IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING OR PREPARING PLATES OF IRON OR OTHER METAL FOR ROOFING, AND OTHER PURPOSES to WHICH THE SAME MAY BE APPLICABLE
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SPENCER, Agent of the Phoenix Iron Works, West Bromwich, in the County
of Stafford, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-third day of November, in the eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Spencer, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said John Spencer, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said John Spencer, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING OR PREPARING PLATES OF IRON
OR OTHER METAL FOR ROOFING, AND OTHER PURPOSES to WHICH THE SAME MAY BE
APPLICABLE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said John Spencer, 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 Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,

page_text: large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Spencer, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon
(that is to say):-
My Invention of Improvements in Manufacturing or Preparing Plates of
Iron or other Metal for Roofing and other Purposes, consists in a novel mode
of manufacturing or preparing sheets or plates of metal with corrugated or
grooved surfaces, and of giving to such sheets or plates of metal the required
forms with greater facility and at less cost than by the processes at present in
use. The methods hitherto employed for producing grooved or corrugated
plates of iron or other metal have been either by stamping between dies, when
sheets or plates of metal are used, or by casting in a mould. My improved
plan consists in passing the sheets or plates of metal in either a warm or cold
state between fluted rollers mounted in strong standards, as seen in the accom-
panying Drawing, in which Fig. 1 represents a front elevation of the rollers,
and Fig. 2 a transverse vertical section of the same, shewing the sheet of
metal passing between the rollers in the direction of the arrow, and being
delivered at the opposite side with corrugated surfaces corresponding to the
flutes or longitudinal grooves of the rollers. The corrugated or grooved plates
thus produced may be employed either for constructing roofs or other parts of
buildings, or for the various purposes for which such plates are or may be
considered applicable. When it is desired to give an arched or curved form to
corrugated plates, I employ for this purpose the apparatus shewn at Fig. 3, in
which a, a, are two plain rollers capable of adjustment in the framing b, b, and
c is a grooved roller, also capable of adjustment, placed above the plain rollers
a, a. The grooves in this roller c should correspond with the corrugations in
the plate to form a guide to the plates as they are passed between the rollers.
By this means the plates are bent into a curved or arched form, which curve
or arch may be varied according to the relative positions of the rollers or the
diameter of the grooved roller.
Having now described my Invention, and the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I would observe in conclusion that I lay no claim to the exclusive
manufacture or employment of corrugated plates of metal for the various
purposes to which they may be applied; but that which I claim as the Inven-
tion secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―

page_text: First, the improvement in the manufacturing or preparing corrugated
sheets or plates of metal by passing them between grooved or fluted rollers,
as above described with reference to Figures 1 and 2 ; and,
Secondly, the improvement in the manufacturing or preparing such plates
by bending them into the required forms by the pressure of plain rollers acting
in conjunction with a grooved roller, as shewn at Fig. 3 of the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Spencer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.