CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON- CAPTATION OF BUILDINGS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, of 4,
South Street, Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris,
Patent Agent, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
CAPTATION OF BUILDINGS " A communication
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Armand le Comte
de Fontaine Moreau at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 3rd February 1854.
I, PETER ARMAND le Comte DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of 4, South Street,
Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS" to be as follows:-
The Invention communicated to me consists in rendering walls or buildings
impervious to moisture.
Firstly, by enamelling the surfaces of the bricks employed for forming the
sides of the wall or building.
Secondly, by forming the joints of the bricks so enamelled with a compo-
sition, by preference of melted Trinidad bitumen, and fine sand, powdered
grit, stone, or brick.
The joints by which the bricks are united together may not exceed one-
twelfth of an inch in thickness.
The bricks are made and laid in the usual manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 3rd August 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
ARMAND le Comte DE FONTAINE-MOREAU, of 4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty. Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine-moreau, Her special license that I,
the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine-moreau, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter Armand le Comte
de Fontaine Moreau, 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 "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS," (communicated to me from
a foreigner residing abroad,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine moreau, 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 was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calender months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau, do, hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The Invention communicated to me consists in the combination of bitumen
with sand for the production of a cement applicable to the construction or coat-
ing of walls and basins for rendering the same impervious to moisture, and
also in the application of the said cement in combination with other materials
for the construction of canals, sewers, and cesspools.
I use preferably the bitumen found in the island of Trinidad, & mix it
when in a state of fusion with river or other sand, in the proportion of two to
three parts sand to one part of bitumen, and when the mixture is cooled it

page_text: acquires a very considerable hardness, which renders it highly adapted for
building purposes. When the matters mixed in the said proportions are in a
state of fusion, the fused mass can receive any required shape by pouring it
into metal moulds of the necessary form, and allowing it to cool. The matters
may be moulded into the ordinary form of bricks, and can be advantageously
employed for buildings and basins.
I apply these bricks or plates of the said cement of from one-third of an inch
to one inch in diameter, to lining the sides of foundation walls, so as to isolate
them completely from the ground. The plates are fixed by partly melting them
with a hot iron, or by employing the melted cement in a similar manner as mortar.
I also apply plates of the said cement to cover the sides of bricks or other
analogous building materials intended to be exposed to humidity, fixed as
herein-before described, for the construction of basins, walls of cellars and
kitchens, by which means they are protected from moisture.
The plates may be variously colored, and permit of being washed without
impairing their impervious qualities.
To cure a house of dampness, the bottom of the walls should be cut away
by small fragments at a time, and the parts cut out replaced by several courses
of enamelled bricks laid with bituminous cement, so as to form a continuous
facing of the wall from the earth.
For constructing canals, sewers, and cesspools, I employ blocks composed of
broken brick, stones of all kinds, mixed with the said bituminous cement made
in wooden moulds of the form required. These blocks are cemented together
by bituminous cement as herein-before described.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the matter of
putting the same into effect, what I claim is,-
First, the combination of bitumen and sand for the production of a
bituminous cement applicable to the to the construction or coating of walls and
basins for rendering them impervious to moisture as herein-before described.
Secondly, the application of the said bituminous cement, in combination
with other materials, to the production of blocks for the construction of canals,
sewers, and cesspools, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine-
moreau, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this First day of February,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
זזזז
זזותתמrגבו דהד
L. DE FONT
FONTAINERIOREAU.
(L.D.)