AN IMPROVED AND ECONOMICAL CONSTRUCTION OF COTTAGES, APPLICABLE ALSO TO VARIOUS OTHER DESCRIPTIONS OF BUILDINGS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Wallace Elmslie, of Great Malvern, in the
County of Worcester, Architect, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED AND
ECONOMICAL CONSTRUCTION OF COTTAGES, APPLICABLE ALSO TO VARIOUS OTHER
DESCRIPTIONS OF BUILDINGS."
Sealed the 10th May 1864, and dated the 16th November 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Wallace Elmslie
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th November 1863.
I, EDMUND WALLACE ELMSLIE, of Great Malvern, in the County of
Worcester, Architect, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED AND ECONOMICAL CONSTRUCTION OF COTTAGES, APPLICABLE ALSO
TO VARIOUS OTHER DESCRIPTIONS OF BUILDINGS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in constructing these buildings by means of a frame-
work of timber in squares or forms, which may be produced by multiples of
any given dimension to admit of this framework being prepared by machinery.
A convenient dimension would be three-feet squares, which would admit a

page_text: due proportion in area and height, such as twelve feet square, nine feet high,
eighteen feet square, twelve feet high. This being done and the frame put
together and erected, the spaces between the timbers may be filled in with
brick or stonework of any kind, or with any other suitable building material,
which the neighbourhood may afford. Cottages built on this principle may
be erected in a very short time, as the roof can proceed whilst the walls are
being filled in, and the cost will be very low.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edmund Wallace Elmslie in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 14th May 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
WALLACE ELMSLIE, of Great Malvern, in the County of Worcester, Architect.
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Edmund Wallace Elmslie. Her special license that I, the said
Edmund Wallace Elmslie, my executors. administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Edmund Wallace Elmslie, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter 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 "AN IMPROVED AND ECONOMICAL CONSTRUCTION OF COTTAGES,
APPLICABLE ALSO TO VARIOUS OTHER DESCRIPTIONS OF BUILDINGS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Edmund Wallace Elmslie, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Edmund Wallace Elmslie. 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

page_text: following statement (reference being had: to the Drawings hereunto annexed;
and to the letters and figures marked thereon), that is to say:--
My Invention consists in constructing these buildings by means of a frame-
work of timber in squares or forms, which may be produced by multiples of
any given dimension to admit of this framework being prepared by machinery.
A convenient dimension would be three-feet squares, which would admit a
due proportion in area and height, such as twelve feet square, nine feet high,
eighteen feet square, twelve feet high. This being done and the frame put
together and erected, the spaces between the timbers may be filled in with
brick or stonework of any kind, or with any other suitable building material,
which the neighbourhood may afford. Cottages built on this principle may
be erected in a very short time, as the roof can proceed whilst the walls are
being filled in, and the cost will be very low.
The annexed Drawings, consisting of a plan, elevations, and sections of a
one-storey cottage, illustrate the manner in which prefer to carry out my
Invention, and they are sufficient to shew the mode of construction, which is
equally applicable to various other forms and sizes of buildings.
The parts marked (a) shew the timber framework formed of timber cirt
out, and the joints prepared by machinery, the regular sizes and forms of the
squares or compartments, and their simple repetition in number, admitting of
machinery being employed. The joints also consisting of merely halving the
timbers at their intersections, and bolting or screwing or even pegging and
nailing them together involve a very trifling amount of labor beyond machine
work, especially when secured, as I prefer they should be, by the use of a
screw formed as shewn enlarged in the Drawing, and which consists of a male
and female screw; these meeting through the timbers thoroughly secure the
joints, or the female screw may also have a male screw on the outside of the
tube, as shewn at (x), by which probably still greater security would be
obtained. It will be seen in the Drawings that the same principle of timber
framing is found throughout the structure internally as well as externally, the
black dots on the plan representing the position of the vertical timbers, so
that the entire framework of the cottage may be put together, and the roofing
may proceed whilst the compartments of the skeleton frame are being filled
in; this would save considerable time in the erection. For a brick and timber
building the size of the compartments of the frame should be fixed, so as to
avoid any cutting of the bricks, and this would be done by making each com-
partment about three feet one inch square; for stone or other filling this is
less essential.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in

page_text: which the same is to be performed, I claim the improvements in the con-
struction of cottages and other buildings, substantially as herein more fully set
forth and specified.
12.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Wallace Elmslie, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
EDMUND WALLACE ELMSLIE. (L.S.)