$8 FASTENINGS FOR IRON ROOFING. 
MUR. TYTLER ON FASTENINGS FOR IRON 
ROOFING, 
November _ 1838. 
The Secretary, Planters’ Association. 5; 
Sir,—When Columbus made the egg stand on end 
on the table, how simple the matter appeared to his 
audience. There 18 many an idea as simple, but of 
far more utility. I had a store covered with corru- 
gated iron in an exposed situation. If the sheets of 
this iron were fastened down at both ends, the sim- 
ple principle of expansion and contraction of the iron 
by the alternating degrees of heat and cold very soon 
loosened the nails or rivets and the sheets became 
loose. The manager of the estate was annoyed be- 
yond endurance by the blowing off by the wind of 
his store roof, and in his desperation he screwed them 
to the rafters. The result was, one blowy night, the 
rafters and all were lifted off. 
John Gordon, the pulper-maker, conceived the idea 
of rivetting slips of iron, to one end of each sheet of 
iron, into which he slipped the end of the over- 
lapping sheet, nailing the other end to the rafter or 
reaper, and the other end being loose slid up or down 
within the slip according as the iron contracted or 
expanded, and thus he kept his iron firm and secure. 
Recently, on an emergency, I had to cover a store 
with iron. I could find none of Gordon’s iron, but 
only plain sheets. In my dilemma I mentioned the 
difficulty to a gentleman in Kandy, who tore off the 
cover of- a Price Current, and shewed me how by 
pieces of stiff hoop iron bent in three to slip over 
the end of the upper sheet, and under that of the 
lower sheet, I might answer the purpose. So I pro- 
cured. these from Walker & Co., and nailing the upper 
ends of the sheets to the rafters, and holding the 
lower end of the next overlapping sheets by means of 
these slips, the roof is all I could desire. The corru. 
gation of the iron admits of expansion across the 
sheet, while the lateral expansion and contraction work 
up and down the hoop-iron slips, and the nails are 
not loosened, nor the roof impaired. 
In gratitude to the friend who gave me the idea, 
I communicate this intelligence to my fellow planters 
through you, not doubting that there may be some 
who will be as thankful as I am to know how to get 
over a difficulty, serious in itself and in so very sim- 
ple, inexpensive, and rational a manner, 
Yours very truly, 
R. B. Tyrer, 
Chairman, 
