IMPROVEMENT IN PAVING OR COVER- ING ROADS, STREETS, AND OTHER WAYES OR SURFACES
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
OLIVER YORK, of Upper Coleshill Street, Westminster, Engineer, and
WILLIAM JOHNSON, of Horsley Iron Works, Staffordshire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifteenth day of June, in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said John
Oliver York and William Johnson, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, the we, the said John Oliver York and William
Johnson, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John
Oliver York and William Johnson, our exors, adñors, or 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, our Invention of "IMPROVEMENT IN PAVING OR COVER-
ING ROADS, STREETS, AND OTHER WAYES OR SURFACES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said John Oliver York and William
Johnson, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled 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 compance with the Sant proviso, we, the sare
John Oliver York and William Johnson, do hereby declare that the nature
of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
are fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures
and letters marked thereon (that is to say):-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 represents a longitudinal section of an iron girder divided into
spaces for receiving the wood blocks, and which blocks may be either placed
in a vertical position therein, or inclined as shown in the section; the
nature of the Invention having reference only to the particular combination
of wood and iron, being entirely independent of the shape or position of the
blocks, which may be varied to suit particular situations and inclinations,
and placed, as shewn at Figure 8, so as to present a series of flats, as now
frequently in the stone pavements, for the greater facility of ascending and
descending steep inclinations. These wooden blocks may be either accurately
fitted into their places, or they may be left from the saw rather larger than
the recess prepared, to receive them, and be afterwards forced into their places
by an hydraulic press or other mechanical means, which is well understood
and practised in the compression of wooden keys for railway chairs and rails.
This mode of compression will cause the block to be firmly seated in the
recess, will have caused a closer adhesion between the fibres of the wood,
which will have become impervious to wet and less liable to decay, without
having been so firmly compressed as to eject the juices of the wood or destroy
its elasticity. The girder for receiving the wooden blocks, as shown at
Figure 1, is intended to bo cast in one piece so as span the streets, where the
width is not inconveniently great, in one length, and thereby rendering any
substrata or foundation unnecessary, excepting at that part where the beam
or girder rest upon the gutters, affording at the same time great facility for
obtaining access to either gas or water pipes, drains or sewers, and forming an
arch across the street, which cannot sink in places however unequal the traffic
may be on the surface. The metal in the beams is so arranged that between
each block or nearly every block there is a drain or space through which all
the dirt from the surface will be washed, and by which means all the water
will immediately flow off so as to keep the pavement constantly dry, which
will, in a great measure, prevent the slipperiness now so much complained of
in all the wood pavements at present in use, and in addition to which the
spaces or grooves between each block will be much wider and afford a far

page_text: more secure footing for horses. The blocks can also be arranged in many
ways so as to avoid the guttering from the wheels of carriages, as shewn at
Figure 2, a, b, c. The small projections at the bottom of the beam for
supporting the wooden blocks in their seats will form a continued flange at
the bottom of each rib from end to end, being exactly the position required for
giving strength to the girder. A cross bar will be cast across the openings
in the girder occasionally, as shewn in Figure 2, and to a larger scale in
Figure 6, to connect the sides of the girder and prevent them spreading out
when the blocks are forced or driven in. In the sides of these girders there
will be occasionally holes through which will be passed a wrought-iron pin, as
shewn at c, c, Figure 6. These pins will always preserve a perfect level, and
would also support a girder should one by any possibility ever become broken,
and will be still more useful where the streets or places to be paved are too
wide to admit of a single girder, and where it may be desired to lay the
pavement upon merely loose dirt or gravel, as, by means of these pins, the
whole surface will be as it were in one piece. These pins are placed in after the
girders or squares (for we do not confine ourselves to the shape of the frames
herein before described) are laid down; the two blocks in those recesses
through which the pins pass being driven in after the pavement is laid down;
and these blocks can at any time be taken out again so as to enable us to
draw out the pins and raise any single beam or square as may be desired.
Figure 6 also shews to a larger scale the flanges for giving strength to the.
girder and the drain between the blocks.
Figure 5 shows the mode of joining the ends of the girders or frames
together where a number of pieces are required to cover a large area; the
two blocks a and b being driven in after the bolt is screwed up. The openings
between the blocks to be, if required, the same width where the beams or
frames join, as where only one bar of iron occurs, as shewn, by giving less taper
to the upper edge of the blocks, as Figure 3. In places where the pavement
may be required to be close and uniform on its surface the lower flange in the
square frames or girders may be dispensed with, and the blocks be supported
by a slight taper in the recess, or by a shoulder alone, as shewn at Figures 9
and 10. Besides the application of this our combination of wood and iron
to the paving of streets, roads, warehouses, yards, and other surfaces, it is also
peculiarly applicable to stables; and Figure 7 represents a section of the
floor of a stall, which may either be paved with blocks vertical or diagonal,
with or without the spaces for drains; this Figure shewing the method with
drainage between each block, as before described and shown in the accom-
panying Drawings. The under floor or drainage may be made of bricks or

page_text: other material for conducting away all urine or water, as shewn at c, c,
Figure 7, by which means the horse's stall and straw would be always dry,
and an immense saving in the litter consequently effected.
We claim,-
Firstly, the combination of wood and iron for pavements and floorings
described in the foregoing Specification and accompanying Drawings, not
confining ourselves to the particular shape of the blocks or frames so long as
we adhere to our principle of wooden blocks in cast-iron frames or open
girders.
Secondly, we claim the arrangement of wooden blocks in connection with
iron so as to prevent a succession of flat surfaces for the greater facility of
ascending and descending steep inclinations.
Thirdly, we claim the use of compressed wood in the paving of streets, and
for the mode of retaining it in its compressed state by means of cast-iron
frames.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Johnson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.