IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING AND ORNAMENTING ARTICLES OF FLINT GLASS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Richardson, of Wordesley Flint Glass
Stourbridge, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MANUFACTURING AND ORNAMENTING ARTICLES OF FLINT GLASS."
Works, near
Scaled the 18th December 1857, and dated the 20th June 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Richardson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th
June 1857.
I, BENJAMIN RICHARDSON, of Wordsley Flint Glass Works, near Stour-
bridge, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MANUFACTURING AND ORNAMENTING ARTICLES OF FLINT GLASS." to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in manufacturing and
ornamenting articles of flint glass. For these purposes, the bottles. vessels,
and other articles of flint glass are blown or formed in the ordinary manner,
whether of one color or of glass of two or more colors, one color glass over
the other. And in order to ornament such articles made of flint glass, parts or
the whole of the surfaces thereof are to be coated by preference with a
solution of gutta percha or of indiarubber. or it may be with other compo-
sitions, not acted on by acid. and from such coated surfaces parts of the coating
are to be removed by any suitable tool, so as to produce thereon the desired
ornamental device. The articles of flint glass are then dipped into fluoric acid
combined with sulphuric acid or with another acid, or such combination of

page_text: acids may be otherwise applied to the surfaces of the glass where the coating
has been removed, and the effect will be that parts of the surfaces of the glass
will be dissolving away, and yet both the ornamental design and the other
part of the glass will be left clear, bright, and transparent. In some cases,
when acting on articles made of two or more thicknesses and colors of flint
glass, only fluoric acid is employed, uncombined with other acid, to act on the
uncoated parts of the glass.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Benjamin Richardson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 19th December 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, BENJAMIN
RICHARDSON, of Wordesley Fline Glass Works, near Stourbridge, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Benjamin Richardson, Her special licence that I, the said Benjamin
Richardson, my executors, administrators, and assigns. or such others as 1, the
said Benjamin Richardson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE.
MENTS IN MANUFACTURING AND ORNAMENTING ARTICLES OF FLINT GLASS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Benjamin Richardson, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Benjamin Richardson, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: This Invention has for its object improvements in manufacturing and
ornamenting articles of flint glass. For these purposes. the bottles. vessels,
and other articles of flint glass are blown or formed in the ordinary manner,
whether of one color or of glass of two or more colors, one coloured glass over
the other. And in order to ornament such articles made of flint glass, parts or
the whole of the surfaces thereof are to be coated by preference with a
solution of gutta percha or india-rubber, or it may be with other compositions,
not acted on by acid, and from such coated surfaces parts of the coating are
to be removed by any suitable tool, so as to produce thereon the desired
ornamental device. The articles of flint glass are then dipped into flouric
acid combined with sulphuric acid, or with another acid; or such combination
of acids may be otherwise applied to the surfaces of the glass where the
coating has been removed, and the effect will be that parts of the surfaces of
the glass will be dissolving away, and yet both the ornamental design and
the other part of the glass will be left clear, bright, and transparent. In some
cases, when acting on articles made of two or more thicknesses and colors of
flint glass, only fluoric acid is employed, uncombined with other acid, to act on
the uncoated parts of the glass.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the way in which I prefer
to conduct the process.
I take an article, a bottle, a wine or other drinking glass, a jug, or other
vessel or article made of flint glass, of two or more different colors, in layers,
the one over the other.
The manufacture of such like articles of flint glass is well understood, and
therefore need not be described. coat any such article with a composition
capable of resisting the action of the acid used in the subsequent process, and
for this purpose 1 prefer to employ a composition containing gutta percha or
india-rubber. The gutta percha composition I prepare in the following
manner dissolve one part by weight of gutta percha in three parts of
turpentine or other solvent, by gently heating them together, and when the
solution is complete I add four parts of bee's-wax and one part of tallow or
suet, which when melted by the heat I mix well in with the rest of the
composition. The india-rubber composition I prefer is prepared by dissolving
with the aid of gentle heat one part of india-rubber in eight parts of naptha,
and when the solution is complete I add four parts of bee's-wax, one part of
rosin, and one part of tallow or suet, and melt and mix as before. The gutta
percha and india-rubber give elasticity to the compositions and make them
adhere to the glass.
h

page_text: In order to give to the article made of flint glass a uniform coating, dip
it into the composition which is kept liquid by heat, and when the article is
withdrawn a suflicient quantity adheres to and hardens on the surface, and on
this composition the pattern to be produced is traced, and the composition is
removed by a style of hard wood from the parts required to be acted on by
the acid. When this process is complete the article of flint glass is placed in
a bath composed of equal parts of the strongest commercial fluoric acid and of
concentrated sulphuric acid; or other mineral acid may be used in place of
sulphuric acid, but not with the same advantage. The addition of sulphuric
acid to the fluoric acid causes a bright in place of a dull surface to be
produced on the glass on which it acts. The article is left in this bath
until the upper surface or layer of the glass at the points where the compo-
sition has been removed is dissolved, so as to expose the under surface or
layer of glass, or until the desired effect is produced; and in some cases, when
I desire that some parts of the article shall be more acted on by the bath
than others, I remove the article before the operation is complete and re-coat
some of the exposed parts, applying the composition with a brush, after which
I return the article to the bath. When the desired effect is produced, the
article is removed from the bath and the composition is rubbed off with a
bone knife; warm water assists this operation.
Sometimes in place of coating the entire surface of the article of flint glass
with composition, and afterwards removing it from the places where it is
desired that the surface should be acted on by the bath, I find it more con-
venient to coat by means of a brush only those parts which I desire to stop out.
When I wish to obtain a dull surface I use a bath consisting only of fluoric
acid. When the ornamenting design is desired to consist partly of dead or
dull or ground-like surfaces in combination with bright surfaces, I either
produce the dull or ground surfaces by grinding or by fluoric acid, and the
bright parts are produced by a bath of flouric and sulphuric acid, as above
explained.
When ornamenting articles made of white flint glass, or of only one color of
flint glass, where it is desired that the ornamenting surfaces shall consist partly
of dull or ground-like surfaces and partly of bright surfaces, the dull parts of
the surfaces may be produced by grinding, or by the use of fluoric acid, and the
bright parts by the use of fluoric acid in combination with sulphuric or other
mineral acid, by which conjoined action very varied and beautiful effects
may be produced on articles of white flint glass, and of articles of one color of
flint glass.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of

page_text: performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not claim
generally the etching of glass by means of fluoric acid, but what I do claim is.
the use, in manufacturing and ornamenting articles made of flint glass, of a
mixture of fluoric acid and sulphuric acid, or other mineral acid, as herein
described. I also claim the ornamenting of articles made from one or more
colors of flint glass by the use of fluoric acid, as herein described. I also
claim in manufacturing and ornamenting articles made of flint glass, the
employment of a coating composition composed parily of gutta percha or
india-rubber, to limit the action of the acid baths used.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Richardson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
BENJAMIN RICHARDSON. (1..S.)
5
Witness,
Flint Glass Manufacturer, Wordsley, near Stourorange.
JOHN EDGE, Clerk.
Wordsley.