US322047A - Trimmer-arch - Google Patents

Description

v (No Model.)

W. S. EAMES.

TRIMMER ARCH. No. 322,047. Patented July 14, 1885.

N. PETERS, PhnlO-Lilhngmphor. Walkinglflm D. C.

' UNITE STATES PATENT OFFICE,

XVILLIAM S. EAMES, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

TRIMMER-ARCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 322,047, dated July 14, 1885.

' Application filed November 17, 1884. (No mode To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM S. EAMES, of the city of St. Louis, State of Missouri, have made a certain new and useful Improvement in the Construction and Manufacture of Trimmer-Arches, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the annexed drawings, in which Figure 1 is a vertical section through trimmer-arch at right angles with wall of building; Fig. 2, a perspective view of trimmerarch.

In the drawings, A is my trimmer-arch; X X, flanges of same; a, keys or interstices in bottom of same; B, wall of building; B, wall-proj ection; O G,headers supporting beams for joists and trimmer-arch; D, projection or hearing 011 headers; E, hearth-slab; F, fireplace; G, flooring; H, laths, and I plastering.

In the construction of buildings it has become necessary to construct the floorings about the hearths in a fire-proof manner, and on that account the joists to which the wooden fioorings and laths are attached are not allowed to be brought near the chimneys. For this reason, in the construction of buildings with fireplaces, it has heretofore been the custom to form the hearth-bed, or that part immediately in front and about thefire-place, in the following manner: At a suitable distance from the fire-place, say two or three feet, crossbeams called headers are placed, these beams or headers being attached in any suitable manner to joists running into wall of building on either side of fire-p1ace at right angles with headers. A vertical section of these cross-beams or headers is shown'at O 0, Fig. 1. These headers act as supports or end bearings for joists,which would otherwise find support in wall of building immediately under fire-place. What is known as trimmerarch, or the continuation of flooring immediately in front of fire-place, was made by erecting an arched temporary frame-work of wood between headers and main wall, and then building a brick arch over this temporary wooden one, and, when mortar and bricks had set, to remove temporary wooden arch, leaving a frame-work formed by a brick arch, and this frame-work was built upon from above and below with mortar and cement until an even surface above for hearth-slab and below for plaster was formed. This well-known peculiar method of constructing a fire-proof bed in front of the fire-place has given it the name in architecture of trimmer-arch.

The disadvantages of constructing a trimmer arch in this manner hereinbefore described are: In house-building the services of a. special skilled mechanic are required to construct the arch of brick from headers to main wall, and after arch has set it is necessary to fill in span made by arch from above and below, so as to make an even surface to receive hearth-slab from above, and an even surface from below to receive laths and plaster. All this involves time in construction, skilled labor in erecting brick arch, and labor in building on arch from above and below. To avoid all these difficulties is the purpose of my invention.

I construct what corresponds to that important part in housebuilding known as trimmer-arch in one or more sections, the sections being of such configuration with reference to rest of building that they will fit into parts of building prepared for their reception, and once fitted in position these sections will be ready for the reception of hearthslab, when desirable, from above, and plastering, when desirable, from below.

I construct my trimmer-arch of a section, A, made of any suitable fire-proof material, for economy of material preferably leaving a hollow space in its center. I provide shoulders or flanges X X at either of the section A, preferably extending these shoulders along the entire length of the section, as shown at Fig. 2. I provide the bottom of the section with a series of interstices or keys, a, to form a grip for the plastering on the ceiling of a lower floor.

The lodgment of my trimmer and section I effect as follows: To the header cross-timbers O O, I attach a projection or a series of projections, but preferably a continuous projection in the shape of a horizontal beam, D. (See Fig. 1.) Ialso providea continuous projection or a number of projections from main wall B, preferably by allowing bricks to project, forming a ledge, as shown at B, Fig. 1. The trimmer-arch piece A is then placed in IOC space between headers O G and wall B, resting securely in that position, with its shoulders X X resting upon projections D and B. All the labor necessary to be done is to place the trimmer-arch piece A, and once in place it is ready to receive hearth-slab E and plas terl, if desirable, as shown in Fig. 1.

This trimmer-arch can be made of one section like section A of drawings, or of more than one section like section A.

I am aware that hollow tile are not new as used for architectural purposes; and I am also aware that it is not new to use hollow tile in connection with metal girders in the construction of ceilings of fire-proof buildings, and I do not desire to claim the same, as my invention relates to the construction of trimmer-arches situate adjacent to the fire-place of buildings not necessarily otherwise fircproof, and is an improvement on the expensive and troublesome method of construction now generally employed.

I elain1 In a trimmer-arch, the combination of one or more hollow sections, A, formed of fire-proof 2 5

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