IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES OR DESIGNS ON VENEERS AND SOLID WOOD, AND IN THE APPLICATION THEREOF TO CABINET WORK, FURNITURE, FANCY WOOD ARTICLES, AND OTHER DECORATIVE PURPOSES." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur Foley, of Fisherton Street, Salisbury, in
the County of Wilts, Upholsterer, and Henry Foley, of the same
Place, Photographer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PRODUCTION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES OR DESIGNS ON VENEERS AND SOLID
WOOD, AND IN THE APPLICATION THEREOF TO CABINET WORK, FURNITURE,
FANCY WOOD ARTICLES, AND OTHER DECORATIVE PURPOSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Arthur Foley and
Henry Foley at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 9th February 1870.
We, ARTHUR FOLEY, of Fisherton Street, Salisbury, in the County
of Wilts, Upholsterer, and HENRY FOLEY, of the same Place, Photo-
grapher, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "In-
PROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES OR DESIGNS ON
VENEERS AND-SOLID WOOD,-AND-IN-THE-APPLICATION THEREOF TO CABINET WORK,

page_text: FURNITURE, FANCY WOOD ARTICLES, AND OTHER DECORATIVE PURPOSES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the means or
method of producing photographic pictures or designs of any descrip-
tion on or in the surface of veneers and solid wood, and in applying
such photographed designs or devices to every required class of
cabinet work, fancy wood articles, to walls, house-panelling, and other
such like decorative purposes. In order to effect these objects we take
a piece of even grained vencer suitable to the articlo we desire to
ornament, and plane both sides of the same with a toothed iron plano
until it is of an uniform thickness. One side we leave in this rough
state so as to be ready for treatment with gluc or other adhesive
solution; the other side we scrape and rub with glass paper so as to
remove all the marks of the plane, leaving a perfectly smooth surface,
which we damp with water or some other suitable liquid in order to
cause the grain of the wood to rise. We then allow the wood to
gradually dry, and again we rub with very fine glass paper. We again
repeat the damping and rubbing until the wood grain ceases to risc.
We now apply to the surface with a sponge or brush a solution of
chloride of sodium' or. chloride of barium (the former by preference),
and gradually dry the same, when it is ready to be sensitized, with a
solution of nitrate of silver. We desire this silver solution not only
to come--in contact with the surface of the wood (as is the case with
photographs printed on wood for engraving purposes), but to penetrate
to some extent into it, as hereafter described. We now. place the
photographic negative on the sensitized wood, and the printing is then
performed in precisely the same manner as photographs on paper.
-
"
}
The process for laying the veneers is as follows:-We take a piece of
wood vencer on which a suitable photographic picture or design has
been imprinted and cut it to the shape we consider requisite for the
subject in hand; we then preparo tho toothed or rough surfaco
(previously referred to) and glue the same, or otherwise cause its
adhesion into the centre or other part of the articlo wo wish to decorate
by placing it under a heated piece of smooth metal or wood and
compressing the same with screws in a calbench or in any other usual
way of fixing veneer. When sufficiently dry and hard we fill up the
surroundings of the table top, panel, or other article by gluing or
comenting around and abutting up to the photographic design vencers
.1

page_text: of walnut or other suitable woods (with or without photographic devices
thereon). After allowing the same to dry we plane off and smooth
down to the surface of the photographic picture (or pictures). We
then proceed to polish both the surroundings and the picture (or
pictures) with transparent French polish, which has the effect of
hardening by penetration the fibres of the wood and materially aids in
bringing out all the details.
Our object in permitting the silver solution to penetrate into the pores
of the wood is that thereby the light acting on the chloride of silver
darkens it so far into the fibre of the wood as the silver has penetrated,
for as a part of the surface of the picture may wear away in time, as
some parts necessarily must which are very much exposed and used
(such as a table top for example), yet the greater part of the detail of
the photograph remains.
We also apply our Invention as follows:-We take a piece of veneer
which has a picture, design, portrait, image, or view photographed
thereon; we lay it upon a walnut or other vencers which has been
cut sufficiently large to cover the surface of any given article; we then
with a very fine saw cut through both veneer's to the line or figure
required; we take away the under piece and allow the top or
photographed veneer to drop into its place, for since both would be cut
by one and the same operation it would also follow that one would fit
securely into the other; we then glue or otherwise attach a piece of
paper over that side on which the photographic picture or design is
printed. It can then be kept already prepared to glue or attach to any
article requiring ornamentation, either furniture already manufactured
or in course of manufacture, also to be applied to walls or interior of
houses, and for panelling and other decorative purposes.
In regard to solid woods we prepare the surface as before described,
and print the photographic pictures or designs in the same manner as
for veneers.
The Invention is also applicable to pictures to be framed and glazed.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Arthur Foley and Henry Foley in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 9th August 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, ARTHUR
FOLEY, of Fisherton Street, Salisbury, in the County of Wilts, i
Upholsterer, and HENRY FOLEY, of the same Place, Photographer, send
greeting,
:
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Hor.
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself; Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Arthur Foley and Henry Foley, Her,
special licence that we, the said Arthur Foley and Henry Folcy, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Arthur Foley and Henry Foley, our exccutors, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF
PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES OR DESIGNS ON VENEERS AND SOLID WOOD, AND IN THE
APPLICATION THEREOF TO CABINET WORK, FURNITURE, FANCY WOOD ARTICLES,
AND OTHER DECORATIVE PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Arthur Foley and Henry Foley, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, 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 we, the said Arthur Foley and Henry Folcy,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
Our Invention relates to certain improvements in the means or method
of producing photographic pictures or designs of any description on or
in the surface of veneers and solid wood, and in applying such photo-

page_text: graphed designs or devices to every required class of cabinet work, fancy
wood articles, to walls, house panelling, and other such like decorative
purposes. In order to effect these objects we take a piece of even grained
vencer suitable to the article we desire to ornament, and plane both sides of
the same with a toothed iron plane, until it is of an uniform thickness... One.
side we leave in this rough state so as to be ready for treatment with gluc
or other adhesive solution. The other side we scrape and rub with glass
paper so as to remove all the marks of the plane, leaving a perfectly
smooth surface, which we damp with water or some other suitable liquid
in order to cause the grain of the wood to rise. We then allow the
wood to gradually dry, and again we rub with very fine glass paper.
We again repeat the damping and rubbing until the wood grain ceases
to rise. We now apply to the surface with a sponge, brush, or blotting
pad a solution of chloride of sodium or chloride of barium (the former
by preference), and gradually dry the same, when it is ready to be
sensitized with a solution of nitrate of silver. We desire this silver
solution not only to come in contact with the surface of the wood (as is
the case with photographs printed on wood for engraving purposes) but
to penetrate to some extent into it, as hereafter described. We now
place the photographic negative on the sensitized wood, and the printing
is then performed in precisely the same manner as photographs on
paper.
The process of laying the veneers is as follows:-Wo take a piece of
wood veneer on which a suitable photographic picture or design has
been imprinted, and cut it to the shape we consider requisite for the
subject in hand. We then prepare the toothed or rough surface (pre-
viously referred to) and glue the same or otherwise cause its adhesion
into the centre or other part of the article we wish to decorate by placing
it under a heated piece of smooth metal or wood and compressing the
same with screws in a calbench or in any other usual way of fixing
veneer. When sufficiently dry and hard we fill up the surroundings of
the table top, panel, or other article by gluing or cementing around
and abutting up to the photographic design veneers of walnut or other
suitable woods (with or without photographic devices thereon). After
allowing the same to dry we plane off and smooth down' to the surface
of the photographic picture (or pictures). We then proceed to polish
both the surroundings and the picture (or pictures) with transparent
French polish, which has the effect of hardening by penetration the

page_text: fibres of the wood, and materially aids in bringing out all the details.
Our object in permitting the silver solution to penetrate into the pores
of the wood is that thereby the light acting on the chloride of silver
darkens it so far into the fibro of the wood as the silvor has penetrated;
for, as a part of the surface of the picture may wear away in time, as
some parts necessarily must which are very much exposed and used
(such as a table top for example), yet the greater part of the detail of the
photograph remains.
We also apply our Invention as follows:-We take a piece of venoer
which has a picture, design, portrait, image, or view photographed
thereon. We lay it upon a walnut or other veneer which has been cut
sufficiently large to cover the surface of any given article. We then
with a very fine saw cut through both vencers to the line or figure
required. We take away the under picco and allow the top or photo-
graphed veneer to drop into its place, for since both would be cut by one
and the same operation it would also follow that one would fit securely
into the other. We then gluc or otherwise attach a piece of paper over
that side on which the photographic picture or design is printed. It
can then be kept already prepared to glue or attach to any article
requiring ornamentation, either furnituro already manufactured or in
course of manufacture, also to be applied to walls or interiors of houses,
and for panelling and other decorative purposes.
In regard to solid woods or surfaces which have previously been
veneered wo prepare the surface as before described, and print the
photographic pictures or designs in the same manner as for vencers.
The Invention is, of course, equally applicable to the production of
pictures to be framed and glazed.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, we would remark in
conclusion that we do not limit or restrict ourselves to the precise
details expressed, as it is obvious that the means or methods described
for effecting the objects of the Invention may be varied or modified
without departing in any way from its principles either in reference to
chemical or mechanical details; but what we claim and desire to be
secured to us by the herein in part recited Letters Patent consists,-
Firstly. In the improved means ofproducing photographic pictures or
designs of any kind on vencers and solid wood.

page_text: And, secondly. In the improved means of applying photographic
productions to cabinet work, furniture, fancy wood articles, and other
decorative purposes, all substantially as herein specified.
In witness whereof, wc, the said Arthur Foley and Henry Foley,
have hereunto set our hands and scals, this First day of
August, in the year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and
soventy.
Witness,
ROBERT KING CROOK,
Fisherton Street,
Salisbury.
ARTHUR FOLEY. (L.S.)
HENRY FOLEY.
(L.S.)