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243,266 · Hyatt · "Concreted Illuminating-Grating" · Page 3 Home  > Prism Glass  > Patent Index  > Page 3

243,266: 3 of 3

I prevent the heat of the concrete from injuring the glasses by means of removable rings, with which I belt each glass before applying the plastic concrete around them, the rings being withdrawn at the earliest moment after the setting of the plastic mass. To facilitate the withdrawal of the rings, which may be made of metal or any suitable material and of about one-eighth of an inch in thickness, they should be tapering, the glasses being shaped to match. By the withdrawal of the rings a cooling-channel is left about each glass, which preserves it from injury until the concrete becomes cold. The channel is to be then made good by cement or grout.     According to another part of my invention having reference to the manufacture of "lead-band lights" or illuminating-gratings, the glasses of which are first belted with lead, my improvement consists in cheapening the same by a new method of confining the lead-belted glasses to their seats in the grating. By the common mode of manufacture the apertures of the grating are first smeared with white lead in the form of a thick paste. The belted glasses are then inserted and driven home by means of a hammer and wooden plug, the end of which is made to fit upon the glass. After this iron "sets" are employed for calking the seam between lead and iron, the whole process being tedious and expensive, and when finished so much uncertainty exists as to the water-tight character of the joints around the glasses that it is necessary to place every tile bottom-side upward and fill the apertures over the glasses with water to test the joints. This consumes many hours. Moreover, the holes of the grating vary so much in size that as many as five or six different sizes of lead bands are required to fit them, coupled with the labor and time necessary to fit them before proceeding with the work of setting them in the grating. All this adds so largely to the cost of this kind of light that they have measurably gone out of use, although the most durable light ever manufactured. By my improved method but one size of lead band is required, this being small enough to suit the smallest hole in the grating. The glasses are of the usual shape and belted with lead in the usual way. They are then placed in the grating as naked glasses are placed, and cement-- preferably hydraulic cement-- is put about them in the way of setting naked glasses. I should here remark that the process of belting the glasses with molten lead is really a method of toughening the glasses, and in this lies the value of the lead-band light. In combining the lead-belted glasses with concreted gratings, instead of placing them in position upon the metal plate or floor and surrounding them with plastic concrete, I first manufacture concreted gratings with open holes, according to my patent No. 236,817, dated January, 1881, and then set the lead-belted glasses in the open holes of the concrete and cement them. therein, as I would naked glasses, by this

method obtaining all the value of the glasses toughened by the lead-belting process, together with the advantages of the concrete-surface grating.     Another part of my invention, having reference to the construction of illuminating-grating roofs, consists in making them of open gratings or perforated metal plates made completely fire-proof by an incasement, or partially so, by an overlayer of hydraulic cement, concrete, or equivalent fire-resisting material, the apertures of the gratings or perforated plates not being closed by glass in the usual manner of making illuminating-grating roofs, but left open, and yet protected against the weather by an outside covering of glass of any desired cheapness or thickness, the same being glazed in removable sashes made to be opened for ventilating or glazed in sashes fixed and permanent where ventilation is not required. I construct these roofs in the ordinary way of making illuminating-roofs.     The mechanical construction of illuminating-grating roofs and movable sashes being well understood, and forming no part of this invention, is not necessary to be described.     Having thus fully set forth the nature and scope of my invention in its various parts and applications, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is--     1. Concreted illuminating-gratings or perforated metal plates made by combining with the same while the concrete is yet plastic glasses that have been toughened by the process of La Bastie, or by analogous process, or that have been annealed by the plate-glass method of hermetically-sealed ovens, or that have been got out of the plate-glass itself, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.     2. Concreted illuminating-gratings or perforated metal plates made by combining with the same while the concrete is yet plastic glasses of such form or glasses so conditioned or protected as to prevent the generated heat of the plastic concrete from injuring the glasses during the setting and hardening of the concrete, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.     3. Combining lead-belted glasses with naked metal gratings or perforated plates, or with concreted metal gratings or perforated plates, by means of hydraulic cement or equivalent cementing material, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.     4. Illuminating-roofs constructed of gratings or perforated metal plates inclosed by or overlaid with fireproofing material, in combination with apertures not closed with glasses, but left open for ventilation, or otherwise, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth. THADDEUS HYATT. Witnesses:     W. H. RUFF,     LEIGH ROBINSON.