IMPROVE- MENTS IN ORNAMENTING GLASS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Robinson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th
December 1866.
I, JOHN ROBINSON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Glass
Cutter, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ORNAMENTING GLASS," to be as follows:-
My said Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in
ornamenting glass whereby great facility is afforded for producing either a
bright pattern or design upon a rough or dead ground on the surface of the.
glass, or a dead pattern or design upon a bright ground.
My Invention is specially applicable to the ornamenting of globes or,
glasses for gas and other lamps, but is also applicable to the ornamenting of
dishes, decanters, and articles of glass in general, as well as to flat or curved
sheets or plates of glass.
I will describe my Invention as applied to the ornamenting of a glass
globe or moon for a gas or other lamp. I take a plate or plates of metal or
other bard substance having the form of that portion of the design which it is
intended shall be bright; I apply the said plates to the surface of the globe or
inoon at those parts which are to be left bright, and I secure the said metal
plates to or against the surface of the glass at the required places, either by
mechanical means or by the use of adhesive matter; I then subject the
surface of the glass to the action of a rotating wire brush fed with emery or
sand and water, or other material capable of roughening or deadening the

page_text: surface of the glass; the surface of the globe or moon is thereby roughened or
deadened except at those parts protected by the metal plates, the said parts
being unoperated upon by the wire brush. After the roughening process has
been applied to the whole of the surface or to that part to be ornamented the
metal plates are removed. The globe or moon is thereby ornamented, the
parts which are protected by the metal plates being left bright and the unpro-
tected parts being roughened or deadened. When the protecting plates have the
figure of the ornament the design produced consists of a bright ornament on
a roughened or deadened ground, and when the protecting plates have the
figure of the ground, that is, have the ornament or pattern cut out of them, a
roughened or deadened ornament or pattern upon a bright ground is produced.
When, as in the case of glass globes or moons for gas and other lamps, the
figure of the article is nearly spherical or of such a shape that the metal coverings
or protecting plates can be made in two or more pieces by stamping or
spinning, so as to fit closely against the globe or shade, I prefer to make the
coverings or plates in this way and to cut out from them the requisite designs
or patterns. The protecting plates or coverings may be secured on the globes
or moons by means of clamping mechanism when convenient, but when the
protecting plates or coverings consist of detached ornamental shapes I prefer
to secure them on the globe or moon by shellac or other adhesive matter.
When my Invention is applied to articles made of flashed or stained glass,
that is, to glass having only a superficial colouring, the roughening process
removes the coloured surface, and leaves a bright coloured pattern or design
upon a roughened or deadened ground, or a roughened and colourless design
upon a bright and coloured ground may be produced.
In applying my Invention to the ornamenting of dishes, decanters, and
other glass articles and sheets or plates of glass I proceed in all essential
respects in the manner herein-before described with reference to the ornamenting
of globes or moons for gas and other lamps.