IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPENSION BRIDGES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Earnshaw Howell, of Sheffield, in the
County of York, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SUSPENSION BRIDGES."
Sealed the 28th July 1868, and dated the 31st January 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Earnshaw
Howell at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 31st January 1808.
I, SAMUEL EARNSILAW HOWELL, of Sheffield, in the County of York,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPENSION BRIDGES," to be as follows:-
My improvements relate to the construction of substitutes for chains,
ropes, or other such suspending parts used in suspension bridges. For
this purpose I employ strips of metal of required lengths, one being laid
upon another or laminated until the required strength has been attained,
after which I propose to bind the whole together by coiled or woven wire
so as to secure them in one compact body; or this binding together may
firstly be done in groups. In erecting a bridge I propose in the first
place to adapt one strip and then to uncoil the remaining strips thereon.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Earnshaw Howell in the Great Patent
Office on the 31st July 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
EARNSHAW HOWELL, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Thirty-first day of January, 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 me, the said Samuel Earnshaw Howell, Her
special license that I, the said Samuel Earnshaw Howell, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel Earnshaw
Howell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 SUSPENSION BRIDGES," upon the condition, amongst
others, that I, the said Samuel Earnshaw Howell, 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 is to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Earnshaw Howell, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, that is to say :-
My improvements relate to the construction of substitutes for chains,
ropes, or other such suspending parts used in suspension bridges. For
this purpose I employ strips of metal of required lengths, one being
laid upon another or laminated until the required thickness has been
attained, after which the strips thus superimposed are bound together
by wire coiled around them at distances apart or throughout the whole
length or by clamps, and they are thus secured in one compact body.
Metallic bands thus formed may be raised and attached to their pillars

page_text: and anchorage as chains are now adapted, but in erecting a bridge I
prefer the following method. In the first place I raise a single strip
of metal of the required length and attach it to the anchorage; this
forms a basis for further operations, and I then successively superimpose
the other strips to form the luminated mass, after which they are bound
together as above described. A convenient method of applying the
successive strips of metal is to wind them in the first instance into a
coil upon a bobbin or drum, and this coil being then passed along the
strip or strips already adapted becomes unwound and leaves the metal
superimposed as required and so on until the required thickness is
attained. The substitutes for the ordinary chains having thus been
built up and adapted, the suspension rods may be carried by links
strung thercon and kept at correct distances apart by rods extending
longitudinally from one to another. I have above spoken generally of
metallic strips to be built together or laminated, but the material I
prefer is rolled steel, and I find that a size of about three inches by
onc-cighth of an inch for each strip may be used with advantage, but
this of course may be varied.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I
desire it to be understood that I claim as secured to me under the
above in part recited Letters Patent, and for the purpose above set
forth, the use of strips of metal placed upon one another so as to form
a laminated mass.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Earnshaw Howell, have
hereunto set my hand and scal, this Thirtieth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and sixty-cight.
S. EARNSHAW HOWELL. (L.S.)