AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAINTING BRUSHES, AND OTHER BRUSHES APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS PURPOSES
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, TIMOTHY
MASON, of Number 56, Great Portland Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Brush Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King, William the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twentieth day of October, One thousand eight hundred and thirty,
and in the first year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, Timothy
Mason, my exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Timothy Mason, my exors, adñors, and
assigns, by myself or such others as I or they should 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 my Invention of
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PAINTING BRUSHES, AND OTHER
BRUSHES APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS PURPOSES," within that part of His Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said
Timothy Mason, or my exors, admors, or assigns, should seem meet, and should
have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage arising there-
from for and during the space of fourteen years; in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso to the effect that I, the said Timothy Mason,
should, within the space of six calendar months from the date thereof, cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and of the manner
in which the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my

page_text: land and seal, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery, as
in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at largo
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Timothy Mason, do hereby declaro that my said Invention of an Improvement
in the Manufacture of Painting Brushes, and other Brushes applicable to
various Purposes, consists in the manner of fixing the hair into or upon the
stock or handle of the brush, which I accomplish in the following manner,
viz:-
I make a groove or grooves in the stock or handle of the brush, or affixed
thereto, of a capacity just sufficient to admit the knots of hair to be introduced
therein, as herein-after mentioned; and in order to give the grooves a greater
degree of tenacity I form them rather wider at the bottom than the top, or
with notched or threaded sides. These grooves may be circular or rectilinear,
or in such other direction as the form of the brush may require, and they may
be made either entirely of wood or of metal, or partly of one and partly of the
other; but as I do not claim the material as any part of my Invention, any
further description thereof will be unnecessary. But it may be proper to
observe, that if the grooves are made of wood they may he cut in the stock or
liandle of the brush itself; but if they are made of metal they must be rivetted
or otherwise securely affixed to or upon the stock or handle of the brush. The
grooves having been thus cut in or affixed to the stock or handle of the brush, I
tie up the hair in knots in the same way as if they were intended to be placed
in drilled holes, and having dipped them in the bot cement or pitch usually
employed by brush makers, or other suitable cenient, I immediately place them
one at a time into the grooves, taking care that the ends reach the bottom
thereof, and with a blunt tool adapted to the purpose I press against the
knots as they are introduced into the grooves, by which means they become
flattened and spread out so as to fill up the wider space already described as
being at the bottom of the grooves or the notches or threads at the sides
thereof, as the case may be, and thus will each knot be securely held. I
proceed in this manner till the whole of the groove or grooves is filled up with
knots of liair, when the brush will bo completed; and I do hereby declare that
the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is' to be
performed, is also particularly described and ascertained in and by the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and the following description thereof, that is to say:
Figure 1 represents the stock or handle of a painting brush having con-
centric grooves a, a, a, a, a. And it will be seen that there are three knots of
hair at b, b, c, placed in one of the grooves, those at 6, b, being flattened or

page_text: compressed together in the manner herein-after described; whilst that at c is
circular in the manner in which it is first introduced into the groove."
Figure 2 represents a section of Figure 1, by which it will be seen that there
are notches or threads cut on the sides of the grooves. The grooves being'
formed, I proceed to bind up knots of hair, and after dipping them into the
hot cement or pitch before mentioned, I place them one by one into the
grooves, taking care that the ends reach the bottom and compress them together
with a tool similar to that described in Figure 6. In brushes with circular
grooves as described in Figure 1, having introduced the first two knots of hair
into the groove, I flatten or compress them together as they appear at b, b,
with a small pair of pliers or forceps, and when the cement or pitch in which
they have been dipped becomes set these two knots of hair serve as a stop or
barrier against which the succeeding knots of hair are to be pressed, in manner
before described. By this means it will be obvious that the binding of the
knots of hair and the cement or pitch in which they are dipped will be forced
by
the
pressure to enter into and fill up the entire space of the grooves and
the notches or threads cut in the sides thereof, and will thus be securely held.
Figure 3 shews a plan, and Figure 4 a section of a plasterer's brush with
three grooves, and Figure 5 the plan of a brush having only one groove. In
these specimens it will be seen that the grooves a, a, a, are parallel right lines,
but in other respects the manner of constructing these brushes is similar to
the one already described. In Figure 1, 2, 3, and 4, the inner divisions of
the grooves are formed of wood bound round by a metal ferule d, which is
rivetted on to the stock or handle of the brush, and forms the external side of
the outer groove; and in Figure 5 the sides of the groove are formed entirely
by the metal ferule, which is rivetted on to the stock or handle of the brush.
In order to prevent the brass or metal ferules from bulging out or opening
after all the knots of hair have been fixed in the groove or grooves of which
the brush is formed, I rivet the whole together by passing one or more small
brass pins e, e, e, through the metal ferule a little above the knots of hair, and,
rivet them on the opposite side of the ferule. I do not, however, claim this
as any part of my Invention, but I conceive it is calculated to render the work
more secure. It is obvious that the width, depth, and form of the grooves,
and the size of the knots of hair may be varied as circumstances may require,
care being taken that the knots of hair are made of corresponding proportions to
the grooves in which they are intended to be fixed. In painting brushes of an
ordinary size I usually make the grooves about a quarter of an inch wide, and
half an inch deep, the partitions between the grooves being only of a sufficient
thickness to render them secure; and where the hair is required to be placed in

page_text: very close contact, I have found it advantageous to construct the grooves entirely
of metal, though I believe those constructed of wood will be found to hold the
hair sufficiently close for all useful purposes. I do not mean or intend hereby
to limit myself to the employment of any particular material or materials in
the construction of the several parts described, but to avail myself of any
materials which are fit and proper for the purpose; and though I have
described only three sorts of brushes it will be evident that the Invention is
applicable to various kinds of brushes, it being essentially the fastening knots
of hair in grooves in manner above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Timothy Mason, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighteenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1881, the aforesaid Timothy Mason came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Chatonta made for that murnoco
Inrolled the Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.