A NEW AND IM- PROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING WOODEN FLOORS AND WAINSCOTS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville; of the British and
Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, in the Empire
of France, and 10, Sackville Street, Piccadilly, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "A NEW AND IM-
PROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING WOODEN FLOORS AND WAINSCOTS." -A
communication from Edouard Maitre, residing at Veuxaulles, in
the Empire of France, Gentleman.
;
Sealed the 2nd August 1870, and dated the 23rd May 1870.
T
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition
and Declaration, on the 23rd May 1870, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
4
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI
ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 18,
Chaussée d'Antin, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 10, Sackville
Street, Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send
greeting..
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for
"A NEW AND IM-
PROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING WOODEN FLOORS AND WAINSCOTS," a com
་

page_text: munication to me from Edouard Maitre, a person resident at Veuxaulles,
in the Empire of France, Gentleman, and have petitioned Her Majesty to
grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal
Letters Patent for the same, and made solemn Declaration that it is a
communication.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, do
hereby declare that the following Complete Specification, under my
hand and seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, reference being
had to the accompanying Drawings and to the figures and letters
marked thereon, that is to say :—
This Invention communicated to me relates to a new and improved
mode of manufacturing wooden floors and wainscots of inlaid wooden
work or wooden marquetry, and consists in employing for this purpose
pieces of wood of a very much smaller size than have been hitherto used
except for highly ornamental floors, and applying the same in such a
manner as to be suitable for floors of the ordinary description having a
continual service to support, the pieces in this improved system being
left with their whole thickness and strength. Several of these boards
or small pieces of wood after being planed or sculptured must be put
together by means of laths or bars, or wooden or metal or other cross
pieces, or any other suitable contrivance, so as to form panels or com-
partments of any desired size and shape. These panels or compartments
may be exposed during a certain time to the action of the air before they
are used for the floors. Each piece of wood or panel or compartment
by itself is made mechanically by machines well known for woodwork,
and is entirely finished in the workshop, and so put together that it is
then ready for use without any further planing or finishing off, it simply
having to be adjusted together with others to form the floor or wainscot
in the same way as squares of enamel brick.
This system presents a great economy with regard to wood, as waste,
fire, and other descriptions of wood, injected or not, and liable to warp
with the ordinary sizes, and is not so with this system and otherwise unfit
for such use can thus be employed without any disadvantage, especially
as it is supported and kept together by the pegs above alluded to. A
great improvement is thus obtained in the manufacture of such flooring
and wainscots, the joints being multiplied are far less apparent, and

page_text: in consequence of the small size of each piece of wood all defects are
easily avoided, such as knots, disagreable shades, or splits, and soft parts,
even sometimes such defects can be assorted as the best shades and by
combination form a shade most advantageous. The wood being exposed
whilst in store to the action of the air is a great advantage, as the panels
thus become contracted from exposure to the air, and if from time to
time the joints are tightened they will after being in store a certain
time cease to contract or warp any longer.
The means of manufacturing these panels is represented in the accom-
panying Drawings, in which Fig. 1 represents a false plank, of which
the boards P are more or less separated from one another according to
the size of the single boards or of the compartments they are destined
to receive, and the joists L on which rests the false plank arranged as
usual. Fig. II. is a compartment or part of flooring with rows of
twelve boards, some of unequal length, as seen by the junctions i in
the Drawings, and put together as usual by grooves and tongues and
maintained by three pegs, rods, or laths A of various size, which tra-
verse all of them in the direction of their depth. Fig. 3 is the same
compartment shewing three different ways for maintaining the boards
close together either provisionally or permanently with or without nails,
screws, pegs, or studs, viz., by a dovetailed key D wider at D than at
D', or by a cross piece E inserted half through the wood, or by a cross
piece F. simply placed at the side. Fig. 4 represents Fig. 2 and Fig. 3
seen by side views; Fig. 5, the little pieces of wood united together by
a single peg; Fig. 6 is a panel or compartment between a double cross
piece H of which each piece is grooved and united on two ledges T.
These two cross pieces are maintained by four bolts M, M. The
compartments or parts thus united may be maintained or supported
by one or more contrivances of this sort. Also from time to time by
means of a wedge introduced at one of the extremities the boards may
be brought together as fast as ever they become separated by time or
atmospheric influence.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood I do not
confine myself to the precise details herein indicated and represented
in the accompanying Drawings, as these may obviously be modified
without departing from the principle of the said Invention; but what
I claim and desire to secure by the said Letters Patent is, the manu-

page_text: facture of panels or compartments with small pieces of wood put
together in such a manner as to render them fit for the construction.
of floorings and wainscots, substantially as described and set forth.
"
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have
hereto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of May, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
H. BONNEVILLE. (L.S.).