CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF FLOORS AND OTHER PARTS OF BUILDINGS, AND ALSO TO CERTAIN KINDS OF FURNITURE, AND FITTINGS FOR BUILDINGS
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventh day of October, in the eleventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton,
my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, an Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
APPLICABLE TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF FLOORS AND OTHER PARTS OF BUILDINGS, AND
ALSO TO CERTAIN KINDS OF FURNITURE, AND FITTINGS FOR BUILDINGS," being a
communication from a foreigner residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent.
is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and

page_text: ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled 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 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
Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 in and by the following description thereof (that
is to say):-
The Invention, for which I have obtained Her Majesty's Letters Patent, as
aforesaid, has been communicated to me by my foreign correspondent in the
following words :-
My Invention consists in recombining, by fusing with any of the known or
appropriate fluxes, the earthy, alkaline, and metallic substances, which by
analysis are ascertained to constitute the elementary parts of precious and other
stones, and thus producing vitreous substances or artificial stones, possessing
the same or nearly the same properties and qualities as the natural stones,
which substances, thus produced, may be used for the purposes to which natural
stones have been or may be applied, such as constructing and ornamenting the
walls of buildings, making internal pannellings, floorings, and pavements,
capitals, cornices, and mouldings, and other architectural work, door and
furniture knobs, tops of various articles of cabinet furniture, handles for knives
and forks, and other domestic articles of cutlery, piano keys, and ornaments of
other musical instruments, seals, breast pins, and all articles of jewellery in
which precious stones are used, and, in short, to be used for or applied to any
and all purposes to which precious and other stones or vitreous substances
have been heretofore, or may hereafter be applied.
The manner in which my said Invention is to be carried into effect is,. to
take the various earthy, alkaline, and metallic substances, either or any of
them, which by chemical analysis have or may be ascertained to constitute the
elements of any of the precious or other stones to be artificially produced, and
in or nearly in the proportions known to constitute the equivalents of the
natural stone. The ingredients thus ascertained are then to be fused with the
proper admixture of any of the known fluxes, or such as may be ascertained
to be fluxes, and when properly fused the various articles to be male are
moulded or otherwise formed of the moulten substance. When such articles
are formed by moulding, if a smooth and lustrous surface is desired it can be
attained by grinding, &c., in manner similar to natural-stones, but a smooth

page_text: and lustrous surface can be given to moulded and pressed articles by simply
dipping in the moulten composition from which it has been made.
The superiority of this process of rendering stone useful in the arts by fusing
together the elements of which it is composed, and shaping the same in moulds,
over the tedious and expensive process of cutting and fashioning the hard and
refractory substance, as it is found in nature, will be readily understood and
appreciated.
Having described what constitutes my Invention, and indicated the various
to which the same is applicable, and ascertained the manner in which the same
can be carried into effect, what I claim as my Invention, and desire to secure
by Letters Patent, is, making all the various articles to which precious and
other stones have been or may be applied by fusing with appropriate fluxes
the earthy, alkaline, or metallic substances which constitute the elements of the
kinds of stones to be artificially produced.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Newton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
Inrolled the same Seventh day of April, in the year above written.