CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ROOFING
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CUBITT, of Gray's Inn Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Builder, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of January, in
the third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Cubitt, my exors, admors, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
William Cubitt, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said
William Cubitt, my exors, admors, 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 that part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ROOFING;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said William Cubitt, should cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, to be enrolled 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
William Cubitt, do hereby declare that the nature of my said invented
improvements in roofing consists in forming a roofing of boarding for the most
part of only one thickness, the boards of which roofing are so shaped by means
of a peculiar mode of cutting, to be herein-after described, and so put together
that they form in their combination a series of ridges and channels or furrows,
which throw and carry off any rain which may fall upon them with great ease
and certainty, and which description of roofing is cheaper and lighter, and
therefore better adapted to many purposes, than any other sort of roofing here-
tofore in use; and I declare that the following is a particular description of
the manner in which the said Invention is to be performed, reference being
had to the explanatory Drawings, Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, hereunto annexed
(that is to say)-
I take a board of any width and thickness, but the dimensions which I
prefer are a width of seven inches and thickness of an inch and a half, and I
cut this board into two equal three-sided pieces, in such a manner that the
face of the one is ridged and that of the other channeled or furrowed. Sup-
posing the board to be of the said preferred dimensions of seven inches in
width and one and a half in thickness, as represented in Figure 1, which is a
transverse section of such a board, I adjust a circular saw to cut three and a
half inches, so that on the board being applied to it edgewise it shall reach
only to its centre, and instead of holding the board to the saw in a vertical
position, I keep it inclined a little to one side, say, to the extent of two or
three degrees less than an angle of ninety. The saw under these circum-
stances will make an angular cut into the centre of the board, as represented
in Figure 1 from a to c; I then shift the board and present the opposite edge
of it to the saw, keeping the board inclined as before, when a corresponding
cut on the opposite edge from 6 to c is effected, and the separation into two
three-sided pieces completed, both pieces being flat at bottom, but the
one being ridged on the face and the other channelled or furrowed. A
number of such shaped boards having been in this way obtained, and of a
length suitable to the dimensions of the building or other structure desired
to be covered in, the roof is formed in the manner represented in the
perspective elevation, Figure 2, that is to say, the common rafters are
dispensed with and principal rafters only (A, A,) made use of, tied and
stayed as usual, upon which principal rafters are placed the purlins P, P,
to which the boards B, B, are nailed, a ridged and a channelled board being
laid on alternately, so that each ridged board shall overlap two channelled
ones, as shewn separately in the sectional view, Figure 3. The surface of a

page_text: roof thus formed will be found so well adapted to throwing and carrying off
the rain-water that a very slight degree of overlapping will in general suffice
to make it sufficiently close and tight for all ordinary states of the weather;
but as a little water may happen to find its way through when there is a long
continuance of rain, or when the rain is accompanied with wind and projected
against the roof in a slanting direction, I let into the under sides of the pur-
lins fillets of wood f, f, for the reception of such water, which fillets have a
fall towards one end, where they drain into similar fillets attached to the prin-
cipal rafters, by which last fillets the water is carried off; a separate view on
a large scale of a purlin fitted with one of these fillets is, for the sake of
greater clearness, given in Figure 4. Cases may occur where the price of
wood is so high as to make economy of material an object of more importance
than neatness or completeness of finish, and in such cases, instead of cutting
the boards out of an inch and a half planks as I have before recommended, a
number of boards may be cut in manner before described out of the log or
out of thick planks, but in all such cases the two outer boards only will be flat
at bottom, and all the others will be ridged on one side and channeled on the
other, and may be used indifferently, either with the ridged or the channelled
side uppermost, providing always the alternate order herein-before directed
to be followed is observed.
And having now described the nature of my said invented improvements in
roofing, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I declare that
what I claim as of my Invention are, the methods herein-before described of
making water-tight or nearly water-tight roofs of boarding, and that boarding
for the most part of only one thickness; and though I have directed that the
boards of which the said roofing is to be formed should be sawn angularly in
the manner before described, I declare that I have had regard in this to the
readiness with which the common circular saw may be made use of for the
purpose, but that I am well aware certain other forms might be given to
the said boards, which would produce lines of quicker descent, and that I
claim an exclusive right to use all such forms for the purposes of my
said Invention wherever circumstances may render it advisable to prefer
the same.
And such my invented improvements in roofing being to the
best of my knowledge and belief entirely new, and never before used
within that part of Iler said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, or in any of Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and
that I do verily believe that this my said Specification doth comply in

page_text: all respects fully and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the
said herein-before recited Letters Patent contained, wherefore I hereby claim
to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Cubitt, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty.