IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING BRICKS, BUILDING BLOCKS, AND ROOFING AND OTHER TILES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Baugh and Benjamin Walters, both
of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturers, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING BRICKS, BUILDING
BLOCKS, AND ROOFING AND OTHER TILES."
Sealed the 25th March 1870, and dated the 9th October 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Baugh and
Benjamin Walters at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 9th October 1869.
We, BENJAMIN BAUGH and BENJAMIN WALTERS, both of Birmingham,
in the County of Warwick, Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING BRICKS, BUILDING
BLOCKS, AND ROOFING AND OTHER TILES," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in ornamenting bricks, building blocks, and
roofing and other tiles by producing in the manner herein-after described

page_text: on one or more of their faces patterns, devices, designs, or inscriptions
in colour, the said patterns, devices, designs, or inscriptions being burnt
in or vitrified on the said bricks, blocks, and tiles.
For convenience of description we will describe our Invention as
applied to the ornamenting of one face of a brick. We take a brick
having on the face to be ornamented a layer of white or coloured
enamel or glaze; such bricks are commonly made. Or we take a
brick of the ordinary kind, and by any of the ordinary and well known
processes we enamel or glaze the face to be ornamented. We apply to
the said face a thin layer of powdered enamel of the colour in which the
ornament is to be produced. The said layer of coloured enamel is
applied by mixing the powdered enamel with water to the consistence
of cream, and either floating the liquid upon the face of the brick or
applying it by means of a brush. To the water mixed with the enamel
powder we add a small quantity of gum arabic or sugar to give a slight
cohesion to the said powder. After the layer of enamel has become dry
we lay thereupon a stencil plate from which portions have been cut,
having the figure of the ground of the design. By means of a stiff
brush passed backwards and forwards over the stencil platė we remove
or detach all those portions of the layer of powered enamel corresponding
to the cut away parts of the stencil plate, and thus leave the enamel
powder attached to the face of the brick in the form of the ornament to
be produced. By heating or firing the brick in a muffle or kiln the
enamel powder is fused and fixed to the face of the brick. The process
described may be repeated, that is, a second or third coating of powdered
enamel may be applied and in part removed by the use of a stencil
plate and brush, and portions of the ornament may thus be produced in
different colours. Where an ornament in two or more different colours
has to be produced, and the colours are distributed over different parts
of the face of the brick, the different parts of the ornament may be
produced in the way already described, excepting that the various
coloured parts may be applied before firing the brick. Or the enamel
powder may be applied by being dusted through a stencil plate or plates
and the brick afterwards fired in the usual manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Benjamin Baugh and Benjamin Walters in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th April 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, BENJAMIN
BAUGH and BENJAMIN WALTERS, both of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, givo
and grant unto us, the said Benjamin Baugh and Benjamin Walters,
Her special licence that we, the said Benjamin Baugh and Benjamin
Walters, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said Benjamin Baugh and Benjamin Walters, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNA-
MENTING BRICKS, BUILDING BLOCKS, AND ROOPING AND OTHER TILES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Benjamin Baugh and
Benjamin Walters, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our or their hands or seals, and under the hand and
scal of one of us or them, 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 dato
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Benjamin Walters, on behalf of
myself and the said Benjamin Baugh, 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 state-
ment thereof, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists in ornamenting bricks, building blocks, and
roofing and other tiles by producing in the manner hercin-after described
on or more of their faces, patterns, devices, designs, or inscriptions in

page_text: colour, the said patterns, devices, designs, or inscriptions being burnt
in or vitrified on the said bricks, blocks, and tiles.
For convenience of description we will describe our Invention as
applied to the ornamenting of one face of a brick. We take a brick
having on the face to be ornamented a layer of white or coloured
enamel or glaze; such bricks are commonly made. Or we take a
brick of the ordinary kind, and by any of the ordinary and well known
processes we enamel or glaze the face to be ornamented. We apply to
the said face of the brick a thin layer of white or coloured enamel,
either in a semi-liquid state or in powder as herein-after described. The
enamel used is of the colour required to produce the desired ornament
on the face of the brick. We remark that in some enamels the colour is
not changed by the action of heat, while in others the colour eventually
produced is developed by the firing process..
For convenience of description we will call the first of the two
processes herein-after described the brushing out process, and the second
of the two processes the powdering process. For the brushing out
process we take sufficient water to bring the enamel powder to be used
to the consistency of cream, and to the water we add enough gum
arabic, sugar candy, or other glutinous substance, to give it the adhesive
quality necessary to enable the mixture to adhere to the face of the
brick. A mixture of one pint of water with ½ oz. of gum arabic,
answers the purpose well. To the water so prepared we add the enamel
powder in the proportion of about one ounce of the enamel powder to
3 ozs. of the gum water. When the enamel powder and gum water
are properly mixed we apply the enamel mixture by means of a brush
or by floating the same on the surface to be ornamented. We take care
that the whole surface is perfectly level and evenly covered. This we
effect by passing over the whole surface brushes of badger hair. When
the mixture has become dry we lay thereon a stencil plate made by
preference of metal or paper in which the pattern required to be pro-
duced is made by cutting away or removing such parts of the metal or
paper as are not required in such pattern, that is, only those parts of the
stencil plate which are to form the ground of the pattern are cut away,
the remaining or uncut away parts representing the figure of the pattern
ór design to be produced by the enamel. Or the pattern required to
be produced may be made by cutting away the metal or paper of the
stencil plate to form the said pattern, leaving the rest of the stencil

page_text: plate uncut. In this case the pattern or ornament produced consists of
the original glaze colour with an enamel ground slightly in relief. The
stencil plate being laid on the dried enamel coated surface and held
firmly thereon, a stiff brush is passed backwards and forwards over the
said stencil plate. By this means we remove or detach all those portions
of the dried enamel mixture corresponding to the cut away parts of the
stencil plate, the other portions of the enamel mixture remaining
untouched. Thus the pattern or design produced has either the colour
of the enamel with a ground consisting of the original glaze, or the
pattern or design produced has the colour of the original glaze on a
ground of the enamel last applied, according as the cut away portions
of the stencil plate correspond to the figure of the ground of the pattern
or design, or to the figure of the pattern or design. By heating the
brick in a muffle or kiln the enamel mixture is fused and fixed to the
face of the brick. The process described may be repeated, that is, a
second or third coating of enamel mixture may be applied, and in part
removed by the use of a stencil plate and brush, and portions of the
ornament may thus be produced in different colours. When an orna-
ment in two or more different colours has to be produced and the
colours are distributed over different parts of the face of the brick the
different parts of the ornament may be produced in the way already
described, excepting that the various coloured parts may be applied
before firing. the brick.
In practising the second or powdering process we apply the powdered
enamel to the surface of the brick by dusting the same through a stencil
plate made of metal or paper to form the ornament required and then
firing or fusing it as before described.
Our Invention as described with respect to the ornamenting of the
face of a brick may also be applied to the ornamenting of building
blocks and roofing and other tiles.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that
we do not limit ourselves to the precise details herein described, as the
same may be varied without departing from the nature of our Invention,
but we claim as our Invention the improvements in ornamenting bricks,
building blocks, and roofing and other tiles herein-before described, that
is to say, producing on one or more faces of the said articles, patterns,
devices, designs, or inscriptions in one or more vitrified colours by

page_text: applying to the enamelled or glazed surface of the article a thin layer
of a semi-liquid enamel and drying the same, placing upon the said
enamel a stencil plate, and removing by means of a stiff brush all those
portions of the enamel corresponding to the cut away parts in the
stencil plate, the layer of enamel being left on the article in the form
of the ornament or ground of the ornament to be produced, or applying
powdered enamel to the enamelled or glazed surface of the article by
dusting the said powdered enamel through a stencil plate, the cut away
parts in the said stencil plate corresponding to the ornament or ground
of the ornament to be produced, the ornament produced in either of
the ways described being afterwards burnt in or vitrified on the article,
substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Walters, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Second day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
BENJAMIN WALTERS. (L.s:).
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.