CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MOULDING, CASTING, ORNAMENTING, AND FINISHING ARTICLES AND SURFACES
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
ADOLPHUS BIDDELL, of St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, in the County of
Middlesex, Founder, and THOMAS GREEN, of No. 4, Trafalgar Square, send.
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-
ninth day of October, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the
fifteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the William Adolphus Biddell and Thomas Green, our
exors, adiiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege.
and authority, that we, the said William Adolphus Biddell and Thomas:
Green, our exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as we, the. said
William Adolphus Biddell and Thomas Green, our exors, adiñors, 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 expressed, should and:
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, within the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and:
Plantations abroad, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MOULDING,
CASTING, ORNAMENTING, AND FINISHING ARTICLES AND SURFACES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that we, the said William Adolphus

page_text: Biddell and Thomas Green, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed
by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court o
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date o
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, we, the said
William Adolphus Biddell and Thomas Green, do hereby declare that the
nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, are fully described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thercof, that is to say:-
Our Invention has for its object the producing ornamental or other articles
or surfaces by casting or otherwise, forming a skeleton or framework, and
filling its cavities or interstices, or overlaying its surfaces with clays, cements,
plaster, glass, metal, or other suitable material, and in some cases glazing or
varnishing the articles or surfaces so produced.
Having thus set forth the nature of our said Invention, we will proceed
to describe by a series of illustrative examples, the manner in which it is
to be performed.
As a general example of the Invention an ornamental surface may be formed
by clays pressed into the holes or interstices of a metal plate previously cast or
engraved or formed to any required pattern. The clays may be either plain
or colored, or may be painted on one or both sides; and as the clays contract
in the drying it will be necessary to refill any portions or spaces left between.
the clay and the plate with additional moist clay, or the spaces may be fitted
up by the glazing or cementation processes, hereafter mentioned. The article
is then to be put into the kiln to biscuit; afterwards the clay is scraped off the
edges of the metal, which may be polished or gilt, and the whole is then
immersed in a glaze (such as is ordinarily used for pottery, porcelain; or iron
culinary articles), which is left to dry upon it. The article is then put into the
kiln again to vitrify, when it will present the appearance of enamelled work
inlaid with metal, and will be secure from the action of the atmosphere, so that
its brilliancy will be indefinitely maintained. We find the more certain affinity.
of the clays to the metal to be obtained by first using the following mixture:
over the metal, either by immersion, or by putting it on with a brush. The.
mixture consists of eight parts of calcine of flints, ten parts calcine of lead, six
parts of borax. eight parts calcine of tiu pounded or ground together fine with
gum, water, and turpentine. Instead of employing a cast metal plate as the

page_text: skeleton or frame to be covered, as described, wires fixed by rivetting or
soldering to a metal plate may be substituted to form the required pattern.
In any case the skeleton frame or outline pattern should be so formed that tho
clay may become dovetailed or locked upon it by clipping or embracing it.
As another general example, an ornamental surface may be formed by using
plasters or cements to fill up the interstices of the metal frame or skeleton,
and coloring to any design, and varnishing over the whole to protect it from
atmospheric action.
Letters, ornaments, and blocks for ornamental floors and other purposes,
may be produced by rolling clay or glass to any required thickness, and
stamping out the form of the letter, ornament, or block by dockers or cutters
suitably shaped in outline, and being either plain or having sunken or
raised surfaces to produce an ornamental surface as desired. The letters,
ornaments, or blocks are then placed on a backing composed of gauze, wire,
or net, or of metal plates, which backing is coated with inferior clay. The
spaces between the pattern are then filled with colored clays, and may be still
further ornamented by painting or gilding, and the whole is to be glazed as
before. When glass is the material used for the letters, ornaments or blocks,
it must be in a heated or soft state, when the docker or stamp is applied,
and being transparent, the back of letters or devices of this material may be
gilt or covered to shew through it, which will more distinctly bring out or
exhibit the impressed patterns, particularly when filled up with colored glass,
clays, or cements. Or, instead of gilding or coloring the back of the glass
itself, it may be laid upon or fixed against a gilt or colored surface to
produce a similar effect.
.
Glass, or porcelain ornaments thus produced, instead of being placed
against a backing, as described, may be placed, while yet in a heated state,
or soft state, in a heated metal skeleton frame formed so as to give the principal
lines or features of any design, and may be fixed by cementation, by using a
small portion of pounded glass and borax as a flux and melting it by means
of a heated iron or a blow pipe, so as to unite the ornaments to the skeleton
frame.
Mouldings for shop fronts, sash bars, picture frames, and similar purposes
may be made of skeleton plates of metal (drawn into shape) or of skeleton
frames of wire, in either case coated with clay and baked and glazed as before.
Plaster of various colors may be substituted for the clay, and poured into
any interstices of the engraved or cut portions of the skeleton frames or wires.
While the clay or plaster is soft or plastic, and while it remains on the frame

page_text: or skeleton moulding, both are passed under a drawing bench plate, which will
bring the clay or plaster into form, and cause it to coat the skeleton moulding.
The adhesion may be ensured by holes in and through the skeleton frame, or
by undercut or dovetailed portions which the clay or plaster will be forced to
enter and clip,
or the cementation process before described may be substituted,
if preferred. Corner pieces may be formed by pressing or squeezing the clay
or plaster upon the skeleton in a mould, the adhesion (in this case also) being
ensured by holes dovetailing, or undercut, or by cementation, as before
described.
Bricks, slabs, or blocks may be formed with ornamental raised or sunken
surfaces or patterns and shapes by placing the mould upon an engraved pattern
plate, first throwing in fine clay of any required color, and then backing up
with a common clay. The bricks are then to be dried and highly baked, the
interstices of the pattern on the surface to be filled with colored clays, and the
baking to be then completed. A glaze may be given or not as desired. By
this means, several patterns of bricks may be prepared so that when placed
together in forming the front of a building, although disposed so as to form
a flat surface, they may represent columns, entablatures, or other designs.
Holes are formed in the bricks, slabs, or blocks when moulding them, and
tubes, rods, keys, and tongues are passed through the holes or fixed in them
so as to form a core for strengthening them, and they are dried and baked
upon the cores. The tubos may be rendered available for ventilation or other
useful purposes.
The Invention is further applicable to the manufacture of gates, railings,
monumental designs, statues, or other similar purposes. The prominent lines
of the design may be formed by a skeleton framework filled up and enamelled
as before. If desired, statues may be represented in the natural colors of the
objects they pourtray, and glass inserted for the oyes to give the full appear-
ance of life.
The last illustrative examples we furnish are the overlaying or coating
wrought iron with cast iron, and cast iron with brass or other metal. The
former is effected by heating the wrought-iron (the metal to be coated) to a
white heat, and immersing it in a solution of tin, bismuth, and salammoniac,
then inserting it in the coating moulds and casting the iron upon it. The
latter is a similar process, with this addition, that previously to immersing the
cast iron (the metal is to be coated) into the solution of tin and salammoniac
is to be immersed in muriatic acid diluted with water in about equal quantities
by measure. This latter process will be found suitable for cannon to be cast

page_text: hollow of iron, and coated both inside and outside with brass, by which means
greater strength and less weight will be combined with a saving of the more
expensive metal.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and also the manner in which it is to be performed, we wish
it to be understood that we do not claim as of our Invention the glazing
of metallic surfaces separately, nor of earthenware surfaces separately, nor do
we claim any method of separately painting or coloring any of the objects
herein described, nor any method of separately baking or kiln-drying, nor any
method of separately moulding either metal or earthenware, such processes
being well known, and in ordinary use; but our Invention consists of, and
we claim, the several combinations of processes for moulding, casting, orna-
menting and finishing articles and surfaces herein particularly described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Adolphus Biddell, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of April, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-two.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-ninth day of April, in
the year of our Lord 1852, the aforesaid William Adolphus Biddell came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and spe-
cified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.