A METHOD BY WHICH HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS OF ANY DESCRIPTION OR DIMENSIONS MIGHT BE ERECTED IN ONE ENTIRE MASS OR BODY AT A MUCH EASIER EXPENCE, ESPE 'CIALLY IN THE ARTICLES OF TIMBER, LIME, AND WORKMANSHIP, AND WHICH WOULD BE EQUALLY AS DURABLE IN THEMSELVES AND LESS LIABLE TO ACCIDENTS BY FIRE THAN BUILDINGS ERECTED UPON THE COMMON CONSTRUCTION
Year: 1796

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
WALKER, of Thurmaston, in the County of Leicester, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said Henry Walker, did by my petition humbly repre-
sent unto His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
that I had, by much study and application, invented "A METHOD BY WHICH
HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS OF ANY DESCRIPTION OR DIMENSIONS MIGHT BE
ERECTED IN ONE ENTIRE MASS OR BODY AT A MUCH EASIER EXPENCE, ESPE
'CIALLY IN THE ARTICLES OF TIMBER, LIME, AND WORKMANSHIP, AND WHICH
WOULD BE EQUALLY AS DURABLE IN THEMSELVES AND LESS LIABLE TO ACCIDENTS
BY FIRE THAN BUILDINGS ERECTED UPON THE COMMON CONSTRUCTION," and thereby
most humbly prayed His said Majesty would be pleased to grant unto me,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, His Royal Letters Patent for the
sole use and benefit of my said Invention within that part of His said
Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His Dominion of
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years,
pursuant to the Statute in that case made and provided; and whereas His
said Majesty, being willing to give encouragement to all arts and inventions
which might be for the publick good, was graciously pleased to condescend to
my request, and therefore, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal
of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of July,
in the thirty-sixth year of His said Majesty's reign, of His especial grace,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, did grant unto me, the said Henry
Walker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence that I,
the said Henry Walker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every

page_text: of them, at all times thereafter, during the term of years in the said Letters
Patent expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend
my said Invention within that part of His said Majesty's Kingdom of Great
Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, in such manner as to me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
any of us, should. in our discretion seem meet; and whereas in the said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that if T, the said Henry Walker, should not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the satiie is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the
said recited Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all
advantages thereby granted, should utterly cease and become void, as in and
by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso. I, the said
Henry Walker. do describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and do declare that the same is to be performed and carried into effect in the
following manner, that is to say:-
In the first place, I take an argillaceous earth or natural clay, which ] select:
examine, and purify by the usual well-known methods, and compound the same
with sand, or broken or pounded pottery, or brick or coal.ashes, or charcoal, or,
in short, with any other of those substances which experience has shewn to be
adapted to form a good, firm, and durable.brick when properly. baked: and T
vary iny composition according to the nature of the component parts them-
selves and the purposes which they are intended to answer, but for common
construction I use the same proportions as brickmakers in general do. I then
proceed to mix, knead, and incorporate the said materials. until the same are
brought to the requisite firmness and tenacity for building, which is nearly
such that the parts of any lump or mass of the same may be readily, incor-
porated with or joined to any other similar mass by moderate blows. with a
wooden mallett, and the occasional addition of a very small portion.of. water..
I call this composition the prepared material.
Secondly, I construct floors, walls, and all other buildings after.my said new.
Invention in such a manner that I can apply the power of fire. from wood, coal,
charcoal, coak, or other combustible matters, not only to the external surfaces
of the said floors, walls, and other parts, but also to the interior parts. of. such.
floors, walls, and other parts, by means of fire maintained in certain.cavities
left within the same. I call these cavities by the name of furnaces..
i

page_text: Thirdly, with regard to the particular forms, dimensions, and relative posi-
tions of the said floors, walls, and other parts of buildings, and the furnaces
left or formed within the same, together with the apertures or communications
for the purposes of ventilating the fires therein, of suffering the volatile matters
to escape, and of converting the whole into one entire mass of brick by a due
communication and continuance of heat; I do here proceed to explain the
general principles and practice relating thereto, by describing the particular
operations of constructing and baking a portion of a strait perpendicular wall
as follows, that is to say:-The ground must be rendered solid and the founda-
tion laid in the usual manner, after which I lay thereon a quantity of my
prepared material, herein-before described, and do beat, ram, or otherwise. press
down the same to the thickness of about six inches, and in width corresponding
with the intended dimensions of the wall, regulated by boards or framing, or
other suitable applications, to the outer surfaces. I then plant upright, at the
distance of about thirty inches asunder, in the said layer or bed of prepared
material, a number of cylindrical pieces of wood, of about nine inches in diameter
each, and eighteen or more inches in length, to serve as moulds for the cavities of
the furnaces; and between each of the said moulds 1 place in the longitudinal
direction of the wall, and parallel to the horizon, a number of pipes, of wood or
other materials, or rods, or other proper masses of combustible or inconibus-
tible matter, for the purpose of forming communications between all the several
furnaces, or as many of them as I think proper. In the next place, I proceed
to form another layer or bed of the material to the same height, namely, about
six inches, and dispose a number of pipes, of wood or other materials, or rods,
or other proper masses of combustible or incombustible matter, for the purpose
of forming communications between the furnaces, as before; and in this
manner I construct the whole or so much of the wall as I apprehend at the
time may be conveniently formed in the raw or unburned state, taking care, as
the work advances, to raise the wooden cylinders, or moulds of the cavities or
furnaces, in order that a sufficient portion thereof shall remain above the
surface of the work to admit of the reception and proper fashioning of cach
subsequent bed or layer; or otherwise, I form the communications between
the furnaces by perforating the wooden moulds in various places at right anglos
to their respective axes, and through the said perforations I pass a bar of iron
or other material, which serves to connect three or more of the said furnace
moulds together, and being afterwards withdrawn, as the work proceeds, cloth
leave a cavity or cavities of communication similar to those formed, in the method
herein-before described, by pipe, or rods, or other masses. And, moreover, I
do, with a carpenter's-augre, or other fit boring tools, open such a number of

page_text: horizontal or oblique apertures or flues into all the furnaces, and also into an
the communication pipes, or rods, or masses, or cavities, as aforesaid, as may
be requisite for admitting a good communication on all sides with the open air;
or otherwise, in some instances I form the said horizontal or oblique apertures
or flues by disposing a suitable number of taper rods in the work along with
the pipes, which rods 1 afterwards draw out.
Fourthly, when the said wall, or so much thereof as may conveniently be
constructed at one time in the raw material, is builded, I suffer the same to
dry spontaneously; or otherwise I dry the same by moderate fires in the
furnaces, which draw in the air by the lower apertures, and emit the heated
air, vapor, flame, and other volatile matters through the upper apertures, and
afterwards, by stronger fires in the said furnaces, or by suitable applications of
fire externally, or by both at the same time, I convert the whole into one
continued mass of brick; and 1 must also observe, that by occasional closing
of the furnaces at top or any of the other apertures, or by opening the samic
or others of the said furnaces or apertures in various parts, according to cir-
cumstances, which the intelligent operator will readily apprehend, I do in
such manner regulate the progress, communication, and effect of the heat,
that the conversion into brick is regularly and uniformily made through the
entire mass.
Fifthly, I do further state and declare, that the dimensions of the furnaces,
the positions and relative distances of the pipes of communication, and the
lateral apertures, and the thicknesses of the layers of the prepared material,
are each and all susceptible of great variations, according to the nature
of the said material, the activity of the fuel, the proposed solidity or figure
of the work, and numerous other obvious circumstances; and that accord-
ingly I do by no means confine myself to the dimensions here given by way
of clucidation.
Sixthly, proceed to form the remaining or subsequent part or parts of
such wall or other edifice to be constructed as aforesaid, by applying additional
portions of the prepared material in contrast with that which hath been
already baked; and in this and every other part of my work, I place and
dispose proper and suitable external and internal moulds, supports, frames, and
other occasional contrivances, well known to builders, for sustaining work, or
forming arches. or determining the figure and positions of soft plastic sub-
stances,
The explanation hereby given is sufficient to enable any builder of moderate
skill to carry my sald Invention into full effect as far as relates to walls,
buttresses, arches, and other perpendicular or oblique parts of edifices. I,

page_text: therefore, do proceed to describe the methods of forming floors and roofs in the
same strong, durable, and uniformly consistent material, forming one mass
with the rest of the building, as follows; that is to say,
Seventhly, I form the ground floor of the prepared material, leaving hollow
spaces between the supports beneath for making fires to burn the same; these
fires are ventilated by side apertures, and the flame and volatile products issue
therefrom through numerous holes previously made in the said floor; or other-
wise, when the said floor is of considerable thickness, I make furnaces therein,
as herein-before described with regard to walls constructed in this my new
method, together with pipes of communication and horizontal apertures and
flues, as aforesaid.
Eighthly, I form the first floor above the ground floor in such a manner
upon suitable temporary framing that the upper surface shall be plane and the
lower surface thereof shall be concave, that is to say, either cylindrical,
spherical, elliptical, or otherwise curved with regard to the lower bounding
line of one or more of its vertical sections, that it may when baked support
itself upon the principle of a low arch, and I do convert the said floor into
brick by means of fire in the apartments beneath, of which the flame and
volatile products issue through numerous small apertures designedly made in
the said floor.
Ninthly, I do construct and bake or burn the other floors above the first floor
and also the roof in the same manner as the said first floor, and in all and
every case and cases of floors, roofs, platforms, staircases, and other horizontal
or oblique parts of edifices, I do occasionally make use of and dispose upon
the surface or within the mass of the prepared materials of which the same
are made, such and so many bars of wood, or metal, or masses of stone, or
baked carth, duly figured and disposed, as may be needful, either for preserving
and sustaining the same in their proper figures respectively until perfectly
baked, or for giving stability and permanency to the same afterwards.
Tenthly, and lastly, I do close the apertures, fill up the furnaces, amend the
cleficiencies or imperfections, adorn the walls, floors, ceilings, or other parts,
internally and externally, by requisite applications of my prepared material, or
otherwise according to the taste and direction of the proprietor of such
building or buildings as I may construct according to this my said new
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Walker, have hereunto set my.
hand and seal, this Sixth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and ninety-six.
H. WALKER.
(L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of August, in
the year above written, the aforesaid Henry Walker came before our Lord
the King in Ilis Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein containeil, in form above written. And also the
Specification 'aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.
Tnrolled the Eleventh day of August in the your above written