IMPROVE- MENTS IN COLOURING OR PAINTING WALLS AND OTHER SURFACES, AND PRE- PARING MATERIALS USED FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AMBROSE
BOWDEN JOHNS, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Artist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Nineteenth day of June, in the second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Ambrose Bowden Johns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Ambrose Bowden Johns, my exors, aduiors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Ambrose Bowden Johns, my exors,
admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed;
should and lawfully night make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN COLOURING OR PAINTING WALLS AND OTHER SURFACES, AND PRE-
PARING MATERIALS USED FOR THAT PURPOSE;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that I, the said Ambrose Bowden Johns, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: My improvements consist,―
First, of a method of using coloring or painting materials.
Secondly, of a method of preparing the materials for coloring or painting.
Thirdly, of a new method or machine for mixing materials for coloring or
painting.
.
But in order to facilitate the understanding the various improvements, I
will first describe the preparing of the materials for coloring or painting.
This process is made up of three parts. I take twenty-eight pounds of resin,
broken down into small pieces, and two pounds of tallow, and melt them
together under a moderate heat (I do it at a temperature of two hundred and
thirty degrees); then I slowly add nine gallons and one quart of raw linseed
oil, eighteen gallons and one quart of boiled linseed oil, keeping the compound
in a heated state, and well stirred, until the ingredients are thoroughly
incorporated. This I call the first part of the process of preparing the
materials.
The second part of the process I commence by compounding one of the
four following liquids. First, I boil in thirty-seven gallons of soft water
twelve gallons of bran, and strain it. With the bran water I convert four-
teen pounds of starch into starch water, as follows:-I mix the starch first
with a little of the bran water, when cold, until it assumes the consistence of
cream. I then add the remaining bran water at a boiling heat, and bring the
whole mass up to the boiling point over a slow fire or in a steam bath. Or,
secondly, I take fourteen pounds of common glue or gelatine and dissolve it in
thirty-seven gallons of soft water by heat, as last above mentioned. Or, thirdly,
I take twenty-one pounds of any gum that is soluble in water, and dissolve it
in thirty-seven gallons of soft water under heat, as last above referred to. Or,
fourthly, I take forty pounds of potatoes prepared as follows:-Boil the
potatoes in thirty-seven gallons of soft water, then peel them, and beat
the mass in the same water till the whole becomes incorporated to a fine
paste. I then take one of the four preceding liquids or mixtures, and
add to that selected one hundred and fifty pounds of whiting and seventy-
five pounds of pipe clay, or other suitable argillaceous earth, both the whiting
and clay having been previously completely dried and finely powdered. This

page_text: addition I make over a slow fire or in a steam bath, stirring the whole mass
until completly mixed, and until it reaches the boiling point. This is the
second part of the process of preparing the materials.
I then gradually and slowly introduce the mixture, called the first part of
the process, into the mixture called the second part of the process, and. I
keep the compound well stirred over the same heat as last mentioned, until
it assumes the consistence of cream, and is perfectly united in a homogeneous
mass. I then suffer the compound to cool, and when cold I add four hundred
and sixty pounds of finely-powdered white sand stone (the sort I make use
of is from the vicinity of Rowen, in Normandy, but I believe any solitic
materials will be found applicable. The whole mass is then submitted to
be ground by any of the means usually had recourse to for the purpose of
levigating or comminuting paints or colors in general.
The paint which I manufacture by the foregoing process is produced of a
stone color, but any other tint may be imparted by the use of proper coloring
pigments in the ordinary way. In order to extend the paint for application,
the same must be diluted, and the workman may use for this purpose oil or
milk, beer or soft water, and either separately or by an union in the paint
of any one or more of such last-mentioned diluents. If it is desired to unite
oil as a diluent with water or any watery compound, each diluent must be first
well mixed with a sufficient mass of paint separately, and then the two masses
may be united into one for use.
Having described the method of preparation, I now proceed to state that'
the immediate union of the paint and diluents is to be effected by the use of
my new machine, to which I have above referred; and this machine is also
applicable for the better mixing and compounding materials for the general'
purposes of coloring and painting. This machine will be clearly understood
by the following description of the Drawing hereunto annexed:
A is a cover of metal, similar to the cover of a saucepan, with its handle. B.
Through this cover and the handle a hole is made large enough to admit of a
pipe or tube C, of a length sufficient to reach from the inside of the cover
to a little above the handle. The wire D is then to be bent to the shape-
represented by E, E, E, E, in the Drawing, and one end of it passed through
the pipe C. Slips of metal are then attached to the wire in the same plane,'
as shewn by Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; or, if preferred, in a horizontal or
other position. When the mixer is to be used, the materials: being, all put
into the paint pot, the cover goes on, and the wire D being turned: briskly
round for a short time, the whole of the ingredients will be perfectly combined.
The outline of Figure 2 merely shews the paint pot in common use, to

page_text: which my apparatus is applicable, and it is only introduced in the Drawing,
and here referred to, to shew more clearly the nature and application of my
Invention.
Lastly, I proceed to state my new method of using the materials herein-
before described, and such other materials as will be herein-after described, for
coloring or painting walls and other surfaces. I have already referred to one
novel method of using the said materials, by uniting different diluents in the
same mass. As another new method I take any quantity of the paint and add
to it an equal bulk of strong flour paste, mixing them well together, and
adding or omitting a coloring pigment, as the case may require. I then lay
this paint with a brush in the ordinary way, adding as many coats as may be
deemed necessary,
each preceding coat being first thoroughly dried. I then
lay a couch of oil over the whole, tinted, if requisite, with a coloring pigment.
As another process, I take any pigment or pigments which will, when
mixed, produce the color required, and grind it or them well with thin paste,
gelatine, or mucilage, then with a brush I lay on the floor or other surface to
be painted as many coats as may be deemed sufficient, letting each coat dry
thoroughly before another is put on. When the whole is perfectly dry I give
it a good couch of drying oil, or oil and varnish mixed. If the first couch is
absorbed I repeat it until the paint "bears up;" when dry it may still want
a hard brush, with a little drying oil, to be applied and rubbed off as clean as
possible. The painted surface may be walked on immediately after it becomes
dry, which in favorable weather is very soon. The method is particularly
applicable for floors and in-door work.
Having thus described my improvements in coloring or painting walls and
other surfaces, and preparing materials used for that purpose, I would observe
that I do not confine myself to the precise materials or quantities above given.
But what I claim is,-
.
First, the mode of combining the materials for coloring and painting by
means of oil and water, as above described.
I claim the machine, secondly above described, as a mixer of coloring
matter or paints.
And I claim the new method of coloring or painting, thirdly above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ambrose Bowden Johns, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of December, One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
AMBROSE BOWDEN
(L.8.) JOHNS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of December, in
the year of our Lord 1839, the aforesaid Ambrose Bowden Johns came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Nineteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.