IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF OBTAINING LIKENESSES AND REPRESENTATIONS OF NATURE AND OTHER OBJECTS
Year: 1842

page_text: :
BEARD'S -SPECIFICATION...!
TO. ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
BEARD, of Earl Street, Blackfriars, in the City of London, Gentleman, send
greeting.
i..
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Tenth day of March, in the fifth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself,' Her heirs and successors, give, and grant unto me,, the said Richard
Beard, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and, authority, that. I,
the said Richard Beard, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Richard Beard, my.exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and; lawfully, might, make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,, the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF OBTAINING LIKENESSES AND
REPRESENTATIONS OF NATURE AND OTHER OBJECTS," Communicated to me by a
certain Foreigner residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso that I, the said Richard Beard, shall 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 Her said, Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months.next and immediately after the date of the said in
part recited Letters Patent, as in and, by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.....
2.
I NOW KNOW YE,, that in compliance with the; said proviso, I, the said
Richard Beard, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The Invention relates to modes of coloring the pictures produced by what
is now well known as the daguerreotype process, whereby likenesses and
representations of nature and other objects will be obtained in a more finished
condition than can be effected by the simple process of Daguerre. This
method consists in the deposition of various colors in the state of impalpable
powders on different parts of the picture iu succession, the outline and extent
of each color been regulated by a pattern or screen resembling a stencil plate.
In the first place, the picture being produced, is placed upon a shallow rect-
angular frame a little larger than itself, this frame being provided with a rebate
or projecting edge or border, and standing about one twentieth of an inch
above the surface of the plate. Upon this rebate a thin sheet of glass or mica
is placed so as completely to cover the picture, then with a camel-hair pencil
and a little coloring material a tracing is made upon the glass or mica corro-
sponding to the part of the picture it is intended to color, a light rectangular
frame having been covered with tracing paper and previously fitted so as to
rest accurately upon the original frame. One of these is placed upon the
glass and the original tracing copied upon the tracing paper. The paper
between the lines so traced is then cut out with any convenient instrument.
By this means, when the glass which previously covered the picture is removed
it will be found, on applying the tracing paper screen, that all parts of the
picture are covered with the exception of that part cut out between the lines
of the tracing, which being exposed, is ready to receive the color. A number
of patterns for the different parts of the picture are then to be made in the
same manner as the first; and the separate screen so produced (each having
a part or parts cut out) are to be used in succession over the picture, and color
will be deposited, as hereafter explained, on to the picture, each screen
allowing those parts of the picture to be colored at those parts where the
screen is cut away.
PORRARAMION 00
COLOURS

page_text: boxes a little larger in the base than the frame to which the picture was
attached, and about three inches high, few grains (say fifty) of the different
prepared colors are put into each, and a fine dust being raised in the interior of
the box about to be used by beating it in the inside by a large soft brush; the
picture covered with the screen, and consequently only partially exposed, .is
then introduced, and the color gradually allowed to settle upon it. After a
short time it is withdrawn and the color removed from the shadows by being
blown off with a pair of small bellows. By gently breathing upon the plate
the color just applied attaches itself with such firmness to the metal that it is
not liable to be removed by applying the bellows afterwards when making
use of other colors. It is for this reason that the colors are ground with gum
or some similar substance, so that the particles may agglutinate on coming in
contact with moisture.
By the above it will be seen that the colors are using singly and in such
succession over the different parts of the picture, the form and extent of their
deposit being of course regulated by the pattern traced from the picture.
Another mode of coloring such pictures is by using transparent water with
gum, and in place of actually putting such color on to the picture the surface
of the glass which comes next the picture is to be colored or tinted lightly by
the artist; and he is enabled to accomplish this correctly by having first taken
a tracing on the outer surface of the glass, as before described, and applying
the different colors on the under surface of the glass to the different parts of
the traced picture, the color in this case the being laid on in a wet state by a
brush. By this means it will be evident that when the glass is fixed in front
of the picture and as close up to the picture as possible, the different parts of
the picture will be seen through the colored parts of the glass and offer the
appearance of a colored picture.
Another mode of coloring such pictures is by using the colors on the parts
of the picture, and applying them by hand. This is accomplished by means
of a camel-hair pencil with dry color prepared as above described; and the
artist applies the different colors by dotting them on to the different parts,.
producing a sort of stippled surface, the colors being successively set by
breathing over them.
Having thus described the Invention for coloring daguerrerrotype pictures,
I would remark that I do not confine myself to the precise details, provided
the peculiar characters of either of the modes described be retained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Beard, have hereunto set my
band and scal, this Ninth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and forty-two.
RICH (L.B.) BEARD.

page_text: DRUMMOND, Xe
"'AND' BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the- Ninth day of September, in
the year of our Lord 1842; the aforesaid Richard Beard camo before our
said Lady the Queen in Her 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 stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
t.. f.
Inrolled the Tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-two.