A NEW MANUFACTURE OF FIRE AND BURGLAR PROOF GLASS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "A NEW MANUFACTURE OF FIRE AND BURGLAR
PROOF GLASS."-A communication.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th July 1855.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW MANUFACTURE OF FIRE AND
BURGLAR PROOF GLASS " to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to manufacture vitreous sheets, or plates, or
pieces of various forms, which shall be transparent for the admission of light,
and which at the same time shall be capable of resisting the blows of a hammer
and the action of inteuse heat. To this end, the Inventor moulds or otherwise
produces glass of the required form and size, with a metallic wire cloth or
grating contained within the body or thickness thereof, or so incorporated
therewith, that if the glass be shattered or broken into pieces, the mass (by
reason of the toughness of the wire cloth or grating) will continue to hold
together, and form a defence against fire and burglary.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th January 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ircland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "A NEW MANUFACTURE OF FIRE AND BURGLAR PROOF GLASS," being a com-
munication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
Glass, as is well known, from its fragile and non-conducting properties, is
readily-broken-by-a-blow, or by the action of a high degree of heat, and in
consequence its application to buildings for the purpose of admitting light
exposes them to the depredations of fire and burglars, and hence, for protection,
it has heretofore been deemed necessary to resort to the use of shutters or iron
gratings; and although the latter afford protection against the entrance of
burglars it will not afford protection against fire, as the glass is liable to
destruction from an accidental fire in an adjacent building, and an aperture
will thus be formed for the admission of the flames from the burning pile.

page_text: Now, the object of this Invention is to provide a remedy for all these diffi-
culties, by the introduction of a new manufacture, which shall be transparent
for the admission of light, and which at the same time shall be capable of
resisting the blows of a hammer and the action of intense heat.
In carrying out these objects the Inventor manufactures plates or pieces of
glass of the required form and size, with a metallic wire cloth or grating
contained within the body or thickness thereof, and so incorporated therewith,
that if the glass be shattered or broken into picces, the mass will continue to
be bound together by the wire cloth or grating, thus presenting the toughness
of an iron grating with the impassable and transparent qualities of glass.
The mode of procedure to produce this new manufacture, (which is shown in
the accompanying Drawing in face view at Fig. 1, and in cross section at
Fig. 2,) is to take the moulds used for moulding glass, and of the size required,
and drop molten glass into such moulds in quantity about half as much as
would produce the required thickness. This will spread in the mould by
gravity. A sheet of wire cloth of the required size is placed upon the first
layer of glass, and on top of this another proportion of molten glass is placed,
and the whole subjected to pressure in the usual way; and under this pressure,
the two masses of glass being in a highly heated state, the required form is
given to the mass, while at the same time the two masses are caused to unite
around the metallic wire, so that the metallic netting becomes the bond by
which the brittleness of the glass acquires the capacity to resist heavy blows
and the action of intense heat.
The wire cloth or iron grating, which may be made of wire of any size
desired, and with meshes of any required magnitude, may be made to project
beyond the edges of the glass by constructing the mould in two parts, so formed
as to receive the grating between the two parts after the first glass has been
put into the lower half of the mould, but this is not required when the wire
cloth or grating is of the same or less size than the glass intended to bo
produced.
Having thus pointed out the character, novelty, and properties of the new
manufacture, and explained the means which have been satisfactorily employed
for the production of the same, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to such mode of procedure, as such new manufacture may be produced
by other modes of procedure; nor do I wish to limit myself to the use of one
single sheet of wire cloth within the glass, as several sheets can be introduced
in like manner; but what I claim as the Invention communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, and desire to secure under the above in part recited
Letters Patent, is, the new manufacture of glass with metallic wire cloth or

page_text: grating contained within the body or thickness thereof, as described, and for
the purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Ninth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)