IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPENSION REIDARS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Low, of Roseneath Grove Park,
Wrexham, and George Thomas, of 3, Broad Street, Cardiff, C.E., for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPENSION REIDARS"
Sealed the 1st April 1869, and dated the 16th November 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Low and
George Thomas at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 16th November 1868.
We, WILLIAM Low, of Roseneath Grove Park, Wrexham, and
GEORGE THOMAS, of 3, Broad Street, Cardiff, C.E., do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPENSION BRIDGES,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in suspension bridges.
We form the suspension chains for such bridges by combining together
a number of oval link chains; such chains are placed side by side,
and filling blocks or keys are driven in through the alternate corre

page_text: sponding links of the several chains so as to bind them all together.
Also we combine several such compound chains by laying them one
over the other, and driving filling blocks or keys through the several
chains by the links which previously were left void. A slight difference
may be made in the lengths of the links of the chains, so that the
compound chain may naturally take the catenary curve which it is
required to assume. The chains receive the suspension rods of the
bridge as usual, or these rods may be composed of compound chains
combined, as already described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Low and George Thomas in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 15th May 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
Low, of Roseneath Grove Park, Wrexham, and GEORGE THOMAS, of
3, Broad Street, Cardiff, C.E., send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said William Low and George Thomas,
Her special licence that we, the said William Low and George
Thomas, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said William Low and George Thomas, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPEN-
SION BRIDGES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
William Low and George Thomas, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or
under the hand and seal of one of us or them, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what

page_text: 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 we, the said William Low and George
Thomas, 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 thereof, that is to
say:
This Invention has for its object improvements in suspension bridges.
We form the suspension chains for such bridges by combining together
a number of oval link chains; such chains are placed side by side, and
filling blocks or keys are driven in through the alternate corresponding
links of the several chains so as to bind them all together. Also we
combine several such compound chains by laying them one over the
other, and driving filling blocks or keys through the several chains by
the links which previously were left void.
At Figures 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed is shown a portion of
a suspension chain constructed as above described. The links of the
chain we prefer to make of an oval form, as shown, and employ keys of
wood or of metal, or it might be of a combination of wood and metal,
to hold together the corresponding links of the several chains which are
placed together side by side. The suspension chain shown at Figures 1
is composed of nine chains, such as are shown at Figure 2. These
chains are first combined together in sets of two, three, or more by keys
driven through their alternate corresponding links, as shown at Figure 3*;
such combined chains are then placed one above the other, and similarly
tied together by keys driven through the links which previously were left
void; the number of chains which may thus be connected together by
keys into one combined chain for forming a suspension chain for a suspen-
sion bridge may be greatly varied. A slight difference may be made in
the lengths of the links of the chain, so that the compound chain may
naturally take the catenary curve which it is required to assume. The
chains receive the suspension rods of the bridge as usual, or these rods
may be composed of compound chains combined, as already described.
Chains such as shown at Figures 1, formed of a number of oval linked
chains placed together side by side, and tied or held together at every

page_text: alternate link by keys, may also be employed as the suspension chains,
and also in place of the ordinary suspension rods of suspension
bridges.
In witness whercof, we, the said William Low and George Thomas,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Eleveneth day of
May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-nine.
WILLIAM LOW. (L.S.)
GEORGE THOMAS. (L.S.)
WILLIAM LOW. (L.S.)
GEORGE THOMAS. (L.S.)