A NEW COVERING FOR THE ROOFS OF HOUSES AND BUILDINGS
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ELIAS
CARTER, of the City of Exeter, in the County of Devon, Upholsterer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eleventh day of October, in the eighth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Elias Carter, His especial licence, that I, the said Elias Carter, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Elias Carter, my
exors, adiñors, 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 expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His said
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "A NEW COVERING
FOR THE ROOFS OF HOUSES AND BUILDINGS;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso obliging me, the Elias Carter, 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 per-
formed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Elias Carter, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, to consist in
'

page_text: particular shaped plates of iron or other suitable metal or material to be used
in a regular series for covering the roofs of houses and other buildings.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Elias Carter, do
hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention is to be performed,
by the following description of the said plates, and of the mode of placing the
same for the purpose aforesaid, reference being had to the Drawing annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
And, first, of the particular shaped plates, which consist of three different
forms, and which are shown in the Drawing by Figures 1, 2, and 3. Of
these, Figure 1 is what I call the roof plate, and is marked A. It is made
with three of its sides turned up and one turned down; the side which is
turued down in this Figure is marked B, and I call it, for the sake of distinc-
tion, the lip. This roof plate A tapers narrower towards the lip end of it by
twice the thickness of the plate, the reason for which will be seen when the
mode of placing the plates to form a roof is described. To form the ridge of
the roof two kinds of plates are required; Figure 2 represents one of these
plates, and Figure 3 the other. The plate Figure 2 is marked E, and it will
be seen has two sides marked C, C, turned up, and two sides marked D, D,
turned down. This plate I call the low ridge plate; and the other plate,
Figure 3, marked F, I call the high ridge plate or cap plate. This plate it
will be seen is in fact a mere cap, since all its four sides are turned down.
It will be observed that both the ridge plates are made with an angle, sloping
downwards each way from the centre; and it should here be observed, that
the fall of these ridge plates should not be less than half an inch to a foot..
And now I will proceed to describe the manner of laying the said plates
to form a roof, with reference to Figure 4. This Figure shows part of
a roof formed of the three kinds of plates herein-before described. The
plates marked A and A × are all roof plates; those marked A have
the lip B placed downwards and turned towards the eves of the roof,
while those marked A × have the lip placed upwards and turned towards
the ridge of the roof; and, it will be observed, they are laid in alter-
nate rows. The plates marked A are first laid with the lip B lapping
over the upper side of the plate next below it, as here shown, and which the
tapering shape of the plates easily permits. The plates marked A × are next
laid, a row on each side of the plates A, and lapping over their sides, and then
the low ridge plate E is laid; and, last of all, the high ridge plate or cap plate
F, which completes the portion of roof. It should be observed here, that in-
asmuch as the high ridge plate F is to lap over or cover over four edges of
other plates, it should be made a little larger in its dimensions than the other
plates, while the low ridge plate should, from its situation, be made a little

page_text: narrower in the direction of the ridge; in fact, it should be of the same width
as the roof plate at the lip or smaller end. Figure 5 is a section across the
end of a roof, formed of such plates as aforesaid; and. Figure 6 is a section in
the direction from end to end of such a roof, which two last Figures clearly
shew how the sides and lips of the plates are to lap over each other.
Now whereas I do not claim any particular metal or material of which the
aforesaid plates are to be made, or any particular dimensions, but I recommend
that the plates should be made of cast iron, and that they should be three-
sixteenths of an inch in thickness and two feet square, with the sides and lips
two inches deep. And whereas I claim as my Invention metal plates so
formed as aforesaid, with such sides and lips as herein-before described, and
laid in manner aforesaid, for the purpose of forming a covering for the roofs of
houses and other buildings.
And such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, nor in any of His said
Majesty's Colonies or Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be
my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Speci-
fication 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 have here set my hand and seal, the Eighth day
of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of December, in
the year of our Lord 1827, the aforesaid Elias Carter came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eighth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven.