IMPROVEMENTS IN MELTING, MOULDING, AND CASTING SAND, EARTH, AND ARGILLACEOUS SUBSTANCES FOR PAVING AND BUILDING, AND OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JACOB
CONNOP, of Eastbourne Terrace, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Tenth day of July last, did give and grant unto me, Jacob
Connop, Her especial licence, that I, my exors, adññors, and assigns, might
make or exercise and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MELTING, MOULDING, AND
CASTING SAND, EARTH, AND ARGILLACEOUS SUBSTANCES FOR PAVING AND BUILDING,
AND OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES," for a term of fourteen years; in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and to cause the same to be enrolled, as therein
specified, within six months after the date of the said Letters Patent now in
recital: And whereas since obtaining the said Letters Patent I have ascer-
tained that the earth and argillaceous substances mentioned in the title of the
said Letters Patent is not of sufficient utility to induce me to retain the
exclusive use to the same under my said Letters Patent and it is my intention
therefore to obtain leave to enter a Disclaimer and Memorandum of Alteration.
of so much of the said title and Letters Patent as is expressed by. the words.
"Earth and Argillaceous Substances:"

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso in the said
recited Letters Patent, I, the said Jacob Connop, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention of Improvements in Melting, Moulding, and
Casting Sand for Paving and Building, and various other useful Purposes,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement.
The melting of sand with fluxes for glass making is well known; also the
casting and moulding the same into the forms of various glass articles, chiefly
for holding liquids and solids, and for articles of brilliancy and ornament, is
well known; but the application of sand, when fused or melted with the other
ordinary materials for glass making, and when cast into suitable moulds, and
annealed, as herein described, as a manufacture applicable to the purposes of
ordinary paving and building materials, such as paving slabs, bricks, blocks of
various shapes, steps, shelves, and slabs suitable for use in building houses
or other works where bricks or stones and marbles are now used, and such
as rings, arches, inverts, or pipes for drains and sewers, and conveying liquids
along streets and lands, is new, and is the Inuention of Improvements in the
Melting, Casting, and Moulding of Sand for Paving, Building, and other
useful Purposes which I claim. After the first melting, moulding, and casting
has taken place, I, by the annealing, which in a manner partially remelts the
moulded paving and building articles before-mentioned, convert these moulded
articles into an opaque substance of sufficient tenacity and freedom from
brittleness to render it applicable to and. useful for the purposes of paving and.
building, herein-before mentioned.
The process to be adopted for carrying out my Invention is as follows:
The sand and accompanying fusing materials that I employ are of a coarse
and cheap description, such as are suitable for making the lowest character.
of glass; and I do not require it to be re-fused, so as to produce transparency.
I adopt for my mixture to be melted, the proportion of sand and fluxes
usually employed in the manufacture of coarse glass of a dense character.;
The kind of furnaces and pots that I employ are the ordinary furnaces.
and pots commonly used in the manufacture of bottle glass. The time
occupied in melting and the means by fuel adopted for melting are the
same as are adopted in manufacturing coarse glass.
The implements.
for removing the melting materials from the pots, and casting the same into.
moulds, and for pressing the same into moulds, are of the same description
as those now commonly used in glass manufactories. The moulds must be of
such shapes and forms as will be adapted to produce the building and, paving

page_text: materials desired to be manufactured, and the sand and fluxes being in a
melted state must be cast and pressed in these moulds in the usual manner,.
the mechanical arrangements for that purpose being well known and in common
use. The article required baving been formed, such as a brick, block, or slab
or other structural form of building or paving material, or for other purposes
as aforesaid, it must then be carefully and thoroughly annealed in a suitable
annealing oven, reference being had to the solid mass of glass material in each
article. The method I have adopted (which in practice may be varied
by manufacturers according as experience further teaches them) is the
following: The article, while yet in a soft or ductile state, is placed in an
oven or kiln, heated to the same degree as the article itself. It is there
surrounded with white sand or pounded chalk or other cementing substance
in a heated state, each article being kept quite apart from its neighbour, and
I submit it to the action of a strong heat, approaching to a white heat, for
several hours, and when on inspection the glass is found to have changed in
colour to a dull drab or brown or white, the oven should then be gradually
cooled down by stages, and with great care and attention, which will occupy
about twenty-four hours. The oven should be of the shape and in the nature
of a potter's oven, having one outlet or chimney only for the smoke, which
form of oven in my experience is best adapted to keep up an equal heat in
all parts of the oven, and in all the articles placed in it, and is also well
adapted for being very gradually cooled down. When removed from the
annealing ovens, the articles have become devitrified, and fit for use as building
and paving materials, and for sewers and drains, and conveyance of liquids
along streets and lands, as herein-before mentioned.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not claim as of my
Invention the exclusive use of the several processes herein-before described or
referred to when taken separately, or except when employed in and for the
manufacture of articles suitable for paving, building, and other similar
purposes, as bercin described.
And I hereby declare my Invention to consist
in the manufacture of articles for paving, building, and other similar
purposes from sand, by melting, moulding, casting, and treating the same as
above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Connop, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Tenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.
JACOB (L.s.) CONNOP.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of January, in the
year, of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid Jacob Connop, Esquire, came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Tenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.