ICA Tumman MiiCURE OF PARQUET FLOORING
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Needham Mansfield, of Great Portland
Street, in the County of Middlesex, Cabinet Maker, for the In-
CICA Tumman MiiCURE OF PARQUET FLOORING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Needham
Mansfield at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 7th May 1869.
I, GEORGE NEEDHAM MANSFIELD, of Great Portland Street, in the
County of Middlesex, Cabinet Maker, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF PARQUET FLOORING,"
to be as follows:-
330
The object of this Invention is to provide a covering for the floors of
halls and other apartments that will besides possessing the advantages
of sightliness and endurance in common with parquetry have the
advantage of deadening the sound of the footfall, while its cost will be.
considerably less than that of parquetry.

page_text: In carrying out these objects I use wood veneers for the wearing
surface of the covering as has heretofore been proposed, and these I
back with sheets or strips of the substance known as kamptulicon, and
prepared either with or without an internal layer of canvas, or with the
material ordinarily used for floorcloths, being woven fabric covered or
filled in with paint or pigment. Or in lieu of this I use india-rubber
cloth or its equivalent, such as that manufactured for covering stairs,
and possessing the property of deadening sound. Or I may use a
leather backing or a backing of felt suitably prepared to resist decay.
These substances I attach to the veneer by any well-known adhesive
composition suitable to the backing material, and by means of pressure
I ensure a firm adhesion of the veneer to the backing. The covering
thus formed may be made in lengths and of varying widths and colors.
It may be laid down upon an even floor in strips or pieces to form
either plain or ornamental borders or patterns distributed over the floor,
and the same may be joined up and fixed to the floor by marine glue or
other suitable material.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Needham Mansfield in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 3rd November 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
NEEDHAM MANSFIELD, of Great Portland Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Cabinet Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said George Needham Mansfield, Her
special licence that I, the said George Needham Mansfield, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
George Needham Mansfield, 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
1

page_text: Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF PARQUET FLOORING,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Needham
Mansfield, 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Needham, Mansfield, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement (that is to say):
:-
The object of this Invention is to provide an economical covering for
the floors of halls and other apartments which while possessing the
advantages of lightness and endurance in common with parquetry will
deaden the sound of the footfall, will have no tendency to warp, and will
offer considerable facilities both in its manufacture and application as
compared with parquetry.
In carrying out these objects I use veneers of hard or ornamental
woods (by preference from th to 16th of an inch in thickness) for
the wearing surface of the covering as has heretofore been proposed.
These I back with sheets or strips of the substance known in the market
as kamptulicon, rolled to a thickness say of about th of an inch.
The veneer I attach to its backing by means of a solution of glue or
other suitable adhesive material of the ordinary consistence of cabinet
makers' glue, and when the glue is dry I cut up the backed veneer into
squares or other suitable shapes, when required to form therewith a
chequered or other pattern upon the floor which it is desired to cover
and ornament. The absence of fibre in this backing enables me to
treat the whole thickness as if it were wood, and thereby to economisc
labor. Thus with a fine saw I can cut the backed veneer into the
desired shapes, and finish off the edges with a plane or other edged tool.
I find that the advantages of the kamptulicon are also possessed by the
material known as linoleum (being a preparation of oxidized oil and
ground cork or sawdust), when that material is not backed with canvas
(which would interfere with the obtaining of smooth cut edges), and I
therefore propose to use
that material as an equivalent for the
An

page_text: kamptulicon when its price is not an object to be considered. Instead
of first backing the veneer and then cutting it up into pieces which
shall fit together when applied to a floor and form a simple or more or
less claborate pattern I may where it is thought desirable compose
my pattern and apply it to the kamptulicon backing with the view of
attaching the same in large squares or pieces to the floor to be covered.
The usual plan of composing a pattern in veneers is to place the pieces
in their proper order face downwards upon a sheet of thin pasted paper.
This plan I adopt when preparing, for example, an ornamental border,
and when the pattern or so much of it as will suffice to fill a strip, or
sheet of paper is completed I lay the same aside to dry. When dry I
coat the back of the veneer with a solution of glue or other adhesive
material brought to the usual consistency of cabinet makers' glue, and
then apply it to the elastic backing material, and with the aid of slight
pressure I obtain a firm adhesion of the vencer to the backing. Wood
flooring or parquet flooring may be made in this manner in lengths and
of varying widths, plain or of any desired pattern, and of a uniform or
any desired variety of color; or it may be made in detached pieces
as above mentioned, and applied like ornamental flooring tiles. My
improved parquet or wood floor covering may be laid down upon an
even floor of stone, slate, concrete, or wood, and secured firmly thereto
by the simple application of glue and whiting, or other suitable adhesive
mixture to the contact surfaces. It may be laid in strips or pieces,
forming thereby a plain or ornamental border around an apartment, the
centre of which is to be covered with a carpet, or it may cover the
whole floor with a geometrical pattern enriched with a border, and with
or without a central and corner ornaments. The pieces composing the
parquet flooring or floor covering it will be understood must be carefully
joined up as they are applied to the floor, and connected at their edges
with the aid of the glue solution. The tendency of the veneer to warp
is I find neutralized by the backing which adheres most firmly to the
veneer and to the floor. When the parquet flooring or wood floor
covering is laid and the adhesive mixture has had time to dry the floor
may be finished in any approved manner, so as to bring out the grain
and color of the veneers.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved
Manufacture of Parquet Flooring," and explained the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the

page_text: above in part recited Letters Patent I claim, the use in the manufacture
of parquet flooring or wood floor covering of strips or sheets of wood or
veneers backed in the manner and for the purpose above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Needham Mansfield, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Third day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
ninc.
GEORGE N. MANSFIELD. (L.S.)
GEORGE N. MANSFIELD. (L.S.)