IMPROVEMENTS IN FORMING OR COVERING ROADS, FLOORS DOORS, AND OTHER SURFACES
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Sir JOHN
SCOTT LILLIE, Knight, Companion of the Order of the Bath, of Pall Mall,
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Ninth day of October,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the fifteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Sir John Scott Lillie, my exors, admiors, and assigns, Her special
license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Sir John
Scott Lillie, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said Sir John Scott Lillie, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man,
and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FORMING OR COVERING ROADS, FLOORS, DOORS, AND OTHER
SURFACES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the
said Sir John Scott Lillie, do cause a particular description of the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto bad, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Sir John Scott Lillie, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is
to say:
My said improvements in roads, streets, and footways consist in combining
metallic substances with coarse gravel, small pieces of stone, wood, or bricks,
by means of concrete, bituminous compounds, or other cements; for instance,
I cause metallic bolts of a wedge-like, or any other convenient shape, to be
embedded perpendicularly in this compound material, or previously fixed in
wooden or metallic frames, somewhat similar to a harrow reversed, thus [*];
the spaces between the lines or metallic rows being filled up with any
of the said materials combined with cement, blocks or slabs of any con-
venient size or shape may be thus cast in moulds with grooves to prevent
horses slipping, and thus laid on the surface of streets or roads already formed,
or on any solid foundation, as flags are usually placed on footways. The
dimensions of these metallic substances must depend on the nature of the
traffic they are required to sustain and the solidity of the foundation, which I
propose augmenting when necessary by the interposition of wooden planks
laid on the surface of the foundation, or attached at the bottom of the blocks;
if bolts for instance, of one inch in diameter, or plates, two inches wide by
half an inch thick, in rows two inches apart, and six inches deep, are required
for the surfaces of carriage roads, one third of these dimensions will be suffi-
cient for footways. These metallic pieces may be hollow in the centre, and
placed separately in the cement without a frame, or connected together like a
series of rings or acute angles, by which means they will be the more firmly
fixed in the cement; or they may be placed, with or without cement, between
rows of wooden blocks in a transverse direction to the line of traffic. For
the surfaces of doors or partitions walls, I cause two metallic plates of the
required height to be bolted together with intervals proportioned to the thick-
ness required, which intervals are to be then filled with the before-mentioned
combination of materials; for walls requiring greater strength I cause this
combination of materials to be cast into solid or hollow blocks in a mould,
one of the faces of each block being composed of a metallic plate or stone,
natural or artificial, attached by the cement in the mould, such face of each

page_text: block forming the surface at each side of the walls.
For the surfaces of rail-
ways I lay down metallic plates at each side of the rail, fastened together
with transverse bolts, I then fill up the intervals with this combination of
materials studded with perpendicular bolts or plates, as before described for
ordinary roads. To provide against the noise and other evils occasioned by
the concussion of the solid metallic surfaces of carriage wheels and horseshoes
on stone pavements, I cover such solid metallic surfaces of carriage wheels
and horseshoes with gutta percha, asphalted felt, vulcanized india rubber, or
other suitable material studded with metallic bolts, nails, or screws, which
will serve at the same time to attach such improved surfaces to the tires of the
wheels, horseshoes, or hoofs.
And having now described the nature of my said improvements, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
what I claim is the combination of materials for the construction or covering
of roads, floors, doors, and other surfaces, as herein described.
In witness whercof, I, the said Sir John Scott Lillie, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
Taken and acknowledged by Sir
John Scott Lillie (party hereto),
at the Office of Her Britannic
Majesty's Consul, at Paris, the
Sixth day of April, 1852, before
JOHN SCOTT (L.S.) LILLIE.

page_text: Pickford" set, subscribed, or written in the margin of the Specification
hereunto annexed marked "A.," and dated the Sixth day of April instant,
and purporting to be executed by Sir John Scott Lillie, Knight, Companion
of the Order of the Bath, of Pall Mall, in Middlesex aforesaid, whereby it is
stated that the Specification was acknowledged by him, the said Sir John
Scott Lillie, before the said Thomas Pickford, on the said Sixth day of
April, at Paris aforesaid, is of the proper handwriting of the said Thomas
Pickford"
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the oath of Peter Armand le
Comte de Fontaine Moreau, the Specification aforesaid was enrolled word for
word as above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.