IMPROVEMENTS IN BEAMS AND GIRDERS. AND IN APPLYING THE SAME IN BUILDINGS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hood, of the Railway Foundry, Reading,
in the County of Berks, Ironfounder, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN BEAMS AND GIRDERS. AND IN APPLYING THE SAME IN BUILDINGS"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hood at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd July
1861.
I, WILLIAM HOOD, of the Railway Foundry, Reading, in the County of
Berks, Ironfounder, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN BEAMS AND GIRDERS, AND IN APPLYING THE SAME IN BUILDINGS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in beams and girders, and in
applying the same in buildings. For these purposes, hollow iron beams or
girders are constructed in such manner that they may be rendered suitable
for conveying water into and distributing it in the buildings where such beams
or girders are used. Girders so constructed and employed will also, by reason
of their having water supplied to them, be prevented getting red hot in case of
fire, which would render them weak and unequal to sustain the weights thereon.
The hollow beams or girders are made of sheet iron and suitable angle iron, as
common heretofore; and they are also closed at their ends or other parts as
well as at their sides, and are suitably formed te admit of their being con-

page_text: nected to supply pipes leading to water mains or other sources of supply; they
are also made with suitable perforations for distributing the water supplied to
them into the rooms or parts of buildings where such beams or girders are
situated, by which means such beams and girders will not only be the means
of conveying water to extinguish a fire in the locality where they are situated,
but will at the same time be prevented from becoming highly heated by reason
of the passage of water through them, and will thus be caused to retain the
requisite strength for upholding the weights thereon.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Hood in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st
January 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HOOD, of the Railway Foundry, Reading, in the County of Berks, Ironfounder,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of July, in the year of our.
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Hood, Her special licence that I, the said William Hood,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Hood, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BEAMS AND GIRDERS, AND IN APPLYING THE SAME IN BUILDINGS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Hood, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 William Hood, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-.

page_text: This Invention has for its object improvements in beams and girders, and in
applying the same in buildings. For these purposes, hollow iron beams or
girders are constructed in such manner that they may be rendered suitable for
conveying water into and distributing it in the buildings where such beams or
girders are used. Girders so constructed and employed will also, by reason of
their having water supplied to them, be prevented getting red rot, in case of
fire, which would render them weak and unequal to sustain the weights thereon.
The hollow beams or girders are made of iron and suitable angle iron, as
common heretofore; and they are also closed at their ends or other parts,
as well as at their sides, and are suitably formed to admit of their being'
connected to supply pipes leading to water mains or other sources of supply;
they are also made with suitable perforations for distributing the water supplied
to them into the rooms or parts of buildings where such beams or girders are
situated, by which means such beams and girders will not only be the means of
conveying water to extinguish a fire in the locality where they are situated,
but will at the same time be prevented from becoming highly heated, by reason
of the passage of water through them, and will thus be caused to retain the
requisite strength for upholding the weights thereon.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more fully to
describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figures 1 and 2 show two sections of hollow wrought-iron girders or beams
composed of plates of iron and angle iron rivetted together; Figure 3 shows
part of a side view of Figure 2, near its end, where a screw or other suitable
junction is applied to the closed end of the girder, in order that the girder or
beam may be connected to a cistern or other suitable source of supply of water.
The section, however, of girders constructed according to my Invention may
be greatly varied, so long as they are constructed hollow, and are arranged to
receive and distribute water from a suitable source of supply. In the two
O sections of girders shown in the Drawing, the bottom surfaces or plates are of
a bent or curved form, and this part in each is perforated with numerous small
holes, so that when a supply of water is admitted and kept up to the interior
of the beam or girder, numerous streams of water will descend from the beam
or girder. It is not, however, essential that the lower plate of which a girder
5 is constructed should be curved, as the same may be flat, nor is it essential that
the perforations should be at the bottom, as in some cases provision may be
made for retaining a quantity of water at the bottom of a girder or beam, in
which cases the holes or perforations will be at the sides of the girder or beam,

page_text: so that no escape of water will take place till a greater supply of water is
forced or allowed to flow into the girder or beam. By such a construction, in
the event of a fire taking place in the locality of a girder, the heat will convert
the water in the beam into steam, which will issue through the holes and tend
to put out the fire in that locality.
In such constructions of girders or beams, as in the other sections of girders
before described, the water will, when fully supplied to the interior of the
girder or beam, pass out therefrom in numerous streams, so as effectually to
put out the fire, and at the same time keep down the temperature of the beam
or girder whilst the fire is at its hottest.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hood, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
WILLIAM HOOD. (L.S.)