IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL GRANITE, SUITABLE FOR BUILDINGS, ENGINEERING. STRUCTURES, PAVEMENTS, AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Perceval Moses Parsons, of Blackheath, in the County.
of Kent, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL GRANITE, SUITABLE FOR BUILDINGS, ENGINEERING.
STRUCTURES, PAVEMENTS, AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES."-A communication
from abroad by Pierre Rudolph Pozzi, of Bordeaux, France.
Sealed the 12th May 1868, and dated the 15th November 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Perceval Moses Parsons
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th November 1867.
I, PERCEVAL MOSES PARSONS, of Blackheath, in the County of Kent, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL GRANITE, SUITABLE FOR BUILDINGS, ENGINEERING
STRUCTURES, PAVEMENTS, AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES," communicated to me by
Pierre Rudolph Pozzi, of Bordeaux, France, to be as follows, namely
I employ as materials for the manufacture of this artificial granite disinte-
grated natural granite mixed with clay, together with pounded glass, lava, or
iron slags.
The disintegrated granite I obtain by submitting fragments of granite to a
strong heat, by which, after a sufficient time it becomes dissolved into a
granitic sand, the constituent parts of which, quartz & felspar, have a great
power of adhesion. One part of this granitic sand is then mixed with about
an equal quantity of pounded glass, or lava, or iron slag, or a mixture of all
or any of them, to which is added from twenty to thirty parts of refractory

page_text: clay, or from thirty to fifty parts of ordinary clay. This mixture is thoroughly
kneaded together with a sufficient quantity of water to make it of a pasty
consistency; it is then moulded to any form required, and submitted to a
great heat for about thirty-six hours, which vitrifies the mass and converts it
into a hard & durable substance resembling granite.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Perceval Moses Parsons in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 14th May 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PERCEVAL
MOSES PARSONS, of Blackheath, in the County of Kent, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Perceval Moses Parsons, Her special licence that I, the said Perceval
Moses Parsons, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Perceval Moses Parsons, 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL GRANITE, SUITABLE FOR
BUILDINGS, ENGINEERING STRUCTURES, PAVEMENTS, AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES,"
a communication from Pierre Rudolph Pozzi, of Bordeaux, France, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Perceval Moses Parsons, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under his, 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 per-
formed, 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 Perceval Moses Parsons, 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:-

page_text: SPECIFICATION.
I employ as materials for the manufacture of this artificial granite
disintegrated natural granite mixed with clay, together with pounded glass,
lava, or iron slags.
The disintegrated granite I obtain by submitting fragments of natural
granite to a strong heat, about seven hundred or eight hundred degrees
centrigrade in an oven or furnace, by which after a sufficient time it becomes
dissolved into a granitic sand, the constituent parts of which, quartz or felspar,
possess great powers of adhesion. One part of this granitic sand is then mixed
with about an equal quantity of pounded glass, or the constituents of glass, or
lava, or iron slag, or a mixture of all or any of them, to which is added from
twenty to thirty parts of refractory clay, or from thirty to fifty parts of ordinary
clay. This mixture is thoroughly kneaded together with a sufficient quantity
of water to make it of a pasty consistency; it is then moulded to any form
required, and submitted to a degree of heat to sufficient to vitrify the mass for
about thirty-six hours, which converts it into a hard and durable substance
resembling granite.
In some cases other rocks of a similar character to granite or some of its
constituent parts, such as quartz, mica, gneis, felspar, may be employed in
place thereof.
The artificial granite thus produced may be moulded into any forms
required to render it suitable for various kinds of buildings, fortifications,
docks, and other engineering structures, and particularly for all kinds of
pavements for which its great hardness renders it particularly suitable; when
very large blocks are required, it is preferable to make them hollow, and after
they have been baked or burnt they may be filled with concrete, rubble, &c.,
to make them solid.
Any kind of furnace in which the requisite heat can be generated will
answer for dissolving the granite and baking or vitrifying the blocks or bricks;
but those known as Hoffmans' annular furnaces are found to perform this
operation satisfactorily.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this 14th