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Patents: 137 of 530	UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JOSHUA K. INGALLS, OF GLENORA, NEW YORK. ILLUMINATING-TILE.
SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 261,720, dated July 25, 1882. Application filed April 28, 1882. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:     Be it known that I, JOSHUA K. INGALLS, of Glenora, in the county of Yates and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in Illuminating-Tiles, of which the following is a specification.     My invention relates to illuminating plates or tiles for sidewalks, vaults, areas, and other uses; and its object is to cheapen and simplify their construction and improve their appearance.     In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan of a portion of a sidewalk laid with knob-tiles constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary cross-section thereof, cut along the line 2 2 in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a similar section, cut on the line 3 3 in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a sectional elevation of Fig. 1, cut along the line 4 4. Fig. 5 is a cross-section of a step constructed on the same principle. Fig. 6 is a view corresponding to Fig. 2, and showing modification. Fig. 7 is a plan view similar to Fig. 1 of a portion of a concrete tile constructed according to my invention. Fig. 8 is a plan, on a larger scale, of another form of concrete tile; and Fig. 9 is a cross-section of Fig. 8, cut on the line 9 9.     Illuminating-tiles as now usually laid are set in a cast-iron frame fitted into the sidewalk or into the space or opening between the sidewalk and the building, and divided by cross-bars into panels or openings, into each of which one of the tiles or illuminating-plates is set and the joint around its edge made tight with cement. The frame has to be made especially to fit the place which it is to occupy. Its setting is a matter of considerable difficulty and expense, and the joints between it and the tile are difficult to pack and continually liable to leak. Furthermore, the separate tiles, being isolated from each other by the intervening cross-bars of the frame, present a paneled or interrupted appearance. The diagonal lines presented by the lenses when viewed diagonally terminate at the edge of each tile, and are not taken up and continued by the next tile, but are there commenced anew from points intermediate of the lines on the first tile, thereby breaking up that harmonious continuity of surface and design which the eye naturally seeks.

The object of my invention is to overcome these defects of the present method of laying the tiles. To this end I dispense with the frame and lay the tiles directly in the space or opening to be covered over, making them large enough, when joined together, to fill that space, arranging them close together, edge to edge, and supporting them at intervals by cross-beams extending beneath the joints or seams formed by their meeting edges. Over these joints real or simulated lenses are placed, and the diagonal lines or rows of lenses continue across the joints without interruption. When a margin or border is desired to intervene between the illuminating portion of the plate and the edge of the opening in the sidewalk or other structure, the usual checkered or otherwise ornamented non-slipping border is cast on the edges of the tiles or on separate plates fastened into recesses therein, and the transverse joints are concealed by the formation at intervals of deep cross-grooves parallel with and simulating them.     An attempt has been made to obviate the disadvantage of the paneled appearance above referred to in a concrete tile by having adjoining sections meet over the cross-bar of the frame, arranging the border-rims back from the edges and far enough apart to receive a row of lenses between them, setting such lenses, and filling concrete around them; but this construction does not avoid the necessity of making a large frame to fit the opening to be covered, and in it the blind lenses over the seam are not confined in sockets, and hence are almost certain to become misplaced while running in the concrete, and it is entirely inapplicable to knob-tiles.     My invention is especially designed to render knob-tiles susceptible of being laid with an apparently continuous or uninterrupted illuminating-surface, but is also in part applicable to concrete tiles, applied to which it constitutes an improvement on the tile above described.     In Figs. 1 to 4 is shown a tile of the character known as the "elongated-knob" tile, consisting of a cast-iron plate having knobs formed to project from its upper surface between every two lens-sockets, to form an anti-slipping foothold. I show this form of plate because