A NEW OR IMPROVED ORNAMENTAL MATERIAL OR FABRIC
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Wilson, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED
ORNAMENTAL MATERIAL OR FABRIC."
Sealed the 24th April 1855, and dated the 16th November 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Wilson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th November 1854.
I, ROBERT WILSON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR
IMPROVED ORNAMENTAL MATERIAL OR FABRIC " to be as follows:-
My said Invention consists of leather, or such woven or felted fabric as
may be prepared after the manner of oil cloth, which said leather or fabric,
after having had its surface prepared and made smooth by the use of oil or
water colour, is ruled in various colours, so as to produce the patterns or
designs commonly called plaid, or tartan plaid, or clan tartan plaid, or fancy
checquered work patterns or designs, which said designs are produced on the
said leather or fabric by the ordinary methods of producing the same on wood

page_text: or other surfaces. The ornamental material or fabric thus produced may be
applied to the ornamenting of snuff boxes, cigar cases, and other articles, and
the ornamenting of the said articles is effected more economically according to
my Invention than by the ordinary method.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Wilson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
4th May 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
WILSON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert Wilson, Her special licence that I, the said Robert Wilson, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Wilson,
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 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED ORNAMENTAL
MATERIAL OR FABRIC," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Robert Wilson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Wilson, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):-
My new or improved ornamental material or fabric consists of leather,
woven or felted fabric, parchment, or vellum, on one surface or side of which
the designs called clan tartan plaid or chequered work are produced by the
process of ruling, after the manner in which the said designs are produced upon

page_text: In
wood, in the manufacture of snuff boxes and other ornamental articles.
carrying my Invention into effect, I prefer to prepare that surface of the
leather fabric or material on which the design is to be produced with a
ground or preparation either of oil, or water colour, or varnish, and I after-
wards produce the design upon the said prepared surface by the process of
ruling with pens containing color, the said ruling being either effected by
hand, or by any machine whereby the same is or may be effected. As the
construction of the pens and machinery whereby tartan plaid or chequered
designs are produced, as well as the compositions of the colours or inks used,
are well known and commonly practised, and constitute no part of my Inven-
tion, I do not think it necessary to describe the same. Although I prefer, as
herein-before stated, to prepare the surface of the leather, fabric, or material
with a coating of oil, or water colour, or varnish, before ruling the pattern or
design thereon, yet the said pattern or design may be applied to the said
surfaces without such preparation. In carrying my said Invention into effect,
either oil or water colours may be used. When the designs have been produced
in water colours, I varnish the same with varnish of boiled or drying linseed
oil, or other varnish having sufficient flexibility not to crack by the folding of
the said material or fabric, the object of the said varnish being to defend the
pattern or design from injury, as well as to give brilliancy and transparency to
the said pattern or design. When the said patterns or designs have been
produced in oil colours, the varnishing is less necessary than when water
colours have been used. The ornamental material or fabric produced by the
method herein-described may be applied to the ornamenting of snuff boxes,
cigar cases, and the other articles on which clan tartan or chequered designs or
patterns are ordinarily produced, by ruling the same on the said articles. The
ornamenting of the said articles is more economically effected by applying to
the surfaces of the same my new or improved ornamental material or fabric
than by the ordinary method of ornamenting them. My Invention may also
be applied to the ornamenting of articles with plaid, tartan, or chequered
designs, which articles cannot be ornamented with the said designs according
to the ordinary method of ornamenting with the said designs, for example,
articles of furniture, ladies' shoes, belts, and reticules.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described, as the same may be varied
without departing from the nature of my said Invention; but I claim as my
Invention, a new or improved ornamental material or fabric produced in

page_text: the manner herein-before described, that is to say, by ruling tartan plaid or
chequered designs upon leather, woven or felted fabrics, parchment and
.vellum.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Wilson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of May, in the year of our Lord One
'thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
ROBERT WILSON. (L.S.)