IMPROVEMENTS IN METAL AND ALLOY SHEETS AND PLATES FORMED WITH OPENINGS PREPARED TO RECEIVE GLASS; IN THE MATERIALS, MODES, METHODS, PROCESSES, AND MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE THEREOF; AND IN THE PRODUCTION OF THE SAME AS A MERCHANTABLE COMMODITY FOR BUILDING PURPOSES, AND IN SUBSTITUTION OF ORDINARY SASHES, GUARDS, AND GRATINGS FOR ARCHITECTURAL AND ENGI- NEERING CONSTRUCTIONS
Year: 1874

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to Thaddeus Hyatt, of No. 66, Gloucester Gardens,
Hyde Park, London, in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturer of
Patent Lights, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN METAL AND
ALLOY SHEETS AND PLATES FORMED WITH OPENINGS PREPARED TO RECEIVE
GLASS; IN THE MATERIALS, MODES, METHODS, PROCESSES, AND MACHINERY
FOR THE MANUFACTURE THEREOF; AND IN THE PRODUCTION OF THE SAME AS A
MERCHANTABLE COMMODITY FOR BUILDING PURPOSES, AND IN SUBSTITUTION OF
ORDINARY SASHES, GUARDS, AND GRATINGS FOR ARCHITECTURAL AND ENGI-
NEERING CONSTRUCTIONS."
'
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thaddeus Hyatt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th September 1874.
I, THADDEUS HYATT, of No. 66, Gloucester Gardens, Hyde Park,
London, in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturer of Patent Lights, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS ÚN
METAL AND ALLOY SHEETS AND PLATES FORMED WITH OPENINGS PREPARED TO

page_text: RECEIVE GLASS; IN THE MATERIALS, MODES, METHODS, PROCESSES, AND MACHINERY
FOR THE MANUFACTURE THEREOF; AND IN THE PRODUCTION OF THE SAME AS A
MERCHANTABLE COMMODITY FOR BUILDING PURPOSES, AND IN SUBSTITUTION OF
ORDINARY SASHES, GUARDS, AND GRATINGS FOR ARCHITECTURAL AND ENGINEERING
CONSTRUCTIONS," to be as follows :-
Combined with glass the sheets and plates which form the subject of
this Invention are a substitute for sashes and illuminating gratings, but
differ from them in the mode of holding the glass, and this difference is
what gives to the Invention its peculiar significance and value.
The utility of these improved sheets and plates while serving like
sashes and gratings to transmit light consists in their peculiar flexibility
and lightness, qualities which adapt them to special uses in architectural
and engineering constructions, where ordinary sashes and illuminating
gratings would be either inadmissible or exceedingly expensive, such for
example as structures of irregular and curved shapes, like domes, turrets,
lanterns, lighthouses, and the like.
Sashes and illuminating gratings are rigid or rigid and heavy because
of the principle or method of their glazing, which consists in sinking or
incorporating the glass within the body of the material which holds it,
a condition which requires an amount of thickness in the holding body
that produces either great stiffness, great weight, or both. But the
principle upon which according to my Invention perforated sheets and
plates are glazed is by attaching the glasses to instead of sinking them
within the substance of the holding body, by means substantially such as
are set forth in my Specifications of Patent already referred to. In this
way, like buttons upon a garment, the glasses are external to and upon
the surface in place of being buried within the body of the material,
which is thus left free to be curved or bent; also sheets no thicker than
writing paper may thus be made to carry glasses of any thickness. This
mode of constructing sheets and plates fits them equally well for holding
materials other than glass when suitably shaped, such, for example, as
marbles or other stones, glazed tiles, encaustic tiles, porcelains, tesserae,
concretes, cements, colored bricks, and similar materials.
I propose also as a part of my Invention to close the apertures of the
sheets and gratings with colored and stained glasses of various kinds,
among others with glasses stained or painted with landscapes, flowers,
fruits, animals, and other objects, in the application of the sheets and

page_text: | plates to purposes of decorative art. I further propose in view of such
application of the sheets and plates to form them with apertures so
arranged with reference to each other and of such sizes and shapes as
collectively to form designs, in groups or otherwise; in this way when set
with stained glasses imitating and producing the artistic effects of the
Mosaic work of old church windows.
"
According to another part of my Invention I shape and arrange the
openings with reference to each other in ways to produce a greater or
less degree of rigidity in the sheet, or in certain parts of it, with
reference to curving or bending it, and with reference to the various
uses and purposes in art and architecture to which the same may be
applied, among which are the following, to wit:-For the construction
of windows of all sizes and shapes, either movable or fixed, and either
hung, hinged, swiveled, or otherwise arranged; for shutters of all
descriptions, including coiling and sliding shutters; for doors and door
panels, and panels of other kinds; for scuttle doors, flap doors, and trap
doors; for "lights" of all kinds, including "fan lights," inner-dome
lights, ceiling lights, roof lights, and sky lights; for illuminating roofs
and structures forming portions of the same or formed upon them, such,
for example, as dormers, turrets, domes, towers, and spires; for making
clerc-stories, louvers, lanterns, and lighthouses; for awnings, arches, and
arcades; for verandas, conservatories, green houses, orchard houses, and
aquaria; for floors, partitions, walls, columns, pillars, stoops, steps, area
covers, platforms, sills, treads, and risers; and in marine architecture for
the construction of sky lights, hatch lights, dead lights, deck lights,
port lights, hoods, sheathing, bulkheads, and deck settees, having the
double function of cabin lights and seats.
The materials which I employ and propose to employ in making the
above described sheets and plates with the object of being manufactured,
formed, and applied to the purposes aforesaid and for analagous
purposes, are iron (including maleable cast iron), steel, copper, zinc,
tin, and lead, and their alloys, brass, muntz metal, composition, pewter,
and other alloys of equivalent value for the purpose, also plated,
coated, tinned, leaded, and galvanized metals; and, as a substitute.
for or an equivalent of the aforesaid metals and alloys, I also proposo
to make use of compressed or other paper, papier maché, or other
equivalent composition of materials, or of materials fibrous or otherwise

page_text: suitable for being converted or formed into sheets and plates
similarly constructed to those herein above set forth, and to render
the same fire and waterproof by means or methods such as are
employed, or similar to such as are employed in fire and waterproofing
materials of like character, when employed for architectural and
engineering purposes.
With respect to the method or style of manufacturing the aforesaid
sheets and plates as a commodity, I propose to form them as to gauge
and measurements substantially upon the model of ordinary sheet and
plate iron in order to make them of as easy application as those manu-
factures to building and other constructions, it being a part of the
design of this Invention to change the system of making illuminating
roofs and other constructions which are formed of illuminating gratings.
By the method in use those structures are made of completed
illuminating gratings, that is to say, the gratings are set with glass
before being used to make the secondary or final illuminating surfaces.
The weight of the glass is thus added to the weight of the metal in its
preliminary stages of construction; this adds cost to handling, and cost
for increased weight of glass to make them less liable to breakage in
being handled, and thus increases the final cost of the illuminating
structures made from the gratings; the old system has therefore tended
to retard the development of a useful art. But by the new method of
applying perforated sheets and plates to illuminating constructions con-
templated by my Invention, all shop setting of the glasses is discarded,
the risk of breakage and the cost of unnecessary weight in handling is
avoided, the constructions made of the sheets or plates before being set
with glass are more easily and cheaply put up, while the glasses of a
lighter and cheaper but equally useful character are more easily and
economically applied to the completed structure, the shape of the glasses
and the mode of attaching them in connection with the improved
surfaces of the sheets and plates to receive them, making their
application as simple as the corking of a bottle. The new manufacture
therefore of the sheets and plates herein described with perforations
prepared to be cheaply and easily closed with glass, has reference not
only to the saving of expense in first cost of illuminating material, but
also to the economies connected with its employment in the cost of the
final structures made from it.
As to the character of the sheets and plates with reference to holding

page_text: glass, they are of two kinds, viz., flat faced sheets and plates, and ring
faced sheets and plates. The former are prepared and designed for
holding glasses of the "button head" kind, the latter for the same or for
glasses of ordinary make, or for "cup-shaped" glasses, all of which
may be attached to the sheets and plates according to any of the methods
set forth in the Specifications of my several Patents herein above
referred to, or by methods to be herein-after described.
According to one part of my Invention I make the ring faced sheets
and plates solid, that is to say, the rings are a part of the substance of
the sheet or plate and formed out of it.
According to another part of my Invention the rings are made
separately and attached to the sheet or plate by riveting, soldering, or
otherwise.
According to another part of my Invention the rings are of lead and
cast upon the sheet or plate, which is suitably tinned, galvanized, or
otherwise prepared, so that in cooling, the rings solder themselves fast
thereto, or they are formed as part of the process of lead, plating the
sheets or plates.
According to another part of my Invention I improve the construction
of the rings by making them of greater diameter than the apertures they
encircle, thereby forming a seat or rest for the glass within the holding
of the ring upon the weather face of the sheet or plate.
According to another part of my Invention I effect substantially the
same result by soldering or otherwise attaching flat rings to the opposite
face of the sheet under the rims or curbs, the rims being of the diameter
of the holes in the sheet, but the apertures of the attached flat rings
being of less diameter. As an equivalent of the flat rings aforesaid I
sometimes substitute a flat sheet having apertures, which I attach by
soldering, riveting, or otherwise, to the under side of the ring or curb-
faced sheet aforesaid.
According to another part of my Invention I make the rings in pairs,
one being concentric to the other, an annular space or channel being
thereby formed between the rings or curbs to receive the rims of inverted
cup-shaped glasses.
"
According to another part of my Invention I form the ring or curb
with a bayonet slot" for the glass to interlock itself therewith; this
slot may be either an open cut or an indent,

page_text: According to another part of my Invention I make the sunk seat with
a bayonet slot for the bottom of the glass to interlock itself therewith.
According to another part of my Invention I make the curbs with a
seat at top, preferably formed with a bayonet slot. This raised seat
obviates the necessity for cup-shaped glasses, but I prefer to form them
with a slight rim or dripping edge to come down below the seat around
the junction edge of the curb and glass.
According to another part of my Invention I roughen, indent, corru-
gate, curve, or otherwise shape and form the aforesaid rings or curbs;
or I form a screw thread upon them, in some cases on the outside of the
ring, and in other cases upon the inside, as a means of increasing the
holding power of the same upon the glasses, which are shaped and other-
wise adapted to suit the rings; the glasses in some cases being formed
with screw threads to be either screwed directly into the rings or to be
wound about with hemp or other packing material, and so forced into
the rings like corking a bottle; or, where cup-shaped glasses are
employed, the ring may be wound about with the packing material, and
the glasses, with or without screw threads formed on the inside of their
rims, are fastened to the sheet or plate by being forced over the packing
of the rings.
According to another part of my Invention I form hollow double
sheets and plates of the character herein described by means of two plates
or sheets formed with curved openings, the curbs of one sheet or plate
being made sufficiently larger than those of the others to embrace and
fasten to them, the external faces being flat.
According to another part of my Invention I form an embossed face
upon the sheets and plates in combination with the apertures, in some
cases specially designed for and adapted to the removal of condensed
moisture therefrom.
In carrying out the manufacture of the aforesaid sheets and plates a
part of my Invention consists in the use of metals that, although made
into sheets and plates by the process of casting, possess the quality
nevertheless of being bent, curved, and cut like wrought metals. In
other cases my Invention in part consists in making them of cast iron,
steel, or alloys of kindred character.

page_text: In the manufacture of wrought metal into the sheets and plates afore-
said a part of my Invention consists in the mode of the. production of
such sheets and plates, one mode being according to the principle of die
sinking.
According to another mode I stamp up the sheets and plates between
dies by gradual pressure or by blows, as in a "monkey press."
According to another part of my Invention I make the sheets and
plates aforesaid by forging, hammering, and rolling, as in the manu-
facture of ordinary sheet and plate metals:
By the rolling process, according to one part of my Invention, I bring
the metal into shape from the slab form by means of a train of rolls, the
first of which, in flattening out the metal, forms thicker portions at the
spots where the rims or curbs and holes are to be made; the rims or
rings being formed during the passage of the sheet or plate through the
following rolls; the holes may be put in during this operation, or sub-
sequently. The metal by this process is rolled down to thickness, the
curbs being left standing, or if in reversed position they are formed as
sunk seats.
According to another part of my Invention I use ordinary merchant
sheets and plates of extra thickness, which, after having been properly
heated, are then passed through a train of rolls that form either curbs or
sunk seats, as mentioned; the metal during this process being in part
rolled down to a less degree of thickness, while other portions of it
during the operation are forced into the recesses of the rolls, and thus
formed into either curbs or sunk seats.
According to another part of my Invention I pass thin sheets or plates
through a train of rolls that produce curbs or sunk seats by straining,
drawing, or stretching the métal.
0
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thaddeus Hyatt in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th March 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THADDEUS
HYATT, of No. 66, Gloucester Gardens, Hyde Park, London, in the
County of Middlesex, Manufacturer of Patent Lights, send greeting.

page_text: Dynprovements in erforated metat Dheets and I tates.
In the construction of the rings upon the sheets and plates according
to one part of my Invention I make them with screw threads, as shewn
in the Drawings.
According to another part of my Invention I make them with a
bayonet slit to interlock the glass.
According to another method I make a seat for the glass on the top of
the ring, this flat seat being formed with interlocking slits.
By another method I make the top of the ring larger than the body,
so as to hold packing material for making a water-tight joint with the
glass.
According to another part of my Invention I form the sheets and
plates with diagonal flutes or beads between the apertures, on the under
face of the sheet, as it will be when forming a roof, the purpose of the
diagonal beads being to remove condensed moisture.
In carrying out the manufacture of the aforesaid sheets and plates a
part of my Invention consists in the use of metals and alloys that,
although made into sheets and plates by the process of casting, possess
the quality nevertheless of being bent, curved, and cut to some degree
like wrought metals because of their thinness and of the form and
arrangement of the apertures.
Figure 1, on Sheet 1 of my Drawings, represents one mode of forming
the sheets and plates in a monkey press by means of dies and stamping.
A, B, are the two halves of the die seen in cross section, the toothed line
at the center representing the projections of one fitting into the depres-
sions of the other to form rings or other shaped projections or depressions
on the sheet or plate; C, C, is the frame, and C¹, C', the foundation of
the press; D is the "monkey." The sheet or plate being introduced
between A and B one or more blows of the monkey D produces the
desired impression. The sheet, where larger than the dies, is then
slipped along, and the blows repeated, and so on until the work is done.
In this process I find it desirable to first cut away a portion of the metal
where the raised portion or countersink is to be made, as shewn in
Figure 2 at a, a, a, on the Sheet E, E, which in some measure prevents
the tendency of the metal to break during the stamping. The dotted
lines around the holes a, a, indicate the size the holes are to be when

page_text: the metal included within them is raised into standing rings, as shown
in Figure 3, where b, b, are the rings.
Figure 4 represents a sheet without rings, the holes being notched, as
seen at c, c, which notches serve to admit lugs on the bottom of the
glass suitably made for interlocking with the sheet.
'
Figure 5 represents a gore-shaped plate or sheet adapted to the con-
struction of domes and similar structures, the apertures a, a, a, growing
smaller towards the pointed part of the sheet.
Figure 6 represents a ring 6, 6, in full size, formed with a screw thread
on its interior to receive a glass F formed with a screw shank to enter it,
as shewn in Figure 7.
Figure 1, Sheet 2, represents a ring b, b, in full size formed without a
screw thread, the shank of the glass F being lapped with oakum or
equivalent material d, d, and forced into the ring as a cork is forced into
a bottle.
Figure 2 represents a ring formed with bayonet slits e, e, to interlock
with suitable glasses.
Figure 3 represents the ring b, b, on the under side of the sheet, and
formed with a flat seat f, f, notched like the apertures of the flat sheet,
Figure 4, Sheet 1, to receive interlocking glasses.
Figure 4 represents the ring b, b, with its upper edge 9, g, turned
over for the purpose of forming a groove around the ring to hold oakum
or its equivalent as a packing h, h, Figure 5, to bind the glass F, which
is cup shaped and large enough to enclose the ring. In some cases I
cut or otherwise form a screw thread upon the outside of the ring, the
cup-shaped glass in such case being formed to sorow down over it instead
of using packing.
Figure 6 represents the ring 6, 6, enclosed or surrounded by another
and larger one i, i, which may be soldered or otherwise attached to the
Sheet E, E, thus forming an annular channel for the rim of the cup-
shaped glass, where it may be securely held and made water-tight by
any suitable cement.
Figure 7 represents a ring b, b, with a flat seat on the top to give a
bearing for the glass, which may be cup shaped or otherwise formed;

page_text: Figure 8 represents the same with interlocking notches c, c, made in the
seat.
Figure 9 shews an easy method of forming a seat for the glass within
the ring b, b, which is effected by soldering or otherwise attaching a
washer j, j, to the under face of the Sheet E, E; or instead of washers a
perforated sheet, matching the main one, may be soldered or otherwise
fastened to its under face, producing the same result.
Figure 10 represents the method of stamping the sheet with openings
of irregular shape for ornamental windows and other uses, the sheet
becoming in effect a sash of great strength as compared with the lead
fillets used to connect the colored glasses of windows in church archi-
tecture.
In some other varieties the sheets and plates are made rigid and
ornamental by corrugating and cross corrugating the metal between the
apertures.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to
be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the construc-1
tion or production of perforated sheets and plates as a new manufacture
or merchantable commodity, substantially as and for the purposes herein
described and illustrated by my Drawings.
MIT A TATIa TTY