MAKING COAT, WAISTCOAT, AND SLEEVE BUTTONS FROM PIG IRON, COMMONLY CALLED CAST IRON, AND JAPANNING AND PAINTING THE SAME OF DIPPERENT COLOURS AND DEVICES
Year: 1786

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
FRANCIS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of January,
in the twenty-sixth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said
John Francis, His especial licence that I, the said John Francis, during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "MAKING COAT, WAISTCOAT, AND SLEEVE BUTTONS FROM
PIG IRON, COMMONLY CALLED CAST IRON, AND JAPANNING AND PAINTING THE SAME OF
DIPPERENT COLOURS AND DEVICES;" in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a provisoe obliging me, the said John Francis, under my hand and seal,
to cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately
after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Francis, do hereby declare my said Invention of Making Coat, Waist-
coat, and Sleeve Buttons from Pig Iron, commonly called Cast Iron, and
Japanning and Painting the same of different Colours and Devices, is per-
formed in the following manner (that is to say) :-
I melt pig iron, commonly called cast iron, in a crucible, in an air or other
furnace, and run the metal so melted into moulds filled with sand or loome,

page_text: wherein the impressions of coat, waistcoat, and sleeve buttons have been first
taken off from leaden or other patterns. I then anneal them in a strong fire
for the space of twelve hours or thereabouts, whereby the same will become
tough and malleable. After which process I scour, turn, or otherwise clean
the buttons, to make them ready for japanning, painting, or otherwise finishing,
the process of which is as follows:-I cover the buttons over with a size or
priming consisting of oil and colours, or a varnish made of oils, spirits of
turpentine or spirits of tar, umber, asphaltum, black rosin, or amber. I then
harden the same by heat, in a stove or otherwise, and repeat the covering
until there is a sufficient quantity of varnish on the buttons. When the
covering is quite hard, the buttons are ready for polishing, finishing without
polishing, and for painting or otherwise ornamenting with gilt, plated or any
other metals, or by laying colours thercon with a pencil or other instrument, in
a variety of different devices.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Francis, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-third day of February, in the twenty-
sixth year of the reign of His said Majesty King George the Third,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and eighty-
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of February,
in the year of our Lord 1786, the aforesaid John Francis came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according
to the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-fifth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and eighty-six.