IMPROVEMENTS IN PAVING STREETS, ROADS, AND WAYS
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, OSBORNE
REYNOLDS, of Belfast, Ireland, Clerk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters-
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Osborne Reynolds, Her especial licence that. I, the said
Osborne Reynolds, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Osborne Reynolds, my exors, adñiors, and 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, my Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PAVING STREETS, ROADS, AND WAYS;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Osborne
Reynolds, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in
Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Osborne Reynolds, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had to
the figures and letters therein referred to, and to the Drawings thereunto
annexed:-
The first of my said improvements is represented in Figures 1 and 2, and
consists in the use of beams or planks of wood arranged longitudinally instead
of blocks to form the surface of roads, streets, and ways. The said beams or
planks are to be supported on transverse beams or bearers, which rest on the
ground, or on any artificial foundation, and may be supported and connected at
the ends by longitudinal sleepers. The distance of the transverse bearers from
each other must depend on the strength and scantling of the planking which
forms the roadway, and the intermediate spaces may be filled in with any
suitable material or concrete, or left vacant, according to the peculiar circum-
stances of the case. The upper surface of the planking is to be crossed and
studded with small bars and studs of iron, which will serve to connect the
planking firmly together, and to obviate the slipperiness of the surface.
The arrangement represented in Figures 1 and 2, and described above, is
well adapted for carrying out and putting in practice my Invention, in respect
of this said improvement, and what I claim in respect thereof is the application
of planks of wood arranged longitudinally for the construction of a roadway, as
herein-before described.
My next improvement relates to the construction of a suitable foundation
for carrying the surface of the roadway as well as to the surface itself.
This improvement is represented in Figures 3 and 4, the former shewing the
foundation, consisting of planks, beams, or boards of wood, as b, b, fastened
and connected with, in any suitable manner, the longitudinal beams a, a, a.
Upon the foundation, prepared as just described, is to be placed the surface of
the roadway, which may consist of longitudinal planks, as described under my
first improvement, or of the blocks more commonly in use, or of any of the
compound masses, consisting of compressed cane or wood, and other substances,
as herein-after described.
The arrangement described and represented of longitudinal bearers and
transverse boards is the arrangement which I prefer, but as boards and timber
in short lengths may be obtained at a very cheap rate, I also use transverse
bearers of iron or wood and longitudinal boards or planks.
Another improvement of a similar kind to that last described is represented in
Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, of which Figure 5 is a plan or projection of my improved
foundation, Figure 6 a transverse section, shewing the roadway upon it, and
Figures 7, 8, 9, plans and a section of the plates of the foundation. This

page_text: foundation consists of transverse and longitudinal rods or beams of iron or
wood. Plates of iron dished in the middle as in Figure 7, or curved as in
Figures 8 and 9, are placed on the transverse bearers, and connected together
in any suitable manner. Upon the foundatian so prepared is to be placed the
roadway, consisting of any ordinary materials, or of any of the combinations
next herein-after described.
The methods described and represented in the two last-mentioned improve-
ments are well adapted for the purposes of my Invention, and what I claim as
of my Invention in respect thereof is the construction of the foundations of a
roadway in the manners described.
My next improvements relate to the construction of the surface of the road-
way, and for this purpose I use stone broken into pieces (as in the ordinary
method of macadamizing), and cemented into a mass by concrete or asphalte,
or I use cane, rattan, bamboo, or cut or chopped deal or other wood or sticks,
or fibres of broom or such like materials compressed together, with their fibres
vertical, as seen at d, d, or in a slanting direction more or less similar to e, e,
Figure 4, or formed into a solid mass by concrete or asphalte. The surface of
the roadway is to be formed of a substance compounded in any of the manners
just described, and these compound masses may be used on other foundations.
than those herein-before described as of my Invention.
And I claim as of my Invention, in respect of the last-mentioned improve-
ments, is the construction of the surfaces of roads by the compositions herein-
before described of broken stone, fibres of wood, concrete, and, asphalte.
Another improvement consists in dishing a block of wood, such as is now in
general use for paving, and inserting in its centre a plug block or stud of hard
wood, iron, or other metal, or of fire brick, care being taken that the said plug
or stud does not project above the surface of the block, as shewn in Figure 12,
by the section of the block or stud.
Another improvement consists in constructing the roadway with pieces of
the trunks of trees cut into suitable lengths, as from three to ten inches, and
placed with their fibres vertical side by side in their natural state without
being cut or hewn into any particular shapes. The interstices between these
blocks are to be filled up with the compound mass of fibres of wood and con-
crete or asphalte herein-before described.
My last improvement consists in the use of a dowel or tenon b, b, of hard
wood, iron, fire-brick, or other similar and suitable material, inserted into cor-
responding mortices in the contiguous blocks, as shown in Figures 10 and 11.
The mortices are made in a sloping direction, so that the pressure on any one
block is distributed partially on all the surrounding blocks. These dowels or

page_text: tenons can be easily taken out for the purpose of taking up the blocks; and
they have this further advantage, that they will be less reduced by friction and
wear than the deal wood, and will consequently tend greatly to prevent the
slipperiness which is so serious an objection to some of the present modes of
constructing wooden pavements.
And I claim as of my Invention, in respect of this last-mentioned improve-
ment, the use of dowels or tenons inserted in the contiguous blocks, in a
direction slightly inclined to the vertical, as last herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Osborne Reynolds, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-third day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
Taken and acknowledged by the
within-named Osborne Reynolds,
at my office, in the Linen Hall,
Donegall Square, Belfast, this
Twenty-third day of October,
OSBORNE (L.S.) REYNOLDS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the oath of Charles Chambers,
the Specification aforesaid was inrolled, word for word, as above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord