CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE USE AND PREPARATION OF PLASTIC MATERIALS OR COMPOSITIONS TO BE USED AS ARTIFICIAL STONE. OR AS CONCRETE OR CEMENT, FOR BUILDING AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to François Coignet, of 90, Rue Hauteville, Paris, in
the Empire of France, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE USE AND PREPARATION OF PLASTIC MATERIALS OR COMPOSITIONS TO BE USED
AS ARTIFICIAL STONE. OR AS CONCRETE OR CEMENT, FOR BUILDING AND OTHER
PURPOSES"
Sealed the 20th May 1856, and dated the 26th November 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said François Coignet at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th
November 1855.
1,FRANÇOIS COIGNET, of 90,Rue Hauteville, Paris, in the Empire of France,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE USE AND PREPARATION OF PLASTIC MATERIALS OR COMPOSITIONS TO BE
USED AS ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR AS CONCRETE OR CEMENT, FOR BUILDING AND OTHER
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
The improvements relate to the production of artificial stone, concrete, or
cement from various combinations of sands, gravels,broken flint, brokenstone,
burnt or unournt soil more or less clayey, cinders, aud coal refuse,scoria, wood
ashi, dross and residue of metallurgical works, natural or artificial puzzolonas
with unctuous or hydraulic chalk, very fine sand,such as that of downs and
heaths, or a silicious one, similar to that of Foutainbleau & Montmorency.in

page_text: France, & in the employment of such matters when compounded in the
formation of houses and other buildings, cellars, vaults, raised walls, arched
and horizontal blatbands, forming the upper part of all bays, doors, and
windows, roofing in the form of earthworks, platforms, and flagging, of one or
many colours, mouldings and ornaments in relief upon the surface of walls,
cornices, balusters, balconies, fillets, entablatures, columns, and capitals, in
short, all that comes under the head of masonry work in the construction of
houses and habitatious, such asmanufactories, workshops, vaultedorother wise,
furnace walls, foundation stones forplacingsteamengines,pumps,and machines
of all kinds and descriptions, platforms, and flagging for workshops and yards,
&c., hydraulic and road works of every description, sowers, aqueducts, bridges,
culverts, viaducts, dykes, dams, sluice gates, canals, water reservoirs, &c.
The matters to be mixed are pounded together, and when used the desired
forms are given by moulding and compression on the wall or other formation,
and repeating the operation till the structure desired is obtained, the whole
without brick or stone facing, and without wanting to use any coat.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said François Coignet in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th May 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANÇOIS
COIGNET, of 90, Rue Hauteville,Paris,in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Pateut, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five,in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said François Coignet, Her special licence that I, the said François
Coignet, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said François Coignet, 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 night make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE USE AND PREPARATION OF PLASTIC MATERIALS OR COMPOSITIONS
TO BE USED AS ARTIFICIAL STONE, OR AS CONCRETE OR CEMENT, FOR BUILDING AND
OTHER PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said François
Coignet, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under

page_text: my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the sanie 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 François Coignet, 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 tho
following statement, that is to say:-
The improvements relate to the production of artificial stone, concrete, or
cement from various combinations of sands, gravels, broken flint, broken stone,
burnt or unburnt soil more or less clayey, cinders, and coal refuse, scoria, wood
ash, dross and residue of metallurgical works, natural orartificial puzzolanas
with unctuous or hydraulic chalk, very fine sand, such as that of downs and
heaths, or a silicious one, similar to that of Fontainebleau and Montmorency in
France, and in the employment of such matters when compounded in the
formation of houses and other buildings,cellars, vaults, raised walls, arched and
horizontal platbands, forming the upper part of all bays, doors, and windows,
roofing in the form of earthworks, platforms, and flagging, of one or many
colours, mouldings and ornaments in relief upon the surface of walls, cornices,
balusters, balconies, fillets, entablatures, columus, and capitals, in short all that
comes under the head of masonry work in the construction of houses and
habitations, such as manufactories, workshops, vaulted or otherwise, furnace
walls, foundation stones for placing steam engines,pumps, and machines of all
kinds and descriptions, platform and flagging for workshops and yards, &c.,
hydraulic and road works of every description, sewers, aqueducts, bridges,
culverts, viaducts, dykes, dams, sluice gates, canals, water reservoirs, &c. The
matters to be mixed are pounded together, and when used the desired forms
are given by moulding and compression on the wall or other formation, and
repeating the operation till the structure desired is obtained, the whole without
brick or stone facing, and without wanting to use any coat.
But that the nature of my said Invention may be more fully understood, I
will proceed to explain the composition and some of the modes of using such
plastic material or composition.
1st. I compose the concrete of sand, grits, metals, and broken stones, to
which I add a certain proportion of more or less clayey but crude (that is to
say, unburnt) soil, the whole being mixed with a certain proportion of ordinary
or hydraulic lime.
2nd. I compose it also of sands, grits, metals, and broken stones, with

page_text: cinders and scoria of coals and metals, of more or less clayey earth, but burnt,
and with natural or artificial puzzolana, adding these various materials either
jointly or separately, and mixing to the whole a certain proportion of ordinary
or hydraulic lime.
3rd. I compose it also with very thin sand (such as landes, downs, sea
sands, sands similar to those of Fontainebleau and Montmorency, marly or
clayey sands,) with addition of coal or metals cinders and scoriæ, more or less
clayey soil but burnt, natural or artificial puzzolana, and especially, if necessary,
of marly or clayey but burnt sands, the whole being mixed either jointly or
separately with a certain proportion of ordinary or hydraulic lime.
For the manufacture of the said concretes, I use the ordinary or hydraulic
lime slackened on the ordinary plan, in order that it may form a paste as solid
as possible. The cinders and scorice of coals, the burnt clayey earth, the metal
ashes and scoriac, and the natural or artificial puzzolana must be used under
the form of very thin powder, their tenuity giving much more energy to their
action, and consequently permitting their quantity to be considerably lessened,
as also that of the ordinary or hydraulic lime; however, in places where coal
cinders are abundant it will be unnecessary to grind them to powder, and they
may be used as supplied from the furnaces; in such cases a greater proportion
of cinders is to be employed for the manufacture of the concrete, and the
cinders can even be used alone with lime. The sand, gravels, 'or grits must be
as clear as possible of clayey soil or crude marls.
The mixture of the various materials that are to compose the concrete is
effected by machinery. It can be completed at once, but then the operation
is more difficult, and requires more time and care without ever giving a con-
crete wholly homogeneous; I consequently prefer to proceed as follows:-To
prepare the concrete No. 1, I mix by a first crushing ordinary or hydraulic
lime with the sand, grits,gravels, and broken stones, and by a second grinding
I mix to the mortar obtained by the first crushing more or less clayey crude
soil. In this case the crude earth must be wetted or crumbled, so that it
may become easily divided and speedily mixed. To prepare the concretes
Nos. 2 & 3, I mix by the first crushing ordinary or hydraulic lime with the
coal cinders and scoriæ, burnt earth, metal cinders and scoriæ, natural or
artificial puzzolanas, and also the burnt marly or clayey sand, if employed;
all the latter materials can be put in the mixture jointly or separately.
Afterwards I mix the mortar obtained by the first crushing with the sands
grits, broken stones, and thin sands. The above concretes, whatever may be
their composition, must be obtained as a very solid and almost pulverulent
paste, in order to resist the percussion of hard bodies, and also to agglo-

page_text: merate better. When the concrete is perfectly pounded, and has the
appearance of a very thick paste, I cast them in a mould established on
the wall itself, or on the place where a work of masonry is to be built, and
either above or under the ground. The mould has in the interior the shape
of the intended part of building; I cast thin layers of concrete into this
mould established on the wall, and I mould, ram, or pile up, agglomerate,
and compress it by the repeated percussion of some hard and weighty body.
When the mould is filled, I disjoint it and bring it to any other place to fiil
it again. The mould can also be left filled, if thought necessary, and only
disjoined after the concrete has become hard in the mould.
By the use of my concrete in moulds on the wall as aforesaid, I am enabled
to erect any building whatever, either solid or hollow, or in relief, and by the
moulding of the concrete on the wall I am enabled to form a monolythe
building, whatever may be its mass, height, or disposition.
The same con-
cretes can also be used to manufacture bricks, tiles, pipes, and artificial stones
of any description or shape whatever, by means of a piling and compressing in
moulds specially disposed, and having in the interior the form or shape of the
desired object. The said artificial stones can, moreover, have all dimensions
whatever, and be destined to any desired purpose.
Under the name of masonry, I understand every building of stone or bricks,
either upon
the ground or under, and of whatever form, use, and dimensions,
aud, in fact, anywhere. By means of my concretes I build these constructions
without any facing, casing, or basement whatever of stone or bricks, which do
not enter in the building, even for the circumference of openings, doors, and
windows, or as angle or band stones, cornices, entablatures, or ornaments. In
these buildings are comprised specially any constructions to be used as habita-
tions, of any size, form, and destination; also of cellars with their vaults; the
said cellars being built of concretes erected with full walls and without
openings, by means of general floors, also of concrete, and established on the
whole area of the purposed building, are consequently wholly tight and inac-
cessible to the outward water; also any other floors of moulded concretes to
replace every where the brick pavements, flag stones, shingles, and compart-
ment ceiling; and if necessary I can also forın roofings, any roofings whatever,
of any size, surface, destination, and situation, established either on vaults, or on
iron, cast iron, or wood, carpentry, or established as follows, that is to say :-
This new description of floorings is established by laying on the walls to support
the flooring a certain number of iron stop planks, parallel one to another, and
reposing on the walls by their ends, so as to be completely supported by the
whole thickness of the wall. The number and strength of the said iron plauk

page_text: is in proportion to the pitch, and to the area of flooring to establish for
instance, for a flooring of 15 ft. to a side, or 225 square feet, 1 have employed
three iron planks 44 ins. deep, of which 3 feet weighed about 22 lbs.; but
instead of iron planks I can establish iron rods placed at convenient distances
apart one from the other, and traversing through and through the four walls
supporting the flooring, so that these iron rods cross symetrically one another,
and look somewhat like a chess-board. These rods being in the shape of a
screw, and having a nut at each end, will prevent the walls from loosing their
perpendicularity. Should the flooring have a great span and a large area,
strong iron beams would be placed at convenient distances,and the iron planks
and rods would rest on these beams. Afterwards (after the establishing of
either iron planks or iron rods) I arrange beneath at a distance of at least
21 inches a false flooring, similar to that commonly used to build the ordinary
plaster ceilings. This false flooring is to have the form intended to be given
to the under part of the floors, that is to say, either in horizontal form, or with
compartments, covings, voussures, either hollow or in relievo, or with orna-
ments, &c. Afterwards I pour on the faise flooring my plastic material,
which is rammed or beaten down, agglomerated,and compressed,as herc-above
described, and I add by degrees new concrete or plastic material, until the
beams, planks, and rods be wholly covered by the concrete, and the total
thickness of the flooring be attained. The above part or surface of the flooring
must be levelled according to the pattern, or by any method whatever;
wards the concrete is left to harden during a sufficient time, and when hard
the false flooring is taken away. In order to increase the hardness of these
floorings, and avoid the alkalinity of the lime, the surface may be washed with
a dissolution of biphosphate of lime. When this operation is finished, I have
only to give a coating of paint to the lower part, and a coat of encaustic on
the part of above, to complete the flooring. By this plan I build floorings
with an advantage, as regards economy and solidity, much superior to all
ordinary systems of floorings.
after-
My concretes or plastic materials are also used for building roofs of any
shape whatever, as cupolas, spherical vaults, terraces, or garret roofs. As to
the terrace roofs, they are only floorings built according to the plan above
described, that is to say, by means of beams, planks, or rods drowned in the
plastic material. I have only to observe, that in this case a stronger washing
with biphosphate of limo will be required in in order better to prevent the
atmospheric actions; and moreover, the above surface must have the recessary
declivity for the running of the water. As to the curb, mansard, spheric, and
cupola roofs, I establish a frame or archwork, having the shape to be given to

page_text: the roof, and bearing in juxtaposition with the walls forming the circuit of the
building on which the roof is to be established. Then on or and continuing
these walls I put new concrete or plastic material, but successively, and leaning
on the frameworks, which in this case is to be used as a mould, I ram, pile
up, and agglomerate, as usually. The whole circumference of the said wall
must be made simultaneously, and by concentric layers, till the top is reached.
This top may be termined by an opening or lantern, or otherwise. The outer
surface is carefully polished, and when the concrete is become hard and dry 1
wash the outer surface with a solution of biphosphate of lime, and I take away
the framework; the trenches and gutters may also be reserved in the concrete,
without employing any special pipes, or any casing of cement or metal.
My concrete or plastic material and the manner of using the same can
be applied to any agricultural or industrial workshops, either covered with
concrete or not; to all the workshops, floorings, walls, & passages; also to
any shed, docks, or warehouse; to any hydraulic works whatever, such as
large aqueducts, tanks, and reservoirs, mill courses, dams, weirs, dikes, moles,
piers, quays of whatever description, canal banks, bridges, culverts, sewers,
drains, ditches, &c; to any cisterns, cesspools, pits of all descriptions,
gazometer pits, tan pits, retting pits, ovens for the manufacture of china
and earthenware, water tanks, or reservoirs of any shape and size whatever;
to all ordinary road works, such as retaining walls, bridges, culverts, tunnels,
parapets, pavement, floors covering the road; to all works for railways, such
as tunnels, aqueducts, viaducts, bridges, culverts, retaining walls,quays, crane
mass works, turnplate mass work, or mass work for any other machinery,
sewers, pavements, workshops, stations, warehouses, docks,and sheds, either
covered with concrete or not, with their floors, fence walls,covers,&c., girders
to support rails, tank columns, tanks, in short, in short, any masonry works
used for railways; to any underwork masonry whatever, silos, and storehouses.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, I would have it
understood that what I claim is,―
Firstly, the introduction in the composition of concretes or plastic materialof
certain hydraulifying substances before referred to in the form of thin powder.
such as the coal cinders & scoriæ, metal works cinders & scorice, burnt clayey
earth,natural or artificial puzzolana; which substances in their state ofdivision
can easily combine with lime, render hydraulic the unctuous lime, encrease the
quickness and energy of the hardning of hydraulic lime, and above all, by
the use of the whole system, admit of lessening the quantity of lime to be
introduced in the concretes or plastic materials without any prejudicial action
as to the solidity.

page_text: Secondly, the composition, preparation, and manner of employing the above-
described concrete or plastic material into which I introduce more or less
clayey crude earth, which allows of reducing the quantity of lime, and conse-
quently to lessen the cost; this concrete is especially useful for agricultural
purposes, as neither water nor frost can act on it.
Thirdly, for obtaining concrete by means of thin sand, so that this concrete
becomes quickly hard and convenient to any building purposes.
Fourthly, for the use of the biphosphate of lime, in order to encrease the
hardness of the surface of the concrete to render the same unpermeable, and
to destroy the alcalinity of lime, which allows the application of paints having
a fat or resinous basis.
In witness whereof, I, the said François Coignet, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
CH HASENFELD,
12, Place de la Bourse, Paris.
FRANÇOIS COIGNET. (L.s.)