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272,551 · Hyatt · "Illuminating Vault-Cover or Grating-Tile and Surfaces Made of the Same" · Page 1 Home  > Prism Glass  > Patent Index  > Page 1

272,551: 1 of 6

Patents: 145 of 530	UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE THADDEUS HYATT, OF NEW YORK, N.Y.	Thaddeus Hyatt 50 of 67
ILLUMINATING VAULT-COVER OR GRATING-TILE AND SURFACES MADE OF THE SAME. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 272,551, dated February 20, 1883. Application filed January 25, 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 them, of which the following is a specification.     The grating-tiles set with glass that compose the illuminating-surfaces in universal use in the patent light industry of the country are made of cast-iron, and where the construction is an "elevator-door," the weight of the doors and their liability to break is a serious objection to their use, while in constructing illuminating top roofs and principal story "rear-extension roofs," the great weight of the cast-iron is also objectionable. The illuminating-roofs made by me of sheet metal to avoid the weight of cast-iron, produced condensed moisture in winter on the under side of the roof, that required a lining of wood or felt on the under face of the roof, adding largely to the expense of the construction; or a weather coating of concrete or Portland cement, which, besides the added expense, also increased the weight of the roof. To overcome these difficulties by the use of wood or some substitute for wood-- weather-proof, water-proof, fire-proof, and cheap-- has been the object of my constant study during the thirty-eight years that my invention has been in use, wood being comparatively unaffected by changes in the weather, neither contracting nor expanding in comparison with metal when chemically treated and in perfect state to resist decay; but the grain of natural wood and the expense of reducing it to the grating form has been always the practical obstruction to its use. My early (1845) illuminating-gratings made of lignum vitæ were too costly for general use.     My present invention consists in the employment of "paper-board" gratings and setting the same with glass, the paper-board being a substitute for wood for building purposes.     My invention is not based on any special manufacture of paper-board. The sort preferred by me is set forth in the several patents granted to Silas H. Hamilton, and numbered 269,815, 269,816, 269,817, and 269,785,

all of December 26, 1882; but I propose to make use of any fibered material composed of woody or vegetable fibers matted, agglutinated, consolidated, or mechanically or chemically held together, or by means, partly chemical and partly mechanical, made to assume a board-like form and consistency capable of being applied like boards, and yet capable from its first pulpy condition of being molded, and by molding and pressure, being brought into the grating the form required for being set with glasses, substantially after the manner in which patent lightwork is now executed. The process described in Patent No. 256,872, 1882, granted to Francis Bodine for a "method of treating pulp and the resultant material" may be employed. So, also, the "treating paper-stock," method set forth in Patent No. 207,492, 1882, granted to Henry Carmichael; or any other method or process, whereby gratings fit to be combined with glasses for illuminating purposes may be obtained from vegetable or woody fibers, the object of my invention being to make illuminating-surfaces from substances substantially the same as wood without its grain, a material homogeneous, unaffected by water or dampness, measurably fire-proof, possessing rigidity and durability, with the quality of resisting abrasive wear, and without being liable to change, either from variations in the temperature of the atmosphere or from vibrations and concussions-- qualities to be found only in wood made by artificial means by a process or processes like the ones herein alluded to or substantially of the same character. The artificially-produced woods thus made I propose to employ in all the shapes and ways in which I have hitherto employed metal, whether cast or wrought, in making both flat and curved surfaces, the curved as domes and arches.     For the ornamental illuminating-floors heretofore constructed by me of marbleized iron I now propose to use marbleized paper-board, and for the corrugated sheet metal hitherto employed by me in constructing illuminating top and rear extension roofs I now propose to employ paper-boards corrugated in the form of shingles or tiles, or otherwise, the foundation-frames and the roof-rafters being also in some cases made of artificial wood in any of the shapes