MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ORNAMENTAL TILES
Year: 1856

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Roberts at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th April
1856.
I, JOHN ROBERTS, of Upnor, in the County of Kent, Terra Cotta Manu-
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ORNAMENTAL TILES, to be as follows:--
In the manufacture of ornamental tiles as hitherto conducted, whether
encaustic or tessellated, the ornamentation is usually produced by assembling
together pieces of clay, earth, or other material, either baked or unbaked, but
previously made of the required size and shape, and arranging such pieces in
any desired manner, so as to produce the design required. This is a process
of course requiring considerable labor and time, and consequently is somewhat
costly.
The object of the present Invention is to produce ornamental tiles in a much
more economical manner than by the processes heretofore in use; and to effect
this object in such a manner as to render such tiles generally applicable for
purposes for which, owing to their great expense, ornamental tiles have not
hitherto been very generally used.

page_text: My improvements relate, first, to the means of producing the ornamental
surfaces; second, to a means of strengthening the tiles, so as to render them
applicable for pavements; and third, to a contrivance for securing the tiles
with facility to any surface to which it may be desired to attach them.
For producing the ornamental surfaces I have two plans, the first of which
is as follows: Having fixed on the pattern desired, I take prepared clay, of
the colors required, and in a plastic state, of about the consistency used by
potters, and press it in a vertical direction by means of a powerful screw
through dies of the necessary shape; and when I have obtained as many shapes
as are required to form the pattern, I place them all vertically together in one
mass in a strong frame and again put them under pressure, so as to bring the
several parts fairly together and unite their edges. After the lengths of various
colored clays have been so pressed, I cut horizontally a slice of the thickness
required. If a solid tile is required, then the slice may be from a quarter to
half an inch thick; but if it be proposed to strengthen the tile by backing it.
up, then only a thin slice or veneer of from one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an
inch need be cut off. When these slices are cut off from the compound block
they must be dried and burnt in the usual way.
For some patterns or devices I find it convenient to make the tile in a
different manner; for which purpose I prepare a slab of clay of a proper
consistence and color to form the ground of the tile, and I place thereon in
succession metal or other shapes or dies of the proper form, according to the
pattern or device intended to be produced, and I fill the said shapes or dies
with colored plastic clay, which, when the shapes or dies are removed, will
remain upon the surface of the slab which forms the bed. I proceed in this
manner with all the dies or shapes until all the parts of the pattern are placed
on the slab. As these pieces will be in relief, I then proceed to press them
into the first piece or slab of clay, and thereby produce a perfectly inlaid
pattern; and having thus formed the tiles, they are dried very slowly between
plaster slabs, and then burnt in the usual manner of earthenware generally.
1 propose to make these tiles of any required thickness, either solid or thin,
for veneering on or covering other plain clay or cement.
The tiles having been thus produced, burnt, and perfected, may be employed
for the purposes required; but for some purposes I find it necessary to
strengthen them by combining them with cement. This is effected by affixing
the cement to the back of the tile in a liquid state, and for particular purposes
I insert a piece of iron with a hole in the centre of it, fitted to receive a screw,
for the purpose of fixing the tile or slab to any other material, such as wood,

page_text: iron, &c., thereby dispensing with mortar or such articles generally used; but
although I insert the iron for particular purposes, I do not do so in every case
where it is not necessary, as in laying down foot pavements in the open air. I
then increase the thickness of the cement according to requirements, and make
it of such colors as persons may prefer.