CERTAIN NEW METHODS OF UNITING, COMBINING, AND CONNECTING THE METALLICK PATENT BLOCKS OF THE SAID ROWLAND BURDON FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF ARCHES
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WILSON, of Bishop Wearmouth, in the County of Durham, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said Thomas Wilson and also Rowland Burdon, of
Castle Eden, in the same County, Esquire, did, by our humble Petition,
represent to His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
that, after much labour and expence, I had found out and invented "CERTAIN
NEW METHODS OF UNITING, COMBINING, AND CONNECTING THE METALLICK PATENT
BLOCKS OF THE SAID ROWLAND BURDON FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF ARCHES," and
that I was the first and true Inventor thereof; and we therefore most humbly
prayed that His Majesty would be graciously pleased to grant unto me, the
said Thomas Wilson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His Royal
Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, for the sole use and
exercise of my said Invention within that part of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all His said Majesty's Colonies and Plan-
tations abroad, for the term of fourteen years, according to the Statute in
that case made and provided; and His said Majesty, being willing to give
encouragement to all arts and inventions which might be for the public
good, was graciously pleased to condescend to our request, and therefore,
by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-
third day of July, in the forty-second year of His reign, of His especial grace,
certain knowledge, and meer motion, for Himself, His heirs and successors,
did give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Wilson, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Thomas Wilson, my executors, admors, and assign,

page_text: and every of them, by myself and themselves, and by my or their deputy or
deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Thomas Wilson,
my executors, adñññors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend
my said Invention within that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all His said Majesty's Colonies and
Plantatious abroad, in such manner as to me, the said Thomas Wilson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of us, should in our discretion
seem meet; and that I, the said Thomas Wilson, my executors, adñors, and
assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit,
commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing, accruing, and
arising by reason of the said Invention, for and during the term of years
therein mentioned, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers,
privileges, and advantages herein-before granted or mentioned to be granted
unto me, the said Thomas Wilson, my executors, admors, and assigns, for and
during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date of the
said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat
and ended, according to the Statute in such case made and provided; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said Thomas
Wilson, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that
then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything
therein-before contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding,
as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, may more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Wilson, in compliance with the
said proviso, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and declare that my new-intended methods of uniting, combining, and
connecting the metallic patent blocks of the said Rowland Burdon for the
construction of arches, are,-
First, instead of uniting the blocks by bar iron on the outside of the arms
and bolts fasten'd with cotterels or forelocks, as described in the Specification
of the said Rowland Burdon's Invention, inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery, the Tenth day of October, One thousand seven hundred and

page_text: ninety-five, my method is to insert dowels or slots into the ends of the
arms of the blocks at the points of bearing, and to bring the blocks into close
contact by driving wedges through the blocks and dowels or slots, thereby
combining the component parts of each rib in a more firm and substantial
manner than has heretofore been practised, and considerably diminishing the
drift or thrust of the arch.
Secondly, instead of connecting and combining the ribs by means of hollow
tubes, as described in the said Rowland Burdon's said Specification, my method
of connecting and combining the ribs is by introducing between the blocks at
the points of bearing cross bars from rib to rib, with apertures therein of
sufficient size to admit the dowels or slots which connect or combine the
blocks together to pass through the same, by which means the ribs are kept
in their required position, and the blocks do not bear against each other, but
are kept in close contact with the cross bar against which they abut, and are
connected together by the dowels or slots and wedges.
As a further illustration of my second method, the following particulars,
with the Drawings in the margin, are descriptive of it as applied to the con-
struction of the iron bridge which I am now erecting over the River Thames
at Staines.
'
Fig. 1 in the Drawing represents a dowell; Fig. 2, two wedges; Fig. 3, part
of a cross bar; Fig. 4, end view of a block; Fig. 5, two cast metal blocks
united together by the dowels a, a, a, a, and wedges b, b, b, b, which dowels
pass through the apertures in the cross bars c, c. The distance between the
holes in the dowels being about a quarter of an inch less than that between
the holes in the arms for receiving the wedges, by driving the wedges from
each side of the blocks the cross bars and blocks are brought into close con-
tact. The arch of this bridge is a segment of a circle whose chord or span is
one hundred and eighty feet, its versed sine or height sixteen feet, and its
breadth twenty-seven feet. It consists of six ribs, and each rib is composed
of thirty-nine blocks.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Wilson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of August, in the forty-second year of
the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of
God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King,
Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One thousand
eiht hundred and two.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Second day of August,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Thomas Wilson came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And
also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the 5
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Third day of August, in the year above written.