Improvement in Flooring.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 11th July, 1898-Accepted, 13th Aug., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in Flooring.
I, FREDERICK WILLIAM GOLBY, of 36, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed; as communicated to me by Alexander,
Baron of Hammerstein-Loxten, at Abentheuer, near Birkenfeld, Grand Duchy of
Oldenburg, Germany, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:
My invention consists in a new method of laying down flooring boards of all
kinds, which are not provided with grooves and tongues. Hitherto such flooring
boards could be fixed to the joists of the floors only by means of nails. This is a
great inconvenience as the nail-holes render such a floor impracticable for finer and
better purposes.
On the other hand for thin flooring boards covered nailing or
grooves and tongues cannot be employed as for this an appreciable thickness of the
flooring boards is required.
The object of this invention is to provide means by which thin flooring boards
and especially inlaid boards may be laid down without grooves and tongues and
with a perfectly smooth treading surface.
The invention is represented in the accompanying drawing, Fig. 1 being a vertical
section and Fig. 2 a horizontal section of a part of a floor.
To carry this invention into practice a nail c is driven into the joist b immediately
in front of the flooring board a, so that its head is a certain height above the joist.
In order to secure the correct height an iron-piece is used having a groove, which
is placed on the nail, this latter being driven into the joist till the under side of said
iron piece reaches the joist.
This being done the nail is driven from the side into the flooring board a, so that
the half of the head is sunk into the wood (see Fig. 1).
Now, a small plate d of any suitable metal, preferably of steel, provided with a
slit which is open on one side, is driven by means of a tool especially constructed
for this purpose, horizontally, immediately under the nail-head into the flooring
board until the end of the slit lies against the nail as shown in Fig. 2.
In this way further nails and small plates are driven into the joist and flooring
board alongside the latter. Then the joiner takes the next flooring board, presses
it with his knee against the floor and drives it against the flooring board before
laid, so that the free halves of the nails and plates penetrate into the new board and
the edges of the two boards touch one another. The nails and plates penetrate
easily into the wood even if this is hard.
The method herein before described renders superfluous all other nails, brads,
tongues and the like. The small plates d connect the flooring boards very solidly
with one another better than grooves and tongues, and the nails, going through the
centres of the plates, fix these and the boards fast to the joist. By this method it
is possible to lay down quite thin boards without any visible nailing and thereby
to produce the finest inlaid floors with considerably less cost than hitherto.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. The method and means herein described of laying down inlaid and other
floors, consisting of nails driven into the joist alongside the flooring board, small
plates with slits to enclose said nails and driven horizontally into the board, and
the succeeding board driven against these plates and nails, substantially as
described.
2. In an inlaid flooring the combination of flooring boards (a), nails (c) driven
into the joist (b) between the flooring boards and small metal plates (d),
surrounding by means of a slit said nails and driven horizontally into the two
adjacent boards, substantially as described.
натт СТА
F. W. GOLBY,
36, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.