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238,797 · McLean · "Glass Building-Block and Building" · Page 2 Home  > Prism Glass  > Patent Index  > Page 2

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their proximate faces. To make the blocks rough on said faces would be the equivalent of said grooves, as would also forming the blocks with projections to enter grooves of adjacent blocks.     The essential features of my invention being the use of glass as a material forming the body of the structure or substructure of a building, I do not restrict myself to any particular size, form, or mode of making the blocks. The material, being adapted to be molded into any desired shape, may be used for all parts of building-walls. It may also be made either opaque, transparent, or simply translucent, and it may also be given any desired color.     While it is not intended to wholly dispense with the ordinary form of glass windows in buildings of glass, it will in many cases, as in factories, be of obvious advantage to have the walls themselves translucent. The effect of such provision will be the diffusion of a uniform light throughout the interior, by which far more space will be available for use than if windows alone be relied upon for light. By the use of selected colors, moreover, specially desired qualities in the light may also be obtained, with reference either to a particular work to be done, as in factories, or to a particular sanitary or æsthetic effect sought, as in hospitals and dwellings.     In the use of glass for building-walls lath and plaster may be wholly dispensed with, and the interior surface of the walls may be given any required color, while preserving its translucency, if desired, by means of certain pigments mixed with the substance of the blocks; or, if preferred, paint or other finish may be interiorly applied to the wall-surface.     While a glass house would, in the nature of the case, be substantially fire-proof,in some situations it might be necessary, at the expense of translucency, to protect the building against injury from fire in the immediate vicinity. In such case an outer wall or veneer of brick or marble may be combined with the glass to afford the required protection; or substances may be employed in the glass that will render the same refractory to heat.     I am, of course, well aware that glass plates supported by iron and other frame-work have been used to cover a principal part of the area of building-walls; but such plates are simply enlarged windows, and have practically nothing to do with the strength of the structure.

My invention differs from such use of glass in that the blocks in said invention constitute the walls themselves, taking the place of the frame-work, and not simply or necessarily at all the place of the windows.     I am also aware that glass has been employed as an outer facing for buildings, in connection with ordinary building materials, such as brick and stone; and, still further, that hollow columns and inner and outer facings of glass have been used in connection with a filling of cement. These applications of glass do not fall within or answer the purposes of my invention, since the brick, stone, cement, &c., serve to transmit moisture, and, moreover, since these substances constitute, practically, the body of the structure. In such use of glass with other materials, also, the special effects of translucency, transparency, and special coloring of the material which I have pointed out are prevented.     Having thus described my invention, I claim--     1. As a new article of manufacture, a building-block made of glass, of any suitable or desirable form, and of such dimensions as will form the entire wall or thickness of the wall of a building when placed therein in the ordinary manner, substantially as described, and for the purposes set forth.     2. A building the walls of which are constructed of blocks of glass molded in suitable form for the purpose, so constructed and applied in the wall, as described, as to intercept or prevent the upward passage of moisture from the earth in such wall.     3. In a building-wall, one or more courses of glass blocks occupying the entire thickness of the wall, so as to intercept or prevent the upward passage of moisture from the earth in such wall.     4. A building-wall constructed from blocks of glass molded in suitable form for the purpose, and so applied as to permit the passage of white or colored light through the same to the interior of the structure, as well as to form, a strengthening and supporting part of the edifice, substantially as described.     In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses. C. W. MCLEAN. Witnesses:     M. E. DAYTON,     JESSE COX, Jr.