CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING, POLISHING, AND FINISHING SLATE, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO DOMESTIC AND OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
EUGENE MAGNUS, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighth day of February, One thousand eight hundred and
forty, and in the third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said George Eugene Magnus, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
George Eugene Magnus, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said George Eugene Magnus, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no other, 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 and
Wales and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING, POLISHING, AND FINISHING SLATE, AND IN THE
APPLICATION OF THE SAME TO DOMESTIC AND OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said George Eugene
Magnus, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled 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

page_text: and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Eugene Magnus, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained by the following explanation thereof, that is to say:-
My Improvements in Manufacturing, Polishing, and Finishing Slate, and
in the Application of the Same to Domestic and other Useful Purposes,
consists,―
Firstly, in manufacturing, shaping, or forming certain articles of slate
instead of employing metals, marbles, wood, and other substances, of which
such well known articles are commonly made, and have for their principal
object durability, economy, and beauty of appearance, when compared with
similar articles of the ordinary manufacture at present in use.
The articles of which I have manufactured of slate instead of other materials
as generally employed, and which I claim as new and never before made, used,
or known, and to the sole manufacture of which I consider myself entitled
under the above in part recited Letters Patent, are:- Baths composed solely of
slate, and shaped, formed, or adapted to the reception of the human figure by
being carved out or otherwise formed to the shape. Billiard tables, composed
solely of slate, that is, the frames and legs, as well as the bed or table, although
I am aware the bed or table has been heretofore made of slate, which I do not
claim, excepting when combined with the framing and legs. Mangles, the
bed and chest of which are to be composed of slate, and also weighted with
state, as before. I am aware that mangles have been made with the beds only
of slate, but I claim the combination of the bed and chest, when composed of
slate. Corn chests, made entirely of slate, and fitted with covers and sliding
upon small rollers. Taps for liquids composed of slate by being carved out
and fitted with metallic plugs covered with, slate, and which are thus entirely
protected from filth or frost.
Secondly, my improvements consist in polishing and finishing such manu-
factured articles of slate as are required to be used for ornamental purposes
by the following process, which will be found to render slate surfaces as
beautiful as the highest polished marbles:-Take seven pounds of linseed oil,
one pound of umber ground, three pounds of spirits of tar, and one pound of
asphaltum, well mixed together. This mixture is then to be placed upon the
slate surface with a brush, and submitted to a heat of two hundred degrees, or
rather more, and after being allowed to cool, it is to be polished with pumice
and rotten stone by hand, and then painted or ornamented with any suitable

page_text: device or pattern in any variety the taste of the operator may suggest, after
the manner of the papier machée manufacture.
Having thus described my improvements in manufacturing, polishing, and
finishing slate, and the particular application of the same, I desire it to be
understood that I claim particularly the manufacture of the above mentioned
several articles composed of slate, being, to the best of my knowledge, of my
Invention and not heretofore known.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Eugene Magnus, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Seventh day of August,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid George Eugene Magnus came
before our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Eighth day of August. in the year above written.