CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF FRAMING, CONSTRUCTING, OR PUTTING TOGETHER THE ROOFS OF BUILDINGS, CR THE PARTS THEREOF
Year: 1815

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
JONES TOMLINSON, of Bristol, in the County of Somerset, Ironmaster, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Ninth day of February, in the fifty-fifth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Jones Tomlinson, His especial licence, that I, the said Richard Jones
Tomlinson, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, or such others as I, the said
Richard Jones Tomlinson, my exors, adññors, and 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF FRAMING, CONSTRUCTING,
OR PUTTING TOGETHER THE ROOFS OF BUILDINGS, CR THE PARTS THEREOF;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Richard
Jones Tomlinson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Jones Tomlinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained as follows, that is to say:

page_text: In the Drawings or Designs hereunto annexed, and figured 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
and 6, and of which the several parts are designated by the same letters of
the alphabet throughout, excepting in Figure 5, the Design Figure 1 shews,
by a verticle section or orthographic view, the parts of a building, namely:-
U, V, the upright or side walls, and a, b, d, certain blocks or pieces of fit
material cast or formed in one
or more parts, or by preference certain
castings of iron or other metal, placed and fixed upon the side walls to
answer the purpose of the wall plates; and f, the rafters, inserted, fixed,
wedged, or otherwise made fast into holes C, in the wall plate pieces at the
lower extremities of the said rafters, and fixed in the ridge pieces g, i, g, at the
upper extremities of the said rafter. And farther, with regard to the form
and disposing of the said wall plate pieces and ridge pieces, the same are
shewn in the upright section Fig. 1, and in the plans or views Fig. 2 and 3,
and the part coloured blue in Fig. 1. a, b, d, denotes one out of the several
pieces constituting a series, placed upon the wall U or V, and firmly connected
therewith and with each other, by means of the descending parts d, and a
connecting bar passed through the hole e, and serving to keep the said pieces
at due distance from each other to receive the rafters, as seen in Fig. 2;
and also by means of the continuation of the said wall, which is carried up
and completely filled in between the respective wall plate pieces (Fig. 2).
And moreover, as to the said ridge pieces g, i, g, the same may be made
(if cast) in the manner shewn by the blue tint, having the cells h, 9, h₁ 9, into
which the said rafters are to be put sideways, and secured therein by a face
plate of the triangular form g, i, g, which when screwed, bolted, or fastened
against the face of the said ridge piece does complete the cells for the rafters ;
or otherwise (if preferred) the said rafters may be secured in the said
cells h, g, h, g, by bolts or screws, or rivets or wedges, or any similar well-
known means, and the said ridge pieces are correspondent in number and
position with the said wall plate pieces and rafters, and are connected by the
ridge bar S, which falls into the notch i, as is seen in Fig. 3.
m, m, m, &c.
denote notches in the rafters for receiving horizontal bars or coupling bars,
which give steadiness to the said rafters, and assist in
of whatever nature or description the same may be.
piece when the roof terminates in an hip. The letter S denotes the ridge bar,
which enters an hole p, and the slope rafters t, t, enters into correspondent
cells q, r, sideways, which are afterwards closed by face plates; or otherwise
(if preferred) the said rafters may be secured in the said cells by bolts or
screws, or rivets or wedges, or by any similar well-known means; and in case
the end wall of the building be sloped or pointed I do then carry the wall
supporting the covering,
Fig. 4 shews the ridge

page_text: plate pieces along the slope, and fix the same at due distances by a connecting
bar, and by continuing or completing the wall to the upper surface of the said
picces, as herein-before described as to Fig. 1 and 2; but, and excepting
that instead of making the said pieces of the figure there described, I do make
the same as shewn in Fig. 5 (wherein the larger or capital letters of the
alphabet as denote things like or nearly like unto the things denoted in the
other figures by the smaller letters), and do make a cell c to receive the
end of the coupling bar next opposite thereto, instead of an hole to receive
the rafter, as herein-before described. Fig. 6 shews the top of the wall plate
piece at the corner of a building, where the connecting bars inserted through
the several pieces meet at the corner, and into which the slope rafter is
inserted in the same manner as the others.
And lastly, I do declare that the forms, dimensions, and positions of the
several matters and things herein-before described, and in the use and appli-
cation whereof my said Invention of means of framing, constructing, or putting
together the roofs of buildings, or the parts thereof, doth consist, are set forth
by admeasurement from a scale in the Drawings hereunto annexed; but that
the same may also be varied according to the kind or description of building
required to be roofed, and to the different local and other circumstances, and
that the same may with facility be done and performed by any competent
workman, by the exercise of ordinary skill in following the instructions herein-
before given and specified, and in the use, where needful, of such additional
parts for framing, bracing, or securing as are commonly known and adopted.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth
day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred