Improvements in or relating to Memoriale of Deceased Persons.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Apr., 1892-Accepted, 28th May, 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Memoriale of Deceased Persons.
I, Dr. LEWIS NICHOLAS WORTHINGTON, of 4 Avenue d'Eylau, Paris, in the
Republic of France, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
Veneration of the dead, or ancestor worship, being an attribute of humanity as
ancient as it is universal, the desire to preserve the bodies of the departed has
characterized all races wherever mankind has raised itself above the brute level.
Burial in the earth has been at all times controlled and modified by this central
idea, which has led even savage man to bury his dead in places set apart and
consecrated to this special use.
The survival and extension of this custom of earth-burial among the populous
civilized nations of to-day has, however, given rise to serious questions of sanitary
expediency and to protests that find their expression in the revival of an ancient
custom of cremation, the spread of which, although approved by reason and
scientific opinion, is retarded by the fact of immediate total destruction of the
human frame as such, and the practical elimination of even the tangible substance
of the body.
Earth-burial being a fixed habit of mankind, it is difficult to change through an
appeal to reason, in spite of the knowledge that the decay of the body in the earth
is but a slower form of cremation. The one commends itself to the feelings as the
similitude of peaceful sleep, while the other suggests an agonizing change ending
in oblivion. The great and obvious advantages of cremation make its universal
adoption a thing to be desired, and my invention tends in this direction, its object
being to assure the preservation of the remains of the deceased in a form which may
also preserve the facial identity.
Stated in the terms of an industrial art, my invention is the art or process of
creating a memento of a deceased person, consisting in treating the incinerated
remains with a suitable combining substance to produce a plastic hardening material,
and producing with such material a bas-relief or other characteristic article or
souvenir, and it also consists in such article or souvenir made up of or containing
the incinerated remains of a deceased person combined with a suitable cementing
medium.
In practically carrying out my invention various methods may be employed
according to the specific end in view.
For example, a suitable mould having been taken and prepared by any of the
well known methods, of the features of a deceased person, according to the view
desired (bust, profile &c.) the ashes of the deceased, after cremation, are pulverized
and suitably incorporated with plaster of Paris, silicate of potash, or other suitable
cementing medium, and given the proper form by the mould so prepared, producing
for instance, a profile bas-relief of the deceased. When suitably hardened the
features may be coloured with pigments if desired, or electro-plated with gold,
silver, or other suitable material, producing a portrait which may be framed or
encased in any suitable manner, and provided, by engraving, chiselling, or other-
wise, with an epitaph or other legend relating to the deceased.
It will be obvious that other objects than portraitures of the deceased may be
made of the remains, but it will probably occur to most persons that this form of
memorial will be most suitable in order that, as ancestral portraits or other family
heir-looms, they may be preserved with the respect and veneration naturally
attaching to objects of this nature, which have a sacred value.
I may in this connection explain that my object in seeking the protection of the

page_text: Patent Laws is to control the introduction and establishment of these memorials in a
manner and upon a basis that shall commend itself to reason and feeling, and
prevent a degraded and unworthy use of the inventive idea herein set forth until a
public sentiment shall have been established for its further protection under suitable
conditions to serve the best uses. Such conditions would obtain, for example, when
cemeteries are utilized for the building and maintenance of family memorial buildings
in which the herein described mementoes of deceased relatives may be preserved
and exhibited under proper conditions.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is,
1. The improvement in the art of creating memorials of deceased persons con-
sisting first in treating the incinerated remains with a suitable combining substance
to produce a plastic harlening material and second moulding or otherwise fashioning
the same into memorial forms identifying the deceased and suitable for preservation
substantially as set forth.
2. The improvement in the art of creating memorials of deceased persons con-
sisting first in treating the remains with a suitable combining substance to produce
a plastic hardening material second moulding or otherwise fashioning the same into
memorial forms identifying the deceased and suitable for preservation and third
electro-plating or otherwise covering the same with a layer of metal substantially
as set forth.
3. As a new article of manufacture and use a bas-relief tablet or other memorial
object identifying the deceased person formed of or containing the incinerated
remains of such person treated with a combining and hardening substance whereby
it is rendered firm and durable substantially as set forth.
4. As a new article of manufacture a bas-relief tablet or other memorial object
identifying the deceased person formed of or containing the incinerated remains of
such person electro-plated or otherwise covered by a layer of metal preserving the
external contour of said object substantially as set forth.
Dated this 26th day of, April 1892.
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.