IMPROVEMENTS IN WATERPROOF FLOORING
Year: 1884

page_text: I WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON Fel. Inst. P.A. of the Liverpool and London
Agency for Foreign Patent Solicitors 6 Lord Street Liverpool in the County of
Lancaster Civil Engineer do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WATERPROOF FLOORING" and in what manner the same is 'to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The following is the communication exactly as forwarded to me by my foreign
correspondent.
The object of the present Invention is the construction of water proof flooring of
an absolute compact character utterly preventing the slightest disjunction in its.
different constituent parts..
We know that water proof flooring has already been made by separating the
upper wood floor from an under flooring composed either of cement, or of some
other similar compound, by some waterproof matter, but to our knowledge these
have never been constructed in such a manner as to adhere in all their different
parts so as to form one compact & indivisible mass.
The annexed Drawings will illustrate our Invention; Figs. 1 and 2 represent a
vertical section and a top view of the flooring.
As it has already been described in a former Patent, the floorings on soil basis
are always adjusted in the same manner, namely by means of tiles; whereas for
those applied to a vaulted basis there are two ways of proceeding.
The floorings adjusted upon soil basis consist in three distinct layers; the lower
one is composed of ceramic tiles of a simple shape, either square or rectangular;
the upper part of these is flat, and they are provided with five conical holes, the
widest part of which is undermost. In view of giving more length to these holes
we form round the aperture of each a sort of enlargement, and these are connected
by ribs.
To construct the floor, the tiles are laid side by side on a flat and very even
surface either of cement or mortar but the greatest care must be taken that the
conical holes remain perfectly free.
Having thus formed a first basis the upper part of which is as smooth as possible,
a layer of boiling. bitumin is poured over the whole. Should the bitumen not boil
it must at least be heated to a sufficient degree to enable its penetrating every hole
and fissure of the tiling underneath and while it is yet liquid pieces of wood
(prepared beforehand for the purpose) are sunk into it. These are meant for the
upper part of the floor. In our Drawings the coating of bitumen is marked by
the letter D.

page_text: The top layer A is constructed in quite a special manner. Each piece of wood is
furrowed underneath with one or several dovetail grooves as shown. The result is
that the liquid bitumen runs into the dovetail grooves of the wooden blocks just in
the same way as it penetrated through the conic holes in the tiles and becoming
solid it forms one compact mass or block of the whole.
In floorings established upon vaults or arches the extrados of the brick work
arches are filled up so as to present an even surface and upon the platform thus
formed is laid the flooring described above in its three parts, and adapted with
either mortar or cement.
The object of the present improvement is represented in the accompanying
Drawings; it consists in a more advantageous system which does not require so
much elevation. Instead of vaults of brickwork we build vaults (either massive or
hollow) of cement terra cotta or any other substance proper to such a use.
We
usually make them of three pieces as represented but we can also construct them
of two or even one piece. The parts placed against the beams are all of one
dimension according to the given height of the beams and by using key stones of
different sizes the vaults may be made to adapt to any breadth whatever between
the beams. The different parts of the vault are brought together in as good
a manner as can be desired the simplest of which is to furrow them with
semi-circular and corresponding grooves which are filled with cement after being
placed.
These arches being concave underneath may be embellished with designs which
will be an ornament to the lower stories. Nevertheless we may also make them
flat underneath. The top of the arches is perfectly flat and has dovetail grooves
made ready to receive the coating of bitumen which will be poured boiling hot over
the vault. The rest of the operation is performed as previously explained and this
last sort of flooring is in a word similar to the other with the only difference that
the underlayer of tiling is done away with and that the arch or vault itself
replaces it.
Having thus described our Invention and the way of putting it into practice we
claim what follows:
1st. The construction of a floor made of ceramic tiles bored through with conical
holes the largest aperture of which is at their basis and of blocks of wood the
bottoms of which are furrowed with dovetail grooves in combination with a
coating of bitumen laid on hot between the two and which by penetrating on the
one side into the conic holes and on the other into the dovetail grooves, constitutes
a species of paving the parts of which are indivisible or inseparable.
2nd. The application of the above described system on to the soil with help of
cement or mortar or upon vaults after having levelled the surface by filling up the
extrados of the vaults."
3rd. The construction of a floor formed by ceramic vaults either massive or
hollow divided into one or more parts being concave or otherwise underneath and
flat on the upper part, the latter being dovetail grooved, in combination with a
layer of bitumen poured on hot between the two and penetrating at the same time
in the dovetail grooves of the tiles and those of the wood floor itself constitute a
paving the parts of which are indivisible and inseparable.
All this as substantially set forth in the above Specification and represented in
the annexed Drawings.
Dated this 29 day of March 1901