PROVEMENTS IN MOULDS OR TEMPLATES FOR RUNNING STUCCO OR CEMENT, TAPERED, FLUTED, OR OTHER COLUMNS, PILLARS, OR PILASTERS, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE SURFACES USED IN BUILDINGS.
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Cleghorn at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 26th August 1878.
"IM-
JOHN CLEGHORN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain.
PROVEMENTS IN MOULDS OR TEMPLATES FOR RUNNING STUCCO OR CEMENT, TAPERED,
FLUTED, OR OTHER COLUMNS, PILLARS, OR PILASTERS, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE
SURFACES USED IN BUILDINGS.'
31
This Invention relates to the running of stucco or cement in forming fluted or
other colums, pillars, or pilasters and similar surfaces, in a more simple, economical,
and expeditious manner than heretoforo; and the nature and novelty of the
Invention as applied for running or making the body part of a fluted tapered
column of stucco or cement, consist in constructing a short box-shaped template,
having two sides joined together by a back plate outside, with handle upon it
for drawing it up and down the column, and with an open space inside the back
between the sides open above and below, equal to any desired section or segment of
the column at its base or widest part, into which the column is equally divided by
narrow longitudinal strips of wood, against which the inner edge and end surfaces
of the sides of the template slide close, so as to prevent the escape of the semi-
liquid cement or stucco. A thin elastic segmental mould plate is hinged or jointed
at its ends to the inner faces or edges of the template, formed in its inner scraping
edge to correspond to the segmental curve of the base of the column, with rounded
projections corresponding to the flutes to be formed on the column. This plate and
its hinges are laid at an angle highest at the inner scraping edge, and inclined
downwards towards the back, leaving a space between it and the back for the free
passage or escape of the superfluous stucco or cement scraped off the column during
the ascent of the mould along the column on its longitudinal shaping strips before
mentioned,
The one end or side of the mould is made to slide or contract laterally in slots or
other equivalent guides in the back of the mould frame, as it ascends along the
contracting or tapering longitudinal laths, the thin plate bending or yielding down

page_text: in a curvilinear form on its end hinges before mentioned, so as to bulge inwards
while bending downwards, and so contract the column in a nearly true radial and
segmental form, from the bottom to the top of the column, the angle at which the
scraping mould plate is set on its hinges determining this contraction of the
scraping centre edge of its segment radially in a ratio corresponding to the
contraction of the length of the segment and moving sides of the mould, which, for
large moulds and columns, might be carried and drawn up by handles secured to
the tops of the ends of the moulds, with ropes led up and over pulleys at the top of
the column, thence down to the hand of the operators, so that the mould may be
raised and lowered at pleasure to form the whole segment of the column from the
bottom to the top, in nearly as simple and efficient a manner as plain mouldings
are at present run by the usual simple edge-scraping moulds, one segment being run
after the other in succession until the column is finished.
For plain or other forms of columns the inner scraping edge of the mould plate is
made to correspond to the tapered surface of the column to be formed plain,
segmental, or fluted as desired; and for flat, square, or polygonal columns, which
do not require a segmental mould scraper, this would be made straight, either plain
or fluted, as desired, on its scraping edge, and set horizontally on its hinges, instead
of at an angle as described for the segmental mould scraper for forming round
columns; and this mould scraping plate, in any case, is preferred to be made of
thin elastic steel, or tempered copper or brass, which would bend and contract the
flutes or ridges on the surface of the columns or pillars, equally and proportionally
to the several parts of the column over which the mould is traversed.
Although the mould or template has been described as made with only one of its
ends movable laterally, it is to be understood that both ends or sides may be fitted
so as to move in a similar manner to suit different kinds of work.....