AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING FIGURED OR ORNAMENTAL SURFACES ON GLASS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to. George Rees, of Clerkenwell, in the County of
Middlesex. Painted and Stained Glass Manufacturer, for the Invention
of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING FIGURED OR ORNAMENTAL SURFACES
ON
GLASS"
Sealed the 9th September 1856, and dated the 13th March 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Rees at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th March.
1856.
I, GEORGE REES, of Clerkenwell, in the County of Middlesex, Painted and
Stained Glass Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING FIGURED OR ORNAMENTAL SURFACES
ON GLASS, to be as follows:-
I take a sheet of finished glass, either white or colored, of the dimensions
required, and having rendered it plastic by heat I press it between a pair of
metal dies, male and female, engraved with the design or pattern which is to
be given to the glass; after impressing the pattern upon the glass I anneal
it, and it is then fit for use in windows or for ornamental purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Rees in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th
September 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
REES, of Clerkenwell, in the County of Middlesex, Painted and Stained Glass
Manufacturer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Rees, Her special licence that I, the said George-Rees, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George Rees, 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRODUCING FIGURED
OR ORNAMENTAL SURFACES ON GLASS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said George Rees, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 George Rees, 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 :-
This Invention consists in an improved method of producing figured or
ornamental surfaces on glass; and for this purpose I take a sheet of finished
glass, either white or colored, of the dimensions required, and having rendered
it plastic by heat I press it between a pair of metal dies, male and female,
engraved with the design or pattern which is to be given to the glass. After
impressing the pattern upon the glass I anneal it, and it is then fit for use in
windows or for ornamental purposes.
AN
I am aware that ornamental glass for windows and decorative purposes has
been heretofore produced by pouring glass (technically called, metal) in a soft
state from the crucible or-pot-into-moulds bearing the required pattern and
subjecting the same to pressure, whereas my improvement consists in operating,
not upon the melted metal, but upon finished sheets of glass, by which means
I am able to produce a much thinner and lighter article, available where orna-
mental glass of a heavier description would be inadmissible. I am also able
to use cased glass, that is, white glass, one side of which has been coated with
à ruby or other colored glass.
In carrying out this my improvement I take a sheet of flat finished glass

page_text: either white or colored, of the dimensions required, and having rendered it
plastic by heating it in a reverberatory furnace, I press it between a pair of
metal dies or rollers engraved with the design, pattern, or inscription which
is to be given to the glass. The dies or rollers may have the pattern raised in
the one and sunk in the other, or one of them may be plain, according to the
character of the ornamental surface that is to be produced. After impressing
the pattern upon the glass I anneal it in the manner that is well understood by
workers in glass, when it is fit for use in windows or for decorative purposes.
In order to indicate the application of these my improvements, and to show
some of the purposes to which they are suitable, I would observe that orna-
mental surfaces of glass, produced as herein-before described, and hollow on
their under side, may be ornamented by gilding, silvering, enamelling, painting,
staining, or otherwise, so as to produce any determined artistic effect. Another
description of figured or ornamental surface may be produced by pressing the
glass between dies or rollers, so as to leave the required pattern or inscription
in slight relief. After the glass has been annealed the raised pattern may be
removed by grinding, when the pattern or inscription will appear dull upon a
bright ground; or flashed glass may be thus treated, that is, white glass,
coated or covered on one side with a colored glass. In this case the pattern
will appear white upon a colored ground or vice versa.
I desire it to be understood that I do not claim the ornamenting of pressed
or moulded glass by gilding, silvering, painting, &c., that having been here-
tafore done in many various ways. What I claim as new and constituting my
Invention is, the mode of producing figured or ornamental surfaces by pressing
sheets of finished glass between suitable dies or rollers, as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Rees, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of September, in the year of our
. Lord One thousand cight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness
W. BADDELEY.
GEORGE REES. (L.S.)