AN IMPROVED MODE OF COMBINING CERTAIN MATERIALS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WALLS AND THE ROOFS AND FLOORS OF HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Parr and Alfred Strong, both of 25,
College Hill, Cannon Street, in the City of London, Architects and
Surveyors, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF COMBINING
CERTAIN MATERIALS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WALLS AND THE ROOFS AND
FLOORS OF HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS."
Sealed the 28th October 1868, and dated the 30th April 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Parr and Alfred
Strong at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 30th April 1868.
We, SAMUEL PARR and ALFRED STRONG, both of 25, College Hill,
Cannon Street, in the City of London, Architects and Surveyors, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE
OF COMBINING CERTAIN MATERIALS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WALLS AND THE ROOPS
AND FLOORS OF HOUSES AND OTHER BUILDINGS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of novel and improved modes of arranging
or disposing and connecting together tubes of metal, terra cotta, or
plastic clays, and of tieing them together so as to combine strength

page_text: with lightness and durability in the construction of walls and the roofs
and floors of houses and other buildings.
The following are examples of the means by which we propose to
effect the above-mentioned improvements, that is to say :-
As regards walls we lay tubes of metal, burnt clay, or terra cotta of
any form, but principally hexagonal, horizontally across the thickness
of the wall. We partially or entirely fill the tubes with concrete
composed of cement or lime, and ballast, fliuts, broken brick, burnt
clay, or broken pottery in various proportions. We unite the hexagons
with cement or mortar, and further strengthen where necessary with
metallic bands, rods, and dowels, of various materials. We bond in
where required with blocks of stone, or artifical stone, as quoins,
labels, jambs, plinths, or other architectural members. We form or
affix to the outer or inner ends of the tubes surfaces composed of
concrete, cement, flint, broken stones, tiles, terra cotta, plaster, or
other material, uniting them with the concrete inside each tube where
required. We construct floors by means of similar tubes similarly
filled, but we place them vertically upon a temporary surface of level
or arched form, uniting them all with cement and strengthening with
"iron girders, bands, rods, and dowels, as before mentioned; we partially
fill them with sand, and then form a surface with cement concrete to
the thickness required, floating the upper surface. We next remove
the temporary surface or centre allowing the sand to fall out. We
form ceilings in the same manner as described for the inner or outer
surfaces of walls.
As regards roofs we construct a centre on the most approved rib of
metal or wood where required, and form a surface with boarding to
the desired shape of the roof, covered with sheet metal if required.
Upon these centres we arrange and dispose tubes as before mentioned,
uniting them with cement and strengthening with metallic bands,
rods, clamps, and dowels of various descriptions, and form the outer
and inner surfaces as described for floors and walls, or we cover the
ends of the tubes with an earthenware or metal cover and run cement
or asphalte between the covers and so unite. them altogether. We
construct iron trusses to carry walls or floors over wide spaces with
iron bolts and diagonal ties in the manner of lattice girders or king
and queen post principals.

page_text: In conclusion we would remark that we are aware of tubes of metal,
terra cotta, or plastic materials of a cellular form having been here-
tofore employed or suggested to be employed in the construction of
buildings. We do not therefore lay any claim to the cells above
described, but only to the mode of filling and forming the ends of the
tubes and of combining them together and also with other materials and
of connecting and strengthening them with iron where necessary as
above described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
by the said Samuel Parr and Alfred Strong in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 30th October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, SAMUEL
PARK and ALFRED STRONG, both of 25, College Hill, Cannon Street, in
the City of London, Architects and Surveyors, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Samuel Parr and Alfred Strong, Her special
licence that we, the said Samuel Parr and Alfred Strong, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Samuel Parr
and Alfred Strong, our 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 "AN IMPROVED MODE OF COMBINING CERTAIN MATERIALS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF WALLS AND THE ROOFS AND FLOORS OF. HOUSES AND OTHER
BUILDINGS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Samuel.
Parr and Alfred Strong, our executors or administrators, by an instru-.
ment in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
vention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Scal Patent Office within six.

page_text: calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Leners
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Samuel Parr and Alfred Strong,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to bé particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, that is to say:-
This Invention consists of novel and improved modes of arranging or
disposing and connecting together tubes of metal, terra cotta, or plastic
clays, and of tieing them together so as to combine strength with
lightness and durability in the construction of walls and the roofs and
floors of houses and other buildings.
The following are examples of the means by which we propose to
effect the above-mentioned improvements, that is to say :-
As regards walls we lay tubes of metal, burnt clay, or terra cotta of
any form, but principally hexagonal, horizontally across the thickness of
the wall. We partially or entirely fill the tubes with concrete composed
of cement or lime, and ballast, broken brick, burnt clay, or broken
pottery in various proportions. We unito the hexagons with cement
mortar, and further strengthen where necessary with metallic bands,
rods, and dowels of various materials. We bond in where required with
blocks of stone or artificial stone, as quoins, labels, jambs, plinths, or
other architectural members. We form or affix to the outer or inner
ends of the tubes surfaces composed of concrete cement, flint, broken
stones, tiles, terra cotta, plaster, or other material, uniting them with
the concrete inside each tube where required. We construct floors by
means of similar-tubes similarly filled, but we place then vertically upon
a temporary surface of level or arched form, uniting them all with
cement and strengthening with iron girders, bands, rods, and dowels, as
before mentioned; we partially fill them with sand, and then form a
surface with cement concrete to the thickness required, floating the
upper surface. We next remove the temporary surface or centre
allowing the sand to fall out. We form ceilings in the same manner
as described for the inner or outer surface of walls.
As regards roofs we construct a centre on the most approved rib of
metal or wood where required, and form a surface with boarding to the
desired shape of the roof, covered with sheet metal if required. . Upon
these centres we arrange and dispose tubes, as before-mentioned, uniting.

page_text: them with cement and strenghtening with metallic bands, rods, clamps,
and dowels of various description, and form the outer and inner surfaces
as described for floors and walls, or we cover the ends of the tubes with
an earthenware or metal cover, and run cement or asphalte between the
.covers and so unite them together. We construct iron trusses to carry
walls or floors over wide spaces with iron bolts and diagonal ties in the
manner of lattice girders or king and queen post principals.
In conclusion we would remark that we are aware of tubes of metal,
terra cotta, or plastic materials of a cellular form having been heretofore
employed or suggested to be employed in the construction of buildings.
We do not therefore lay any claim to the cells above described, but
only to the mode of filling and forming the ends of the tubes and of
combining them together, and also with other materials; and of con-
necting and strengthening them with iron where necessary, as above
described.
And in order to explain our said Invention as completely as possible
we now proceed to describe the best means we are acquainted with for
carrying the same into practical effect, reference being had to the
illustrative Sheet of Drawing accompanying these Presents, and to the
numeral figures and letters of reference marked thereon, as follows:-

page_text: surface the concrete can then be laid. B is the rimless cap, described
also sub Figure 2.
Figure 5 shews a tube divided into two compartments by a thickness
of concrete A. The ends are shown as closed either by the rimless cap,
as at B', or by the rimmed cap, as at B³.
Figure 6 has at A the ordinary concrete end, whilst at B a round disc
is shewn differing from the caps previously described by being fixed
flush with the end of the tube. This disc may also be used as at A,
Figure 4.
Figure 7 illustrates the method of introducing hoop iron bond.
Figure 8 has a vertical rod passing through the tubes. When the rod
passes through the concrete filling a core or holc is left in the concreto
for this purpose.
Figure 9 shews the strengthening by means of dowels of slate, wood,
or metal.
Figures 10 and 11 are intended to explain the mode of beginning or
finishing a wall. The hoop iron at A, Figure 11, secures the end tube
to the body of the wall.
Figure 12 shews one of the many ways in which an external angle
may be constructed.
Figure 13 illustrates a floor formed of tubes laid flat; it is strengthened
by a rod passed through its thickness. The tubes are covered and
partially filled with concrete, the surface of ceiling below being formed
by means of the usual flat caps.
Figures 14 and 15 represent the mode in which trusses may be formed
with cast-iron tubes secured, by wrought-iron bolts.
Figure 16 shows the upper surface of a roof with a portion partly
stripped of its caps and cement.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of our
said Invention for "An Improved Mode of Combining certain Materials
in the Construction of Walls and the Roofs and Floors of Houses and
other Buildings," together with the best means we are acquainted with
for carrying the same into practical effect, we would remark in con-
clusion that what we claim as our Invention intended to be secured
to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is as follows:-

page_text: We claim the modes above described and set forth with reference to
the accompanying Drawing of arranging or disposing and connecting
together tubes of metal, terra cotta, or plastic clays combined with
cement concrete, and of tieing them together so as to combine strength
with lightness and durability in the construction of walls and the roofs
and floors of houses and other buildings.
In witness whereof, we, the said Samuel Parr and Alfred Strong,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-ninth day of
October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-eight.
SAMUEL PARR.
(L.S.)
ALFRED STRONG. (L.S.)