IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS, STRUCTURES, AND ARTICLES OF VARIOUS KINDS, AND IN MACHINERY, APPARATUS, PROCESSES, CEMENTS, AND MATERIALS EMPLOYED FOR THIS PURPOSE
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edwin Robbins at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd May 1877.
EDWIN ROBBINS, of No. 2, Latchmere Road, Battersea, in the County of Surrey,
Modeller. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS, STRUCTURES, AND
ARTICLES OF VARIOUS KINDS, AND IN MACHINERY, APPARATUS, PROCESSES, CEMENTS,
AND MATERIALS EMPLOYED FOR THIS PURPOSE."
This Invention relates to a series of new or improved methods and processes,
mfaterials, plant, and apparatus for the construction in parts or the whole of a house
or other similar structure or building complete, and comprising all arrangements
and appliances required during the progress of the building or otherwise.
It also comprises combined processes and compounds for the production of new
cementitious binding, non-contractive, or shrinkable pottery.
Also in producing shrinkable and contractible pottery materials, or materials of
a kindred nature, such as pottery-like compound, or cementitious binding concrete
pottery, building agglomeration, incorporation, and amalgamation of animal,
vegetable, and mineral substances.
Also in the improved manufacture of useful, plain, ornamental, and decorative
objects, contracting or non-contracting, expansive or non-expansive pottery, cement,
and other ware.
Also in the application of these improvements to building and building operations,
in plain, ornamental, and decorative treatment in new and useful domestic
contrivances, conveniences, and arrangements, being substantial, cheap, and durable.
I will now proceed to describe the manner of performing or carrying my improve-.
ments into practice.
In carrying out part of my present improvements I employ the seggar or mould,
also its composition, and uses, methods, and arrangements of making and working
the same, as herein-after described, or similar kinds of moulds to be employed in
special processes of firing, with one or several charges in the moulds at one time, and
such that will bear sufficient heat, or be protected by the moulds to withstand the
heat required, or that will withstand the necessary pressure, pneumatic, hydrostatic,
inechanical pressure, or otherwise, as required, and for any purpose, as herein
described, for example, where some portions would require to be fired twice or
several times.

page_text: I wish it to be understood that what I mean by seggars are moulds formed of the
following materials, or such that will answer the purposes of firing or not; of filling
in by flushing, flow, brushing, laying, throwing, or otherwise working with pottery,
glass, metal cements, plaster, or other materials by separate or repeated coats, layers, or
charges, as in body or surface, vitrified or petrified decorations, or plain, granular, or
dead surface, flat or other tints and colours in glass, flux, or argil pottery alone; or
other enamels, lustres, and others. The body or backing to be alone employed
before or after the enamels, lustres, colours, and other pigments or chemicals.
I claim the especial use of the above-described contrivances for various purposes
in pottery or pottery bodies, glass, metal, enamels, lustres, colours, or other pigments,
or chemicals, animal, vegetable, or mineral substances.
Any of the above charges referred to can be fired or refired in or out of the moulds,
forms, or surfaces, in any number of times or rotations. These improved processes
have the advantage of such severe tests in the process of working, firing, and
finishing at will, being protected by the seggar or mould, which will enable the
operator to repeatedly fire or refire, the enamels or other materials being previously
dried, fixed, or solidified, set, or fluxed upon the surface of the mould or otherwise.
Also in being fired altogether, or in parts, before or after charging with one kind
or various materials; in coats, layers, or otherwise, decorative or plain; or as
ornamental parts set in or fixed on and protected by the mould or parts previously
prepared and provided for.
The whole can be with great certainty free from joints, seams, or reams, blares,
blemishes, being in but one, or at least but few pieces or parts as a mould, so as to
avoid costly labour of repairing, cleaning up, and finishing, and its consequent
injury.
The seggar or mould being of a slight porous texture, of a stout solid make, as
may be required for the various purposes, may be so arranged, or not, as desired, to
allow the air, water, or vapour to pass off through the perforations, grooves, or
channels of the outer case or saddle which supports the mould, whilst being charged
against the pressure or force employed within, and the air or other exhaust applied
without; or I apply absorption, evaporation, or capillary attraction, or any kind of
natural or artificial suction.
I make the moulds by the same or similar means of charging, as above described,
in relation to casting by pressure. Where a number of moulds are required, I
employ gelatine or other elastic models or originals in the same
or a similar
manner, as described in the Specification of a Patent granted to me, dated 6th
January 1869, No. 41, in which combustible moulds were described; and the
distinction I make now to explain my present improvement is the production of
incombustible moulds, cores, and parts which I employ, as above described. Also
to carry out the same and other processes and operations, as described in the
Specification of the said Letters Patent above referred to, with my present improved
binding materials, and force pump application, with the above means of exhaust and
compounds; for example, the silicate and silica compound alone; or that again
compounded with 1 to 10 per cent. of slaked lime, ground sulphate of lime, or
ground sulphate of baryta, oxide, and chloride of zine; or oxide of magnesia, with
its chloride, has not been previously employed with the foregoing compounds.
I also claim the use of argil, potters' china or other clays, or any of these clays
with the silica alone; and in some cases the silicate, silicato precipitate silica or
silex, either of which I employ alone; or any suitable mineral of the nature of
quartz, or such even as Cornwall stone, which consists of alumina, bydrate of
silicon, or silicon of crystallization, mica, feldspar, and acetate of soda.
Advantageously I employ moulds made principally of silica, finely divided, having
a small per-centage of silicate in some cases, or other materials of a cementitious
binding quality that will not become two friable or fragile before or after firing
(regulating the proportions according to circumstances or requirements, which has
a wide range, as from one to ninety per cent.), or that consisting of a combustible
or partly combustible, as described in the Specification of my previous Patent before

page_text: referred to, with only now adding the above binders; or with the addition of the
limes, or sulphates of lime, or baryta; the above, and the moulds, consisting of
infusible quality, better enables the operator to use materials in the moulds of the
most refractory foreign or opposite nature than theretofore.
Also compounds of the most extreem proportions in quality, quantity, and kind,
for example, that of a vitrifying nature, or consisting chiefly of flux, glass, or that of
the most friable or fragile texture, being enabled to give the goods a greater heat
without risk of fusing to run in the first or flux compound, and with a greater
certainty of more thoroughly fusing in the second or silica compound. It gives
greater diversity by more scope, greater delicacy, richer and purer in quality, kind,
and clear superior appearance, being so protected in the "seggar," die, or matrix;
the counter part of the cast, which first gives and afterwards preserves the impress
of the article in forcing, being thus protected from the fumes of the kiln and.
consequent discolouration.
According to this part of my Invention I claim the use of pure silicate in
solution, silicate of soda, silicate precipitate, or that by preference of a binding
cementitious quality, or that containing a small per cent. of alkaline or acid salts
where necessary to avoid its two easily fusing quality, leaving only sufficient to flux
or vitrify, or bind the pottery ingredients, as the silica biscuits, or even the
alumina burnt or half burned or otherwise prepared. I vary the proportion of
silicate, as the proportion of alumina varies with the silica pottery or other, using
what quantity may be required simply to bind the same, or according to quality or
nature of the materials, or the heat it has to withstand; but when confined within
the combustible mould it gives greater scope for extreme proportions of vitrifying or
non-fuseable qualities of some pottery materials, the purpose for which the same
may be required, as the new system of building construction herein-after described
will give more latitude to diversify the nature of work by employing a greater and
more refractory or foreign kinds of materials; for instance, in some examples the
silicate may be dispensed with, the ordinary pottery or glass alone being sufficient ;
or it may be varied according to the kind or purity of the materials. Some varieties
may contain this extreme as one or ninety per cent. The silicon being of a fireproof
quality when pure, as silica when mixed with the argil, fire or other clays, Cornwall
stone, ferrugineous or other sand stone, or other natural or artificial combinations
of clay and sand marl, and others, or pottery ground, and clay when mixed with
silicate will answer most purposes in a most exceptional manner.
I use the pure silicate in solution with the china clay, silicate precipitate,
Cornwall stone, potters' clay, feldspar, bone, and others, as biscuit silicas and silica
precipitate; this again with colour pigments, chemicals, and other materials for
the manufacture of pottery, work for decorative and other materials of a pottery-
like nature, or otherwise, to be employed in with cement or pottery ware for building
and other purposes.
The same systems I employ with glass, glass lustres, pott metal, or the cementitious
glass-like combination herein referred to for decoration, plastering, flat tints, granu-
lated or plain surface work.
I use the blast to charge the kiln or mould or otherwise to form the body or
surface of a work in slabs, blocks, bricks, or other forms of glass, pottery, cement,
or other materials, separately or combined with other materials, woven or other
fabricated work.
I also use the blast to blow the glass while in moulds and castings, while the
castings are in the moulds or otherwise.
I sometimes have moulds formed of sheets, slabs, or plates of metal, wood, or other
materials, framed or fitted together with slots and slides, the slides passing through
the plates, whereby I obtain one yard cube block or thirty-two nine-inch brick in
the measure at one stroke of a machine, as herein-after illustrated, using any suitable
machinery to compress the same concrete or pulverescent mass of material.
I do not claim specially the Cornwall china stone as a binder alone to form fire-
brick with silex, quartz, biscuit, ganister, or pottery, but in combination with pure

page_text: :
silicate, or as silicate of soda or potassa, or silicate with a small per-centage of lime,
Portland cement, plaster of Paris, oxide of zinc, or magnesite, with its chloride or
not, about ten per cent. of lime, sulphate of lime, or sulphate of baryta; also I judge
about the same per-centage of oxide of zinc or magnesite to the proportions of all
the other materials used. This proportion would be ample where the silicate is
'employed; argilaceous carbonate or caustic lime will not act detrimental if kept at
the least per-centage possible, say, for example, from one to five per cent. to the
whole mass of fireproof material. The proper quantity will be governed by the
size of quartz, silex, or pottery, and the amount of soluble silicate, Cornwall china
stone, Jersey china stone, Middleton hill stone, feldspar, floorspar, alkalies, pulverized
glass, iron ore, pummice stone, boracic acid, or other flux, or any fluxable materials,
natural or artificial, of an equivalent nature, fireproof materials, sand, stone, silica,
silex, millstone, grit, fire-stone, ganister, silver sand, white native silica, and its
combination slate, quartz, calcined flint stones, fire and other clays, after being fired
and pulverized, or other materials possessing similar qualities, potters' seggars, salt-
glazed wares, old fire-brick, or other fired clay articles, and such as made from Dorset
and Devon clays, earthenware, china, and parian, broken pitchers, glazed or not
glazed (all these having been fired up to a white heat), or other refractory materials.
The above sandstones or pottery clay, silex, ganister, and other materials, are
mixed or incorporated with about eight or nine per cent. of Cornwall china stone or
other fusible cementing material, according to its vitrifying quality as may be
necessary to withstand or combine with high or low or even varying heats, the
higher the heat the less the fluxible quality of material in proportion.
Dinas bricks are made of lime and fire-stone or silica in their composition, but I
require about four per cent. only of silicate, Jersey or Cornwall china stone, with or
without lime, to make the Dinas bricks and some other wares by the use of the
silicate and other vitrifiable materials, I use up allmost any of the refuse of the
potteries and brick-fields and other comparatively useless materials.
If the materials are too vitreous I add more sand, silex, or some material of a
similar nature, such as broken seggars or pulverized biscuit.
If great pressure be employed in this kind of manufacture, less flux must be used
in the mixture to render the body more plastic, of necessity not more than five per
cent. of china or other clays may be added, which renders it more adhesive, safer
and easier to handle, for spreading, working, pressing, and plastering.
I also use farinaceous or other viscous mucilage, such as gums and silicates, to
render it more plastic and fireproof. Manganese, with or without admixture, may
be used as a liquid wash, employed for lining of hearths, interiors of furnaces,
melting and other vessels. Anthracite or mineral charcoal, stone-coal, or shulm,
also used to assist the vitrification, and to render the mass not quite so dense,
bearing contraction in cooling and expansion in heating, being better, without flying
or cracking.
The foregoing compounds with the silicates I use as fireproof materials and
cements or wares; for all such purposes similar materials are employed in pottery
manufacture or for building operations.
In pottery manufacture I use a force-pump to charge the moulds with the silicate
pottery cements or the ordinary cements, having special moulds to answer the
varying purposes of either materials, new or old, compound with the application of
the pressure of the force-pump alone or in combination with mechanical or other
suction, the air exhaust or liquid exhausts (one or both), also mechanical or other
pressure, absorption by heat, natural or artificial, or capillary attraction.
For building purposes I employ the same or similar means with some of the same
or similar materials, as the silicates, limes, cements, sand, clay, ganister, marl,
pottery, or any other material of a fireproof quality.
I also employ the ordinary or other materials, and I employ the force-pump or
other power, as above described, to charge the moulds for each process or building
purpose to fix the work, slabs, and other forms to the superstructure, as, for
example, by forcing the liquid cement between the walls and slabs, I employ the

page_text: samic power by charging moulds with liquid materials, also for fixing mosaic, or in
other decorative work in glass, metal, marble, pottery, worked on the walls in the
moulds or otherwise, and I employ the same for the manufacture of other articles,
architectural works in artificial stone or pottery.
I sometimes form a slab, block, or other form, tubular, cast, perforated, figured,
modeled, or otherwise worked, architecturaly treated, to give the strength, lightness,
appearance, and form as may be required, according to the use for which such
articles may be required. For example, where light, ventilation, strength, and
lightness of structure, combined with economy of materials, I employ work recessed,
little or much, as projections, sinkings, filleted, coved, frets, guilloches, and otherwise,
as in such sinkings and recesses I employ glass to obtain lights, the projection as
stanchions to give strength, the tubular perforations, where, as parts of structure
and surface, honey-combed, interstitiated, granulated, give ventilation and other
advantages.
I form these block slabs, moulds, and other forms of silica, pure or silica alumines,
combined, or combined with other binding, petrifying, or fluxing ingredients, such
as a silicate, an oxide, or a chloride, in extremely small proportions of the latter
ingredients in most cases, or when much heat is required within, about, or upon such
slabs, blocks, moulds, or other form, I cast, work, fix, lace, and treat metal, glass,
pottery, and other material, to form any architectural or other object before or while
under firing, or by repeated firing, with the assistance jointly of the mould and the
cast, to obtain the shape or effect required in a combined pottery and glass ware, or
combined glass and metal, or the whole combined in one to render any of the
processes more certain in its operation.
I apply heat to the moulds and slabs while running in the glass or metal; I also
use pressure for the same work; also, where required, I employ the exhaust to
exhaust the air, and draw the materials so to fill all parts of the mould or form; or
I charge any part or portion of such work with pulverized or plastic materials,
which, when fused, will form part of the work. I obtain a powerful exhaust readily
by the application of cold water to an aperture of the chamber containing heated
air or vapor. For example, I take a bed formed of biscuit or silica made of a true
surface and compressed, then any form of decoration may be enameled, painted,
printed, impressed, laid, or fixed, or by any other means deposited, as by the whole
of my powdered decorative process, described in the Specification of my Patent
before referred to, dated 6th January 1869, No. 41, or that in combination with
glass and mosaic or other work fired and fixed, as above described, and backed with
honeycombed pottery or other body, as concrete, thus to form combined glass and
concrete or glass and pottery structure.
According to another method I take ground biscuit with a small per-centage of
Cornwall stone, argil, feldspar, and similar vitrifying materials, or materials of a
binding, cementitious character, as the silicates, oxides, or the limes, the whole
combined, or in two or more divisions or materials of a similar nature, I cover the
surface of a house or other surface, and decorate it by any of the processes above
referred to by a surcharge of easily fluxable materials, as feldspar, borax, acetate of
soda, and others, to which within a fixed chamber I apply heat sufficient to vitrify
the surface and bind the body or coreing.
According to my improvements I form the cementitious, binding, concrete, pottery,
and pottery materials, also buildings and building materials, with crude, half-burnt,
or burnt alumina, pulverized to any degree or proportions required, or in any other
suitable form, found in a natural or in any way suitably prepared, in combination
with silica, as silica, alumina (ganister), argilaceous sand, or other earth or rock,
argilaceous limes in earths or rocks, as barrow clay, Portland cement, or blue lias,
also the oxide of manganese, or zinc, iron, baryta, strontia, or any other suitable
oxide or sulphate, as the sulphate of lime, natural or prepared, with any suitable
flux, such as white or red lead, borax, or feldspar, quartz, mica, silica or silicate, or
silicate precipitate, any other suitable alkaline or acid, salt, glass, or suitable or
coloured pigment in combination; I use every description of material, animal,

page_text: vegetable, or mineral substance, the whole of which must be prepared in any
suitable form or proportion to meet the many requirements herein-after described.
According to my Invention I also form the cementitious binding compositions,
compounds, by pulverizing biscuit, Cornish stone, china clay, oxide of magnesia, or
zinc, concentrated chloride, and oxide magnesete or zinc, with the excess of chloride
and sulphate of lime, Portland cement, fire-clay, pulverized brick, burnt ballast,
ground fire-brick, or crude fire-clays, or any suitable argilaceous earth, such as lime
(ganister), or argilaceous rock, silica, siliceous rocks or carths, or any such suitable,
natural, or artificial combination, the cement also being specially prepared by
preference.
Translucent cement substitute, or bastard glass, the translucent or transparent
cementitious glass or pot metals which I form of pure silicate, silicate of soda, or
other silicate, as silicate precipitate, silica and silica precipitate, silex, quartz, glass, flux,
feldspar, lustres, and others of that kind, and paraffine, benzoline, liquid and crysta-
line, and also with the oxides, as magnesite, or zinc baryta, or the sulphates,
carbonates, and other limes, in small per-centage, well ground, which I mix, grind,
gauge, and indurate as a cement, with heat or chemicals, or fire to flux or melt as
enamels, lustres, glass, or otherwise, as glazing, which I treat while in any of its
processes to chemical and other vapours, as hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon
in any form or combination of its constituent or equivalent, as paraffine, benzoline,
pure carbon or carbonate, or the both, herein-after described, or any suitable car-
bonate in vapour or liquid, saturation in any suitable part of the process, as herein-
after described. For the above purposes I employ the same to cast in the before
represented non-combustible moulds, cast slabs, and other forms to form any part
of a house, as for cementing, glazing, joining, amalgamating, or forming any other
useful object, as, for example, to give light, or as lamps, shades, ventilation, reflectors
for windows, doors, walls, ceiling, roofs, floor fittings, furniture, and ware, to form
double or more reflecting lights, any transmited lights to the two or more surfaces
of any architectural or other object or structure, to form a double decorated sur-
face of one or more patterns to opposite side, and to be worked of any design or
combination of purpose, as for the free transmission of light, and in combination of
any other material, or I use any of the opaque, translucent, or semi-translucent
pottery, glass, pot metal, or lustres, in combination with the same, or (that of pure
transparent) the whole of which I claim as combined with any other article or
material for any purpose desired, and this combined with any of my processes of
manufacture (to transpose the same) or other work.
I form cements and composition, also pottery, glass, and metal, also cementitious
glass, pottery, and metallic compounds, as ferrugineous oxides, carbonaceous or
argilaceous ingredients, silica and the silicates, glass fluxes, alkaline or acid salts,
hydrate of carbon, sulphate or bysulphates, concentrated, pulverized, or liquid, or
other materials and chemical agents in any suitable combination, as described in
the above process, of a similar manufacture of glass, pottery, and cementitious
wares.
In some instances I superheat, or heat to any degree, any or the whole of the
above materials, or others, as benzoline, paraffine or other oils or fat-like sub-
stances, so to agitate, fume, or vaporise the same, to raise or throw off any one or
more of such materials from one or more furnaces, chambers, heating, or other
apparatuses, to pass into or through other chambers wherein the same fumes,
vapours, or other airyform ingredients become condensed, fixed by contact,
capillary attraction, immersion, or induration, drawn and charged down or other
wise by means of the exhaust or other power, and fixed by heat, superheat, and
other mediums, as material otherwise formed into compound of various kinds, or
enamels, glases, lustres, fluxes, or other binders, with all or any of which I employ
any down fall or other dust process or decoration, herein-before referred to as the
blast, and while in any part of progress or operation by which I form the body or
face of any object or decoration.
I also submit, flush, cast, treat, or prepare in any desired manner such or other

page_text: work as prints, casts, matrix, moulds, or dies to the above processes, to give
strength, body, or surface to suit any required purpose as a protection to preserve
from deterioration, tarnish, or discolouration of such work or appliances; I employ
the above, similar, or other means also in combination for making or otherwise
working or fixing mosaic tiles and works of art or skill, giving key or holdings for
cement or other materials thereto by grains projecting, honeycombed, or otherwise;
iron or other metallic surfaces, wood, or other materials I treat and submit to the
same or similar processes in suitable chambers for the same or other purposes.
Also I employ the bysulphate of carbon in compound, and to dissolve the oil,
tallow, or other fat material, with or without soap (or other ingredients), dissolved
in boiling water, or otherwise, to flush the moulds; or as a substitute for oiling
to cause the cast to leave or to polish the same cast or other work; I also vaporise
these and the above ingredients or others for any of the same, similar, or other
purposes, as herein-described.
I sometimes employ enclosed moulds with the above processes of flushing,
charging, firing, and working, to keep the work clean or free from impurities.
I also treat or prepare the colours and other materials for the above processes
or otherwise, before or after, or while using the same, to prevent irregularity of
tints, ground, or other characters, to imped or hasten the setting of such materials,
as by the incorporation of oils, gums, glues, flux, or others, as herein-after referred
to; it is also necessary to keep the work dry and perfect in this respect; or I first
apply in any suitable manner lime, putty, cements, or compositions, or other suitable,
decorative or other materials, to the surface mould or other form, and afterwards
apply the silicate of soda or any other petrifying or indurating ingredients.
I also apply the same or similar systems of layers or laminating processes in
pottery manufacture, for building and other purposes; I again apply each of the
above materials and processes for the production of mosaic, curvalinier, and other
potteries or designs, or by means of any other additional or suitable processes, as
Hushing and others, and a system of arranged sets of cornice or running moulds, i.e.,
moulds cut in profile to follow each other, to run such materials any given form
or length, such moulds allowing space between each other run or running materials
to give the design with change of shade, colour, or line which such successive
mouldings would give space for. This work when cut crosswise will show the
pattern or picture, and it may be cut with some suitable apparatus when in a
plastic state, or with revolving saws set as desired. Materials of spontaneous
indurating character, as the chlorides and oxides of zinc, or. as lime and silicates,
and others, by flushing and a quick action with the moulds. Architectural objects
may thus be formed by machinery, which I will herein-after fully describe.
The running moulds may be arranged upon slides, with or without lathes or
special mechanism, and a given set or number of moulds to form a design, which
shall be set in motion in arranged rotation or succession, or worked to and fro by
the same action, materials of the required colour will flow, may be laid or forced
over this part required, and when cut through in many thin slips, sheets, or veneers,
many pictures or patterns are so formed at once or otherwise.
According to another part of my improvements I form a house or parts thereof,
worked upon the spot or as near as possible to where it will finally become a
fixture, forming a part of a complete structure, for example, to meet the con-
venience of space arrangements, contrivances, and also of the machinery and
materials that may be required or used in the structure, such appliances or acquire-
ments being fixed upon the ground, where also the cements would be mixed in the
compound (revolving double concentric chamber, as described in the Specification
of my former Patent, or otherwise) convenient for filling in the moulds, which also
are formed and located upon the ground suitably arranged with the machinery for
weaving, mixing, and otherwise; thus to form any part. or cast any section of the
structure, fittings, or furniture, as fixtures or not, which is afterwards hoisted to
tliose parts of its final place or position in the building. For example, in some

page_text: instances I should first form the roof, which also in some cases will form the ceiling,
in one slab, as in the case of a flat roof, or where the ceilings are in parallel lines,
as following the line of the roof, or even where a ceiling of one or more shapes are
attached to the roofs of other or different shapes or forms, and interceding with the
eves of the roof or otherwise, the whole or parts being thus formed upon the ground,
it is then raised bodily by suitable contrivances, jacks, or other machinery, per-
pendicular, or nearly so, to its proper place, so in proper rotation completing each
part of the house down from the roof to the basement as the most convenient and
least expensive and systematic arrangement; but I do not confine myself to this
precise mode of action, as I sometimes form a mould of the finished basement floor
to cast some or all the other parts of a house, roofs, ceilings, walls, floors, fittings,
fixtures, or ware, for moulding or other purposes, as may be required to carry out
such work or other work, as may be desired, and afterwards raising or moving it
in any direction to its final or fixed position.
Again, I form any part or parts of a house or other structure, fittings, or fixtures
by casting it from any other finished part of the same as may be necessary for care
to avoid risk in removal or otherwise for cheapness, truth of corresponding or other
parts or forms, to transfer, design, or to give finished surface; thus, I continue to
form one part from another as I rise from foundation, story by story, to the roof.
Or for the sake of speed I commence a house from the basement, the first transfer
or cast to form the floor or ceiling, one or both of a centre story. Thus, in possession
of two surface moulds in their fixed position, I then cast the roof and all the
intermediate ceilings, walls, and floors from the same or any other parts so formed,
and so raise or lower or otherwise convey them in any required or convenient
direction.
The commercial value of this Invention lies in the multiplicity of its many
various repetitions; for example, I take a number of houses of one design, rich or
plain, in a row, which are the most suitable in a mercantile sence, and the more
readily to illustrate my systems I take a row of small two-stored houses, over and
above which a traveller will be worked. The carriage frame or wood supports are
propelled from house to house on a railway laid upon suitable bearings or sleepers
in or upon the ground; the moulds, machines, and other contrivances used in the
casting or working of the various parts or sections of each house to be placed in
juxta position, so as to be conveniently worked, readily reached by the machinery,
tackle hoisted, and fixed in its proper and final position. The framework of the
carriages to be employed or not, as most convenient for cheapness, if desired, to
form part of the temporary supports to the various sections or parts of the houses
while in progress of erection. Where such carriage framework is not employed
special temporary supports must be formed, a contrivance with suitable bearings to
form rests or supports for the various sections of the buildings, with rests and
supports for the jacks or other machines and contrivances that may be necessarily
required to move such parts or sections into their proper permanent resting place;
thus many houses may stand partly erected with one traveller. The mould being
thus set at liberty other work, as weaving and casting for the same houses, could be
put in progress, allowing time for the whole to set, solidify, or indurate before being
removed, or for testing the same, whereby every part could receive a qualified and
.certified test (by simple means) approved by an appointed qualified surveyor,
_engineer, or architect before employing the same house or any part thereof. Thus
a guarantee may be given of its strength and safety, lightness, durability, and fire-
proof quality, avoiding all risk to life in progress of building, or after occupation to
those who dwell in such houses. Each house withstanding such proof tests to receive a
conspicuous certified (governement) stamp, forming an essential simple feature of
design, as the Victoria cross for example, in the front elevation of each house
(which shall be granted by the surveyor of the board of works for the district, who
shall personally witness such proofs separately). The proof shall consist of samples
of the various materials submitted to water and fire, crushing power, or resisting

page_text: strain. All parts of the structure shall be tested by means of a screw gaged to tell
the amount of strain given and the resisting power calculated by deflection of the
parts tested.
I weave a house, according to this part of my Invention, with fibrous materials
to form a porous substance, laid across or oblique, in a wall, roof, or floor, this being
also connected with a porous surface or general surface, ventilation also with channels,
grooves, or other similar spaces in the part of the work arranged and worked by
systems to create current or not, at will, for ventilative or other purposes of domestic
and other conveniances, so as to give heat in winter and to be cool in summer.
When built, and in building a house or other structures, or forming part thereof, in
using such material I employ any systematic contrivance or machinery for weaving
the same or other materials in combination with concrete, cements, or other com-
pounds or constructive preparations and things, as rods, flitches, strands, wires,
wire gauze, laced or interlaced, to give a diagonal strain or otherwise, as desired,
binding and tieing the two surfaces one to the other, thus forming one beam-like
slab or other form, or to bind and tie the whole mass of a house or other object as a
vast sheet of coarse paper, fireproof and weatherproof. I also use the wire gauze
or other woven fabrics plated, interlaced, or otherwise, with rods, slips, narrow
plates, or other forms arranged in any suitable form to forin a surface or mould,
building, or decorative constructing apparatus to be left embedded in the work, or to
be removed at will, according to which side or how the finished decorations or other
surfaced work may be applied, as marble, wood, stone, pottery, cement, or glass, in
nosaic tiles or other veneers, or work studded, cast, laid, or worked in any other
forin.
I sometimes temporarily fix mosaic tiles, slabs, blocks, and other forms in cement,
marble, stone, wood, metal, glass, flint, pottery, and other decorative work or
materials upon or in a surface, mould, or other form of sand, lime, putty, or other
similar pliable or plastic materials, or upon a cloth or other woven fabric or paper,
felt, gelatine, india-rubber, or materials of a similar quality, having a back sheet or.
other form or not, as required, of a tubular, perforated, or channular form, contrived
or arranged to hold the work in place, yet allow the passage of some binding material
forced in by the force pump or by other means; or sometimes charge or partly.
charge the same with some powdered cement or other inaterial in a dry or concen-,
trated state, and afterwards indurate the same with water alone, with heat, or
chemical agents in solution.
In some cases I charge such work to fix it by the ordinary methods of filling in
and backing up.
I sometimes charge and fix this and other kinds of work to or in walls or ceilings
or other positions and forms in the same or similar manner as by the force pump,
mould, and surfaces herein described, producing coloured granulate and other surface
work and casts of pure flat tints.
I also flush the moulds with water or other ingredients to clean it, to oil it, or for
other purposes to keep the moulds clean and save labour, some of the moulds being
enclosed for the same purpose.
I sometimes adopt the following mode of proceeding :-By first commencing the
basement ceiling, fixing the same, and the connected floor above. I then adjust the
basement walls, fixtures, fittings, and furniture ready for occupation complete. I
then proceed with the next story in the same or a similar manner, and so continue
story after story upwards to the roof.
As another example I sometimes erect or build firstly the whole or part of the
walls of a house in blocks, slabs, or other forms or combinations, as cement and
glass or otherwise, worked on splay, not to obstruct the rays of light, to any
required level or height, having abutinents, ledges, brackets, holes, holdings, or parts
askew to receive the same, or other contrivances, as mouldings or other bearings,
fixed upon ledges of the walls for securing each ceiling, floor, and roof, each of
which ceiling, floor, or roof may be cast or worked upon the basement or other floors
in moulds or otherwise, and raised in sections or bodily to any given hight or.

page_text: iminediately to its final position by first working, fixing, and finishing the roof, and
afterwards each ceiling and floor from the roof downwards in rotation or otherwise
to the basement.
In the case of building a row of houses, and when desirable to limit the number
of elevators as hydraulic lifts and others, I choose sometimes to form railways,
carriageways, or other means of conveyance upon each of the floors or over and
about each successive story to convey all materials, blocks, slabs, or other forms, as
roofs, walls, ceilings, floors, or other forms, parts, or casts, as a whole or in sections.
I sometimes first form the whole of the walls of a house with surface moulds or
other forms fixed temporarily to the position, wherein such walls are to be forined
with finished work or surface as in polished moulds of cement, plaster, metal, glass,
or other, the whole of the walls being thus formed. I next proceed to form the roof
and upper ceiling in the same or similar manner, and so I follow on in succession
down through cach successive story to the basement floor or floors, as desirable.
When the floors are first formed as in the first instance herein described, it can
be designed to form a mould to receive the pattern plain flat tints, mosaic tiles,
cement, marble, metal, glass, and other materials, or the moulds or parts of the same
may be perforated, channeled, groved, or formed in any suitable manner, to be
afterwards partly worked, laced, threaded, studded with glass, and otherwise, and
charged with cements, pottery, or other binding materials, part inlaid with pottery
tiles, mosaic, metal, cements, or glass. Or it may be wholly so charged after being
fixed by means of such provisions or similar preparations as above, as herein
represented by the various methods of work, or otherwise separately or in any other
form of combination of the materials or articles herein described. Thus to form one
pattern or design, or of several or many designs, the articles formed of wood, stone,
marble, cement, pottery, metal or glass, as glass, brick, blocks, slabs, or other
architectural or useful forms and other materials separately, or in any form of com-
bination of the above articles and materials, of one pattern or design of several or
many designs, splayed or design to freely admit the light without impediment. The
articles formed of cement, marble, stone, wood, pottery, metal, glass or otherwise, as
materials in plastic or molten state being first temporarily fixed, adjusted, applied,
charged, arranged, designed, drawn, or painted as pictures in prints, photos, lithos,
chromos, or transfers, or architectural work of any description, to a slab or other
form for roofs, walls, ceilings, or floors, which slabs are formed with overlaid pottery,
cements, or concrete, or other bodies (as described in my new method of charging
or working a mould or otherwise), and when set finally hoisted to its intended
place.
In the same way I also employ separate moulds, polished or not, and for the same
or other purposes, for example, I make a mould of a ceiling and place it under or
near upon the floor complete, stopped holes and joints, and polished (or not), in
cement, glass, metal, or other materials, prepared, greased with bysulphate of carbon
grease and soap in water boiled together. I then charge the mould for flat tints,
with cement mixed with colours ground in linseed oil or some other binder or hold,
as cements, gum, flux, or otherwise, to keep the same from floating about so as to
give uniform cast tint or colour. Or the mould or surfaces may be charged with
glass, mosaic, pottery, metal, moulds, wood, stone, cements, or otherwise, when the
mould so charged is raised bodily to the ceiling with jacks or other power, and fixed
to the joist or other open or perforated work by flowing or throwing the backing or
body in, but in case of the cores or concrete structure being first fixed, I then force
a soft plastic material between the cast and body of ceiling, wall, or otherwise, by
means of the force pump or some other suitable power; I also cover or fix the whole
of the walls or other parts of a house or other works, as surface slabs or vencers, in
the same or similar manner. Or I form and fill in the mould, and carry out the
most tedious and difficult part of the work underhand upon benches, or where most
convenient to work the same, and afterwards adjust the same to the concrete
structure. Thus, to form the structural part of a house purely of concrete alone, or
a house of concrete and cement, concrete and pottery, concrete and glass, or other-

page_text: wise, separately, or in any form or combination for strength, lightness, cheapness,
durable, substantial, weather and fire proof, light, ventilation, sanitory and other
conveniences, health, comfort, and other useful purposes.
I claim the following methods of finishing a house or other structure, that is or
was already built or erected in concrete, brick, stone, wood, iron, or other materials,
by first preparing matrix, die, or mould sheets, or other surface in any suitable form
of plaster, cements, or composition of marble, stone, or wood, glass, or metal, metals,
or vegetable fibres, interlaced, worked, arranged, or woven fabrics, as cloth, wire,
felt, paper, rods, slips, stripes, plates, strands, or strings, or otherwise, as gelatine,
india-rubber, or other elastic moulds or sheets, separately or combined in any suitable
form or finish, granulated or polished, carved, chased, or engraved, stippled, dappled,
stancilled, cast, or pressed, the mould to be complete and free from open joints, or
by stopping the same joints where such cannot be avoided, so to give a uniform
surface to the cast, which will also give a uniform colour to the same providing the
cast is allowed to dry before discharged from the mould, or otherwise provided for,
is kept dry until finished and polished.
I claim the use of polished cement, plaster, and other moulds of this kind for any
such or similar purpose.
Also I claim the following methods of applying such moulds, first by charging, or
part by charging such moulds or surfaces with cements or other suitable material,
plaster, or otherwise, and afterwards placing the mould and its charge in position.
Or I place the mould in position before I charge the same; in either case I back it
up with varied material, and render it solidly fixed to wall, ceiling, floor, or roof, or
other body or core.
In charging a mould or surface for this purpose, or for backing up the same, or
for fixing it or other forms, slabs, or surface to the final position on wall, ceiling,
floor or other work.
I claim the use of the force pump or any other power to force the material
into a space between the cast and the wall or other body or structure, or I flow
the material in, having such mould or slabs well supported to withstand the strain
or pressure of the soft materials.
I sometimes have the moulds of a whole ceiling placed upon benches or otherwise
suitably arranged upon the floor of the same rooin, joints stopped and properly
finished, polished, or otherwise, ready to receive a coating of boiled soft soap, taking
care not to stir the mass when boiling. After the soap is taken clean off the surface
of the mould with the same yet soapy brushes and the suction stopped, then I give
the mould a thin coat (so as not to spoil the surface polish) of tallow or other grease
dissolved in bisulphate of carbon, added to which I give a little of the soap slightly
heated with care on a slow fire not stirred.
I claim this improved compound with its use and application for this and similar
purposes, as polishing the work, also the systems of flushing the moulds with a thin
solution of the same.
Also I claim the coating of the same and other surfaces, pictures, and decorations,
and other objects by evaporation of the same compound or other similar or suitable
chemicals or ingredients, or in combination with my decorated processes, as herein-
before described.
Its peculiar feature is the endless variety and blending of colours and shades in
the ground and veining with pigments or dyes, one or both, separately or combined, as
required for any purpose. These colours may again be incorporated with the cements
in the process of laying on such compounds, or the colours may be arranged so as to
produce any desired character or design before or after the application of the cements
or compositions. For example, in one process I deluge the surface of a mould or
other forin with water or other liquid charged with chemicals, colours, dyes, or other
materials in any desired form or arrangement, by means of the floss silk or other
processes, the silk or other fibrous material to be first treated with the colours, dyes,
or other materials, separately, or conjointly by any system or means of marbling, by

page_text: first spreading them upon a table and applying the colours and other materials
thereto, and transferring the marbled fibres to the prepared mould or other form.
The distinguishing feature produced in Robbins' marble" is the manner the
various colours are blended with the veining, running with the veining, and
softening or blending with the ground colours outside, or in with the veins, the
granulated shades, or other more decided character when shown as a rule by the
manner of its irregularity, yet in connection generally with the veins, and most
certainly in contiguity with that part of the ground or vein colour as may be required
to give effect or for true imitation.
For example, again, I use any kind of open work as a special wire gauze netting
or webbing, through or by which and other means I charge these fibres with
the colours or other materials, as above described.
The colours or materials to be employed or amalgamated in any suitable manner,
combined with scagliola or its systems, and I apply the same or other or similar open
work, as stencils, gauze wire netting and webbing, and to the mould or to the work
in position, as on walls, floors or other surfaces, this open work to be charged with
the coloured materials or not, and other colours or materials, cast, forced, or thrown
into or through such open work or perforated contrivances to form the finished
work or article.
When used in a fluid state, or when the moulds or surfaces are flooded with
solutions, I exhaust the water and air from the work by any suitable means, to
condense and solidify and indurate the same. As for example, I apply a solution of
silicate or other suitable solution to the surface of a mould or other form, which
I first concentrate or otherwise, before or after applying the decorative or other
materials, cements or compositions which takes up with and indurates the solutions
first applied to such surfaces, thus to form a translucent weatherproof surface to the
slab, block, or other form or cast, thus producing any article or work complete, polished,
or otherwise, as desired.
In some of the systems for charging moulds and other forms by means of forcing,
by employing a powerful jet or a series of jets, one or both at the same time, thus to
amalgamato the various materials in compound, so to indurate immediately upon
contact or for other purposes, as pottery work to form various characters or objects,
or to form alloys in metals, thus to form designs singular and novel effects by
contact or amalgum, as may be in the case of pottery, enamels, and metals, or
otherwise, then I give a pottery, enamelled, or metallic cast, one or such com-
bined, or in any design or pattern arranged in progress of constructing a house
or other structure or article, this also in combination with cement or other
materials, fired or not, and this also in the progress of building or otherwise by
means of channels forming a tubular perforated work of equal strength and
lightness, or that even more of a solid form.
I sometimes build or form the body or core of a structure or house by forcing
concrete, cement, or other materials into a mould, moulded form, or between surface
moulds or finished work, surfaces in position or at a work; by those means I combine
the processes herein described, to form and arrange pottery, glasses, ventilators,
reflectors, and lights, within or about the body, forms, or spaces between floor and 4
ceiling, roof, walls, or other parts, to give direct refracted or reflecting light, natural
or artificial, in any or every direction, with or in combination with my translucent
or transparent cements or any other transparent material of the ordinary or other
kind, or articles made of glass manufactured by the processes described in the
Specification of my former Patent before referred to. The above arrangement and
construction with the foregoing systems embraces a system of complete heating,
whereby the jets of gas or other lights or fire will assist and regulate the ventilation,
heat, or airing required effectually.
I sometimes form a ceiling, dome, or other form, walls, roofs, or other part,
objects, or things, in the body or surface, by first arranging frames or framed
work, as centres, and otherwise, for part or the whole of such or similar work into,
through, or upon, in, or about the same framing or other contrivance, as self-

page_text: supporting arrangements.
I fix or arrange such moulds, dies, plates, matrix,
transfers, surfaces, moulded, worked, or cast, as finished marble or other work, in
slabs, blocks, or other shapes, temporarily adjusted or permanent, set to form the
whole or part of any such work complete by any of the foregoing systems or
material, all or any of which I employ in any desired form or combination. By this
last arrangement I can begin in any part of a work, and gradually work down or
otherwise, gradually working out any scheme, constructive, decorative, or otherwise;
for example, I form the channels in the surface, floating or coarse, plastering imme-
diately under or behind the veneer or finished surface with rods, rules, or cords of
any suitable material connected with wire, canvas, or other suitable connecting
medium, and by the same means I form or cast a fluted column or other architectural
object finished complete.