IMPROVED MEANS OF UTILIZING LUMINOUS POWDERS FOR THE PURPOSE OF RENDERING OBJECTS LUMINOUS OR VISIBLE IN THE DARK AND FOR PRESERVING SUCH POWDERS FROM BEING SOILED
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Marshall Arthur Wier at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th December 1879.
MARSHALL ARTHUR WIER, of Gracechurch Street, in the City of London.
"IMPROVED MEANS OF UTILIZING LUMINOUS POWDERS FOR THE PURPOSE OF
RENDERING OBJECTS LUMINOUS OR VISIBLE IN THE DARK AND FOR PRESERVING
SUCH POWDERS FROM BEING SOILED."
The object of my Invention is to utilize luminous or phosphorescent powders in
a more effective manner than has been done heretofore.
According to one method I employ hollow transparent or partially transparent
chambers or moulds of glass, tale, horn, and such like substances formed or moulded
into the shapes it is intended to make luminous, for example, letters, figures, vases,
lamps, dials, knobs, globes, lustres, tiles, ornamental designs on glass, and such like.
The phosphorescent or luminous powder is placed in the hollow or annular spaces
of the said chambers or moulds, and the powder is by these means preserved from
contact with dust, moisture, and other prejudicial influences detrimental to the
proper luminous effect of the said powder.
One method I employ is to form the required design in "intaglio" on plain or
"flashed" or coloured glass by the sand blast or by etching with acid, then to fill
the "intaglios" or hollow parts so formed with the luminous powder, and to cement
over the same a suitable backing to retain the powder in the said hollow parts;
or in some cases the design may be formed in "intaglios" or hollows on any
suitable substance, the hollows filled with the powder and glass or other transparent
substance cemented over it. This method is suitable for the production of luminous
tiles for floors or walls, or for producing luminous letters for facias of shop fronts,
street name plates, and many other purposes. A great variety of effects may also
be produced by twisting or shaping glass tubes into various forms and filling them
with the powder.
According to another method applicable to articles coated with a fused glaze,
such as glazed tiles or bricks or enamelled metals, I either mix the luminous
powder with the materials intended to form the glaze or enamel, and after applying
the mixed materials to the surface of the article I subject the whole to the action of
heat in a closed furnace or muffle, from which is excluded the atmospheric air, and
those gases which, by combining with the luminous powder, would alter its

page_text: character and render it non-luminous; or I take the article glazed or enamelled in
the usual way, and after applying the luminous powder over such glaze or enamel
I subject the whole to heat, as last above named, so as to fuse the glaze or enamel
when the luminous powder sinks into the body of the fused glaze or enamel, and
becomes fixed or embedded therein.
In some cases I mix the luminous powder with that intended to form the glaze
or enamel, and both these with a suitable liquid vehicle whereby such glazing or
enamelling material and the luminons powder may be applied to the article in the
form of a paint in the manner described in the Specification of a Patent granted
to William Henry Balmain, bearing date the Seventh day of November 1878, and
Numbered 4152, and the article being then heated or "fired" as before explained
the glazed or enamelled surface will have embedded in it the luminous powder.