Improvements in or relating to Portable Buildings.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 6th June, 1896
Complete Specification Left, 17th July, 1896-Accepted, 12th Sept., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Portable Buildings.
1, DOMINIK BRÜMMER, of 93 Gymnasiumstrasse, Vienna XIX, Austria, Master
Carpenter to the City, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to buildings which are adapted to be taken down and
re-erected in a rapid and simple manner without the use of tools, and which are
therefore particularly suitable for use as military and other huts and bungalows.
A building constructed in accordance with this invention comprises a number of
wooden frames covered with impregnated pasteboard, which are connected together
by means of screw-bolts and strips at their edges and constitute the side walls of:
the building.
The roof comprises frames which are arranged to overlap one another and
are likewise covered with pasteboard or other water-proof material; and also
frame-shaped trusses which carry the roofing, and are fastened together by means
of screw-clamps or hooks that can be rapidly undone. According to this invention
the building cau be provided with a floor composed of frames which carry on
the top a covering of boards and which are covered on their lower side with
.pasteboard.
Further, special devices are provided which allow of suitably ventilating the
various rooms and which are adapted to be taken apart and put together again in
the simplest manner. All parts of the building that serve the same purpose are
interchangeable so that there is no necessity for numbering or otherwise marking
the parts of the building and each time the building is erected afresh, any
alterations may be made in the division of the space that are required by the.
circumstances of the case.
In the accompanying drawings,
.
Fig. 1 is a vertical longitudinal section, Fig. 2 a cross section, Fig. 3 a plan, and
Fig. 4 is an end elevation of a portable building constructed according to this
invention.
Figs. 5 to 12 inclusive illustrate to a larger scale, details of the construction of
the building.
Resting directly on the ground are blocks A, which carry the floor B and a
frame of foundation timbers a upon which the outside walls are placed. All the :
walls of the house are composed of frames 6 which, as shown in Figs. 5 and 9, are
covered internally and externally with sheets 6 of roofing-pasteboard or other
waterproof material, and which constitute a light but efficient protection against
the weather. The connection between any two adjacent frames b is effected by
means of two strips c, which are arranged to embrace both sides of the dovetail-
shaped edges 62 of the frames. The strips care pressed towards each other by
means of screw bolts d and effect a tight closure of the joints between the frames.
For the purpose of easier and more rapid working, the nuts of the screw bolts d are:
provided with turn down handles.
The corners of the building and the butt-joints of the dividing walls of the
compartments and the outer walls, are formed by strong posts 6, which are fixed
at an angle to each other and which can be fastened with their dovetailed edges to
the adjoining frames b by means of the strips c. On the walls which are constructed.

page_text: means of screw-clamps (Fig. 5). Each of the covering frames i is provided on
its under side with a projecting strip, which is cut off at both ends in order to
leave room for the supporting trusses and serves to prevent lateral movement of
the roof-frame. Each of the screw clamps consists of two hook parts 3 and
a nut for drawing these parts together. The parts are provided with
spherically thickened ends and with right and left hand screw threads. The roof-
frames i and the rafters are formed with recesses for the reception of the spherical
ends of the hook-parts 3 and these recesses are covered by metal plates provided
with key-hole-shaped apertures.
21
The roof-ridge is covered by means of narrow channel-shaped frames j, which
like the frames i, are covered on both sides with roofing-pasteboard and are pressed
by means of screw-clamps against the trusses C. The frames ; may be provided
j
with ventilating caps or hoods J furnished with ventilating-flaps that are adapted
to open and shut simultaneously with a flap j2 arranged on the frame j. Fig. 5
illustrates an arrangement of this kind. , are rods that connect the flap j
with the flaps arranged on both sides of the hood J.
Fig. 8 shows an arrangement for making tight or caulking the butt joints of the
roof-plates i and; that extend in the direction of the water-flow. In order to
prevent rainwater from entering the building, each of the frames i and j is recessed
at its lower edge and is provided with a bark of profile-iron (window-bar iron).
The wedge-like tapering lower edges of these bars k extend into the recess of a
piece of channel-iron k₁, which is fixed on the truss C and constitutes a gutter or
channel for the discharge of the rainwater that may enter the joints.
Figs. 10 and 11 illustrate a suitable arrangement for the upper ventilating-
doors, which can be opened and closed in a simple manner from the interior of the
building whenever desired. A spring contained in a casing acts by means of a
pivoted arm upon the flap or door h and has a tendency to open the same in the
direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 11. On the door h there is movably jointed
near its lower edge a spring locking-arm consisting of two bars 1. The upper
bar of this compound arm is provided with a tooth which engages, when the
door is closed, in an opening in a closing-plate fixed to the lower part of the door.
The lower part of the locking-arm is provided with a downwardly projecting
knob which works in a slot m¹ in a bar m fixed to the door-framing, and is
constantly being pressed upwards by the spring action of the locking-arm. At the
left-hand end, the slot m' widens in such a manner as to allow of the knob being
raised above the bar m. Below the slot m¹ there are formed at one or more
points m² circular recesses in the material of the bar m into which the knob of
the locking-arm can enter and thereby hold the latter and also the door in position.
To the locking arm there is attached a cord m³ which hangs down along the inner
side of the wall of the building and at its other end slides through the wall over
rollers m' and is attached to the door. When the ventilating door is to be opened
or closed, the locking arm is first disengaged by a suitable downward pull on the
cord m³ and then the door is moved, by the spring in the casing into
the desired position, in which it remains locked by the engagement of the
locking-arm.
The doors of the building are provided with lower ventilating-openings D, which
are preferably furnished with the arrangement shown in Fig. 12. The ventilating-
opening is provided on the outside with slats n arranged after the manner of a
Venetian blind, and on the inside with a slide n', the arrangement being such that
by opening or closing the inner slide n', the slats n are also opened and closed at.
the same time. For this purpose all the slats n are rotatably connected with a
vertical bar n², so as to open when this bar is moved down. To the bar n² there is
fixed a bar n that is partly horizontal and partly inclined and along which the
fixed eye o of the slide n' can move. When the slide n' is moved from right to left
for the purpose of opening, the eye o presses the bar n', and with it the bar n²
downward, so that all the slats are turned upward and opened. The reverse takes

page_text: 10. My improved portable building constructed and arranged as hereinbefore
described with reference to and shown in the drawings herein referred to.
Dated this 17th day of July 1896.
F. WISE HOWORTH,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicant.