A METHOD OF DECORATING OR ORNAMENTING REGISTER OR OTHER GRATE-FRONTS AND CHEEKS, HEARTHS OF FIRE-PLACES, FENDERS, AND THE EXTERIOR SURFACES OF HOT-AIR STOVES AND COIL CASES ENCLOSING HOT WATER OR STEAM PIPES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Wilson, of the City of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Ironmonger, for the Invention of "A METHOD OF
DECORATING OR ORNAMENTING REGISTER OR OTHER GRATE-FRONTS AND
CHEEKS, HEARTHS OF FIRE-PLACES, FENDERS, AND THE EXTERIOR SURFACES
OF HOT-AIR STOVES AND COIL CASES ENCLOSING HOT WATER OR STEAM
PIPES."
Sealed the 21st June 1864, and dated the 28th December 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Wilson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
December 1863.
I, WILLIAM WILSON, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Ironmonger, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"A NEW METHOD OF DECORATING OR ORNAMENTING REGISTER OR OTHER GRATE-
FRONTS AND CHEEKS, HEARTHS OF FIRE-PLACES, FENDERS, AND THE EXTERIOR
SURPACES OF HOT-AIR STOVES, AND COIL CASES ENCLOSING HOT WATER OR STEAM
PIPES," to be as follows (that is to say):
This Invention has for its object a cheap and expeditious mode of ornamenting
or decorating the fronts and cheeks of register and other grates, the jambs or
cheeks of fire-places, hearths, other exterior surfaces of fire-places, fenders, hot-air
stoves, and hot water and steam pipe coil cases, and consists in applying to such
surfaces cast metallic tiles or slabs (by preference made of iron, brass, or zinc),
which tiles or slabs are cast in oraamental relief or embossed in such a way that.

page_text: they may be readily ground and polished on the outer surfaces of the projections;
they may be so designed in sets as to form a continuous pattern or figure, which
figure or design is capable of being turned in any direction, as, for instance, they
may be used to ornament an arch having a flat surface from the foot of the piers
to the spring of the arch, and from the spring and across the crown of the arch;
the tiles may be concave, convex, or of any other desired form.
It will be readily understood that it would be very inconvenient, if not
altogether impossible, to apply one casting in such a position as the one just
described, and by the use of these tiles the difficulty is overcome and a large
surface may be covered with a rich and durable ornamentation at a com-
paratively small cost. These ornamental metallic tiles or slabs may be affixed
to the articles to be ornamented by means of rivets, screws, screwed bolts and
nuts, headed studs taking into holes and slots, or in any other convenient
way. These metallic tiles or slabs may be got up bright or bronzed, or in
ormolu, or they may be enamelled. And they may be used as a substitute
for the ordinary glazed earthenware tiles now used for the herein-before
mentioned purposes, and also admits of their being formed with a curved
or irregular surface which is not practicable with the ordinary earthenware
tiles; and these metallic tiles or slabs may be so constructed as to form frames
or settings to receive ornamental glass, china, earthenware, marble, stone,
metal, or other material which may consist of medallions or other effective
ornaments.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Wilson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th June 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WILSON, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Ironmonger,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said William Wilson, Her special license that I, the said William
Wilson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Wilson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times

page_text: 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 "A NEW
METHOD OF DECORATING OR ORNAMENTING REGISTER OR OTHER GRATE-FRONTS
AND CHEEKS, HEARTHS OF FIRE-PLACES, FENDERS, AND THE EXTERIOR SURFACES
OF HOT-AIR STOVES- AND COIL CASES ENCLOSING HOT WATER OR STEAM PIPES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Wilson, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 I, the said William Wilson, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This Invention has for its object a cheap and expeditious mode of ornament-
ing or decorating the fronts and cheeks of register and other grates, the jambs
or cheeks of fire-places, hearths, and other exterior surfaces of fire-places,
fenders, hot-air stoves, and hot water and steam pipe coil cases, and consists
in applying to such surfaces cast metallic tiles or slabs, (by preference made
of iron, brass, or zinc,) which tiles or slabs are cast in ornamental relief, or
embossed in such a way that they may be readily ground and polished on the
outer surfaces of the projections, and they may be so designed in sets as to form
a continuous pattern or figure which is capable of being turned in any direction,
as for instance, they may be used to ornament an arch having a flat surface
from the foot of the piers to the spring of the arch, and from the spring and
across the crown of the arch; the tiles may be concave, convex, or of any other
desired form.
It will be readily understood that it would be very inconvenient, if not
altogether impossible, to apply one casting in such a position as the one just
described, and by the use of these tiles the difficulty is overcome and a large
surface may be covered with a rich and durable ornamentation at a compara-
tively small cost. These metallic tiles or slabs may be got up bright, or bronzed,
or in ormolu, or they may be enamelled, and they may be so constructed
as to form frames or settings to receive ornamental glass, china, earthen-
ware, marble, stone, nietal, or other material, which may consist of medallions,
or other effective ornaments. They may also be used as a substitute for the

page_text: ordinary earthenware tiles now used for the herein-before mentioned purposes,
and may be formed with a convex, concave, curved, or irregular surface which
is not practicable with the ordinary earthenware tiles.
These ornamental metallic tiles or slabs may be affixed to the articles to be
ornamented by means of rivets, screws, screwed bolts and nuts, headed studs
taking into holes and slots, or in any other convenient way.
That this my said Invention may be the more readily seen and understood
I have hereunto annexed a Sheet of Drawings illustrating the application
of my metallic tiles to the sides or cheeks and arch of an ordinary register
grate, like letters and figures marked thereon being used to denote similar
parts.
Fig. 1 is a front elevational view of an ordinary register grate with a
semicircular arch and straight cheeks or sides covered with my metallic
tiles.
Fig. 2 represents a front elevational view of another ordinary register grate,
shewing a different shaped arch and also exhibiting how my metallic tiles may
be mitred.
Fig. 8 is a plan of Fig 2, shewing the mode of fastening or attaching the
metallic tiles.
Fig. 4 represents one of the metallic tiles detached, and Fig. 5 also shews
another metallic tile detached, in which is seated a medallion or other
ornament.
In Figs. 1, 2, and 3, A represents an ordinary register grate; B, the
straight metallic tiles or slabs made of either iron, brass, or zinc ; C, the curved,
convex, or concave metallic tiles or segments; D, iron or brass mouldings or
beadings, which give a finish to the edges of the metallic tiles; E (Fig. 3) is a
wrought or cast iron plate, to the front surface of which the tiles are affixed by
F, the rivets, screws, screwed bolts and nuts, headed studs taking into holes and
slots cut in the iron plate E, or by means of any other suitable fastener; G
(Fig. 5) is a medallion or other ornament seated in a frame in the metallic
tiles H.
It will be readily seen that these metallic tiles are equally applicable to the
ornamentation of fenders, hot-air stoves, and coil cases, but as the mode of
applying them is precisely the same as in register grates there is no further
need of illustration.
In applying the metallic tiles to hearths and other exterior surfaces of fire-
places, if it be desirable to set them in stone or marble work, I prefer to use
Roman or other suitable cement and to fix them in the same manner as the
ordinary earthenware tiles. The pattern or figure should be cast upon the

page_text: tiles and it should be raised or embossed on the surface, so that when the tile
or slab is passed over a glazier the outer surfaces of the projections of the
figures or designs will be ground bright while the back ground is left dull, thus
forming an agreeable contrast; and if made of brass they may be then dipped
and relieved on the projections, or the back ground may be bronzed while the
outer surfaces of the projections may be ormolu.
The chief advantages in the use of these metallic tiles is that by means of
tiles, slabs, or segments almost any surface, however irregular, may be covered
with a rich ornamentation, and with a regular continuous design or figure,
and the metallic tiles or slabs are especially adaptable to such surfaces where
it is not practicable to apply larger castings.
Having now fully described this my said Invention, and how I believe the
same may be best carried into practical effect, I wish it to be distinctly under-
stood that I do not confine myself to the precise details, relative proportions or
dimensions, as the same may be considerably varied without parting from
the Invention, but what I particularly claim is, the use and application of
cast metallic tiles, slabs, or segments, made of either iron, or brass, or of zinc,
having an embossed, raised, or relieved pattern, design, or figure ou the surface,
the outer projections of which may be ground and polished, thereby forming a
pleasant and agreeable contrast with the background to 'the ornamentation or
decoration of such surfaces of register and other grates as could not be
similarly ornamented by larger castings; the said metallic tiles being equally
applicable to the ornamentation or decoration of similar irregular surfaces on
hearths and other exterior surfaces of fire-places, fenders, hot-air stoves, and
coil cases, as herein-before described and set forth or any mere modification of
the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Wilson, have hereunto set my
hand and affixed my seal, this Twenty-seventh day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
WILLIAM (L.B.) WILSON.
Witness,
THOMAS GRASON,
of the Firm of J. G. Wilson & Co.,
Manchester.