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272,383 · Hyatt · "Illuminating Vault-Cover or Grating-Tile and Surfaces Made of the Same" · Page 4 Home  > Prism Glass  > Patent Index  > Page 4

272,383: 4 of 13

represented by Figs. 12 and 13 are designed for such a purpose, I cast the concrete with a sunk surface, d, as represented in Fig. 13, the concrete around the light-holes being then in the form of rings r, like the cast-metal rings r', that produce the sunk surface d, as represented in Fig. 11, my improvement here consisting in forming the face of a stone grating, or concrete-faced iron grating, with concrete rings r around the light-holes to form rabbeted seats for the glasses and a sunk surface, d, between the glasses.     Fig. 15 represents a method of making illuminating-vault covers or grating-tiles with durable glasses, notwithstanding the employment of concrete or Portland cement put directly in contact with the glasses. To attain this object I employ glasses got out of plate-glass-- a kind of glass so well annealed as to be capable of withstanding the destructive effects of the wet concrete during its process of hardening. My improvement represented by Fig. 15 consists in a method of concealing the ragged edges of the cut glass, so as to make such gratings acceptable to public taste, the invention consisting in the covered joint-knobs or flat rings q q, that stand like either rings of buttons or flat rings above the face of the tile or cover, whether such face be concrete or whether it be iron. Fig. 15 represents a cast-iron cover or grating-tile cast with light-holes that receive the glasses from the under side of the casting, the sunk surface d of the plate to receive concrete being formed by the standing rings of metal r' r', cast around the light-holes to form receptacles for the glasses, q q being at the top of such rings and sufficiently overlapping the ragged edges of the glasses as to hide their defects. The glasses rest upon nothing, the "side adhesion," or adherence of the hydraulic cement or concrete to the sides of the glass and the sides of the iron, producing a "bond" equal to that of brick bonded by mortar to brick, and maintaining the glass so firmly in place as to defy anything but absolute violence, and then the glass would break before leaving its place. Where I make such covers or tiles with concrete face the sunk surface d is made on the under side of the plate.     Fig. 16 represents a glass surrounded with a mount made of coal-tar-sulphur cement, the upper half of which I sometimes make of brimstone. When the mounts are bituminous and formed in the manner of belting with lead I line the mold with paper to prevent the cement from sticking to the sides of the mold. This paper may be afterward removed from the mount by wetting it.     Figs. 1 and 8 represent my improvement in the borders of naked-metal illuminating-surfaces and in concrete illuminating-surfaces, the improvement consisting in forming a tessellated in place of the ordinary checkered iron borders in common use, the addition of such a border to a monomorphous illuminating-surface adding to the architecture of the building

a valuable feature as to ornament and finish. Where a foundation-frame is employed I recess the border of the frame and inlay it with colored tiles to form the tessellation, this mode of forming the foundation-frame with an inlaid border constituting a part of my invention. Fig. 9 represents a concrete border made by recessing the border of the foundation-frame and inlaying it with concrete, this also constituting a part of my invention.     In constructing illuminating-roofs where no foundation-frame is employed, as in the case of rear-extension roofs to the ground floor or principal story of the building, and which, in general, are of curved form, my improvement, as represented by Fig. 7, consists in making cast-iron rafters in duplex or X form, the joining together of such X-rafters producing the same shaped spaces and the same sort of support to the tiles as where they form a part of the foundation-frame, as represented by B', Fig. 7. Where the roof is curved I cast the X-rafters curved.     In the construction of "stone lights," as represented by Fig. 14, in place of "tie metal" made of wrought-iron to give tensile strength, I sometimes employ cast-iron as a strengthening-core, where square glasses are used the metal core consisting of cross-bars, like a sash; but where circular glasses are used the frame or core consists of a collection of separate circular rings held to each other by bands, the distance of the rings from each other being determined by the width of the concrete between the glasses, the circular cast-iron rings being nearly at the center between the glasses, the concrete inclosing the metal completely, as represented in Fig. 14; or the rings may form the actual rabbeted seats for the glasses, in which case the distance between such rings will be as represented in Figs. 10c and 11, where the concrete not only forms the face of the cover between the glasses at top, but also extends downward between and sometimes under the rings, and thus forms a substantial portion of the body of the grating, as shown in Fig. 14, the cast-iron becoming, in fact, core metal.     Fig. 16, as I have already observed, is designed to represent a glass inclosed in a mount that may be composed wholly of coal-tar-sulphur cement, or of coal-tar-sulphur cement in part, with part brimstone, or that may be wholly made of brimstone-- the coal-tar-sulphur cement being yielding and elastic, the brimstone mount unyielding and non-elastic. When I employ glasses set in coal-tar-sulphur mounts I combine them by preference with molded and hardened concrete gratings; but they may be safely combined with plastic concrete, which also I propose to do; and when I employ glasses set in brimstone mounts I usually combine them with molded and hardened concrete gratings, but propose to also employ them in making concrete lights by the ordinary wet or plastic process.     Fig. 17 represents a glass inclosed in a brimstone