IMPROVEMENTS IN ARCHITECTURAL AND BUILDING CONSTRUCTIONS AND MATERIALS
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thaddeus Hyatt at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th
September 1875.
I, THADDEUS HYATT, of No. 66, Gloucester Gardens, Hyde Park,
London, in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturer of Patent Lights,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN ARCHITECTURAL AND BUILDING CONSTRUCTIONS AND MATERIALS," to be as
follows:-
Considered with reference to architecture my improvements relate to
design” and “effect; " and with reference to building they relate to
mechanical methods of arrangement and construction to produce strength
with fireproof and other qualities.
According to one part of my Invention my improvement consists in
making roofs of illuminating gratings or perforated plates set with glass
in combination with joists or supports by a method of uniting the parts,
which produces a practically level, and if desired an ornamental ceiling
upon its under face, the peculiarity of the method consisting, first, in
combining shaped supports with the gratings or plates to make a

page_text: ceiling roof; and, secondly, in laying such supports with the web of the
beam uppermost or skyward, the gratings or plates being placed upon
the flanges between the webs of the beams; thirdly, in the use and
application of 1 shaped beams of such section as to not only afford
the requisite strength, but stiffness required to make it water-tight; 5
& fourthly, in bolting or riveting the gratings or plates to the supports in
combination with asphaltic, Portland, or equivalent waterproofing
cement.
According to another part of my Invention relating to a new mode of
construction in the making of illuminating roofs of perforated sheet 1
metal set with glass, my improvement consists in laying the sheets
crosswise of instead of lengthwise with the supports, and overlapping the
light holes of one sheet by those of the other where the two join to
avoid shewing the joint, a part of the Invention consisting also in fire
and waterproofing the surfaces between the glasses by means of asbestos, 1
plastic, or equivalent heat resisting and waterproofing material.
According to another part of my Invention my improvement consists
in giving ventilation through the apertures of illuminating gratings by
means of tubes made to fit the apertures of the gratings so as to be
readily cemented therein like the glasses. themselves, these tubes being 2
so formed and rising so high above the gratings as to prevent rain from
entering, and extending below the under face of the grating sufficiently
to be turned up in syphon-form to better distribute the air.
According to another part of my Invention my improvement consists
in making ornamental illuminating grating roofs, ceilings, floors, doors, 2
panels, windows, and other parts of houses and ships, by closing the
apertures of the gratings with stained and ornamented but translucent
glasses, a part of the Invention consisting in so setting the same as to
produce designs, a part of the Invention also consisting in the use and
application of such stained and ornamented glass of convex and curved 8
forms, and a farther part of my Invention consisting in the use and
application of the sand blast in combination with staining and coloring
to form or prepare the glasses for such gratings or perforated plates.
According to another part of my Invention my improvement consists
in making ornamental walking surfaces, ceilings, walls, and other parts 3
of buildings by the use and application of gratings, plates, or panels, to
the face of which the ornamenting materials are held by means of

page_text: keying blocks made of encaustic, glazed, or other tiles or material, and
formed with a shank on the under side to take into holes made to
receive them in the body of the grating, plate, or panel, a part of the
Invention consisting in making such ornamental plates, panels, or
gratings illuminating by means of glasses inserted in apertures formed
by arranging the keying blocks around the light openings of the grating
or perforated plate, in such manner as to produce seats or recesses to
receive the same; a part of the Invention also consisting in forming
buttons or protecting projections for the glasses upon the said keying
blocks.