AN IMPROVED WAITER OR TRAY
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Augustus De Reginald Hely, of Cannon
Row, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED WAITER OR TRAY."
Sealed the 15th December 1852, and dated the 14th October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Augustus de
Reginald Hely at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with his Petition, on the 14th October 1852.
I, ALFRED AUGUSTUS DE REGINALD HELY, do hereby. declare the
5 nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED WAITER OR TRAY" to be
as follows, viz. :-
My Invention consists in an improved waiter or tray, which is so
constructed that the. flat or hollow part shall be of a different material
or of different materials to the rim or edge thereof, one of which parts
is made of a material or of materials which shall be of such character as
shall ensure that any devices, figures, or lettering impressed thereon or
applied thereto shall have a good or an ornamental effect or appearance.
Thus I make a frame of wood, metal, gutta percha, or other suit-
able material of the size of the required waiter or tray, and fit within

page_text: and cement to the same a thick plate of glass, which may have any
devices, figures, or lettering thereon or at the back thereof. Woollen
or other suitable material is then placed at the back of the glass, and a
back of wood or other suitable material is to be tightly fitted and
cemented to the frame, thus forming a compact article, secure from
breakage and impermeable to moisture.
If the flat part of the tray be of porcelain or other similar ceramic
material, or of metal, or of other opaque material, nearly the same
process of construction is pursued, except that the devices, figures, or
lettering will be placed on the upper surface in order to be visible.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Augustus De Reginald Hely in the
Great Seal Patent Office, on the 14th April 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ALFRED AUGUSTUS DE REGINALD HELY, of Cannon Row, Westminster,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Augustus De Reginald
Hely, Her special licence that I, the said Alfred Augustus De Reginald
Hely, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Alfred Augustus De Reginald Hely, my executors, admi-
nistrators, 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 "AN IMPROVED WAITER OR
TRAY," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred
Augustus De Reginald Hely, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of

page_text: 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 Alfred Augustus De Reginald
Hely, 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, that is to say:
The nature of my Invention consists in an improved waiter or tray,
so constructed that the flat or hollow part may be of a different
material or of different materials to the rim or edge thereof, one of
which parts is made of a material or of materials which shall be of such
character as shall insure that any devices, figures, or lettering impressed
thereon or applied thereto shall have a good or an ornamental effect or
appearance. Thus I make a frame of wood, metal, gutta percha, or
other suitable material of the size of the required waiter or tray, and
fit within or cement to the same a thick plate of glass, which may
have any devices, figures, or lettering thereon, or upon paper, paste-
board, or other similar material at the back thereof, and such frame is
to have a back also of wood or other suitable material, thus forming a
compact article, secure from breakage and impermeable to moisture.
. If the flat part of the tray be of porcelain or of other ciramic
material, or of metal, or of other opaque material, nearly the same
process of construction is pursued, except that the devices, figures, or
lettering will be placed on the upper surface in order to be visible.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, I will now
proceed further to describe in what manner the same is to be performed,
wherein I shall resort to the aid of the Drawings hereto annexed (and
which I hereby declare to constitute part of these presents) by the
words, figures, and letters following, that is to say:

page_text: certain devices, figures, and lettering applied thereto in the manner.
above mentioned and hereafter further described.
Drawing No. 2:
Fig. 1, is a top plan of a frame or shell, which may be all in one
piece, or in two parts, as shewn and hereafter described.
Fig. 2, a bottom plan of same.
Fig. 3, is a vertical section of the same, taken at the line A, B, in
Fig. 1. In Drawing No. 2, C, denotes the rim of the waiter or tray,
made of wood or other suitable material as aforesaid, which rim is an
integral portion of the frame or shell of wood, the other portion being
the back D; within this is placed a sheet of paper or other similar
material of a fitting size, having any desired devices, figures, letters, or
ornament thereon; or I produce on the glass or transparent material
itself, at back thereof, the desired devices, lettering, or ornament, and
upon this is placed a sheet or plate of glass tightly fitting on the said
frame or shell. This glass is then to be cemented at all points of its
junction with the frame or shell, and may have a bead similar to what
is shewn by F, at Fig. 3, Drawing No. 2. Instead of the frame or
shell being in one piece, it might be constructed in two parts; thus C
would be a single frame of wood or other suitable material as aforesaid
rabbetted to receive the glass at F; D, the back, extending to the
broken lines 1, 2, which would be a piece fitting into the said frame
and secured water-tight thereto by marine glue. The main points to
be attended to in constructing my iniproved waiter or tray are, first
that the glass or other transparent material, or the porcelain or othe
ceramic material, shall be freed. from breakage as much as possible
which will be attained by taking care not to adopt thin glass or casily
breakable material, and supporting it at the back by the frame or shell
as-described; and, second, that the points of junction of the frame an
glass must be carefully cemented with a water-tight 'cement, so as t
exclude liquid or moisture from acting on the design (except it be o
the upper surface, when such precaution will be unnecessary), or th
article will soon be rendered useless; and for this purpose I prefer t
use the following cement, compounded as follows:-To one pound o
putty I add quarter pound of litharge, quarter pound of red lead o

page_text: white lead, colored to correspond with the frame or bead, and a tea-
spoonful of gold size, mixed together. Instead of making the waiter of
glass or transparent material and wood or other suitable material it
might be made by having the frame or shell of wood or other
suitable material, and the devices, figures, letters, or ornaments on
porcelain or other ceramic material or metal or other opaque material,
but in those cases no devices, figures, or lettering will be visible unless
produced on the upper surface.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed as required by the aforesaid
condition in the aforesaid Letters Patent contained, I further declare
that I do not confine or limit myself to any particular form of waiter or
tray, as it may be of circular, oval, or other form, nor do I confine or
limit myself to the precise details of construction herein-before set forth,
my Invention not being confined to forms or details, but consists in
contracting an improved waiter or tray of a combination of materials,
with devices, letters, or ornaments on one or more of such materials, as
herein-before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Augustus De Reginald
Hely, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of
April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-three.
ALFRED A. DE R. HELY. (L.S.)
Signed & sealed in my presence,
F. W. CAMPIN,
Patent Agent,
Strand.