Wooden-plates.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Sept., 1887
specification Accepted, 25th Oct., 1887
Wooden-plates.
I, ROBERT HIMMEL of 183 Oranien Str., Berlin, Germany, manufacturer, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to he
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
My improved method has for its object to supplant the inlaid-work heretofore used
in furniture, door panels etc. in a cheap and efficient manner, and it consists in burning
the wooden-plates by means of heated inetallic-rolls or plates, which have the pattern
cut into or projecting out of their surface, and eventually in the subsequent smoothing
of the surface by means of rollers and in the polishing of the plates, whereby I receive
veneering-plates of exactly the same appearance as genuine inlaid-work.
To attain this object I proceed as follows:
I take two hard metal-plates of which the one has the pattern cut into or projecting
out of its one surface and which plate I heat to a suitable degree of warmth. Between
these two plates I lay the wooden plate to be treated and press the plates together by
any known means. Instead of using such plates, I also may employ two rollers of
which the one has a smooth or even surface and the other one carries the pattern,
figures, lettering etc. and which latter roller is hollow, so as to be heated by means of
a gas-burner or the like. Both rollers I mounted elastically in a suitable frame with
an adjusting device by which the distance between the rollers may be regulated
according to the thickness of the wooden plate to be prepared. In this space left
between the rollers I insert the plate and run it through by simply turning one or
both rollers. Hereby the plate will become yellow, brown or black, that is it will get
burnt at those parts at which the heated projections of the one roller have been pressed
on to them. When I slowly run the wooden-plates between the rolls, I receive a
black figured plate, by doing so faster, the pattern will appear in a brown or yellow
colour, but I also may regulate the colouring by regulating the flame of the Gas-
burner, being situated inside the figured roller. Those parts of the wooden plate
which have been burnt will become deepened while those that have been left in their
natural white colour will appear projecting with reference to the burnt parts. Such

page_text: prepared plates I preferably use for panels in doors, office furniture etc., but I may
treat the plate further by running them through two smooth rollers, whereby the
surface of the wooden plate becomes perfectly smooth and level.
In this way I proceed especially in those cases, where the veneering-plates have to
be polished, according to the furniture of which they shall make part, and the plates
appear as if they had received genuine inlaid-work of yellow, brown or black
colour.
Such plates I can produce at a much cheaper price than the genuine plates and
they are just as durable as the latter.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :
1. The method of producing fancy-figured wooden plates of two colours consisting
in the pressing of the plates between two metal-plates or rollers of which the one has
the pattern deepened or projecting and is heated to a suitable degree, whereby the
pattern appears in reversed manner on the wooden plate, substantially as described.
2. The process of producing fancy-figured wooden-plates being apt to be polished,
consisting in the burning of a pattern into the wooden plate and in the subsequent
smoothing or pressing of the thus prepared surface, substantially as described.
Dated this 10th day of September 1887.