IMPROVEMENTS IN PAVING SETTS USED IN THE FORMATION OF STREETS OR ROADWAYS, WHETHER LAID WITH TRAMWAYS OR NOT."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Lindsay, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid-
lothian, North Britain, Merchant, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PAVING SETTS USED IN THE FORMATION OF STREETS OR ROADWAYS, WHETHER
LAID WITH TRAMWAYS OR NOT."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Lindsay at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd January 1880.
JAMES LINDSAY, of Edinburgh, in the County of Midlothian, North Britain,
Merchant. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PAVING SETTS USED IN THE FORMATION OF
STREETS OR ROADWAYS, WHETHER LAID WITH TRAMWAYS OR NOT.”
Hitherto streets, whether traversed by tramways or not, have been formed
chiefly of setts or blocks composed of various materials and sizes, but hitherto
chiefly from these setts not being properly bound together the surface of the street.
or roadway has not worn equally, and it consequently becomes rutted and of
unequal surface. The object of this Invention is to remedy this defect by so con-
structing the setts or blocks used for the formation of streets or roadways that
they can be effectually bound together when laid in place by the bitumen or other
cement or road material used with the said setts. This object is attained by the
use of setts made of metal (preferably cast iron or cast steel, or both combined, or
chilled iron) having a base equal on each side of web, or one side broader than
the other, but in either case broader than the upper surface and laid hard to hard,
having perforations in the web so that when laid or placed in position on the
surface of a prepared bed of concrete or other material a surface is presented with
openings at all the interstices into which the cement, bitumen, or other binding
material used in combination with the setts in the formation of the street or
roadway passes, and after hardening forms with the said setts a solid bound mass.
The setts may have more than one web, if desired; for example, they may have one
on each side with a flanch or foot extending therefrom inwards or outwards, the
webs in any case having openings therein, as before described, and the foot if desired
may also be provided with openings. Where the aforesaid setts are laid imme-
diately adjoining the rails of tramway lines, these, rails are preferably continuous
girder rails having flanges and perforations in the web, and the setts are laid
continuously transversely to the rail so that the cement, bitumen, or other binding
substance employed will pass into the interstices, both of the setts and of the rails,
and form a street or roadway in which the setts are bound to one another and to
the rails in one compact mass.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said James Lindsay in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 1st July
1880.
JAMES LINDSAY, of Edinburgh, in the County of Midlothian, North Britain,
THE FORMATION OF
Merchant. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PAVING SETTS USED IN
STREETS OR ROADWAYS, WHETHER LAID WITH TRAMWAYS OR NOT.'
Hitherto streets have been formed chiefly of setts or blocks composed of materials
of various kinds as well as of various sizes, both where tramway lines are laid as
well as where such lines are not laid, but hitherto from defects in the bottom or
lower surface of the blocks, and their not having an uniformly even base on the
bed in which they are laid, but more especially from the want of being sufficiently
bound together the setts or blocks have subsided in many cases, and consequently
the roadway or street has not worn equally and has become rutted.and of unequal
surface.
The object of my Invention is to remedy this defect by so constructing the setts
or blocks used for the formation of streets or roadways, that they are when laid in
place effectually bound together by the bitumen or other cementing or road
material used with the setts in forming the street or roadway. The said setts or
blocks may be made of metal of any desired description, preferably cast iron or cast
steel, or both combined, or chilled iron, they having a base equal on each side of a
web connecting the head or wearing surface with the said base, or one side of the
base may be broader than the other, but in any case the base will by preference
be broader than the upper surface, the setts or blocks being laid in forming a street
or roadway with their bases hard to hard. The said web has a perforation .or
perforations through it, so that when the setts or blocks are laid or placed in
position hard to hard, as aforesaid (and so that they break joint) on the surface of
a prepared bed of concrete or other material a surface is presented with openings
at all the interstices, into which cement, bitumen, or other binding material (used
in combination with the setts or blocks in the formation of the street or roadway)
passes, or is poured, and passes into and through the openings in the webs of the
setts or blocks, and after hardening forms with the said setts or blocks a solid
bound mass.
In Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings I have shown in side elevation a sett
or block constructed or formed according to my Invention; Figure 2 is a transverse
section on the line 1, 2, Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a plan of the same.
The head
or top wearing surface is marked A, the web, B, and the foot or base, C. The
openings formed through the web B for the passage of bitumen or other cement or
binding material, as aforesaid, are marked b.
The setts may be of various sizes, as may be most convenient; for example, they
may be three inches in breadth at top and three and a half to four inches in breadth
at the base, and in lengths of four and of seven to eight inches, so as to allow of
their being placed to break bond in the formation of a street or roadway. In
Figure 4 I have shewn a side elevation of a short sett or block, for laying alternately
with the longer setts or blocks at the sides of a street, or roadway, or tramway
Figure 5 represents in plan, and Figure 6 in section (on the line 5, 6, Figure 7)
and Figure 7 in section on the line 3, 4, Figure 5, a portion of a roadway formed
with setts (or blocks made according to my Invention. They are laid with their
bases hard to hard or close together, as shewn, upon a prepared bed of concrete o
other material, the upper surface of which is represented at D, and bitumen o
other cementing or binding material is passed into the space between the sett
or blocks, and passes through the perforations b, as shewn at E in Figures 6 and 7
and so the roadway is made of setts or blocks bound virtually into one solid mas
by the said cementing or binding material.

page_text: Where the rails of tramways traverse streets or roadways made with my
improved setts or blocks the said rails are preferably continuous girder rails, having
flanges and perforations in their webs, and the setts are laid continuously along
both sides of and transversely to the rails, as shewn in plan in Figure 8, and in
section (taken on the line 7, 8, Figure 8) in Figure 9, and the cement, bitumen, or
other binding substance employed binds the setts and rails together in one compact
mass so as to prevent the inequalities hitherto occurring. Some of the setts at the
side of the rail may be cast or formed together with the said rail if desired. The
blocks or setts, made according to my Invention, may be used alone with the
binding material, as shown in Figures 5, 6, and 7, or they may be used at portions
only of the roadway or street, for instance, at the sides of tramway rails, the
other portion of the roadway being laid with ordinary stone or other setts, as shewn
in Figure 8.
The top surface of the setts or blocks may be grooved or roughened in any desired
manner, as, for instance, in the ways shewn in Figures 3, 5, and 8. I do not limit
myself to the number of openings in the webs nor to the form of such openings.
Although in the Drawings I have shewn but one web to the setts or blocks, yet
the said setts or blocks may have more than one web, if desired; for example, they
may have one on each side, as shewn in Figure 10, with a flanch or foot extending
therefrom inwards or outwards, or both; or there may be three webs, or the webs
may be on both sides and at each end, giving the box form of sett, shewn in
Figure 11, the webs in any case having openings 6 therein, as before described, and
the foot or base may, if desired, also be provided with openings.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the system, mode, or manner, in or under which the same is or may
be used, or practically carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what
I consider novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me
by the hereinbefore in part recited Letters Patent is,―
The hereinbefore described improvements in paving setts to be used in the
formation of streets or roadways, whether laid with tramways or not, that is to
say, constructing or forming the said setts with an opening, or with openings
through the side or web or through the sides or webs, essentially as and for the
purpose hereinbefore described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Lindsay, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty.
JAMES LINDSAY. (L.S.)