The tiles may be molded upon the gratings, or made separately and attached
to them in manner as represented. The construction may also be such as to
conceal the rafters, the tiles overlying them. These tiles may also be made
of baked clay; and the hereinabove-described manner of constructing roofs
constitutes a part of my invention.
Fig. 12 represents substantially the same construction
applied to walls where the light iron T-posts
do the work of the roof-rafters, the spaces between them being closed
substantially in the manner already described with respect to roofs. A
number of these T-posts being established
at convenient distances apart upon the foundation of the house, concrete beams
are laid upon them and a concrete floor supported upon such beams. The
bays or spaces between the piers or posts will be light or dark, according
as the gratings forming the weather-surface are blocked with glass or with
opaque material.
Another part of my invention consists in applying
the spider-web gratings as movable portions of weather and walking surfaces.
Thus far I have represented them as fixtures, being very much lighter than
the ordinary cast-iron gratings, and tougher, and hence not easily broken.
They make excellent flap-doors for roofs and walking-surfaces, and I apply
them for these purposes by the usual mechanical adaptations, which it is
not necessary to here illustrate, the matter being readily comprehended by
any one skilled in the art of building. Where light is not required in
these and the aforementioned constructions, I sometimes, for the sake of
lightness, close the gratings with papier-maché. In other cases,
where glasses are employed, I coat the frame-work or grating of metal with
papier-maché, setting the glasses directly in the same.
Another part of my invention consists in setting
the spider-web gratings with thick plates of polished glass, to render the
same transparent as well as translucent in forming permanent or fixed as
well as movable weather-surfaces, such as windows, the same being, to a
degree, burglar-proof as well as fire-proof.
Stone or cement gratings.-- Another part of
my invention consists in combinations of glass with hydraulic cements,
particularly the magnesian, molded either directly upon the glasses or
molded separately in the form of stone gratings or perforated stone plates.
These stone gratings may be made of sizes small or large, according to the
strength of the materials employed, magnesian cement being stronger than
Portland.
Fig. 13 represents a stone grating ten inches in
diameter and one inch and a half thick, the apertures being closed by
glass. A part of this invention consists in forming the light holes with
splayed or flaring under faces to spread the light, the glasses being
designedly placed at considerable distances from one another, for the
purpose of producing
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an ornamental or safe walking foot-surface at top. Another part of this
part of my invention consists in molding the aforesaid stone lights or
stone gratings in colors, and combining the same by means of a
foundation-grating of metal to form weather and walking surfaces, each
stone grating or stone mount being cemented to the metal grating the same
as glasses are secured in the seats or apertures thereof.
Fig. 11 represents a single glass in a cement
mount, and Fig. 15 represents a grating set with such mounted glasses.
By these two modes of combination-- viz., glasses
in clusters, as in Fig. 13, and single glasses, as in Fig. 14-- and their
combination with metallic gratings, concrete or artificial-stone
safe-walking illuminating-surfaces of any size and to any extent may be
made; and by forming these mounts and stone gratings in colors, or with
colored wearing-faces, and in geometrical or design shapes, like Minton
pavement-tiles, and combining them with each other, I make walking and
weather and other surfaces of great utility and beauty, a part of my
invention consisting in making the aforesaid stone gratings and mounts of
Portland or equivalent hydraulic cement, combined with a wearing-surface
of the Sorel or magnesian cement, the Portland cement or concrete being
first tamped around the glass or glasses in the mold to the required depth,
and then the Sorel being put upon it and well tamped down, the two cements
adhering perfectly and making a perfect bond.
As one variety of manufacture, I make the aforesaid
stone gratings and mounts with a party-colored or variegated face by
peculiar means, which means also forms a part of my invention.
Ordinary seagliola is made from materials not well
adapted to bear exposure to the weather, and particularly not adapted
for being walked upon.
Now, my invention consists in making a new kind of
seagliola, capable of withstanding weather and wear, and useful for all the
purposes to which the common material and similar imitations of variegated
marbles are supplied, (a special patent for which and its applications I
propose hereafter to apply for.) This new material I make as follows: I
first make cakes or tablets of hydraulic cements in colors, making use of
the magnesian, especially and principally because of its pure white character,
as a base for mixing with suitable pigments, or with pulverized and
suitably-prepared colored marbles and other stones and materials. Having
in this way formed my design colors, on the cakes becoming sufficiently
hard and friable, I proceed to reduce them to fragments of irregular shapes
and of various dimensions. These fragments I now employ, in combination with
hydraulic cement as a binder, to form the new scagliola, working, forming,
casting, and molding the same into
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