at
one end of the platform, and then at the other. The uprights 1, 1, are
carried up by splicing together scaffold poles as far as the height of
the building renders necessary. The cross beams & as they are reached
are built into the work, and afterwards when the scaffold is taken down
they are driven out. A coating of clay will facilitate this. Door and
window frames are set up and embedded in the concrete, as is now
commonly practised in constructing concrete buildings.
To form flues I use a thin sheet of iron bent into a cylindrical form,
and held together by loops at the edges, passing through which there is
a pin, as is shown in the Figures 8. The cylinder is placed where the
flue is required, and the concrete is filled in around it. When it has
set the pin is drawn out, and the cylinder is collapsed to a smaller
diameter, and then it can readily be removed.
Haying thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I
claim
The manna of and annaratus for constructing concrete walls and

page_text: pancls, such uprights being tied together by hoop iron wall gauges, sub-
stantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Mingay Tall, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of February,
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
JOSEPH MINGAY TALL. (L.S.)