IMPROVEMENTS IN PAVING
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Guthrie, of the City of Manchester,
Accountant, for the-Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PAVING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Guthrie at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st October 1874.
I, EDWIN GUTHRIE, of the City of Manchester, Accountant, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PAVING," to be as follows:-
In performing my Invention I take short laths, strips, or pieces
of wood, which I prefer should have previously saturated, boiled,
or dipped in creosote, tar, pitch, asphalte, or other bituminous or
cementing material, allowing a portion of such material if used to adhere
to such laths, strips, or pieces of wood, which I then or afterwards place
upon the prepared surface of ground to be covered, side by side in such
a position that their ends or edges will remain upwards and form

page_text: together with any other material with which they may be combined the
surface of the paving, and so placed that their sides or flat surfaces lie
at any angle other than a right angle to the surface of the ground
covered or to be covered, and so that they lean or rest upon each
other.
The wood may be laid either by hand to a guage or otherwise, and be
allowed to become solid and amalgamate by the cooling and hardening
of the asphalte or bituminous or cementing material used, or it may be
laid in a dry state (whether having been previously or not dipped,
saturated, or boiled, as aforesaid), and afterwards have the necessary tar,
pitch, asphalte, or other bituminous or cementing material run upon or
among it in a liquid or mastic state.
In either case the mass when so laid may immediately upon having
been laid, or while in course of being laid, or while in process of
hardening, or afterwards be rolled and consolidated by the use of iron or
other rollers. The surface of the paving may at any time during or
after the process of laying be left rough and undressed, or it may be
left smooth, or it may be dressed by the action of such rollers as
aforesaid, or by the use of scrapers or otherwise to any desired degree of
roughness or smoothness.
Before laying the wood and material as aforesaid, the surface of the
ground to be covered may or may not be covered and prepared by the
placing upon it of a layer of tar, pitch, asphalte, Portland cement,
Roman cement, or any other bituminous or cementing material or
otherwise.
In cases where roads or other surfaces have been already covered with
a layer of asphalte I stud the surface with pegs of wood or other
material to prevent slipping. In which case the pegs may be either
driven into such asphalte, either dry or with or without being first
dipped in tar, pitch, asphalte, or other bituminous or cementing material,
or such surface of asphalte may be first bored into holes penetrating
through the whole thickness, but preferably to only a portion of its
thickness by the use of either single or compound drilling machines.
The pegs may then be driven into such holes, either in a dry state or
after having been dipped as aforesaid.
Instead of boring the surface the asphalted paving may be so. softened

page_text: by the application of heat that the pegs may be driven into the asphalte,
or such holes may have a portion of such bituminous or cementing.
material poured into them before the pegs are driven therein.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edwin Guthrie in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 29th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN
GUTHRIE, of the City of Manchester, Accountant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-eighth year of her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Edwin Guthrie, Her
special licence that I, the said Edwin Guthrie, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edwin Guthrie,
my executors, administrators, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PAVING," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Edwin Guthrie, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals,
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 Edwin Guthrie, 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
following statement (that is to say) :-
In performing my Invention I take short laths, strips, or pieces of
wood, which I prefer should have been previously saturated, boiled.
1

page_text: or dipped in creosote, tar, pitch, asphalte, or other bituminous or
cementing material, allowing a portion of such material if used to adhere
to such laths, strips, or pieces of wood, which I then or afterwards place.
upon the prepared surface of ground to be covered, side by side in such
a position that their ends or edges which remain upwards and form
together with any other material with which they may be combined the
surface of the paving, and they are so placed that their sides or flat
surfaces lie at any angle other than a right angle to the surface of the
ground covered or to be covered, and so that they lean or rest upon cach
other.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal section
of part of a road covered with my improved paving, and Fig. 2 is a plan
of the same.
The strips of wood for a road of ordinary traffic are made
about four to six inches long, four inches wide, and three-quarters of an
inch thick; but these dimensions may be increased or reduced and the
angle to which they are set can also be varied.
The wood may be laid either by hand to a guage or otherwise, and
be allowed to become solid and amalgamate by the cooling and hardening
of the asphalte or bituminous or cementing material used, or it may be
laid in a dry state (whether having been previously dipped, saturated, or
boiled, as aforesaid, or not), and afterwards have the necessary tar, pitch,
asphaltc, or otlier bituminous or cementing material run upon or among
it in a liquid or mastic state.
In either case the mass when so laid may immediately upon having
been laid, or while in course of being laid, or while in process of
hardening, or afterwards be rolled and consolidited by the use of iron
or other rollers. The surface of the paving may at any time during or
after the process of laying be left rough and undressed, or it may be left
smooth, or it may be dressed by the action of such rollers, as aforesaid,
or by the use of scrapers or otherwise to any desired degree of roughness
or smoothness, or by cross cutting the staves of which the laths, strips,
or pieces of wood are made in a slanting direction, as shewn in Fig. 3, a
smooth surface can be obtained without the use of scrapers or other
equivalents.
Before laying the wood and material, as aforesaid, the surface of the a
ground to be covered may or may not be covered and prepared by the
placing upon it of a layer of far, pitch, asphalte, Portland cement,
Roman cement, or any other bituminous or cementing material or

page_text: otherwise. This improved pavement affords excellent foothold for the
horses, and is more durable than any of the wood pavements now known
and in use.
In cases where roads or other surfaces have already been covered with
a layer of asphalte I stud the surface with pegs of wood or other
material to prevent slipping, in which cases the pegs may be either
driven into such asphalte, either dry or with or without being first
dipped in tar, pitch, asphalte, or other bituminous or cementing material,
or such surface of asphalte may be first bored into holes penetrating
through the whole thickness, but preferably to only a portion of its
thickness by the use of either single or compound drilling machines.
The pegs may then be driven into such holes, cither in a dry state or
after having been dipped as aforesaid.
Instead of boring the surface the asphalted paving may be so
softened by the application of heat that the pegs may be driven into
the asphalte, or such holes may have a portion of such bituminous
or cementing material poured into them before the pegs are driven
therein.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention and described the
manner of performing the same, I wish it to be understood that I do not
intend to limit myself to the details given so long as the peculiar
character of the Invention bo retained, and I claim,―
First. The improved pavement described, consisting of laths, strips, or
pieces of wood combined with asphalte or other cementing substance
and set in a slanting position, as shown in the Drawing,
And, Secondly. The improved modes of preventing slipping on
asphalted roads of the ordinary construction as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Guthrie, have hereto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of April, One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.