IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFAC- TURE OF DECORATED SURFACES ADAPTED FOR THE ENRICHMENT OF WALLS, CEILINGS, FLOORS, AND FOR OTHER SIMILAR USES, AND IN APPARATUS OR MACHINERY EMPLOYED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Chalk Webb, of the City and County of Worcester,
Tile Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFAC-
TURE OF DECORATED SURFACES ADAPTED FOR THE ENRICHMENT OF WALLS,
CEILINGS, FLOORS, AND FOR OTHER SIMILAR USES, AND IN APPARATUS OR
MACHINERY EMPLOYED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE."
Sealed the 15th July 1879, and dated the 30th April 1879.
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Chalk Webb at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th April 1879.
HENRY CHALK WEBB, of the City and County of Worcester, Tile Manufacturer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF DECORATED SURFACES ADAPTED FOR
THE ENRICHMENT OF WALLS, CEILINGS, FLOORS, AND FOR OTHER SIMILAR USES,
AND IN APPARATUS OR MACHINERY EMPLOYED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE."
My Invention consists, firstly, in the use of a particular machine, and also the
adaptation of various parts of a lathe for the working and ornamenting of woods
and other articles whose surfaces are capable of being cut into ornamental sections
by knives, or ornamented by pressure; and, secondly, in the adaptation of such
articles so worked or ornamented in combination with other substances to various
purposes for which they are not at present used, but chiefly in the combined use of
ornamental or ornamented woods, such as parquetry for floors, walls, or ceilings,
with encaustic, printed, inlaid, or other tiles or slabs, as also of woods with sunk or
relieved ornament in combination with such tiles or slabs for walls, ceilings, furni-
ture, joinery mouldings, and a number of other purposes; and, thirdly, in particular
methods of framing, arranging, and fixing, or attaching such various articles to
floors, walls, ceilings, furniture, and other articles.
The particular machine referred to in the first part of my Invention is similar in
its action to machines at present used for litho. and other printing, or to iron or
steel planing machines, and consists of a travelling table capable of being worked
backwards or forwards by power or hand at the will of the operator, and intended

page_text: to bear the object to be cut or ornamented, and revolving wheels or drums working
over such table, and capable of regulation as to the distances of their periphery from
the table, such drums having on their outer surfaces raised or sunk ornament, and
such table or drums being so worked as to suit the article to be ornamented, the
pressure being light at first and gradually increased and repeated until the ornament
be the required height or depth.
For some articles the table should have ornamental projections upon its surface
in the place of or in addition to the wheels or drums.
The principle of this machine for ornamenting by pressure can also be applied to
the cutting of wood into ornamental sections by substituting for the raised or sunk
ornament on the drums certain knives, the object to be cut or perforated being
fixed on the travelling table, or a level surface of gutta percha or other suitable
substance not calculated to injure the edges of the knives.
There is also an arrangement within the drums or wheels for forcing articles out
of the hollows of the knives at convenient points of the drums or wheels as they
are revolving.
The wheel or drum for decorating circular objects can be applied in any kind of
lathe by having the said wheel or drum, whose periphery shall be ornamented as
before explained, fixed in the slide rest of the lathe, or in any other suitable manner,
and capable of exact adjustment to adapt it for the ornamenting of any part of an
article revolving on the chuck of the lathe in such wise that the ornament or,
impression shall be made to exactly repeat itself in certain lines and with increasing-
force until the necessary height or depth of ornament relieved or sunk shall have
been attained, this latter method being also applicable to the inlaying of hard bodies
with various kinds of ornament, or for staining or colouring of embossed ornament,
or for incising objects as a preparation for ornamenting or carving by hand.
My method of working various ornamental sections of woods cut in the manner
described would be for floors, chiefly in the form of parquetry, as commercially
known, inlaid with encaustic and other tiles and slabs, plain or ornamented by
printing or inlaying. The tiles can be cemented into the parquetry.
Occasionally in the place of tiles, as a variation of the ornaments, hollows may be
either carved or pressed into the portions of the wood ornament composing the floor,
and such hollows filled with a sufficiently hard cement.