Up: Patent Index

272,383 · Hyatt · "Illuminating Vault-Cover or Grating-Tile and Surfaces Made of the Same" · Page 1 Home  > Prism Glass  > Patent Index  > Page 1

272,383: 1 of 13

Patents: 144 of 530	UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE THADDEUS HYATT, OF NEW YORK, N.Y. ILLUMINATING VAULT-COVER OR GRATING-TILE AND SURFACES MADE OF THE SAME.	Thaddeus Hyatt 49 of 67
SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 272,383, dated February 13, 1883. Application filed January 22, 1883. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:     Be it known that I, THADDEUS HYATT, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Illuminating Vault-Covers or Grating-Tiles and Surfaces Made of the same, of which the following is a specification.     Vault-covers or grating-tiles set with glasses to give light are manufactured under various modifications having relation to modes of fixing the glasses in the gratings and to forming a safe foot-surface between the glasses, and are known to the trade by the name of "knob-lights," "cement lights," "lead-band lights," and "concrete lights," the knob, cement, and lead band being naked metal, and the concrete being covered metal, these variations, however, making no alteration in the functions of the cover or grating, all still remaining "illuminating-gratings," the combination of a number of such gratings into a large surface also working no change of function, the increased surface being practically only a large vault-cover or grating-tile made up of small pieces for convenience of construction or because of practical difficulties in the way of producing so large a grating by one single casting. The glasses of the naked metal covers or gratings and surfaces made of them have proved universally good after thirty years of constant use, while the glasses of the covered metal or concrete lights have proved universally bad after but few years of use; but the joints between the covers or grating-tiles, where such tiles are combined to produce enlarged surfaces, have been always defective to some degree whether such surfaces are made of naked or of covered metal gratings, and the junction edges of the tiles at such joints have been always defective whether such surfaces are made of naked metal or of concrete gratings, the defects being leakage, loss of light, and architectural disfigurement.     My invention as to the vault-cover or grating-tile relates only to the kind called "concrete lights," or where hydraulic cement is employed to fix the glasses; but as to the surfaces made by combining a number of covers or tiles, my

invention relates to them whether made of naked or of covered metal gratings.     The object of my improvement in concrete lights and in gratings where the glasses are fixed by means of hydraulic cement is to make the glasses of such lights as durable as the glasses of cement and lead-band lights; and the object of my invention, with respect to the construction of enlarged surfaces made by combining a number of vault-covers or grating-tiles set with glass, is to prevent leakage at the joints between the tiles, prevent loss of light at the junction edges or borders of the tiles, and secure a uniformly-distributed light-surface, without apparent seam or break over the whole face of the work. I attain these objects by the improved modes of construction illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which--     Figure 1 represents an illuminating-surface composed of three knob-tiles in combination with a foundation-frame. Fig. 2 represents in full size a portion of two tiles meeting at their junction edges. Fig. 3 represents a cross-section of Fig. 2 on the line x x. Fig. 4 represents a top view, Fig. 5 a side view, and Fig. 6 an end view, of one of the cross-bars of a foundation-frame. Fig. 7 represents my improved foundation-frame. Fig. 8 represents an improved foundation-frame set with tiles. Fig. 9 represents an improved foundation-frame set with tiles when finished with a concrete face. Figs. 10, 10a, 10b, and 10c represent my improved process of manufacturing concrete lights to secure durable glasses. Fig. 11 represents a modification of my improved process of manufacturing concrete lights to secure durable glasses. Fig. 12 represents a modification of Fig. 11. Fig. 13 represents another modification of Fig. 11. Fig. 14 represents a stone-light or concrete grating formed with rabbeted seats for glasses and made of concrete and tie metals or core metal. Fig. 15 represents a cast-iron grating combined with glasses got out of plate-glass, fixed in the grating by means of Portland or hydraulic cement and set from the under side of the grating. Fig. 16 represents a glass inclosed in a mount of coal-tar-sulphur cement. The upper half of