CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING GLASS WITH PERFORATED METALLIC AND OTHER PLATES
Year: 1858

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to John Loach, Japanner, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, and John Cox, Electro-Plater, of Birmingham, aforesaid,
for the Invention of CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING GLASS WITH
PERFORATED METALLIC AND OTHER PLATES."
Sealed the 23rd November 1858, and dated the 12th July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Loach and John
Cox at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 12th July 1858.
1. .
WE, JOHN LOACH,, Japanner, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
and JOHN Cox, Electro-Plater, of Birmingham, aforesaid, do hereby declare
the nature of our said Invention for CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING
GLASS WITH PERFORATED METALLIC AND OTHER PLATES," to be as follows, (that
is to say).
Our Invention consists in ornamenting plates of metal or other material in
any suitable way, either by tinting, painting, printing, transferring, or other-
wise, in each case, adopting such pattern as will harmonize with a perforated
design, name, address, or other writing or characters pierced through the said
plate,and which plate we subsequently protect by fixing between corresponding
sheets (of the same size) of flat or bent glass, and which glass may be stained
in various colours, or one stained and the other plain, as may be desired.
Combined sheets of glass having an ornamental perforated plate placed

page_text: between them are intended to be used as a substitute for portable blinds in
the lower or other parts of sashes where a screen or blind may be desired.
When such mode of decoration is not required for intercepting light, and only
seen on one side, the perforated plate may be used with one piece of glass
only, the metal or other plate being protected at the back in any suitable way.
Ornamental perforated sheets thus made and protected by glass may be used
for finger plates, or made and cut up in small pieces, and used for a variety of
ornamental purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Loach and John Cox in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 11th January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
LOACH, Japanner, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, and JOHN Cox,
Electro-Plater, of Birmingham, aforesaid, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight,in the twenty-second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
John Loach and John Cox, Her special license that we, the said John Loach
and John Cox, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said John Loach and John Cox, our executors, administrators,
or 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 CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN ORNAMENTING GLASS WITH PERFORATED METALLIC
AND OTHER PLATES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
John Loach and John Cox, by an instrument in writing under our hand and
seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same was to be perforined, 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 John Loach and John Cox, do hereby
declare the nature of our 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) :-

page_text: Our Invention has for its object, firstly, to compose an ornament of any
suitable material, transparent or opaque,and perforated in any suitable design,
and coloured or ornamented in any suitable way. and such sheets so treated
to be cut up to the desired size or sizes, and to be secured between two pieces
of flattened glass, such as common window glass; in this condition the com-
pound pane thus produced is fit for applying in any situation where a screen
or blind may be desired, without entirely stopping out the light, which may be
regulated according to the amount or extent of the perforations pierced out
from this part.
To give effect to this part of our Invention, we will (for convenience)
assume our perforated material to consist of the ordinary perforated sheet
zinc now commonly used as a substitute for woven wirework in the construc-
tion of ordinary window blinds, with the exception that we prefer, and are well
enabled to use, the zinc much thinner than is used for that purpose, such a
piece or sheet of zinc perforated in the ordinary way in which it is now com-
monly produced, and in this condition we lay it down and cover it with a
suitable coating of paint, either on one or both sides, mixed with oil, water, or
other fluid, as desired; and over this, when dry, either by means of block
printing, transferring, or otherwise, we add an additional design, or a design
may be produced by block printing in one or more colours, so as to imitate
lacework, chintz, or other pattern, as may be desired; and from this sheet we
cut off pieces of any desired size, say, as of an ordinary pane of glass, and.on
the inner surface of one or both of the pieces of glass an ornamental centre
and border may be added, or this addition may be made on the perforated
zine, and executed by artistes accustomed to ornament japanned and such like
goods; or, in some instances, a design may be printed on paper with gold size
or other suitable pigment, and transferred on to the prepared, tinted, or other
surface of the perforated zinc, or on to the glass, over which transferred
pigment gold or silver leaf may be applied, and finished in the usual way in
which artistes finish such kindofornaments on japanned goods. The perforated
ornamented plate thus treated we protect by securing between corresponding
sheets of common window or plate glass, as before referred to; but if of the
former, we prefer that it should have gone through the common and well-
known process of flattening. In this condition we secure the plate and sheets
together by narrow strips of paper or woven fabric, secured with a waterproof
solution or material, or by common paste, glue, or other adhesive material
around the edge, which, when dry, leaves them in a mercautile condition to be
sold, and applied to sashes in the ordinary way in which common panes of
glass are applied, when the glass has only to be cleaned on its exposed

page_text: surfaces, and the brilliancy of the design will be always preserved, thus pro-
ducing a beautiful, chaste, and cheap screen for the lower panes of sashes,
entirely and expressly intended to supersede the use of wire, Venetian, or other
portable blinds In situations where it may be desirable either to emblazon
the glass or the perforated sheet with a coat of arms, name, or professional or
business notice, the same may be done either in the perforated design, or by
painting, or otherwise printing the desired letters; thus it will be seen that it
is not at all times intended that this improved addition for ornamenting
window glass should be used exclusively for a blind, as in many situations the
centre or other convenient pane or panes containing the name or business
notice may be used more for a sign than for a blind; nor are we compelled to
make these compound sheets flat, for it must be obvious that by having two
curved or bent pieces of glass, the two being of the same curvature, and the
zinc or other perforated plate being placed between them, the same result will
be produced; and, although we have described zinc, nevertheless, we do not
purpose confining ourselves to that material, as other metals or materials may
be used, such as paper or cardboard, or sheets of gelatine, taking care that
such be so composed that it will not soften or melt with the heat of the sun.
The effect produced from the use of such plates may in many instances be
superior to a positive opaque material, for the transparent nature of the
gelatine would form a screen without so much excluding the light, making
such plates suitable for internal use, thus producing chastely ornamented
semi-transparent designs in screens,such glass being used instead of corrugated,
roughened, or unpolished glass, as now commonly used for such purposes.
The second part of our Invention is similar to the first, with the exception
that we purpose using but one piece of glass, and protecting the perforated
plate, which of course will only be ornamented on the front side, in any
suitable way at the back; such kind of productions being intended to be used
as a means of ornamenting plates or articles faced with glass not intended to
be used in situations to intercept the light, such as for glazing the doors of
cases or cupboards, screens in shops or such like places, panels or pilasters
for internal fittings and decorations, cabin and other fittings on board ship,
finger plates, fronts of knobs, folio and other covers, tops and other parts of
iapan tables and other articles, and a variety of other purposes where chaste
and delicate ornamentation may be required; nor are we in this case confined
to flat surfaces, as the glass may be bent to any suitable curve, or hollow tubes
of glass, that may be used for covering an iron stay or upright in shop windows,
pillars of bedsteads, gas pendants, and chandeliers, or other such like articles,
may be decorated on the inside by using perforated zinc or other material, as

page_text: herein-before described, the outside heing plain or cut, as may be desired, and
of any colour; and the manner in which we give effect to this part of our
Invention will be understood by the following description. For illustration we
will describe a finger plate ornamented according to our improvements:_We
take our perforated or open-worked plate, of the desired size, whether of zinc,
paper, woven fabric, or other network, or any other suitable material, the per-
forations or open work being so made and colored or painted as to harmonize
with the general style or pattern we wish to produce in the finished plate,
which may be made en suite with the general fittings of the room in which
such plate may be used; the front side of this perforated plate we colour,tint,
or variegate in any suitable way, and over this we print, paint, or transfer
any further suitable design, identically in like manner with the plate before
described, as placed between two plates of glass. The perforated or open-work
ornamented plate or sheet thus produced we lay down with its front or orna-
mental face on the inner surface of the glass plate, which might have been
ornamented with a gilded or other border or centre, or both, as before
described; on the back side of the perforated plate or sheet we purpose laying
tinsel, foil, or other suitable material, which, showing through the perforations
when viewed from the front, produces a rich and brilliant effect; over this
we lay a piece of common paper, secured at the edges, and slightly damp, in
order that it may dry smooth; a finger plate thus prepared may be secured to
a door by having two or more holes drilled through it, and secured by nails
with mother-of-pearl or other ornamental heads, or by metallic plates clipping
the ends, such end plates being secured by screws or otherwise.
This descriptionwill explain the way in which we purpose generallycarrying
out the second part of our Invention, and which now, having generally
described, we wish it understood that we do not purpose confining ourselves
to any particular perforated material, or to the size or thickness of the per-
forated or open-work plates or sheets used, as the same may be varied without
departing from the spirit of our Invention; but what we claim and wish to
protect by these our in part recited Letters Patent is, the producing of orna-
mental panes for window blinds and other purposes, by the use of a middle
perforated or open-work plate or sheet, whether such perforated or open-work
plate or sheet be of an entirely opaque or semi-opaque character, as described
in the first part of this our Specification, without any regard to the manner or
amount of the said ornament, or to the ornamentation that may be placed on
the inner surface of the glass or glasses.
Secondly, we claim the mode of ornamenting such like and similar descrip-
tions of articles as named in the second part of this our Specification by the

page_text: use of a suitable perforated plate or sheet ornamented as described, such per-
forated plate or sheet being placed or secured on the back or inside.of.the
plate or other glass,cut or finished to the shape and size required without any
regard to the amount or extent of ornamentation or addition to the front or
back of such perforated sheets, or to the colour of the glass to which such
perforated plates are attached or placed in contact; the combination of the
ornamented perforated open-work sheet with the glass front by which. it is
protected forming substantially our second claim.
In witness whereof,, we, the said John Loach and John Cox, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
ALFRED PERRY,
Clerk to J. S. Cockings,
Birmingham.
JOHN LOACH.
JOHN COX.
(L.S:
(L.S.)