AN IMPROVED METHOD OR IMPROVED METHODS OF ORNAMENTING METALLIC SURFACES
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
FORD STURGES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of
January, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the fifteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Richard Ford Sturges, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Ford
Sturges, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, or such others as I,, the said Richard
Ford Sturges, 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD OR IMPROVED METHODS OF ORNAMENTING METALLIC
SURFACES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the
said Richard Ford Sturges, shall cause a particular description of the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Richard Ford Sturges, do hereby declare that the nature of my said In-
vention, 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:-
My Invention consists in the use of designs made of wire, sheet metal, lace,
paper, or other fabric or material, placed between two plates or sheets of
metal, and subjected to pressure between rolls or otherwise, so as to impress
the said design upon both of the said sheets or plates. The designs may
either be continuous (that is to say), repeated an indefinite number of times
upon a long sheet of metal), or central, (that is to say), the said design may be
confined to one part of the sheet or plate of metal ornamented), or the said
design may be partly continuous and partly central, (that is to say, one
part of the said design may be impressed on the whole surface of the metal
sheets or plates, so as to constitute a ground pattern, and another part of the
said design may be confined to one part of the said sheet or plate). I do not
consider it necessary to describe all the methods by which my
Invention may
be carried into effect, but I will describe such methods as in practice I find to
be most efficient. The patterns or designs to be impressed may be made of
wire, thread, sheet metal, paper, and other such like materials. The designs
made of wire may either be made by bending and working the said wire into
the desired pattern by hand, or the said wire may be woven or wrought into
designs by suitable machinery. The designs made of thread may also be
worked by hand or machinery, and the designs in thread met with in
commerce, such as lace, muslin, or other ornamental fabrics, may be
used for impressing metallic surfaces, according to my Invention. The
designs made of sheet metal or paper may be cut out or pierced by any of
the methods commonly practised for those purposes, those parts of the
said sheets of metal or paper being cut away which it is desired to have in
relief in the ornamental metallic surface. I sometimes combine patterns or
designs of lace or wire work with patterns or designs of paper or sheet
metal; for example, I sometimes place upon a piece of lace or design of a
shield or crest, or some central ornament, such as a group of flowers, and by
pressing the same between the plates to be ornamented, I obtain ornamental
surfaces having a ground pattern similar to that of the lace, and the central
ornament left more or less plain. If the central ornament is made of strong
sheet metal, then the portion of one of the impressed plates on which the said
central ornament was pressed is left plain but sunken, while the corresponding
portion of the other impressed plate is likewise sunken, but marked with the

page_text: pattern of the lace or other ground pattern. By making the central pattern
of paper, or of materials more or less yielding, the said central pattern may be
impressed to a greater or less degree with the ground or lace pattern. I
sometimes also use patterns or designs made of paper or sheet metal, or sheets
of other substances, or of fabrics on which designs have been made in relief by
writing or painting, and I find that such designs, although slightly in relief,
and of but moderate hardness, may be readily impressed upon metal. The
methods by which I apply the pressure necessary to carry my Invention into
effect may vary according to the nature of the metal to be ornamented
and the pattern to be impressed. I do not confine myself to any particular
method or methods of pressing, as the same must be varied as the metals
or alloys to be ornamented and the materials of which the pattern to be
impressed vary; but the methods I have found by experience to be suitable
to carry my Invention into effect are rolling, pressing by presses, and stamping.
The metals the surfaces of which I find my method of ornamenting applicable
to, are gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead, tinned iron, and the alloys of
metals, called brass, German silver, and Britannia metal. Although my.
Invention is particularly applicable to the metals and alloys of metals herein
enumerated, I do not limit its application to any particular metals or alloys of
metals.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise method of carrying my Invention into effect herein
described, as the same may be varied without departing from the nature of my
said Invention; for example, instead of placing a pattern or design between two
plates or sheets of metal, as herein described, and obtaining an impression of
the said pattern or design on each of the said plates, only one plate of metal
to be ornamented may be employed, and the said plate, with the pattern or
design placed thereon, may be passed between rolls, or otherwise pressed,
or the pattern or design may be placed between a plate of metal to be
impressed and a plate of hardened steel, or other hard surface, and the
whole subjected to pressure; but I prefer the method I have herein-before
described.
I claim, as my Invention, the ornamenting of metallic surfaces by impressing
patterns or designs made of metal, paper, or other material or fabric, upon the
said metallic surfaces, whether the said designs be formed of any of the
materials or by any of the methods herein described, or of other materials or
by other methods, and whether the pressure be applied by any of the methods
herein described, or by any other means, and whether the surfaces impressed