AN IMPROVED MODE OF COVERING, LIGHTING. AND VENTILATING AREAS, VAULTS, AND SIMILAR UNDERGROUND SPACES, APPLICABLE ALSO AS A FOOTWAY
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Franklin Stevens, of 17, Henrietta
Street, Covent Garden, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for
the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF COVERING, LIGHTING. AND
VENTILATING AREAS, VAULTS, AND SIMILAR UNDERGROUND SPACES, APPLICABLE
ALSO AS A FOOTWAY."-A communication from abroad by Thaddeus
Hyatt, of Atchison, Kansas, United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Franklin
Stevens at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 2nd October 1869.
I, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN STEVENS, of 17, Henrietta Street, Covent
Garden, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF COVERING,
LIGHTING, AND VENTILATING AREAS, VAULTS, AND SIMILAR UNDERGROUND SPACES
APPLICABLE ALSO AS A FOOTWAY," a communication to me from abroad by
[Price 8d.1

page_text: Inaddeus ayatt, of Atomson, lisas,
as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar mode of covering, lighting, and
ventilating areas, vaults, and similar underground spaces, such covering
serving also at the same time, if required, as a footway for pedestrians,
and consists of a platform having one or more cross blades or webs cast
thereon, and in some cases with an additional blade or web cast upon it
at right angles to the cross blades, the said platform being fitted with
glass or provided with ventilating openings. The blades bear to the
platform the relation of webs, and the platform bears to the blades the
relation of a flange, the entire combination forming a beam platform.
When required as an illuminating beam platform the blades are so
disposed with reference to the angular rays of light supposed to pass
through the glasswork or openings of the platform to the basement of
the building lighted by it as not to obstruct the passage of such rays.
In applying this illuminating or ventilating platform a water-tight
coping is employed in lieu of ordinary stone curbs in order to prevent
the horizontal leakage which takes place between the under side of the
stone and the masonry on which it rests. This coping may either be
_made separately or cast with the platform. The platform should be
made sufficiently broad to cover the area walls, and at its extreme outer
edge upon all sides where it rests upon the walls this platform is pro-
vided with a bead or fillet which overlaps the edge of the brick work
- and runs perpendicularly down for about two inches on the outside of
the wall; in this way acting as a water drip for conveying the surface
water of the pavement away from the area. When the coping is made
separately the water drip is cast upon it. Where, from prejudice or other
cause, the ordinary stone coping is retained the platform is formed
with an angular bearing or neck piece, which runs down behind the stone
and comes out over the wall underneath the coping, terminating in a
water drip over the wall, as above described. If desired this platform
may be laid upon a rebated stone coping.
In some case the platform may be asphalted and provided with
ventilating spaces, so as to furnish a substitute for stone flagging in a
street footway where the flagging is designed as a roof or cover to an
underground space in which head room is an object. The asphalted
iron surface acts as a protection to pedestrians against slipping, the
iron for this object being thus equal to stone. The asphalte employed

page_text: for covering the platform may be either natural or artificial, or any
substance of the nature of asphalte that will effect the same purpose.
In order to cause the asphalte to adhere the surface of the iron to
which it is applied is cast in the form of hexagonal or other shaped
cells. When used as a self-cleaning dry ventilating roof and footway
the open grating portion of the platform is provided with air holes, each
surrounded at the top by a bevelled ring or curb, which prevents the
surface water from running into them. These rays are made so flaring
underneath as to prevent all accumulation of dirt within them by
packing as commonly takes place. The falling dirt and any drops of
rain that may get through them is caught by a water catch or pan
placed directly underneath the open grating and furnished with a waste
pipe and gauge mouth protector to lead off the wet.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Benjamin Franklin Stevens in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 2nd April 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN STEVENS, of 17, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Benjamin Franklin Stevens, Her special license
that I, the said Benjamin Franklin Stevens, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Benjamin Franklin Stevens, my
executors, administrators, or 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 "AN IMPROVED
MODE OF COVERING, LIGHTING, AND VENTILATING AREAS, VAULTS, AND SIMILAR
UNDERGROUND SPACES, APPLICABLE ALSO AS A FOOTWAY," a communication
from abroad by Thaddeus Hyatt, of Atchison, Kansas, United States of
America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said. Benjamin

page_text: Franklin Stevens, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manuer 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 Benjamin Franklin Stevens, 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 following statement, reference being had to the Drawings here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is
to say :-
The said Invention relates to a peculiar mode of or appliances for
covering, lighting, and ventilating areas, vaults, and similar under-
ground spaces, such covering serving also at the same time, if required,
as a footway for pedestrians, and consists of a metal platform having
one or more cross blades or webs cast thereon, and in some cases with
an additional blade or web cast upon it at right angles to the cross blades,
the said platform being fitted with glass or provided with ventilating
openings. The blades bear to the platform the relation of webs, and
the platform bears to the blades the relation of a flange, the entire com-
bination forming a beam platform.
When required as an illuminating beam platform the blades are so
disposed with reference to the angular rays of light supposed to pass
through the glasswork or openings of the platform to the basement of
the building lighted by it as not to obstruct the passage of such rays.
In applying this illuminating or ventilating platform or grating a water-
tight coping is employed in lieu of ordinary stone curbs in order to
prevent the horizontal leakage which takes place between the under side
of the stone and the masonry on which it rests.
This coping may
either be made separately or cast with the platform. The platform
should be made sufficiently broad to cover the area walls, and at its
extreme outer edge upon all sides where it rests upon the walls this
platform is provided with a bead or fillet which overlaps the edge of
the brickwork and runs perpendicularly down for about two inches on
the outside of the wall, in this way acting as a water drip for conveying
the surface water of the pavement away from he area. When the

page_text: coping is made separately the water drip is cast upon it. Where, from
prejudice or other cause, the ordinary stone coping is retained the plat-
form is formed with an angular bearing or neck piece, which runs down
behind the stone and comes out over the wall underneath the coping
terminating in a water drip over the wall, as above described.
desired this platform may be laid upon a rebated stone coping.
If
In some cases the platform may be asphalted and provided with
ventilating openings so as to furnish a substitute for stone flagging in a
street footway where the flagging is designed as a roof or cover to an
underground space in which head room is an object. The asphalted
iron surface acts as a protection to pedestrians against slipping, the
iron for this object being thus equal to stone. The asphalt employed
for covering the platform may be either natural or artificial, or any
substance of the nature of asphalt that will effect the same purpose.
In order to cause the asphalt to adhere the surface of the iron to which
it is applied is cast in the form of hexagonal or other shaped cells.
When used as a self-cleaning dry ventilating roof and footway the
open grating portion of the platform is provided with air holes, each
surrounded at the top by a bevelled ring or curb, which prevents the
surface water from running into them. These rings are made so flaring
underneath as to prevent all accumulation of dirt within them by
packing as commonly takes place. The falling dirt and any drops of
rain that may get through them is caught by a water catch or pan
placed directly underneath the open grating and furnished with a waste
pipe and gauze mouth protector to lead off the wet.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood I shall
How proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of Drawings,
the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the
Figures.
Figure 1 of the Drawings represents a plan of an area or platform
light intended to form the illuminating portion of the side walk;
Figure 2 is a transverse section of the same taken along the line 1-2,
in Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a transverse section of an area platform intended as a
ventilator as well as an illuminator.
Figures 4 and 5 are slight modifications of Figure 3.

page_text: Figure 6 represents a transverse section of a portion of a side walk
provided with a grating intended to admit light and air to vaults or
cellars; Figure 7 is a plan of the same and Figure 8 represents a full
size section of a portion of a ventilator showing the form of the ventilating
apertures.
In Figures 1 and 2, A represents the framing of a platform light
having a fillet or flange B cast on the outer edge of the under surface
thereof. C are ribs cast at intervals and extending across from side to
side of the frame; these ribs are strengthened by having webs c cast on
their under surface (Figure 2) in connection with the flanges or fillets B.
D are slabs or plates of metal suitably perforated to receive the glasses E
through which the rays of light pass into the apartment or space below.
These glasses may rest in their seats on a bed of putty, and may be held
securely in their places by a fusible cement composed of sulphur and
coal tar, or in any other suitable way. The slabs or plates D are held
in the frame A by screws or bolts d, and may be made water-tight by
running any suitable cement between the joints. When the slabs or
plates are fitted and secured in their place they form the surface of
the platform, through which the angular rays of light pass unimpeded
into the basement portion of the space below, the ribs C being so
arranged as not to interfere therewith. Any number of the plates D
may be left solid, and in that case they should be asphalted on the
surface.
In Figure 3, A represents the frame of a platform intended to admit
air as well as light. D is the metal plate or slab, which is perforated
with conical or tapered holes E, the small ends of which are uppermost
and surrounded by rings or bosses a projecting above the general
surface and sloping outwards from the openings so as to prevent any
surface water from entering therein, and also to direct or carry off from
such openings any water which may fall thereon. The conical form of the
holes will entirely prevent them from becoming choked or clogged up,
as any dirt entering from the upper surface must pass freely through
by reason of the increasing area of the openings towards the inner
surface of the plate or slab. The plate or slab D is provided with a
fillet or flange B on its under side, which enters a groove or channel F
formed on the inner edge of the frame A. This channel receives any
water that may enter between the slab D and the frame A, and conducts
it away by the gutter G. Any water or dirt which may pass through

page_text: the openings E will be caught by the water catch or pan H, which
may, if desired, be provided with a pipe for conducting the water
therefrom. This pan may be partly or wholly composed of glass in
order that the rays of light which pass through the openings E inay
not be intercepted thereby, or if preferred it may, in some cases, be
composed entirely of metal, and may be suspended by chains or other-
wise supported underneath the perforated plate or slab D. The frame A
may simply rest on the top of the walls of the area or apartment to
which it is applied; or, if desired, it may be provided with a lip or
flange I forming a water drip (see Figure 4), so as to embrace the top
of the wall between such flange and the channel F, thus forming a
water-tight coping and dispensing with the ordinary stone curb. This
frame or coping A should be asphalted on the upper surface when
forming part of the footway.
In some cases it may be desirable to surmount the frame A (shewn in
Figure 4) by an ordinary stone curb, as shewn at K in Figure 5, in
which case the lip or flange I forming the water drip will bear against
one side of the wall, whilst one side of the channel F will bear against
and support the curb K at the opposite side, a gutter being provided in
the curb, as shewn by the dotted line, to carry off any surface water
which may enter the channel F.
Figures 6 and 7 represent a portion of a side walk with a circular
grating fitted therein (such as a coal cellar plate for example) intended
to admit air and light to a vault or other chamber situate below. A is
an asphalted slab or plate of metal intended to be used in a side walk
in substitution for the ordinary perforated flagstone; it is provided with
a water drip I, which surrounds the top of the brick mouth or throat of
the vault below. This slab or plate is formed with a circular or other
shaped opening having a channel or gutter F extending all round it
to receive the lip or flange B of the removeable slab or grating D. The
general surface of the grating is below the surface of the side walk, but
the tops of the raised rings or bosses a (see Figure 8) which surround
the holes E are level therewith, thus obviating any objection which
might arise if they projected above the general surface. The surface
water will be received by the annular gutter F, and be conducted
therefrom by the channel or gutter G into the roadway, as shewn.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used

page_text: or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I
consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Inventiou
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First. The constructing of a perforated or glazed platform for covering
areas, vaults, or other similar underground spaces with one or more 5
cross blades or webs arranged so as to constitute a beam platform, and
so disposed as not to impede the passage of the angular rays of light
into the basement of a building, substantially in the manner and for
the purpose herein-before described.
Second. The combination with the said beam platform of a metallic
water-tight coping cast in one piece with the said beam platform or
made separately and provided with a water-drip, arranged substantially
as and for the purpose herein-before described.
Third. The forming of a water drip on a water-tight metallic coping
when used in combination with the peculiar perforated coal plate or
grating, substantially as and for the purpose herein-before described.
Fourth. The casting of an angular bearing or neck piece upon the
water-tight coping when intended to be used in conjunction with the
ordinary stone coping, such angular bearing or neck piece passing behind
the stone coping, as and for the purpose herein-before described and
illustrated by Figure 5 of the Drawings.
Fifth. The application of natural or artificial asphalte or other
equivalent material to the metallic portion of the surface of a per-
forated or glazed beam platform or other perforated slab or grating
and the forming of cells in the surface to be asphalted, as and for the
purpose herein-before described.
Sixth. The forming of air holes in the said platform or in a removeable
grating, such air holes being of larger diameter on the under side than
on the upper side, and being surrounded on their upper surfaces with
bevelled or sloping bosses in order to avoid choking and to prevent
the surface water from entering such holes, as herein-before described
and illustrated by Figure 8 of the Drawings.
”
Seventh. The use of a water catch or pan situate beneath the air
holes in the said platform or perforated grating for the purpose of
catching any dirt or drops of rain that may fall through such air holes,
as herein-before described.

page_text: Eight. The asphalting of iron plates employed as covers for areas,
vaults, or other underground spaces, and as copings in foot pavements,
as and for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Franklin Stevens, have
to this my Specification set my hand and seal, the Second day
of April One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
B. F. STEVENS. (L.S.)