IMPROVEMENTS IN FIXING FROST SCREEN AWNINGS AND NETTING FOR PROTECTING WALL-FRUIT TREES, IN FIXING TRELLIS FOR TRAINING FRUIT AND OTHER TREES TO WALLS, AND IN BRICKS THEREFOR
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Anthony Wheeler, of Swindon, in the
County of Wilts, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIXING FROST
SCREEN AWNINGS AND NETTING FOR PROTECTING WALL-FRUIT TREES, IN
FIXING TRELLIS FOR TRAINING FRUIT AND OTHER TREES TO WALLS, AND IN
BRICKS THEREFOR,"
"
Sealed the 28th July 1865, and dated the 1st February 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Anthony Wheeler
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st February 1865.
I, CHARLES ANTHONY WHEELER, of Swindon, in the County of Wilts,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
FIXING FROST SCREEN AWNINGS AND NETTING FOR PROTECTING WALL-FRUIT
TREES, IN FIXING TRELLIS FOR TRAINING FRUIT AND OTHER TREES TO WALLS, AND
IN BRICKS THEREFOR," to be as follows, that is to say :-
I fix the trellis, battens, or main laths singly or in frames to notched bricks,
formed as herein-after described, so that a square yard, more or less, of the.
trellis, awning, or netting can be instantly put up and secured in position or
removed by simply lifting it into or out of the notches. The battens when
dropped into the notches are fixed and secured by a wedge or two being put in
between them and the wall, and thus the back of the trellis, as well as the
[Price 8d.]

page_text: brauches trained thereto, are kept clear of the wall for a free circulation of
air and for the wet to run down behind them. The trees or branches may be
trained in any of the usual ways. For protecting the buds and bloom from
frost, and the fruit from wet, birds, and other injury, along the top rail of the
trellis, or along a single batton fixed as before mentioned for the purpose, I
place a light metal wet and frost screen shelf, the outer edge of which is
furnished with hooks or rings, and to which I attach an awning or netting, as
the case may require. The wet and frost screen itself is made of an angular
form, or with a dipping flange, or knee irons at the back, so that all that is
required to fix it is to drop the dipping flange or knee irons in between the
trellis or batten last mentioned and the wall; the rain falling upon the shelf
is thus caught and conducted behind the trellis, while the buds, bloom, and
fruit are protected by the awning and netting, which are also prevented from
rubbing the bloom or fruit by the shelf projection.
The notched bricks are introduced when building the walls, or apply the
same to those already erected by withdrawing the required number of
common bricks and inserting the notched ones; the latter, in either case, are
put in at about three feet apart horizontally, and as required vertically.
The notch is formed in a projecting knuckle or rib on the side or end of
the brick, or in some cases in the top or bottom of the end part of the
brick itself. The battons extend from about midway in one notch to the
centre of another, and are simply dropt in as before described. By
inserting one notched brick over another a rectangular hole is formed for
receiving the end of the batton, and by distributing the notched bricks over
the whole surface of the wall the tree branches can be secured directly to the
knuckles by simply dropping a bass string, wire, or other tie across and into
the notch, then bringing it round the branch and tying it there. The notch
may be also vertical when required.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Anthony Wheeler in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st August 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
ANTHONY WHEELER, of Swindon, in the County of Wilts, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-seventh year of Her

page_text: reigu, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Anthony Wheeler, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Anthony Wheeler, my executors, administrators, and assigus, or such others as
I, the said Charles Anthony Wheeler, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times therealter 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 FIXING FROST SCREEN AWNINGS AND NETTING FOR PROTECTING
WALL-FRUIT TREES, IN FIXING TRELLIS FOR TRAINING FRUIT AND OTHER TREES
TO WALLS, AND IN BRICKS THEREFOR, "upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Charles Anthony Wheeler, 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 Charles Anthony Wheeler, 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:-
The improvements which constitute this Invention are described generally
in my Provisional Specification, deposited in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st day of February 1865, No. on the Record 287, and are fully
explained and illustrated by this Specification and accompanying Drawings.
In carrying my said improvements into effect and practice I wish it to be
understood that I do not confine myself to the precise arrangements and
dimensions of the details shewn upon the Drawing as regards the improved
frost screen, shelf, trellis, and fixing media and bricks, as the same may be
modified, and their respective arrangements, sizes, and proportions varied as
circumstances may require.
And I would further observe, that I do not claim or include as my Inven-
tion a ribbed brick with a perfect bole therein; but that I restrict myself to
the simple notch, herein-after described, such notch being formed either in a
kuuckle projecting from the side or end of new bricks.
TYDLANATION ON MUR DRAWING

page_text: the mode of fixing the shelf, and shelf-supporting batten; Fig. 3 is a plan
view of the batten-carrying brick, with a knuckle and single notch; Fig. 4
is a front view of this brick; Fig. 5, an end view thereof, and Fig. 6, a
section through C, D, (Fig. 3), shewing the brick with a notch at the top
and bottom of the knuckle.
In building a wall with these bricks the knuckles form the projections
a, a, a, Fig. 1, and when one brick is inverted over the other the mortised
holes b, b, are thereby formed, the joint of the knuckle c (Fig. 3) being
filled with mortar or cement, or left open as may be required; into these
mortised holes the shelf-supporting batteus & are inserted, leaving a space
between them and the face of the wall e, into which space behind the
knuckles filling pieces of wood or wedges are pushed for fixing the battens
in position; is the frost screen and awning-supporting shelf, having the
legs g, g, fitted thereto, the bottom ends of these legs are dropped in behind
the battens, and are thus self-fixed, all being removeable at pleasure; h, h,
are small hooks along the edge of the shelf for attaching the awning or
netting i, i, thereto at the top; the bottom of this awning or netting may be
secured to a similar batten inserted in the knuckle at j, with the hooks /
therein (see Fig. 2), or it may be pegged to the ground.
In applying this improvement to old walls it is effected by drawing a brick
or couple of bricks at a and z (Fig. 1) and inserting in their places the
whole or a portion of one or more of the bricks as shewn at Figs. 3, 4, 5,
and 6. The battens may be fixed in one brick at each end by making the
notch in the knuckles a little deeper, using a wedge for fixing, as before
described. In this case the battens could be lifted in and out without
moving them laterally; the hole formed by inverting one notch over another
gives greater strength in fixing the batten. The batten has then to be passed
into the holes endways, and their ends reduced in thickness to allow them
to pass each other, or they may be halved as shewn at Fig. 11, where
d and d¹ are the ends so halved; e, the knuckle, and f the fixing wedge;
g, g, the space between the batten and the wall. The ends of the battens
may simply meet and not pass each other, as shewn by the dotted lines 4, 4,
Fig. 7, or they may be chamfered horizontally, or fitted in any other suitable
way.
".
Fig. 7 shews a front elevation of part of a wall having my second
improvement or mode of fixing trellis for training fruit and other trees
applied thereto; Fig. 8 is a plau view of the same; Fig. 9, an enlarged
section of the wall at E, F, and Fig. 10 a corresponding sectional elevation.
This wall is supposed to be built with knuckled bricks notched as shewn

page_text: at Fig. 6, the knuckles being placed one over another so as to form the
ribs, piers, or buttresses a, b, having the mortised holes c, c, therein from top
to bottom. These ribs or piers serve the double purpose of strengthening
the wall and of affording means for fixing the trellis battens d, d. These
battens are formed and inserted in the same way as explained under the head
of the frost screen improvement. e, e, are trellis bars or laths attached to the
trellis battens, to which bars or laths or the battens themselves the branches
may be wired or tied, as shewn at 1, 1, Fig. 7; the trellis battens have
screws, or cheese, or flat-headed studs or nails in them, as shewn at 2, 2,
Figure 10, and the bars or laths have holes in them, as shewn at 3, at the top
and bottom; the enlarged portion of these holes will pass over the heads of
the screws or studs, and by dropping the bar into the position here shewn
they are self-fixed, and can be removed at pleasure, or the horizontal and
vertical laths may be tied together with copper or annealed iron wire, or be
secured together in any other suitable manner. When the joint between
two knuckles is left open, that is to say, when it is not filled with mortar or
cement, the notches can be made available for tying the branches thereto,
the last or wire being inserted therein, as shewn at the dotted lines x, a,
Fig. 7, the ends being brought round the branch and tied in front, as shewn
at z, but I prefer filling the joints with cement or mortar, and thus strength-
ening the wall by the pieces thus formed.
One of the great advantages of my improved mode of fixing the trellis, as
herein described, is, that it keeps the tree and fruit clear of the wall, leaving
a free space for the circulation of air between them. Another advantage
arising from this, coupled with the use of the shelf, is, that the rain which
would otherwise injure the fruit when ripening, is caught by the shelf,and thus
runs down the open space, above described, clear of the tree, the water being
uninterrupted in its descent the wall soon becomes dry, and the injury which
frequently arises from a damp wall and the water lodging along the branches
is prevented. The trellis bars and the supporting battens can be fixed or
remove entire with the trained branches attached thereto when it is desirable
to lime or wash the wall behind, or the trellis bars can be removed and
replaced singly for being painted, stained, cleaned, or renewed; the operation of
removingandrefixingbeingcapableofbeing performedalmostinstantaneously.
In applying this improvement to old walls, two of the ordinary bricks are
withdrawn, and those of the improved or knuckle form inserted precisely as
before described. The notched knuckles are formed at the sides and ends of
the bricks, and in some cases across the bed or in the side of the same, or a
channel or dovetail groove may be cut from top to bottom of existing walls,

page_text: and the knuckle pieces made of a corresponding shape at the back, and set in
cement so as to form the batten pier, or old bricks may have the notches cut
therein, and need by bringing their unds forward from the face of the wall co
as to form mortised holes or notches for receiving and supporting the trellis
Prorizontally or vertically.
and the knuckle pieces made of a corresponding shape at the back, and set in
cement so as to form the batten pier, or old bricks may have the notches cut
therein, and used by bringing their unds forward from the face of the wall co
as to form mortised holes or notches for receiving and supporting the trellis
Prorizontally or vertically.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Anthony Wheeler, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of July, in the year of
as to form mortised holes or notches for receiving and supporting the trellis
rorizontally or vertically.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Anthony Wheeler, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Anthony Wheeler, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
C. A. WHEELER. (L.s.)