AN IMPROVED METHOD IN LAYING, OR A NEW COMBINATION IN THE CONSTRUCTION, OF FLOORS IN BUILDINGS
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
HENDREY, of Wormwood Street, in the City of London, Surveyor, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of
February, in the fifth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said James Hendrey, His especial
licence, full power, and sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James
Hendrey, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said James Hendrey, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times hereafter
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD IN LAYING, OR A NEW COMBINATION IN THE
CONSTRUCTION, OF FLOORS IN BUILDINGS;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said James Hendrey, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court

page_text: of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Hendrey, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and
ascertained, as follows (that is to say):-
The joists intended to be covered are grooved by a common plough to the
width as shewn in the Drawing A, A, No. 1, hereunto annexed, and depth as
shewn in the Drawing A, A, and No. 2. The boards intended to be laid are
prepared in the usual way, and are secured to the joists by the peculiar con-
struction of the cramp, as seen at B, No. 2, and B, No. 3, which is let down
to the bottom of the grove A, A, and A, A, Nos. 1 and 2, by a common
gouge, and driven forwards into the edge of the board P, in No. 2, which is
previously prepared to receive it by a hole being punched to receive the head,
and an incision cut to receive half the stem of the cramp. This is repeated to
every joist, as B, B, No. 2, where they exceed twelve inches apart, and to
every other joist where they do not exceed twelve inches. When the cramps
are thus let in, the next board is prepared by punching and cutting, as before
described, and driven close, when the other part of the cramps enter the edge,
as P, and the two boards are secured to the joists by the flange or cutting part
of the cramp passing under the solid grain of the timber. This process is
repeated until the floor is laid, beginning at the two extremities and finishing
in the middle of the room. When the floor is laid, except the two centre
boards, as shewn in the Drawing No. 4, E, E, the floor is to be compressed
by the barrel screw D laid at about every three feet; the two boards against
which the compression takes place are prevented from rising from the joists by
the rods F and small hooks G, G, when, the screws being turned until the
boards are compressed to perfectly close joints, the rods and screws are then
taken up and the remaining boards laid down by a folding joint. The upper
board is screwed down to the joists with common screws, the heads of which
are covered with material of the same kind as the floor. After the floor has been
Jaid for twelve or eighteen months, and the shrinking has fully taken place, the
centre boards are again taken up, the screws and rods as before introduced,
and the floor again compressed to close joints. The open space produced by
compression is filled up by an extra board, and the two centre boards laid
down as before. A room of twenty feet extent can be compressed by one
opening; but if more than twenty feet in extent, the compression must be
effected by two, and if exceeding forty feet, by three, and so on to any extent.

page_text: The skirting or other wood dressings to the room must not be fastened to the
boards, where they pass them in a transverse direction, as it would prevent
compression. Where the room exceeds fourteen feet in extent, the fibres of
the timbers must be undercut before the cramps are introduced, by the cutting
punch H, HI, being let down to the bottom of the grove and driven along for
two or three inches, according to the probable distance the cramp may be
required to travel. This is done in order to allow the cramps to travel more
freely during compression; this will not be required where the floor is of
less dimensions. The floor is cleaned off in the usual way after the first
compression has taken place. The cramps are made of either wrought or cast
iron, brass, or any other hard metal; the joists may also be of iron, if the
cramp J as No. 5 is introduced to which to attach the boards.
I claim the combination above described as my Invention, by which the
boards in a floor are better laid than hitherto has ever been done.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth
day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
Cin the year above mentioned, the aforesaid James Hendrey came before our
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute
in that case made and provided.