IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING OR MANUFACTURING FIRE- PLACES, SLABS, FLAGS, COLUMNS, MONUMENTS, AND CORNICES SUCH AS HAVE HERETOFORE BEEN MADE OF MARBLE
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
WILSON, of Blyth Sheds, in the County of Northumberland, Builder, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twelfth day of May, in the sixth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Wilson, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Richard Wilson, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Richard Wilson, 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, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING OR MANUFACTURING FIRE-
PLACES, SLABS, FLAGS, COLUMNS, MONUMENTS, AND CORNICES SUCH AS HAVE
HERETOFORE BEEN MADE OF MARBLE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Richard Wilson, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His said Majesty High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Wilson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and 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 :-
I first puddle a quantity of common clay, then put it through fine riddles or
sieves, to free it from all roughness, and next evaporate the water from it,
either in boiling in brick troughs with flues beneath (same as those used in
potteries) or by exposure to the atmosphere in large reservoirs, until it becomes
sufficiently stiff for moulding. The method I use for forming the parts of
fireplaces, columns, cornices, flags, slabs, and monuments, which are either
plain or have straight lined mouldings upon them, is, by using such a clay
mill as is afterwards described, the clay being put in at the top and pressed
out at the bottom through the mould by using either horse or steam power.
The piece is then cut off to the required length, and laid to dry. Those parts
which are ornamented, or have not straight lined mouldings upon them are
forced into moulds made to the design and size required, either of wood,
plaster of Paris, or metal, taking care to make the moulds large enough to
allow for the contraction of the clay by drying and burning, which it will do,
more or less, and can only be known by trial, as all clay does not contract
alike. After the articles are dried, either by the action of the atmosphere,
in a shed upon shelves, or in a drying house made with flues beneath a
flagged floor, they are to be placed in a kiln so constructed that the fire
passes below the bottom up the back part, and across the top, without entering
among the manufactured goods. The dried articles, when set in the kiln,
are each piece entirely covered with coal dust, both below and above, for the
purpose of making them black; the whole is then covered by a coat of loam,
and the back flue continued over the top. They require a degree of beat
equal to a pantile kiln for about fourteen days and nights. After being
suffered to cool, which requires about a fortnight, they are taken out and
rubbed straight with metal casts, made the reverse of the parts to be polished.
The flat straight parts may be smoothed with a piece of fine freestone, using
sand and water. The different articles are afterwards to have five or six coats
of black paint, or any such like material, to destroy the porosity of the burnt
clay, and then be placed in a close stove or oven, similar to those used by
japanners, for the space of four or five days, heated gradually till it becomes

page_text: nearly as hot as a common oven when used for baking bread.
It
The stove
or oven I have used consists of a metal plate for the bottom and stone flags
or slabs set on edge for the sides and ends, and large flags across the top.
The ends must be loose for the purpose of getting the goods in and out.
is heated by a furnace and flues underneath. Such stoves or ovens may be
constructed various ways, it being only necessary to have a regular heat
inside. They are next to be polished perfectly smooth with pumice stone
or very fine freestone and water, taking care not to rub through the under
coating. They must then have five or six coats of black japan, or other
suitable varnish, which will harden by being heated, next placed in the same
kind of stove or oven they were last in for five or six days, and exposed to the
same degree of heat as before. After cooling they must be polished with
emery and water, rubbed on with a piece of cloth or leather, and, lastly, well
oiled and cleaned.
The glaze is to
clay, after which
Those fireplaces, columns, cornices, flags, slabs, and monuments intended to
be white, are made by using pipe or potter's clay instead of common, mixed
with ground flint in such proportion as the clay will bear, which depends
upon the kind of clay used, some taking more and some less flint, and treated
in the same way as the others, until they are dry and ready for burning.
When dry they are placed in saggars, and burnt in a kiln similar to those
used by potters. After the first burning they are made perfectly straight and
smooth by rubbing them with metal reverse casts or pieces of fine freestone,
with water and sand. They are then dipped in a suitable glaze, composed
of white lead, flint glass, and borax, by being ground to powder and mixed
with water, in such proportion as will suit the kind of clay.
be laid upon one kind of glazing, not suiting every kind of
they are to be again burnt. to flux the glazing material. The mill may be
either a round or square tub, made of wood or metal, having an upright
square shaft of iron in the centre, with a number of flat knives attached to it
at right angles, so that when the mill shaft revolves, the knives being placed
slanting a little up in the front edge, may force the clay down through the
tub, which is firmly fixed, and, consequently, through the mould at the bottom,
which mould is made of sheet iron, or other suitable material, cut the reverse
shape of the article intended to be moulded, and fixed to the bottom of the
mill tub slanting upwards in front, so as a board lying at a right angle with
the bottom of the mill will bear the weight of the moulded material as it
oozes through the mould and slides down the board, such board having to be
lifted up with the jambs, &c. After they are cut to the required length they

page_text: are then to be transferred to another board, for the purpose of being taken away
to dry either in a shed or drying house, as described. A mill about five feet high
and two feet diameter may have nine or ten knives, each about ten inches long
by three and a half or four inches broad, placed alternately in the four sides of
the upright shaft, beginning about fourteen inches from the bottom pointing
towards the tub side, and approaching within half an inch of it. Such mills
are constantly in use for preparing pantile and brick clay, previous to moulding.
The size of the mill must depeud upon the breadth of the article to be made.
One two feet diameter will mould anything twenty inches broad and any
length required. For the purpose of moulding columns by the mill, or
anything that has not one flat side to slide upon, I place an upright piece
of round wood, which forms a nucleus for the column to form itself upon.
Below the bottom of the mill, under the centre of the moulds (which in this
instance must lie in a horizontal direction) leaving a space of about two inches
(more or less, according to the required size of the column, &c.) between the
inner edge of the mould and the outer edge of the upright piece of wood or
nucleus, and the clay being forced perpendicularly down by the mill will
form a hollow cylinder, being the shaft of the column. Without diminution,
after it is nearly dry, by putting it into a lathe and turning off the superfluous
clay, its proper form may be imparted to it. The base and capital must be
moulded in separate pieces, and in moulds suitable to their design and size,
and, when nearly dry, may likewise be turned in a lathe. After they are
burnt they must be again placed in the
as ono part may fit another, they are
already described. After the column or
lengths, is set away to dry, the piece of
taken out of its centre, or the clay, upon beginning to dry, will split.
lathe, and turned perfectly correct, so
then to be filled up and japanned, as
part of column, if moulded in short
wood it was moulded upon must be
I claim as my Invention the use of common clay in making fireplaces,
columns, cornices, slabs, and monuments; and also, the use of the mill
described for making them, and the method of burning them black, and also
using black japan or other suitable varnish, in combination with burnt clay,
to make a polish to imitate marble, and also the method of making fireplaces,
&c. of potter's clay by the use of the mill.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Wilson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of October, in the
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
Fear of
RICHP (L.E.) WILSON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of October,
in the year of our Lord 1836, the aforesaid Richard Wilson came before our
said Lord the King in His 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.
Inrolled the Seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.