Improvements in and Connected with the Making or Preparing of a Fire-proof Fabric.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Aug., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 26th Apr., 1889
Complete Specification Accepted, 1st June, 1889
RESERVE CO
DE MUITUATION.
Improvements in and Connected with the Making or Preparing of a
Fire-proof Fabric.
I, ALEXANDER LAWRENCE SMITH, of 6 Morris Place, Glasgow, Lanarkshire,
Clerk, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention to be as follows:-
This Invention has reference to and comprises improvements in the mode and
means of preparing or manufacturing a composite fireproof fabric suitable for making
the scenes and side wings of the stages of theatres, concert halls, and other public
places where such scenes are used, ready for painting the scenes and views upon; all
so that they would be more safe against fire than as such scenes and wings have been
as generally heretofore constructed, and more economical than the asbestos fireproof
scenery recently introduced.
The nature and novelty of the Invention consist in the use of flannel or woollen
woven fabrics, such as coarse serges and flannel cloths, or of light woollen felts which
would have flexibility, in either case manufactured in ordinary broad widths and
sewed together at the edges to make up the full width desired, or in special broad
widths more suitable for these scenic purposes as canvases and other fabrics have also
been made. And further in coating this woollen fabric on both sides with a ground
or body semi liquid material or paint consisting of a thick coating of whiting, white-
lead or other white pigment, or it might be, these white body matters colored with
colored pigments mixed and liquefied with water and size or other equivalent adhesive
material to about the consistency of ordinary paint or paste, and preferably spread on
with brushes on both sides, getting an extra coating after the first is dry of the same
or of a thinner or finer material on the side which is to be painted upon. Or the
woollen cloth material might be run through a box of this prepared liquid paint and
passed through rollers to regulate the thickness of the coating, and then through
drying stoves or other air circulating apartments to dry the material equally over the
surface when hanging preferably in a vertical direction.
Dated this 1st day of Awanst 1880

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and Connected with the Making or Preparing of a
Fire-proof Fabric.
I, ALEXANDER LAWRENCE SMITH, of 6 Morris Place, Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Clerk,
do hereby declare the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement in writing, that is to say :-
This Invention has reference to and comprises improvements in the mode and means
of preparing or manufacturing a composite fire-proof fabric suitable for making the
scenes and side wings of the stages of theatres, concert halls, and other public places
where such scenes are used, ready for painting the scenes and views upon; all so that
they will be more safe against fire than as such scenes and wings have been generally
heretofore constructed, and more economical than the asbestos fireproof scenery
recently introduced.
The nature and novelty of the invention consist in the use of flannel or woollen
woven fabrics, such as coarse serges and flannel cloths, or broad web fabrics, such as
blanket fabrics, or light woollen felts, or union fabrics, such as cotton and wool, the
latter predominating, which would have flexibility, in either case manufactured in
ordinary broad widths and sewed together at the edges to make up the full width
desired, or in special broad widths more suitable for these scenic purposes as canvases
and other fabrics have also been made. And further in coating this woollen or union
fabric on both sides with a ground or body semi-liquid material or paint consisting of
a thick coating of whiting, whitelead or other white pigment, or it might be these
white body matters coloured with coloured pigments mixed and liquefied with water
and size or other equivalent adhesive material to about the consistency of ordinary
paint or paste, and preferably spread on with brushes on both sides, getting an extra
coating after the first coat is dry, of the same or of a thinner or finer material to give
a good uniform surface on the side which is to be painted upon. Or the woollen cloth
material might be run through a box of this prepared liquid paint and passed through
rollers to regulate the thickness of the coating and surface of the material and then
through drying stoves or other air circulating apartinents to dry the material equally
over the surface when hanging preferably in a vertical direction.
One mode of carrying my improvements into practice in preparing the new fire-
proof fabric, consists in stretching the flannel or other woollen cloth, or felt preferably
in a vertical position, while dry, and coating it with brushes on the back with the
thick coating of liquid whiting or paint. The front side is then damped first to make
paint spread better; and when dry the front of material (or it may be both sides)
is rubbed over with sand-paper or pumice-stone to make surface finer and then a
coating of paint is given to the front side. The material is then damped again, and
the second coat of whiting put on, either on one or on both sides. The pumice-stone

page_text: is rubbed over again, and then brushed over with a damp brush. The material is now
ready for painting. In preparing the paint or coating material, the preferable propor-
tions are 12 parts ordinary whiting, and 4 parts size, with sufficient water to melt
same; and in making a second coat the paint is reduced with water to a thinner
consistency.
Having now particularly described and ascertained. the nature of my inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
:-
A fire-proof fabric consisting of a woollen cloth or felt or a union material in which
wool predominates, prepared with a coating or coatings of whiting or equivalent
paint, substantially as and for the purposes herein described.