US42692A - Improvement in corrugated beams - Google Patents

Description

UNITEn STATES PATENT Graine.

SAMUEL J. SEELY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN CORRUGATED BEAMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 42,692, dated May 10, i864.

To all whom it may concern Bc it known that I, SAMUEL J. SEELY, of the city and county and State ot New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Corrugated Beams; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making part of this speeilication, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon.

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of the truss-beam resting on columnar supports. Fig. 2 represents alhorizontal section through the same, midway between the top and bottom lines of the truss. Fig. 3 represents a cross-section of the same, enlarged.

The nature of my invention consists in the formation of a truss-beam by the combination of two or more sheets of corrugated iron, having corrugations diagonal to the line of the chord, so attached together that the line of corrugation of each shall be at right angles, or nearly so, to the other and connected with a chord or tie of wrought-iron or other suitable metallic substance.

To enable others skilled in the art to which my invention appertains to make and use the same, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

I take two sheets or plates of wrought or malleable iron,A A', or other similar metallic substance, having corrugations running across them in a diagonal direction at a quarter or less inclination with the horizon according to circumstances. The length of these sheets is the length of the trussbeam, and the width the height, or nearly so, of the truss-beam. I take two pieces of T-iron, B B, the length of the intended beam, and place one in the position B, and place the other in the position B. The horizontal surface ot' one constitutes the bottom oi the beam, and the horizontal surface of the other constitutes the top of the beam. The interval between the extremities of the upright portions ofthe angle-iron is filled by a strip of wrought or malleable iron, or other suitable metallic substance of the same thickness as that ot' the uprights of the angle-iron. The corrugated plates are attached by rivets or bolts to the angle irons, and to the strip iilling the interval between them, so as to form the exterior truss-beam. rIhe corrugations of the plates on opposite sides ofthe truss cross each other at right angles, when the corrugations stand at an angle ot' forty-tive degrees. rIhe angle at which the corrugations should stand to a horizontal line will be varied according to circumstances, but when that angle is greater or less than forty-tve degrees the corrugations on opposite sides of the truss will stand atan angle to each other differing from a right angle.

.'Ihe construction ot' the truss-beam may be varied without changing the essential principle-on which it acts, so long as there are two or more sheets having transverse corrugations inclinng in opposite directions, combined with a chord or tie, in same form.

The upper angle-iron may be replaced by a tube of cast or wrought iron, or any equivalent device for resisting the tendency to con1- pression along its line.

The plates separating the corrugated sides may be replaced by one or more sheets having longitudinal eorrugations. The lower angle-iron may be replaced by a tube of wroughtiron or by a rod or equivalent device. So the sheet between the corrugated plates may be emitted and the devices intended to resist the tendency to elongate along the bottom line, and to compression along the upper line, may be attached to the corrugated sheets above and beneath or outside of them.

Inpractical use varied circumstances will call for adaptations requiringa resort to one or the other ot' the methods of arrangement abovel indicated; but that form which I iind best adapted for the generality of cases is the one indicated in the accompanying plan.

The truss-beam I have described may be used for a variety of purposes. It may be employed on buildings, bridges, docks, aqueducts, and similar works, where considerable weights are to be supported on abutments, piers, columns, or other separated points of support. It may be employed as a girder and as a beam to support roofs and floorings. It may be incorporated in vthe walls of buildings, the hulls of vessels, the frames of cars, and in different places in a variety of other structures where stiiiness and ability to resist pressure and tension are sought in combination with lightness.

The advantages resulting from the form of construction above indicated arise from the peculiary disposition that is made of the tubular corrugations. Inasmuch as they cross at right angles, or at an angle of inclination approaching ninety degrees, the position of greatest strength of the one coincides with the position of greatest elasticity of the otherthat' is to say7 the strain that would spread or contract the base of one corrugation is resisted by the complementary corrugation of the opposite side of the truss operating as it must in that case on a line With the length of the latter corrugation in the condition most favorable for resistance. The power required to stretch corrugated iron in a direction trans verse to the line of corrugation, increases as the corrugation widens at its base. Thus a corrugated truss nnder'a sufficient pressure to change the form of the corrugations develops an increase of strength as it yields to the strain, and is therefore likely to find its equilibrium-and to return to it-s proper form on removing the strain.

What I claim as my invention7 and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination of two or more corrugated metallic plates having the inclination of their corrugations on opposite sides, in opposite directions, and diagonal relatively to a horizontal line, with a chord or tie, for the purpose of forming a truss beam or girder or other similar structure.

2. The use of T or angle iron of any other suitable form, in combination with diagonal corrugations, for the purpose of forming a truss-beam or girder, or their equivalent, constructed and operating in the manner and for the purpose above described.

SAML. J. SEELY.

Witnesses:

L. B. VALK, A. J.- WILLARD.

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