IMPROVEMENTS IN IRON SHEDS FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE AND APPLICABLE OTHERWISE
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Andrew Ramsay Main, of Glasgow, in
the County of Lanark, North Britain, Iron Fence Manufacturer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN IRON SHEDS FOR AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCE AND APPLICABLE OTHERWISE."
Scaled the 27th April 1869, and dated the 3rd November 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Andrew Ramsay
Main at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 3rd November 1868.
I, JAMES ANDREW RAMSAY MAIN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Iron Fence Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN IRON SHEDS FOR AGRICULTURAL
PRODUCE AND APPLICABLE OTHERWISE," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object to provide at a low cost a con-
venient and adjustable covering for agricultural produce when stored in
stacks or otherwise, and which may be used for other purposes.
And the Invention consists in arranging a light roofing of corrugated

page_text: or other suitable sheet iron so that it can be adjusted at various heights
to suit the quantity of produce stacked or placed under it by suspending
it by chains passing over pulleys on the tops of light cast-iron pillars to
counterweights. The sheds thus constructed may be of any convenient
form in plan, a rectangular shape being that preferred, as with it a
number of separate sheds may be conveniently arranged together.
When two or more such sheds are combined together a single pillar may
be used for supporting each pair of adjacent corners of the covers or
roofs, such pillar being in that case provided with two pulleys for the
two suspending chains.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Andrew Ramsay Main in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 1st May 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
ANDREW RAMSAY MAIN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Fence Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Andrew Ramsay Main, Her
special licence that I, the said James Andrew Ramsay Main, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Andrew Ramsay Main, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN IRON SHEDS FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE AND APPLICABLE
OTHERWISE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James
Andrew Ramsay Main, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same

page_text: to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
こ
:
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Andrew Ramsay Main,
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement in writing, reference being had
to the accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention has for its object to provide at a low cost a con-
venient and adjustable covering for agricultural produce when stored
in stacks or otherwise, and which may be used for other purposes.
And my Invention consists in arranging a light roofing of corrugated.
or other suitable sheet iron, so that is can be adjusted at various heights
to suit the quantity of produce stacked or placed under it.
And in order that my Invention and the manner of performing the
same may be properly understood I have hereunto appended a Sheet
of explanatory Drawings, to be herein-after referred to and showing the
mode in which I prefer to carry out the improvements.
Figure 1 on the Sheet of Drawings is an end elevation of a single
iron shed; Figure 2 is a plan showing four rectangular sheds combined,
and Figure 3 is an elevation of suspending details used at the adjacent
corners of a pair of roofs:
In the modifications shown in the Drawings each roof or shed cover 1
consists of an iron framing of angle iron or T iron and tie rods, and
covered with corrugated sheet iron, which is by preference galvanised,
and it is curved in transverse vertical section and rectangular in plan..
It may however if desired be ridged in transverse vertical section, and
it may be round or of any other convenient form in plan; the rectangular
form, however, is preferable, as it admits of a number of roofs being
arranged together more conveniently and at less expence. The roof 1.
is supported by means of chains 2 attached at each corner and passed
over pulleys 3 to counterweights, the pulleys being carried in frames or
brackets 4 fixed on the top of light cast-iron pillars 5. The chain 2 is
continued down on the inner side of the pillar for pulling and holding
down the roof by and for fixing it at any required height. Guide
eyes 6 are fixed to the roof at the corners, and guide. rods 7 are passed

page_text: through them and fixed to the pillar for the purpose of guiding and
steadying the roof in different positions. Or the roof may be steadied
and guided by wheels adapted to it at the corners and running in a
groove formed in the pillar. Where more convenient wooden pillars
may be substituted for the cast-iron ones, and in many cases it may be
convenient to fix at least some of the pulley frames on stone or brick
walls. Where two roofs are placed near together six pillars only will
be required instead of eight, as double pulley frames like the one 8,
shown in Figure 3, may be fixed on single pillars between the pairs of
adjacent corners. In a similar way pulley frames for four pulleys may
be fixed on a single pillar for the four adjacent corners in the centre of
a set of four roofs, as shown at 9, in Figure 2; this also admits of
suitable spaces between the stacks for ventilation and for adjusting the
various roofs. If desired ordinary iron guttering may be attached to the
roofs 1 to carry off rain, and may have connected with it a vertical
descending pipe made in short lengths connected by chains, so that
lengths may be added or removed accordingly as the roof is raised or
lowered. Instead of suspending and adjusting the iron roof by means
of pillars and chains it may be arranged to rest on the top of the stack
at whatever height that may be, and it may be raised and lowered by
means of a crane or block and tackle, or it may be put together upon
the stack itself. For the latter purpose the simple and convenient
construction herein-after described or any other suitable one may be
adopted. The parts to be used in the construction referred to comprise
a ridge bar of angle iron or T iron, or a casting made for the purpose, to
which double straps of bar iron are attached at right angles and at suitable
distances apart, and sheets of plain galvanised iron previously cut to
suitable sizes are inserted between the straps, and are fixed by forcing
the straps together with screw bolts. For a circular stack a central
plate or cup must be substituted for the ridge bar, and the double straps
will radiate from it, the sheets being of course cut to fit the gore-shaped
spaces between the straps.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I have to state that I do
not restrict myself to the precise details herein described or delineated;
but that what I believe to be novel and original and claim as the Invention
secured to me by the hercin-before in part recited Letters Patent is,
the application of movable iron roofs, substantially such as are herein-

page_text: before described for covering agricultural produce and to serve as sheds
for other purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Andrew Ramsay Main, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of April, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JAMES A. R. MAIN. (L.S.).