IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MATS AND OTHER SURFACES WHERE VULCANIZED INDIA-RUBBER IS EMPLOYED
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Barnabas Daft, of No. 2, Queen Square,
Westminster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF MATS AND OTHER SURFACES WHERE VULCANIZED INDIA-RUBBER IS
EMPLOYED."
Sealed the 13th January 1863, and dated the 17th July 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Barnabas Daft
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th July 1862.
I, THOMAS BARNABAS DAFT, of No. 2, Queen Square, Westminster, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF MATS AND OTHER SURFACES WHERE VULCANIZED INDIA-RUBBER 19
EMPLOYED," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object "Improvements in the Manufacture of Mats
and other Surfaces where Vulcanized India-rubber is employed." For these.
purposes strips or narrow fillets of vulcanized sheet india-rubber are used,
which are placed on edge and kept parallel to each other by laths of wood or
of other hard material of less width than the vulcanized india-rubber fillets or
strips, so that the vulcanized india-rubber may stand above the laths of wood
or of other hard material, thus forming a series of elastic ridges above the
hard material forming the base or surface in which the strips or fillets of
vulcanized india-rubber are held parallel. The sides of the neighbouring laths

page_text: between which the vulcanized india-rubber strips or fillets are held up on
edge may be straight or undulating. The several laths and strips or fillets
are held tightly together by rods or screw bolts passing through them, or by
other convenient means, so that the several strips or fillets of vulcanized india-
rubber will be held upright and at a short distance apart. In some cases, in
place of using parallel fillets or strips of vulcanized india-rubber kept on edge
by interposed filling laths, a series of blocks or pieces of vulcanized india-
rubber are used, and they are each fastened in the centre to a wood or other
suitable hard substance in such manner that the centre of each block or piece
is depressed or made hollow, whilst the outer edges are raised by the elasticity
of the material; by these means an irregular elastic surface is produced. In
some cases the desired irregular elastic surface is produced by means of short
lengths of vulcanized india-rubber tubing, each length being fixed by one of
its ends to a base of wood or other suitable material, so that a short length of
each piece of tube stands above the base to which it is fixed. These short tubes
are fixed to the base or under surface either in parallel rows side by side, but,
by preference, not touching each other, or they may be fixed to the base or
under surface according to various devices, and the pieces of tubes used for the
purpose may be all of the same diameter or of different diameters.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Barnabas Daft in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 16th January 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
BARNABAS DAFT, of No. 2, Queen's Square, Westminster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Barnabas Daft, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Barnabas
Daft, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Barnabas Daft, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE.
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF MATS AND OTHER SURFACES WHERE VULCANIZED

page_text: INDIA-RUBBER IS EMPLOYED," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Thomas Barnabas Daft, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, 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 Thomas Barnabas Daft, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement thereof, that is to say:
In making mats or other surfaces having strips or narrow fillets of vul-
canized india-rubber the strips are used, say about inch wide by inch
thick, and laths of wood or other hard material, say about inch wide by a
tin. thick, and these are nailed down upon a board, the wood and rubber
strips alternately, the wood flatwise and the rubber edgewise, thus forming
projecting surfaces of india-rubber or elastic ridges of about an inch above
the strips of wood or other material. If wavy or undulating lines are desired
instead of straight ones, the sides of the fillets or strips of wood are formed
wavy, and the rubber strips are made to follow them.
In making thick mats, which are sometimes preferred, having elastic ridges
an inch or more in depth above the hard surface, strips of wood or other hard
material, say 1 in. by in. are prepared of a certain length, say 3 feet, and
rubber strips are prepared the same length, and of a section of, say, about
2 in. by in.; these strips of wood and rubber are to have holes of about
in. diameter made in them about 6 inches apart, and in such a way as to
allow rods of iron screwed at both ends being put through them, first a strip
of wood and then a strip of rubber, finishing with a strip of wood, and having
enough of each to make a width of about 2 feet, the holes to be formed in the
wood and the rubber respectively, so that the surfaces shall be even in the
under side, but on the top side the rubber shall stand up edgewise abovo
the wood about an inch; nuts are screwed on to the iron rods, and all made
firm and tight. This arrangement makes a very effective mat or shoe-cleaner,
and when a strip is worn down or destroyed, it can with facility be replaced.
Unless very deep, heavy, and expensive, the ordinary india-rubber mats easily
shuffle about by the action of the foot, and are damaged thereby, and seem to
require some stiffening or protecting material in combination with them, such
as this Invention is intended to supply.
Another mode of making mats, according to this Invention, is by employing

page_text: strips of vulcanized india-rubber of a suitable width and thickness which have
been vulcanized at certain distances apart to a stout canvas or other strong
cloth suitable for giving the additional strength and support to the strips of
vulcanized india-rubber, and the same is fixed by the canvas or strong cloth
to a board or surface by nails or otherwise; or the strips may be cut away
from each other, leaving a selvedge or edge of canvas or strong cloth to aid
in fixing them on the wooden frame or other surface; or strips of vulcanized
india-rubber, with canvas backs, may be nailed or fastened upon boards or
suitable surfaces, thus making surfaces of vulcanized india-rubber according
to this Invention.
In some cases I prefer to use short lengths of vulcanized india-rubber
tubing, in which case I prefer to form or bore holes in a board to suit the size
of the tubing, and insert short lengths of it into the holes, and then force pegs
into the lengths of tubing, and wedge them in, keeping the top edges, say
about in. above the surface of the board and the top of the pegs, which do
not project much, if any, above 'the board, or such short lengths may be other-
wise fixed. In order to give a hard substance for backing up strips, or short
tubes, or square blocks, or any other convenient-shaped pieces of india-rubber,
I take them in their sulphurized state, and attach them to a sheet of com-
pound suitable for converting into the material called vulcanite or hard
rubber by the process of vulcanization, so that the permanent attachment of
strips, tubes, square blocks, or other convenient-shaped pieces are by this
process vulcanized and made to adhere, and be vulcanized into the hard
material called vulcanite or hard india-rubber.
Another mode of carrying out this Invention is by taking a sheet of sul-
phurized compound intended for vulcanite, say of from " to " in. in thick-
ness, and pass it through a pair of rolls, one having rings or grooves turned
in it of the dimensions and the distance apart necessary to produce strips or
narrow fillets and the other roller plain. Ou that side of the sheet of vulcanite
compound next to the grooved rollers I place sulphurized rubber in a plastic
state; and it will be well understood that by the motion of such rollers, and
by means of such materials, I am enabled to produce a fabric which, when
vulcanized, gives me strips or narrow fillets of india-rubber standing above a
hard material, and suitable for mats and other surfaces.
When it is required to apply this Invention to the surface of a wooden
floor, I prefer to have strips or fillets composed of hård and soft india-rubber,
and to nail or screw them down with the hard side at the bottom next the
floor and the soft side at the top. The size and proportions of such strips may
be as follows, or any other convenient size:-inch square, th of hard

page_text: rubber, and ths soft; the lengths of strips of this kind is immaterial, as they
may be butt jointed to suit any length of flooring. The same sort of strips
answer very well, nailed or otherwise fastened to wooden boards, for making
mats.
If considerable depth of space be preferred, and at the same time wider
strips or fillets of rubber, the same is effected by nailing strips of wood about
"in. square, and about an inch apart on to a base or surface of wood, and
upon these strips india-rubber strips " in. x 1" are nailed flatwise, thus
giving a surface of vulcanized india-rubber ridges standing above the hard
material.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Barnabas Daft, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
THOMAS BARNABAS DAFT. (L.B.)