A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD FOR MAKING SASH FRAMES AND SASHES, AND SHORENDING BUT CAN BE AWARDEDIC OD GAS POSS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph William Meears, of 4, Whistler's Court,
Cannon Street, in the City of London, Gentleman, for the Invention of
"A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD FOR MAKING SASH FRAMES AND SASHES, AND
SHORENDING BUT CAN BE AWARDEDIC OD GAS POSSENDE
Sealed the 17th July 1863, and dated the 21st January 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph William Meears
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 21st January 1863.
I, JOSEPH WILLIAM MEEARS, of 4, Whistler's Court, Cannon Street, in
the City of London, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD FOR MAKING SASH FRAMES AND
SASHES, AND SUSPENDING THE SAME BY ATMOSPHERIC OR GAS PRESSURE," to be as
follows:-
"I manufacture frames by making a solid jamb instead of the present method
of. hollow frames, which are now required for the weights to counterbalance
the sashes.
In the making of the sashes under my method I dispense with all parting
beads, sash lines, weights, and pullies, and only require a simple grove to
receive my atmospheric tubes, in size according to the weight of the sashes'
when glazed, which tubes I attach to the entire length of both sides of each
sash. The tubes I propose to make of india-rubber, gutta percha, or any india-

page_text: rubber or gutta percha compounds, or any other elastic materials; which
tubes I hermetically seal under whatever pressure is required to carry the
weight of the sashes.
The objects of the improvements are to render all sashes suspended on this
principle perfectly air-tight and waterproof, and incapable of causing the least
vibration in mansions, houses, cottages, railway carriages, omnibuses, cabs,
broughams, or any other vehicles. This principle applies to anything fixed
perpendicularly or in any other position whatever.'
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph William Meears in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st July 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
WILLIAM MEEARS, of 4, Whistler's Court, Cannon Street, in the City of
London, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Joseph William Meears, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph
William Meears, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Joseph William Meears, 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 Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "A NEW AND IMPROVED METHOD FOR MAKING. SASH FRAMES AND
SASHES, AND SUSPENDING THE SAME BY ATMOSPHERIC OR GAS PRESSURE," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph William Meears, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals,.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 Joseph William Meears, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being bad to the accompanying Drawings and,
to the letters and figures, marked thereon, that is to say :-
My Invention has for its object the arrangement and fitting of sashes in,
such manner that they shall work without noise, and shall be so packed as to
be practically air-tight and water-tight, to exclude dust, and be prevented
from vibrating or shaking. For this purpose instead of suspending and
working the sash as at present by lines, weights, and pulleys, I fit it with
tubes of elastic material charged with atmospheric air or with gas. These
tubes are attached to the sash, one on each side thereof, in a groove or recess
therein, and (when working with the sash) they slide up and down in cor-
responding grooves or recesses in the jambs, or fixed sash frame or window
frame, and thus retain the sash at any required height in the frame. Each
such 1. groove or recess may be semi-circular or semi-elliptical in horizontal
section, and when the sash is in the frame each recess in the sash has opposite
it a corresponding recess in the fixed sash frame or jamb; such two opposite.
recesses, when together, form a cylindrical or elliptical space, in which is the
tube fitting closely, one-half in the sash groove, and the other half in the
frame or jamb.groove. The tubes are made of caoutchouc or gutta percha, or
of caoutchouc or gutta percha compounds, or of other flexible and elastic
material, and are hermetically closed or secured at both ends. They are
charged by pumping or otherwise with air or gas under such pressure as may
be required to sustain the weight of the sash by means of any suitable
apparatus for injecting the air or gas and closing the same when filled, as is

page_text: instead of the present frame or style (formed hollow to receive lines, weights,
and pulleys, and with a parting bead) I fix solid jambs, one on each side of the
sash frame, and I form in each jamb a groove, as above described, for the
tube to work in; but I can apply the Invention to window frames already
constructed by removing the portion next the sash, and replacing it by such a
solid grooved jamb as aforesaid; or the said jamb may be attached to the
ordinary frame. The window frame may be so constructed that my sash may.
be bodily removed from it (when needful, as for convenience of cleaning, &c.)
by forming the lower half of one jamb, in two parallel portions, as shewn in
Figure 3; the portion A' next the wall being a fixture, and the portion A³, in
which is the groove a, being screwed or otherwise attached to the part A¹, so
that it may be removed from it when required to allow of the sash being with-
drawn from the frame. And if it be desirable to add means of ventilation, the
bottom rail of the lower sash, or the top rail of the upper sash, or both these
rails may be made hollow, and perforated on both sides; the perforations on
one side being respectively opposite those of the other side, and in the hollow
of the rail is closely fitted a tube perforated on both sides, and capable of
being sliden to and fro longitudinally within the rail by a handle projecting
through a slot therein. When the tube or box is so slidden as to bring its
perforations opposite those in the sash rail currents of air will pass through;
these currents being intercepted when the parts of the tube or box without
perforations are brought opposite the perforations in the rail. The holes may be
disposed in plain rows or in ornamental figures. Also ventilation may be
afforded by other arrangements in the upper and lower rails or in the glass,
as is well understood.
My Invention is applicable to house, carriage, and other sliding sashes,
whether fixed vertically or otherwise; and also to the covers or sliding parts
of cases or other receptacles from which it is desirable to exclude air and dust.
'I wish it to be understood that I lay no claim to the mode of constructing
frames so that the sash may be removed bodily therefrom, nor to the mode of
ventilating sashes by sliding boxes or tubes, or ventilators considered sepa-
rately and apart from my method of arranging or fitting sashes with tubes for
packing and supporting them, herein-after expressly claimed, and which
method (so herein claimed) I claim, whether combined or uncombined with
those modes of bodily removal and ventilation.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same may be performed, I declare that I claim as the Invention
jutended to be secured by the herein-before recited Letters Patent, arranging
or fitting sashes and frames with tubes charged with air or gas, and fitted

page_text: and working in grooves for the purpose of packing and sustaining the sash
in the frame and excluding dust, noise, and air, substantially as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph William Meears, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight and sixty-three.
JOSEPH WILLIAM MEEARS. (L.s.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
above-named Joseph William.
Meears, in the presence of
CHA. H. EDMAND,
Sol., 1,-New Inn,
Strand.