IMPROVEMENTS IN PAVING OR COVERING ROADS AND OTHER WAYS OR SURFACES
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I COMTE
MELANO DE CALCINA, of Nassau Street, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing dato
at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of September, in the fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Comte Mélano de Calcina, Her especial license that I, the said
Comte Mélano de Calcina, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Comte Mélano de Calcina, my exors, adiiors, or assigus, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PAVING OR COVERING ROADS AND
OTHER WAYS OR SURFACES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Comte Mélano de Calcina, 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 performed,
and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Comte Mélano de Calcina, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
to consist in the following improvements (that is to say):
:-
First, in particular forms of wooden blocks resting on longitudinal and
transverse sleepers, prepared and arranged especially for the purpose, and to 5
be applied to the construction of wooden pavenient for covering roads, streets,
paths, ways, floors, platforms, bridges, or other surfaces, by whatever name
places requiring to be paved or covered may be called.
And secondly, in a mode of fastening portions of the same together in
uniform or other masses when required.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Comte Mélano
de Calcina, do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention is to be
performed by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing
annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon (that is to say) :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a profile view of a block with its tenon E, of the particular
form which I use for my wooden pavement.
Figure 2 is a perspective view of the same block and tenon.
Figure 3 is a side view of the same block with its tenon.
Figure is a view of the same block and tenon cut obliquely for the
extremity of the row when it meets the abutment.
Figure 5 is a view of a portion of the same block and tenon cut for the
same purpose, and adapted for terminating any crooked extremity.
Figure 6 represents in plan three sets of three sleepers, each supposed to be
laid across a street of a width to require no more than three, and extending
from curb stone to curb stone; A, A, representing the line of curb stone on
each side, and B, B, longitudinal sleepers for the ends of the outside trans-
verse sleepers to rest upon.
Figure 7 represents a section of Figure 6, shewing the angle at which the
longitudinal sleepers B, B, should be cut to receive the ends of the two outside
transverse sleepers C, C, while the centre transverse sleepers, whether one or
more, are notched into the outside sleepers (or into each other when more
than one), as shewn in this Figure. The sleepers being thus arranged on
ground, merely laid smoothly to the form required, I commence placing my
blocks as shewn in Figure 8, their tenons, which I have marked E in
Figure 1, passing down between the transverse sleepers, while those parts of
the block which project beyond the tenon rest half way over the transverse
sleeper on each side of it, as shewn in this Figure.
1

page_text: Figure 9 shews a portion of a street or way completely paved with my said
improvements, F being the series of blocks covering the surface, B the longi-
tudinal sleepers, and G, G, the pavement on either side.
Figure 10 is a section of Figure 9.
In wide streets or extensive surfaces, or where it would be useful to
lay the pavement down in masses of given dimensions, I employ my second
improvement, which is as follows:-
I arrange a portion of the transverse sleepers and blocks, as shewn at
Figure 11, passing a bolt with screw nuts through at each end, as shewn at
H, the nuts being either let into the sleeper, or if allowed to project, the
tenon of the block being cut away to pass them. It will be useful here to
observe, that when it becomes necessary to take up any portion of a pavement
constructed on this plan, the first block must be drawn out as follows:-A
scrow plug with a ring being screwed down firmly into the centre of the block,
a simple lever of the first order passed through the ring with its end resting
on a distant block is employed to draw it up, and one being removed a lever
will easily force up the rest.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, it is only necessary further to state, that the
number of transverse sleepers reaching from abutment to abutment may be
varied at pleasure, dependent on the distance from one abutment to the other,
as also the size of the scantling of those sleepers, and of the masses, when laid
down in masses, by which the surface is to be covered. Nor is it absolutely
necessary that the sleepers should be of wood, as metal sleepers in some cases
may be preferred. The blocks also may vary in dimensions, and even in the
relative proportions of their several parts. The foothold also may be accom-
plished by various transverse or other grooves or cuts in the upper surface of
the blocks, which may be also otherwise roughed to obtain the same object.
But whereas I claim as my Invention,―
First, blocks with tenons formed in one piece with (which I prefer) or
made separately and added to the block, such tenons being forced firmly
between sleepers on which the blocks rest, as herein-before described.
And, secondly, in the union of such sleepers by bolts and screw nuts or other
fastenings, so as to form, when the blocks with their tenons are inserted,
5 masses of blocks of such given dimensions as may be required, both my
said improvements being for the purpose of paving or covering roads and
other ways or surfaces, such improvements enabling me to pave floor or cover
with more firmness, more facility of removal, and less labor than the modes

page_text: now in use, and without the necessity of any expensive foundation for the
sleepers or tenons of the blocks to rest upon.
And such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare
this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this
my said Specification doth comply, in all respects, fully and without reserve or
disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; wherefore I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and
privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I the said Comte Mélano de Calcina, have hercunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of March, One thousand
eight hundred and forty-two.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-two.