Improvements in Paving, the same being Applicable for Flooring and for Building Purposes.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 26th May, 1887.
Specification Accepted, 8th July, 1887.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Paving, the same being Applicable for Flooring
and for Building Purposes.
I, FREDERICK WICKS of 67 Hope Street, Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Journalist do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
My Invention, which relates to improvements in paving or road making, is also
applicable for flooring and for building purposes.
My Invention consists in the manufacture of blocks or slabs by means of a com-
bination of natural or artificial stone, slag or other building material with a metal or a
mineral, the essential quality of the metal being the liquifying or rendering sufficiently
plastic by heat of the metal or mineral so that the stones may be embedded to a
sufficient depth within the heated metal or mineral which on cooling holds the parts
rigidly together and together with the said embedded materials form compound blocks
of unequal qualities or degrees of hardness in the working or wearing surfaces.
In carrying this Invention into practice I effect it as follows:-I employ a mould
of ordinary sand or loam used in Foundries of the dimensions of the compound slab
or block which it is desired or intended to produce, and I place in the said moulds
pieces of stone, slag or other material suitable for road making, flooring or building
purposes. This being done I press the lower parts of the blocks of materials so
placed in the mould into the sand of the said mould in order to embed any projecting
surfaces thereinto. Having filled the mould with the pieces of stone or slag of
various sizes and to a level surface as near as may be, I throw thereon the Foundry
sand so as to cover the projecting pieces of stone or other material with the sand
filling up the inequalities of the surface and having levelled the sands so placed I place
thereon the ordinary covering or upper part of a moulding box or flask such as is
used in Foundries. Down and through the covering and down and through the sand
placed on the stones or other material on the mould I make " gaites or entrances
reaching down to the interstices between the stones or other materials in the mould
and through these I pour any sufficiently cheap metal or mixture of metals with other
substances such for example as crude or pig iron in a molten state so that it may pass

page_text: down and through and into the interstices of the several pieces of material enclosed
within the mould which on solidifying, encases the whole of the said pieces of material
this manner
within itself excepting the exterior surfaces embedded in the sand and
blocks or slabs are produced as solid masses capable for being used for the purposes of
this Invention.
In cases where the mineral matter selected for binding together the pieces of stone
or other material can be manipulated in the plastic state and at a low temperature, I
do not use a cover for the mould but mix the stone or other material with the heated
mineral, or impress the pieces of stone or other material into the exposed upper
surface of the mass of encasing matter in the mould, which encasing matter may be
asphalt or slag or any coarse metallic substance in a plastic state.
On the annexed sheet of drawings, I shew in section at Figure 1, a slab produced
in the manner constituting the first mode of working my Invention hereinbefore
described. The parts in this Figure which are shewn in hatched lines represent the
sand or loam of the Foundry and the black irregular lines represent the metal or
mineral which has been run into the interstices of the stones which have been placed
in the mould, the portions marked S, represent the stones. On referring to this
Figure, it will be observed that on the removal of the sand or loam of the Foundry
from the blocks' cast the surface represented will be of stone or broken slag or other
material with the interstices filled by thin layers or webs of metal corresponding to the
shape of the interstices.
With regard to the mode of working my Invention hereinbefore described and.
consisting in the mixing or pressing of pieces of stone, broken slag or other substances
into a metal or other substance rendered plastic by heat I do not think it necessary
to illustrate the same by drawings.
:-
ог
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The manufacture of blocks suitable for paving, road making or flooring
building purposes by combining together stone, slag or other road making or building
material with a metal or mineral which, when in a liquid state is filled into the
interstices between the said road making or building material contained in the mould
substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. The manufacture or construction of blocks suitable for paving, road making,
flooring, or building purposes by mixing or embedding in a mineral substance rendered
plastic by heat, pieces of stone or slag or other building material substantially as
hereinbefore described.
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