CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING OR MAKING THE COVERINGS OF THE ROOFS OR OP OTHER SURFACES OF BUILDINGS, WHETHER EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL
Year: 1813

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
JONES TOMLINSON, of the City of Bristol, Iron Master, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of
November, in the fifty-fourth year of His said Majesty's reign, grant unto me,
my exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge
and authority, to make, use, exercise, and vend "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING OR MAKING THE COVERINGS OF THE ROOFS OR OP
OTHER SURFACES OF BUILDINGS, WHETHER EXTERNAL OR INTERNAL;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said Richard Jones
Tomlinson, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the name of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in the
High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly
cease, determine, and become void, anything therein contained to the contrary
thereof in anywise notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Jones Tomlinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said In-
vention, and the manner of performing the same, are described and ascertained
in manner following (that is to say):-

page_text: After the framing of the roof of any building hath been constructed of the
usual materials (whether of wood or iron, or any other article), and upon the
principles usually adopted and applied to practice, I do place, fix, or dispose
upon the top beam or couple a plate or sheet of iron, or other fit metal or
material, consisting of one or more pieces united together, and represented in
Figure 1, hereunto annexed, by the letters a, b, c, d, e, having the edges or
borders thereof turned up inwards so as to form an inside lap or hitch of about
two inches, or more or less, as may be thought convenient or preferable.
And moreover, I do place, fix, or dispose upon the side pieces or couples
marked and m in Figure 2, hereunto annexed, other plates or sheets of iron,
or other fit metal or material, as represented at q, r, and o, p, n, r, having the
uppers edges or borders thereof 6, r, c, n, turned up outwards, and inserted in,
or attached to, or suspended by, the correspondent laps or hitches of the
plate a, b, c, d, e, and having also the other edges or borders thereof turned
up inwards like those of the plate a, b, c, d, e. And further, I do make
certain other plates of iron or other fit metal or material of a square figure,
or such other figure as may be suitable to the purposes herein explained, and
one of which is represented in Figure 3, having all the borders turned back,
either inwards or outwards, so as to form hitches or laps as. before described;
and as a general rule for the manner of turning these and the like hitches, or
laps, I do declare that the best and most preferable method is, to turn all the
hitches outwards which are to be made at the upper parts or edges, and all
these hitches inwards which are to be made at the lower parts or edges of any
plate or plates. In the said Figure 3 the upper edge is cut slopewise with
regard to the two side edges thereof, a and c, in order that the angle r may
be adapted to the angle r of Figure 2, and that the hitches a, b, being turned
outwards, may drop into and hold in the inward hitches of the ridge plates
before described; and I do accordingly so dispose and apply the said plates
as at i and k (Figure 2) all along the roof as a covering, and do also in
succession, and in like manner, dispose and apply other plates of a square
or right angles, or other suitable form, hanging respectively to the plates
above them, and also (by virtue or in consequence of the general con-
nection of the whole) to all the surrounding or next adjacent ridge plates
of the roof; and by this means the said plates do obtain a position or situation
sloping beneath each other, and each terminating with a corner or angle at
the uppermost parts thereof, as is shewn in the Figure, and is of advantage
to the covering in various respects beyond the perpendicular position or
situation. Figure 4 gives a perspective view of the roof, covered with plates
according to my said Invention. Figure 5 shows the manner of applying the