IMPROVEMENTS IN IMITATION OR COMPOSITION SLATES, TABLETS, AND OTHER SURFACES FOR WRITING, DRAWING, AND MARKING UPON
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Garrett Tongue at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th January 1873.-A communication from abroad by Pierre
Auguste Léon Suzanne, Merchant, of Paris, France.
I, JOHN GARRETT TONGUE, of the Firm of Tongue and Birkbeck,
Patent Agents, of 34, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN IMITATION OR COMPOSITION SLATES, TABLETS,
AND OTHER SURFACES FOR WRITING, DRAWING, AND MARKING UPON," to be as
follows:-
These improvements relate to the application of permanent lines,
letters, figures, characters, or designs, to the surface of imitation or
composition slates, "black boards," tablets, or other similar surfaces
employed for writing, drawing, or marking upon for the use of schools,
instructive, or other like purposes, the prepared surfaces being suitable for
receiving pencil or other marks which can be readily removed by washing
or rubbing out when required. Thus on one or both of such prepared
surfaces, and upon the whole or part of the said surfaces, permanent
tracings in paint, ink, or by other means and of any color are applied
or produced thereon to indicate marks or models of writing, maps,

page_text: designs, lines for writing music, or any other kind of marking or tracing
for any purpose that may be required, such outlines or markings
produced upon the surfaces of the imitation slates, tablets, or prepared
surfaces being permanent so as not to be effaced by washing or rubbing.
By these means indelible tracings are obtained, serving either as models
or examples, either as a guide for drawing, writing, or for composing or
copying music, maps, or for other similar instructive purposes.
These impressions can be applied in the form of models of writing,
designs of heads, landscapes, geometrical figures, maps and plans for
geographical, warlike, or other purposes.
These improved tablets or surfaces are particularly applicable for
instructive purposes in schools, as the pupil will constantly have before
his eyes the model to be copied, which will only occupy a part of the
surface of the slate, tablet, or surface, the other part being reserved for
the copy.
Tablets, slates, or surfaces of this character may either be rigid or
flexible, applied to paper or metallic surfaces, cloth, either frames or
capable of rolling or unrolling from one or several rollers in order to
constitute school tablets, or they may be made up into the form of a
book or otherwise, such as is commonly used and capable of being
rubbed out simply by washing without damaging the model.
The application of the outlines to the tablets or surfaces may be
effected either by hand, by lithographic, typographic, chromo-lithographic,
or other suitable means, and in several or different colors, or by the
means or processes employed for printing fabrics, staining paper, or
other similar purposes.
Printing ink or composition of varnish or other well known matters or
materials may be employed for producing the outlines according to the
nature of the materials employed; the slates, tablets, or surfaces being
subjected to heat or otherwise for drying, if required, as would be
necessary for enamel tracings or outlines.