Improvements in Panels, Tablets, or Slabs for the Use of Artists or others.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 5th June, 1893-Accepted, 22nd July, 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Panels, Tablets, or Slabs for the Use of Artists
or others.
I, JOHN MACINTOSH MACINTOSH, of Woolhampton, near Reading, Artist,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is
to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
My invention relates to panels tablets or slabs for the use of artists or others
made of a material not heretofore used for this purpose.
Hitherto panels or tablets used by artists intended for the production of painted
pictures thereon have been commonly made of solid wood, but the material I
propose to use affords advantages which enable me to produce panels or tablets
greatly superior in many respects to such solid wood tablets and at a lower cost.
In seeking to provide a material which shall be free from the objections attendant
upon the use of solid wood panels I have discovered that wood pulp is very
advantageous for my purpose and I adapt the same thereto in the following manner,
that is to say :-
I take ordinary wood-pulp and manufacture the same into sheets of any convenient
size and under pressure considerably greater than that ordinarily used in such
manufacture in order that the material may be made very solid and homogeneous
and I make such sheets preferably of a thickness of about one quarter to three
eighths of an inch. The sheets of compressed wood pulp are divided into panels,
slabs or tablets of any convenient size and the surfaces thereof are prepared so
that they will be suitable for the painting of pictures thereon. I vary or modify
the preparation of such surfaces according to the special kind of work for which
the panel or slab is to be used. In some instances I prime the surface of the
wood-pulp with flake white or other material which can be so applied to the
wood-pulp as to form thereon a good ground for working upon. In other
instances 1 mould or press the panel or slab of wood-pulp between rollers or
other apparatus so formed and operated as to impress upon the said panel or
slab a surface or surfaces resembling canvas or other suitable texture.
The panels, slabs or tablets made of wood-pulp and with properly prepared
surfaces will be found very, advantageous for artists and others, not only because
of their comparative cheapness, but in other respects. For instance, the wood
pulp when properly manufactured is just sufficiently absorbent to ensure, without
the use of any deleterious driers, the rapid drying of the material used in oil-
painting. This property is of very great advantage to artists; the panels or
slabs will not warp twist or crack; they are moreover very light and therefore
very conveniently portable so that the user can carry with him many more of such
panels or slabs than he could carry of those heretofore ordinarily used. Moreover
this material affords the means for most conveniently keeping large quantities in
stock as it can be manufactured in the form of large sheets or slabs and cut,
without waste, into smaller sheets, panels or tablets of any desired dimensions.
The panel or tablet may have attached to it a suitable ring or other device by
which it can be carried when the painting or sketch is wet.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
:―
A panel, tablet, or slab made of compressed wood-pulp and having its surface
or surfaces prepared for painting thereon, substantially as set forth.
Dated this 5th day of June 1893.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.