IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND ALTERATION OF DOORS, SHUTTERS, BLINDS, AND OTHER CLOSURES TO BUILDINGS AND ERECTIONS SO AS TO ALLOW OF THEIR ILLUMINATION, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OMNIBUSES AND OTHER VEHICLES, AND TO CLOCK DIALS, LAMPS, AND POSTAL PILLARS
Year: 1857

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John George Taylor at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st September
1857.
I, JOHN GEORGE TAYLOR, Merchant, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION AND ALTERATION OF DOORS, SHUTTERS, BLINDS, AND OTHER
CLOSURES TO BUILDINGS AND ERECTIONS SO AS TO ALLOW OF THEIR ILLUMINATION,
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OMNIBUSES AND OTHER VEHICLES,
AND TO CLOCK DIALS, LAMPS, AND POSTAL PILLARS," to be as follows:-
My improvements are general, and they may be applied to many purposes,
but they are more particularly meant and intended to apply to the construc-
tion, altering, illuminating, and lighting of folding, sliding, fixed, or moveable
window shutters, doors, blinds, screens, and other parts or fittings of houses,
shops, warehouses, workshops, and factories, and to the sides, ends, and fronts
of such houses, &c. They are also meant to apply to omnibuses and public.
and private lamps, also to post office receiving houses and postal pillars, as
well as to the illuminating or lighting of clocks in steeples, turrets, shops,
houses, and other buildings.
J. In so far as shutters, doors, blinds, and screens, and the slides, ends,
and fronts of houses, shops, &c., are concerned, in place of making or using
the bars, strips, slips, sheets, plates, or boards, whereof they are composed of

page_text: solid or unperforated iron or other metals or materials as heretofore, I make
them of iron or other metalic substances, slightly curved or reeded, or both,
or of wood or other materials wholly or partly covered or sheathed with iron
&c., alternating one bar of metal, one of wood, or one of covered wood, or
using the three sorts consecutively; and I prefer such wood if it has been
kyanized or creosoted so as thereby to economise the expense of metal, and at
the same time produce the article required of equal or greater strength,
lightness, and beauty, than when made entirely of solid or flat metal. And
where I make or use such bars or others wholly of iron or other metalic
substances, I mould or press out holes, letters, figures, or other devices or
openings in the metal when it is hot. And where such bars, &c., are either
wholly made of iron or other metalic substances, or of wood or other materials,
and wholly or partly covered or sheathed with iron, &c., or made entirely of
wood or other materials, I in either case pierce, perforate, or cut one or more
holes, letters, figures, or other devices or openings in each or every second,
third, fourth, or other bar, &c., so as, viz.-
(1.) To give a sufficient light from without through or by means of these
holes or openings to illuminate the inside of the premises in the mornings or
evenings or during the daytime when the shutters, doors, &c., are closed.
(2.) To enable police officers, watchmen, or other persons in the street or
place where the premises are situated, the more readily during the night time
to discover by means of these holes or openings the presence of any fire or
conflagration in the interior, so as to give an immediate alarm.
(3.) That the police or others may also thereby have opportunities of
discovering by means of these holes or openings the presence of any thief or
thieves who may have got into the premises, and who may be using lights
therein, so that measures may be taken for having them apprehended.
(4.) And in the shops, offices, or warehouses, &c., of bankers, jewellers,
pawnbrokers, or others, particularly those on the street or ground floors of
buildings, where the parties are in use to have gas or other lights burning
within the premises during the night time, that police officers and others may
by means of these holes or openings discover the presence of any thief or
thieves therein.
II. As regards hotels, taverns, gin & beer shops, restaurants, coffee
houses, temperance houses, lodging houses, fish & oyster shops, and the
houses or shops of surgeons, dentists, clothiers, milleners, dressmakers, and
others, also houses, warehouses, insurance offices, counting houses, lawyers'
chambers, billiard rooms, exhibitions, &c., situated either on the ground or
street floors, or the upper floors of such buildings where publicity is desirable

page_text: after night fall, when the outside signs or devices of the premises cannot be so
easily seen, my improvement is to have the fronts, ends, or sides of such
buildings, or the window shutters or doors thereof, or blinds, screens, or
curtains of such houses, shops, warehouses, or others, or some moveable slip
or slips in or attached to such windows, or others constructed, fitted, or
altered with sheet or plate iron or other metal, or with wood, cloth, canvas,
or other material, and dyed, painted, printed, or otherwise decorated on a
dark ground, and pierced, bored, perforated, cut, discharged, or pressed out
into holes or openings, exhibiting letters, figures, or other devices thereon;
and which holes or openings may be faced with thin bright coloured silk or
other transparent substance to protect them from the wind, so as to show by
means of the light from within as a night advertisement to persons passing
along the street or place, the whole or any of the following particulars, viz.-
(1.) The street, number of the premises.
(2.) Name of the occupant.
(3.) Professional business or trade carried on.
(4.) The "sign" or "device," distinguishing the premises; and,
(5.) Any other letters, figures, or devices that may be thought necessary.
III. As regards lamps in streets or places my improvement is to have the
name of the street or place cut out or perforated on public lamps, and the
name, sign, profession, or trade of the owner or occupant of premises on
the private lamps thereof, on a dark ground along the lower or upper edges or
other parts of the lamps, or on some moveable or fixed slip or slips placed in
or upon the lamps, and faced or protected as above stated, with bright coloured
silk or other transparent substances, so that by means of the light shining
through such perforations the names &c., may be seen.
IV. As regards post office receiving houses and postal pillars, my
improvement is that the top or bottom edges or other parts of the lamp over
such post or pillars, or over or near to such receiving houses, or on some
moveable or fixed slip or slips to be placed thereon, may in like manner have
the words and figures "Post Office, No. 1," or some other words, letters, or
figures pierced or perforated therein on a dark ground, and faced or protected
with bright coloured silk or other transparent substances.
V. As regards omnibuses I in like manner pierce or cut out along the
top rims or sides or other parts of the vehicle, or on moveable slips or
plates attached thereto, holes or openings forming or shewing the names of
the places at each or either end or other part or parts of the journey,
and which openings so formed may be protected from the wind by bright
coloured or plain glass or silk or other transparent substances, so as to

page_text: distinguish each particular omnibus to persons on the street by means of the
light shining through such openings.
VI. As regards the lighting of clocks in steeples or turrets, and in houses,
shops, and other buildings, in place of exhibiting the letters or figures of the
hours and minutes, and the hands of the clock of a dark ground or colour
upon a dial plate of a light ground or colour, or of having the light to shine
through any transparent dial plate or reflected upon it as heretofore, my
improvement is to make the dial plate of a dark or opaque ground or colour,
and to have it so moulded or pressed out when hot if made of iron or of metal;
or where made of metal, or wood, or canvas, or other materials, to pierce,
perforate, or cut out holes or openings in such dial plate so that the holes or
openings so cut out may represent the hours either in letters or figures, and
the minutes by a circle of holes or openings to be lighted by gas or other
light from the inside of the dial plate; and in like manner I face and protect
these holes or openings and the front surface of the hands of the clock with
bright coloured or plain glass, or other transparent materials, and supply the
hands with a lighted gas apparatus (with or without reflectors) to revolve
therewith, so that during the night time such dark ground dial plates, and the
pierced holes or openings and lighted hands would exhibit the hours and
minutes of the night, when the ordinary daylight inscription on the dial plate
could not be deciphered.
And although I have explained various ways of effecting this system of
illumination, I do not confine myself strictly to any particular mode, neither
do I restrict the application to any particular purpose; but what I claim is the
system of illuminating by means of the light shining through holes, perfora-
tions, or other openings, and the application thereof to the several purposes
above set forth, and otherwise. And I also claim the right of making shutters,
doors, and other parts and fittings of buildings and erections &c., in the way
and manner above described.