IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLIANCES FOR ORNA- MENTING ARTICLES OF GLASS, SUCH AS DECANTERS, WINE GLASSES, TUMBLERS, AND OTHER LIKE ARTICLES, THE SAID APPARATUS BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR ORNA- MENTING ARTICLES MADE OF CHINA, EARTHENWARE, OR OTHER PLASTIC MATERIALS, AS ALSO THE REGULAR OR IRREGULAR SURFACES OF METALS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William George Webb at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st March 1877.
WILLIAM GEORGE WEBB, of Wordesley, near Stourbridge, in the County of
Stafford, Flint Glass Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLIANCES FOR ORNA-
MENTING ARTICLES OF GLASS, SUCH AS DECANTERS, WINE GLASSES, TUMBLERS, AND
OTHER LIKE ARTICLES, THE SAID APPARATUS BEING ALSO APPLICABLE FOR ORNA-
MENTING ARTICLES MADE OF CHINA, EARTHENWARE, OR OTHER PLASTIC MATERIALS,
AS ALSO THE REGULAR OR IRREGULAR SURFACES OF METALS."
My improvements relate to an extension of the manifold beautiful ornaments or
designs obtained by the mathematical action of the cutter or marker of the epi-
cycloidal cutting frame which hitherto has been limited to the ornamentation of the
flat surfaces placed in foci with the said cutter or marker of the said apparatus.
And my improvements consist in connecting with the said apparatus a revolving
table, the centre of which rises perpendicular at right angles to the action of the
cutter before mentioned; this revolving table is connected to the epicycloidal frame
by a system of changeable wheels so that the table may revolve in either direction
simultaneous with the working of the apparatus; by these means, and with the
assistance of a single or compound elastic seated cutter or marker I am enabled to
bring into play the action of the said compound needles, pointers, or cutters upon
curved surfaces, such as cylinders, cones, globes, semi-globes, ovals, or other regular
or irregular curved surfaces of metals, glass, china, earthenware, or other material,
ornamenting the same in continuous bands at right angles to the axis of the table
on which the article to be ornamented is placed, or in any other distinct or con-
tinuous system of curved ornament capable of being almost endlessly changed and
diversified by the power of the epicycloidal apparatus.
In some cases, say for ornamenting the exterior of a semi-spherical wine or other
glass, the table may have a rocking or inclining motion, working on an axis so as
to cause the semi-spherical wine glass or other article to rock on an area equal to
the volume of its circumference so as to bring the said area in a line with its.
focus with the pointer or pointers connected with the epicycloidal apparatus as before
described.
To meet the inequality of irregular curved surfaces to be ornamented the table
may have an eccentric rocking motion, or be met by the range or play of the elastic

page_text: seated pointer or pointers, so as to ensure a perfect contact of the working point of
the marker or markers, or cutters, with the surface of the article that is being
ornamented, which in case of its being an article composed of china or earthenware,
the process of ornamenting by my improved apparatus may be proceeded with
while the article is in an unburnt state, in which case the ornament will be engraven
or impressed below the general surface, or otherwise, as preferred, and finished in
the usual way; but when ornamenting articles of glass it may be sufficient to trace
the design through a coating of wax, and rendering the design permanent by the
action of acid over the so traced design, the depth of permanency depending on the
more or less use of acid as before mentioned.
In operation the design must be defined by the setting of the apparatus and the
placement of the article to be ornamented (which for definement may be a wine
glass), which being placed centrally on the table before mentioned, and by means of
a regulated screw the said glass is brought in contact with the elastic seated.marker
or markers, or the marker or markers brought in contact by the like or equivalent
means with the said glass, when the apparatus may be put in motion by the
attendant until the glass has made one revolution, when the epicycloidal frame is
withdrawn and elevated, or lowered as required, by means of a feather in the
vertical shaft, or other means of connecting its motion to the lower system of wheels
actuating the table, when the formed ornament may be traced or changed at the
taste of the operator. By this system of ornamentation great certainty and a rapid
repeat of the work may be carried on and diversified ad libitum.