A MANUFACTURE OF ORNAMENTAL TILES, BRICKS, AND QUARRIES; FOR FLOORS, PAVEMENTS, AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM. THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
"WRIGHT, of Shelton, in the Staffordshire Potteries, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His late most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
did, by His Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of January, in the tenth year of
His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Wright, His especial
licence, that I, the said Samuel Wright, my exors, admors, and assigns,
and such others as I, the said Samuel Wright, my exors, adñors, 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 mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A MANUFACTURE OF
ORNAMENTAL TILES, BRICKS, AND QUARRIES; FOR FLOORS, PAVEMENTS, AND OTHER
PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I,
the said Samuel Wright, 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 His 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..
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said' proviso, I, the said
Samuel Wright; do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention is
to be performed, by the following description thereof, that is to say :-

page_text: The nature of my said Invention consists of the following particulars,
namely:-
First, in the manufacture of my tiles, bricks, and quarries, in various
shapes and sizes, from the finer clays and other materials used for making
porcelain and earthenware, (and not from the coarser materials hitherto 5
used for making tiles, bricks, and quarries,) and so.combining such materials
and so firing them as to produce a hard, solid, and semi-vitrified substance,
more durable than stone or marble. : .
-Secondly, in the ornamenting of such tiles, bricks, and quarries, in various
colours and with various patterns, (similar to the patterns on carpets-and-oil--
cloths, or representing coats of arms.or crests, or imitating marbles or Roman
tesselated pavements, or any fancy patterns;) by impressing the intended
patterns or figures upon my tiles, bricks, and quarries, previously to firing
them, and afterwards filling up or inlaying the parts so impressed with clays
and other materials previously prepared,, and coloured with metallic oxides.
And the manner in which the said patterns or figures are impressed, is by
moulding them in moulds of gypsum or plaster of Paris, clays, &c., which moulds
are embedded or enclosed in frames or cases of metal, whereby the plaster, or
other moulds are protected from injury, and are enabled to bear a great degree of
pressure, and consequently to indent very perfect and clear impressions. After
the impressions have been filled up or anlaid with, the. coloured clays and
substances: before-mentioned, and after, my tiles,,bricks, and quarries have
acquired a proper degree of dryness for the purpose, they are reduced to an
equable and exact, thickness by, being fixed on the machine herein-after
described, and cut or pared by a cutting instrument worked upon the frame of
such machine, whereby the upper surface is gradually planed down to a clean
and distinct exhibition of the pattern, and both the upper and lower surfaces
are rendered exact and, smooth, and thus capable of forming a perfectly level.
floor. or pavement. The said machine consists of a square, cast-iron box, the
uppermost vedges of which have steel, plates fastened thereon, to prevent their
being worn by the friction of the cutting instrument passing over-them; and,
within the said box is a brass plate forming a platform, whereon the bricks,
tiles, or quarries are placed to be planed or cut. At each corner of the said
platform there is a female screw, through which an upright screwed, pin
works, having a small, cog wheel fixed thereto, which corner wheels are
simultaneously turned by one central cog wheel, placed on an upright shaft,
and to this shaft motion is given by a winch, communicating therewith by
bevil wheels and a horizontal shaft, in the usual manner. The platform and
steel edges of the box have been ground together so as to render them most

page_text: perfectly true and level, and, consequently, by turning the winch or handle the
said platform will be raised or lowered (according to the forward or backward
action given to the winch,) with its surface exact parallel with the edges of the
box, by which the stroke of the cutting instrument is governed. And although
this effect is very easily produced by using the winch, yet no degree of pressure
upon the platform will of itself lower its elevation, and consequently the exact
thickness of the tiles, bricks, and quarries, can never be accidentally varied.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Wright, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty.