AN IMPROVEMENT IN FLOORS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Preece, of Clapham Road, in the County
Surrey, Licensed Victualler, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN FLOORS."
Sealed the 19th November 1861, and dated the 24th May 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Precco at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho 24th
May 1861.
I, RICHARD PREECE, of Clapham Road, in the County of Surrey, Licensed
Victualler, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "As
IMPROVEMENT IN FLOORS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in forming spring floors especially suitable for
dancing upon, by placing the sleepers or beams which support the joists upon
blocks of india-rubber, or upon spiral or other suitable metal springs. Or
springs may be placed above and below, or above or below the joists which
immediately support the floor.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Preece in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd November 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
PREECE, of Clapham Road, in the County of Surrey, Licensed Victualler,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Iler
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and grant unto unc, the
said Richard Preece, Her special licence that I, the said Richard Preece, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard
Preece, 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, excrcise, and
--vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN FLOORS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Preece,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
nscertain 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 Richard Preece, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that
is to say!
My Invention consists in forming spring floors, especially suitable for
dancing upon, by placing the sleepers or beams which support the joists
upon blocks of india-rubber, or upon spiral or other suitablo metal springs..
Or springs may be placed above and below, or above or below the joists which
immediately support the floor,
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a longitudinal. section of so
much of a floor intended as a dancing stage or platform as will illustrate the
manner in which I carry my Invention into effect.

page_text: A is the floor, supported on joists B, B, which are inserted in sleepers C, C ;
D, D, are springs, made by preference of india-rubber hoops resting on
wooden blocks E, E, and supporting the sleepers C, C; F, F, are brick piers.
Figure 2 is a plan of the india-rubber spring I prefer to employ. Figure 3
is a vertical section on an enlarged scale to that of Figure 1, showing
blocks I, II, inserted in the hollow part of the spring D, and screwed into the
sleeper C and block E. Figure 4 is a vertical section through the sleeper C
and block E, showing the spring D inserted in a cylinder or frame I, the latter
fitting into a second frame K secured to the block E. As the spring D con-
tracts and expands through the play of the floor above, the frame I follows its
motion, and while so moving is guided within the frame K.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not limit myself to
the shape of spring shown, nor to the material of which it is made; but I
claim as my "Improvement in Floors," fitting the same with spring supports,
whether in manner shewn in the accompanying Drawings, or whether the
springs be fixed under or upon the joists, or both under and upon the joists.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Preece, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, tbis Twenty-second day of November, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-one.
RICH. PREECE. (L.B.)