AN IMPROVED TOOTH POWDER
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Maria Farina, of Hanway Street, Oxford. Street, in
the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED TOOTH
POWDER." A communication.
Sealed the 24th December 1856, and dated the 4th October 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Maria Farina at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with her Petition, on the 4th
October 1856.
I, MARIA FARINA, of Hanway Street, Oxford Street, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVED
TOOTH POWDER," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in compounding tooth powder of the following
materials: Cream of tartar, calcined alum, orris root, calcined magnesia,
cochineal, Peruvian bark.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Maria Farina in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th March 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MARIA
FARINA, of Hanway Street, Oxford Street, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, .in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Maria Farina, Her special licence, that I, the said Maria Farina, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Maria
Farina, 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 TOOTH POWDER," (a
communication,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Maria
Farina, my executors or administrators, by an instrument 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 Maria Farina, do hereby declare tlie
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 compounding tooth powder by the use of the
following materials:-Cream of tartar, orris root, calcined magnesia, cochineal,
Peruvian bárk, and to these materials I add cinnamon powder and a decoction
of geranium and rose leaves..
:
I combine the materials in the following manner: On to 8 oz. of cream of
tartar I pour boiling water, and let the mixture stand till the water is cold,
and I then filter it off. I. then take-1 lb. of Peruvian bark, ground to a
fine powder; 4 oz. of cinnamon, do, d°; 1 oz. of orris root, do, d°; 3 oz. of
cochineal, do, do. These materials I mix well together, and I then add 1 oz. of

page_text: a decoction of geranium and rose leaves, together with the water strained from
the cream of tartar, and I knead the materials into a stiff paste, this I spread
on slabs of porcelain, and dry before a large fire; it is afterwards finely
pulverized, and is then fit for use.
In witness whereof, I, the said Maria Farina, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
MARIA FARINA. (L.S.)