Improvements in Built Columns, Beams, and Girders.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Mar., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 4th Dec., 1896-Accepted, 6th Feb. 1897
Improvements in Built Columns, Beams, and Girders.
I, JAMES ALEXANDER MAIN, of Clydesdale Iron Works, Possilpark, Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
This invention has for its object to improve the construction of built columns
for supporting roofs or other loads and beams or girders for floors and the like,
and to obtain greatly enhanced strength without adding to the weight of material
employed.
To that end I replace the T or L iron or steel bars commonly used as flanges
in the construction of built columns and girders of the lattice type or of like type,
by bars curved or dished in cross section in order to stiffen them. In constructing
a lattice column for example I employ two or more bars of curved section or
dished to form longitudinal channels and I connect these bars by means of crimped,
zig-zag or sinuous strips riveted to them so as to bind them together and form a
lattice column or beam.
The riveting may extend along the hollows or channels of the bars, or the
binding strips may be riveted to both sides of the bars to form a box girder, the
dished bars being in the latter case formed with a flattened portion on each side
to which the binding strips are riveted. The concave sides of the dished bars
will generally be made to face each other, but their position may be reversed so
that the convex sides face each other, and the bars may be parallel to each other
or they may be inclined towards each other to form a tapered column.
Dated this 3rd day of March 1896.
WALLACE FAIRWEATHER,
Chartered Patent Agent,
62 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, Agent for the Applicant.
I, JAMES ALEXANDER MAIN, of Clydesdale Iron Works, Possilpark, Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention has for its object to improve the construction of built columns
for supporting roofs or other loads and beams or girders for floors and the like,
and to obtain greatly enhanced strength without adding to the weight of material
employed.
To that end I replace the T or L iron or steel bars commonly used as flanges
in the construction of built columns and girders of the lattice type or of like type,
by bars curved or dished in cross section in order to stiffen them.

page_text: The invention is illustrated by the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 of which
is an elevation and Figure 2 a horizontal section on the line a-b, Fig. 1, of a
column or girder as constructed under my invention. Figures 3 and 4 are like
views of a modification and Figure 5 is an elevation of a complete column or
girder.
In constructing a lattice column for example I employ two or more bars A of
curved section or dished to form longitudinal channels and I connect these bars by
means of crimped, zig-zag or sinuous strips B (which may also be dished) riveted
to them so as to bind them together and form a lattice column or beam. The
riveting may extend along the hollows or channels of the bars A as shown at
Figures 1, 2 and 5, or the binding strips B may be riveted to both sides of the
bars A as shown at Figures 3 and 4 to form a box girder; the dished bars A
being in the latter case formed with a flattened portion on each side to which the
binding strips are riveted. The concave sides of the dished bars A will generally
be made to face each other, but their position may be reversed so that the convex
sides face each other, and the bars may be parallel to each other or they may be
inclined towards each other to form a tapered column.
Instead of making the zig-zag or sinuous strips B in short lengths stretching
only from one curved bar to the other bar constituting the girder or column, I may
make them in lengths each capable of being strung from one side to the other any
number of times according to the length of the strip used.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, 1 declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The construction of built columns, beams or girders with bars of curved or
dished cross section substantially as described.
2. A built column, beam or girder constructed of bars of curved or dished cross
section bound together by crimped or sinuous strips riveted thereto substantially as
described.
Dated this 3rd day of December 1896.
WALLACE FAIRWEATHER,
Of the Firm of Cruikshank & Fairweather,
Chartered Patent Agents,
St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, Agent for the Applicant.