Improved Hollow Glass Blocks for the Construction of Walls Pervious to Light.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Jan., 1898-Accepted, 12th Mar.,
1898
Improved Hollow Glass Blocks for the Construction of Walls
Pervious to Light.
I, NEWNHAM BROWNE, of 73, Cheapside, in the City of London, Fellow of the
Chartered Institute of Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me from abroad by The Glashüttenwerke Alderhütten Actien Gesellschaft of Penzig,
in the Empire of Germany, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
In cases where the rules of the local or other authorities or other powers for
regulating building do not permit windows to be provided in certain outer walls of
buildings, and where, nevertheless, daylight is necessary for illuminating the space
behind such walls, it has latterly been the practice to make portions of such walls
with surfaces pervious to light.
For this purpose hollow blocks of glass are used and put together and united by
mortar or cement, in the same manner as are bricks or stones.
Walls so made from glass bricks lose considerably in their illuminating capacity
by reason of the mortar passing through the same between the blocks and forming
an opaque reticulation, and this is especially felt where the light impinges on the
wall chiefly in an oblique direction, as in that case, the shadow thrown by the band
of mortar is particularly broad.
Besides this defect, another has been experienced with glass bricks, namely, that
if one or more of the glass bricks forming a surface pervious to light break, the
fragments tumble out and leave a hole in what should be a solid surface. Apart
from the fact that such fragments in falling may cause damage, an aperture so
caused in the wall may prove dangerous to the building say in case of fire, as the
flames might find access through such holes.
To obviate these two defects the following two improvements, shown in the
accompanying drawings, have been made in such blocks which are hereinafter
called glass bricks.
Figs. 1 and 2, are a front and side elevation of a glass brick of the square form
most generally employed. Fig. 3, shows part of a wall formed of such bricks.
Fig. 4, is a section of one such brick showing the formation of its surface. Fig. 5,
is a front elevation of the same. Figs. 6 and 7 are respectively a section and
elevation showing the wire network.
The glass bricks are made not only square, but also in any appropriate and
convenient rectangular shape.
To make a wall pervious to light, whole bricks and half bricks of this kind are
joined together as seen in Fig. 3, and so as to make the projections w shown in
Fig. 2 meet. The space remaining between the latter is filled with mortar or
cement so as to unite the bricks.
The object of the present improvement in glass bricks is that the mortar may not
interfere with the illumination of the space intended to be lighted.

page_text: It consists in providing on the outer surface of the glass bricks lens-like
projections a as shown by the sectional view Fig. 4 with which correspond lens
like depressions 6 in the interior. Consequently these surfaces consist as it were of
a number of contiguous concavo-convex optical lenses the bounding lines of each
of which forms a hexagon as illustrated in Fig. 5. These lenses facing the space to
be illuminated disperse the light impinging upon them and thus neutralize the
shadow thrown by the mortar.
In order to prevent the falling out of the fragments, should such a glass brick
break, whereby a hole would be left, it is further improved by being surrounded by
a network c of wire which lies in the depressions between the lenses a at front and
back, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7.
This wire network presents the additional advantage of giving better hold to the
mortar at the sides.
These improvements in glass bricks may be adopted together or singly as
may be convenient.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
:-
In hollow blocks or bricks of glass for making walls pervious to light.
1. The concavo convex lenses a b formed in their faces for the purpose
of neutralizing the shadow thrown by the mortar by dispersing the light in the
interior.
2. A wire network c closely surrounding the hollow body so as to prevent the
falling out of the fragments.