IMPROVEMENTS IN SURFACE DECORATION AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Alfred Stephan and Henry Chalk Webb, both of
the City of Worcester, in the County of Worcester, Manufacturers, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SURFACE DECORATION AND IN APPARATUS
TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Sealed the 15th March 1878, and dated the 18th September 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Alfred Stephan and
Henry Chalk Webb at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
18th September 1877.
JOHN ALFRED STEPHAN and HENRY CHALK WEBB, both of the City of
Worcester, in the County of Worcester, Manufacturers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SURFACE DECORATION AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Our process consists in the use of & tube, which can be employed vertically as a
stamp, or horizontally as a roller, containing within it divisions or partitions, when
such are necessary, and which form a series of reservoirs for colours, or coloured
bodies, either in a liquid, dry, semi-dry, or plastic state; which colours or coloured
bodies are to he expressed from the tube through perforated or sunk plates, dies,
stencils, or moulds, by means of pressure, thus producing at one operation a
decorated surface in several colours, which decoration is decided by the patterns
which may be formed with plates, dies, stencils, or moulds referred to.
The Invention is applicable to the ornamenting of bricks, tiles, and similar
articles, upon or into the surfaces of which raised or flat patterns may be formed;
or inlays forced by pressure, or decorative materials can be first forced into a
noveable perforated plate; such material being expressed upon or into the surfaces
of bricks, tiles, or other objects, by means of a second plate having projections upon
it, exactly corresponding with the perforations in the first plate, and thus forming
die and matrix, the projections being the full depth of the perforations, leave, in
037

page_text: the case of inlays, the ornament exactly level with the surface into which it is
pressed.
This process of working perforated plates, dies, stencils, or moulds, in con-
junction with the colour reservoirs or compound tubes, can be applied with varying
details to every description of surface decoration and inlay, and also to printing in
parti-colours.
Another portion of our Invention consists in an improved manufacture of the
stencil plates employed in the decoration of tiles; these have hitherto been cut
from sheets or plates at considerable expense; we produce them by casting them in
suitable moulds.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Alfred Stephan and Henry Chalk Webb in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 16th March 1878.
JOHN ALFRED STEPHAN and HENRY CHALK WEBB, both of Worcester, in the
County of Worcester, Manufacturers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SURFACE DECORATION
AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Our process consists in the use of a tube, which can be employed vertically as a
stamp, or horizontally as a roller, containing within it divisions or partitions, when
such are necessary, and which form a series of reservoirs for colors or colored
bodies, either in a liquid, dry, semi-dry, or plastic state. which colors or colored
bodies are to be expressed from the tube through perforated or sunk plates, dies,
stencils, or moulds, by means of pressure, thus producing at one operation a
decorated surface in several colours, which decoration is decided by the patterns
which may be formed in the plates, dies, stencils, or moulds referred to.
The Invention is applicable to the ornamenting of bricks, tiles, and similar
articles, upon or into the surfaces of which raised or flat patterns may be formed,
or inlays forced by pressure, or decorative materials can be first forced into a
moveable perforated plate; such material being expressed upon or into the surfaces
of bricks, tiles, or other objects, by means of a second plate, having projections
upon it, exactly corresponding with the perforations in the first plate, and thus
forming die and matrix; the projections being the full depth of the perforations,
leaving, in the case of inlays, the ornament exactly level with the surface into which
it is pressed.
This process of working perforated plates, dies, stencils, or moulds, in conjunction
with the colour reservoirs or compound tubes, can be applied with varying details
to every description of surface decoration and inlay, and also to printing in parti-
colours.
Another portion of our Invention consists in an improved manufacture of the
stencil plates employed in the decoration of tiles; these have hitherto been cut from

page_text: sheets or plates at considerable expense; we produce them by casting them in
suitable moulds.
We will now proceed to describe our Invention in detail by the aid of the
accompanying Drawings, and, in the first place, that which we term the block
system (A and B), (Figure 1) are two boxes or compartments, shewn in longitudinal
section; (C and D) are plungers or rammere, of the form in cross section of the
ornament, as at (E, Figure 2), which is a plan of a tile; at (F) is the clay which is
to form the ground of the design, and into which ground the clay at (G) is to be
forced by the forward motion of the plunger (D), driving the clay at (G) into a
cavity prepared for its reception by the simultaneous withdrawal of the plunger (C),
which is caused to recede from the box (A) at the same rate as the plunger (D)
advances into the hollow which has been occupied by the clay at (G).
This system may be extended to any number of colours, each operation producing
a block of clays, having the ornament right through its thickness, and it may be
worked by hand, or by any convenient appliance for obtaining the reciprocating
motion of the plungers and slicing off the thicknesses of clays; the slab may then, if
necessary, be backed with rough clay.
The second process, which we term the tube process, is thus carried out:-We make
a tube, the cross section of which is the outline of the design we require, say, for
instance, the form shewn at (H, Figure 3), and of any suitable length; and we
employ a plunger corresponding in section to work within this tube; the tube being
forced through a block of clay, as at (I), and being withdrawn again, brings with it
a core of the clay, leaving a hollow of its own sectional form, as at (H). This core
of clay is to be forced out of the tube by the plunger before named, and the tube is
then forced through another box or slab of clay of the color intended for the inlay
at (H); this inlay is then inserted by means of the tube into the perforation already
made for it at (H), and the plunger being brought into operation forces it out of the
tube, and into the perforation.
Another process, which we term the plate system, consists in employing a plate
of metal or other suitable material, having the design sunk in it, as shewn at (J)
Figure 4, and upon a second plate (Figure 5) are projections (K) exactly corre-
sponding with the hollows (J); each plate being registered to fit the other. Into
the hollows (J) we force simultaneously clays of different colors by means of boxes
of clays, so arianged that each color shall be immediately under the hollow it is
then cut off
intended to occupy as the plate is pressed down upon it. The clay
on the under side of the plate, the plate being placed on the top of the clay into
which the ornament is to be pressed. The die or plate with the projections (K) is
then registered to the matrix plate, and the ornament is forced forward out of the
hollows into the surface of the clay intended to be ornamented, and when the plates
are lifted from it the ornament is complete in many colors, and flush with the
surface of the ground work, needing no scraping.
In making raised patterns on surfaces we use the plate, and form concavities in
the projections on the plates (K), such concavities being sunk to the contour of the
raised design required.
We have treated of our processes in the manner in which they are applicable to
the ornamenting of tiles or articles in clays, but with slight variation in details;
these processes may be employed for the surface decoration of other material.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be carried out,-
We claim the several processes to be employed in surface decoration, or inlaying
of colors, described and termed by us the block system, the tube system, and the
plate system, together with the appliances and apparatus to be employed in
carrying on the same herein described.
And we also claim the improved manufacture of stencil plates employed in the

page_text: decoration of tiles, by casting them in suitable moulds, instead of cutting them from
plates or sheets, as herein more fully set forth and specified.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Alfred Stephan and Henry Chalk Webb,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fourteenth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
JOHN ALFRED STEPHAN. (L.S.)
HENRY CHALK WEBB.
(L.S.)