US2172052A - Building construction - Google Patents

Description

Sept- 5, l939- c. B. RoBBxNrs 2,l72,052

BUILDING CDNSTRUCTION Filed Nov. 1938 Patented Sept. 5, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFECE 2,172,052 BUILDING CONSTRUCTION Application November 8, 1938, Serial No. 239,515

1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in building constructions.

Concrete building blocks of the kind now commonly used in the fabrication of wall structures 5 are designed primarily to provide left-in-place forms adapted to hold vertical columns of thermal insulating material. Wall structures made with concrete building blocks of this particular type have several disadvantages, the most objectionable of which is that their design or construction does not provide for adequate internal reenforcing. It is well known that a mass of concrete cast as a unitary structure is considerably stronger than an equal mass made up of a number of pre-cast units, and since it is not possible with the concrete building blocks now commonly used, to construct a wall having a unitary and integrally formed concrete structure throughout, the load bearing properties of such a wall are not adequate to meet certain building requirements. Until the present invention the vertical and horizontal joints or spaces occurring in walls fabricated with concrete blocks of the usual kind, required hand mortaring.

Overcoming these disadvantages I have provided an improved building block oi novel shape and construction having internal spaces forv holding thermal insulating material as Well as concrete and Steel rod reenforcements.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved rectangular-shaped building block having an open top and an open bottom, and provided internally with cells or Spaces for holding a section of concrete material and a section of thermal insulating material.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved building block having a construction, which in association with other similar blocks forming a wall structure, provides reenforcing means adapted to both reenforce the wall and at the same time seal the horizontal and vertical joints ordinarily located between the blocks.

Other and further objects of my invention will be pointed out hereinafter, indicated in the appended claim, or will be obvious toone skilled in the art upon an understanding of the present disclosure. For the purpose of this application I have elected to show herein certain forms and details of building blocks representative of my invention; it is to be understood, however, that the embodiments of my invention herein shown and described are for the purposes of illustration only, and that therefore they are not to be regarded as exhaustive of the variations of the invention, norare they to be given interpretations such as might have the eiect vof limiting the claims, short of the true and most comprehensive scope of the invention in the art.

, In the accompanying drawing:`

Fig. 1 is a perspective View of a building block embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective View of a partly fabricated. wall made from a number of blocks of the kind illustrated in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sideelevation of a wall constructed in accordance with my invention, showing a portion broken-away and incross section;

Fig. 4 is a perspective View of a building block embodying a modified construction; and

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section of a portion of the completed wall taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3.

Referring particularly to Figs. 17 2, 3 and 5 of thedrawing, the numeral l designates an open concrete building block of substantially rectangular shape having its two longest sides 2 and 3 separated one from another by a longitudinally disposed parallel partition 4. The partition divides the block into two cells or spaces 5 and 6 Which are approximately of the same width, but not necessarily so. The opposite ends of the cell 5 are enclosed by end members I and 8, while the opposite ends of the cell 6 are enclosed by end members 9 and Il), the latter being positioned inwardly from the end members l', thereby providing end spaces Il and l2 which are partly enclosed by the projecting ends of the side 3 and the partition 4 and by the end members l! and I The end members 1, 8, 9 and i!! are preferably disposed in parallel relation to one another. The combined lengths of the end spaces I I and I2 and the cell 6 are substantially the same as that of the cell 5. When two of the blocks are positioned end to end there is provided behind the two contiguous ends 1 and 8 an enclosed space (made up of the end space ll of one of the blocks and the end space l2 of the other) which is adapted tocontain a body of concrete that seals the vertical joint between the two blocks.

As shown in Fig 4, the block may be provided adjacent the opposite ends of the rear cell 6 with end spacers Il and I2 which have their inner walls semi-circular shape. In this modiiied construction the end members 9 and lil enclosing the ends of the cell 6 are of suitable thickness to provide for the formation of circular grooves which constitute the end spaces ll and l2'. In other respects the block illustrated in Fig. 4 is substantially the same as the block shown in Fig. 1;

In fabricating a wall in accordance with my invention the blocks are arranged in overlapping formation one above another with the extreme ends of one block positioned midway between the ends of a block located directly beneath it, as illustrated in Figs, 2 and 3. Reenforcing steel rods I 3 are thereupon positioned in the aligned cells 6 of the blocks in such a manner that certain of them are disposed in vertical positions and others are inclined or slanted, as shown in Fig. 3. The dimensions of the cells 6 of the blocks being such that their widths are considerably less than their lengths, enables certain of the steel rods I3 to assume diagonal or slanting positions, thereby providing a reenforcing structure which possesses improved load-carrying properties. After the reenforcing rods are placed as aforesaid, the interconnected spaces or cells I I, I2, and 6, throughout the height, length and breadth of the wall are filled with concrete or other suitable material. When the concrete has hardened in the usual manner, a unitary and integrally connected concrete structure I4, reenforced by vertical and slanting steel rods I3, is provided throughout the length and breadth of the wall. The interconnected spaces or cells 5 of the blocks are next lled with a suitable thermal insulating material I5.

Since the concrete structure I4 is interconnected in every direction throughout the length, breadth and height of the wall, thereby adequately reenforcing the latter, the sides, ends and partition of the blocks may be of considerably less thickness than is the case with concrete building blocks of the kind now commonly used.

After the wall has been completed, the vertical, as well as the horizontal, joints between the blocks are eiectively sealed by the body of concrete material I4 which fills the spaces II and I2 and the cells 6.

Having described my invention, what I claim is:

In a masonry wall structure, a plurality of substantially rectangular building blocks, each open at its top and bottom and each being divided interiorly into two longitudinally disposed cells by a longitudinal partition disposed in parallel relation to the long sides of the block, the said blocks being arranged in horizontal rows with one row superimposed upon another row and the blocks of adjacent rows arranged in overlapping 4 positions so that the opposite ends oi one block are centrally positioned with respect to the two adjacent blocks supporting it, the said blocks of each row being arranged with a portion of their ends contiguous to one another, and each of the blocks having their contiguous ends of such an inwardly disposed irregular shape that the ends of one cell are positioned inwardly from the ends of the other cell whereby cells of different lengths are provided and whereby end spaces are provided adjacent the opposite ends of the shorter of the two cells, the said end spaces of adjacent blocks being so disposed that when filled with a body ofmaterial the vertical joints of the contiguous blocks are sealed, the said blocks when so arranged in horizontal superimposed rows providing two vertical material-holding forms each comprising a series of interconnected cells, a body of concrete material located in one of the forms, and a body of insulating material located in the other form.

CARL B. ROBBINS.

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