CERTAIN PLASTIC COMPOSITIONS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR BUILDING AND DECORATIVE PURPOSES, AND IN LIEU OF MARBLE, STONE, BRICK, AND CEMENT
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, E.C., Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"CERTAIN PLASTIC COMPOSITIONS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR BUILDING AND
DECORATIVE PURPOSES, AND IN LIEU OF MARBLE, STONE, BRICK, AND CEMENT."
A communication from abroad by Limanu Salnacke
Sealed the 27th April 1860, and dated the 31st October 1859. .
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 31st October 1859.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, E.C., Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "CERTAIN PLASTIC COMPOSITIONS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR BUILDING AND
DECORATIVE PURPOSES, AND IN LIEU OF MARBLE, STONE, BRICK, AND CEMENT,"
(communicated to me from abroad by Lippman, Schneckenburger & Co.,
of Paris,) to be as follows:
From the similarity of these compositions to marble, the Inventors style
them simili-marble."
To manufacture simili-marble intended to remain white, take-
Sulphate of potass
- about 14 ounces,
River water.
Gum arabic-
"
16 quarts,
"
2 pounds,
Pure cement
"
20 pounds,
Marble or alabaster in powder or dust
22
20 pounds.
Or these materials in or about similar proportion. and treat as follows:-First
Price 8d.]

page_text: -
mixture. Dissolve over a slow fire, stirring all the time, 14 ounces of sulphate
of potass in 16 quarts of water, after fusion dissolve 2 pounds of gum arabic.
Second mixture.-Stir together 20 lbs. of pure cement, 20 lbs. of marble or
alabaster dust and 5 lbs. of lime, slacked sufficiently to cause it to crumble into
powder. Pour into a mortar of marble, porcelain, or other suitable material,a
part of the first and part of the second mixtures,and stir with a wooden orbone
spatula until the ingredients assume the state of thick paste, then beat with a
pestle until the mass becomes elastic, which will be ascertained. by the com-
position not adhering to the pestle. To make mouldings or castings, grease
the mould, and apply a first layer of about one-third of an inch in thickness of
the composition produced as aforesaid; this first layer is backed by another
formed by boiling for about three or four hours over a brisk fire, hemp, tow,
or other filamentous substances cut small, in the "first mixture" of gum and
sulphate of potass. The product is mixed with the second mixture" in a
mortar, and well beaten with a pestle until the filamentous parts are divided
through the mass, and the whole reduced to a paste. Thus a composition of
great solidity and impermeability is produced, lighter than andtaking an equal
polish to marble, and resisting the action of frost better than marble.
To make a water resisting composition, slack the lime with linseed oil instead
of with water; the composition then takes some four or five days in mixing,
whereas, when the lime is slacked with water, it is fit to be handled in four or
five hours. It is completely dry in from 20 to 24 days.
The composition may be made to imitate the various shades of marble by
incorporating with it during the manufacture metallic colors, and to imitate
wood, iron, or bronze, by adding to the composition for the first layer finely
sifted iron filings, for the backing composition the filings need not be sifted ;
for some imitations powdered slate, iron scales, copper, and other metal filings
may be used. I sometimes substitute alum for the sulphate of potass, though
I prefer the latter, as the mixture takes place quicker, and as it crystallizes
the mixture better, and imparts greater transparency to the simili-marble.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th April 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME. I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, E.C.,
Patent Agent, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant' unto
me, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman,my executors,administrators, and assigns, or such-
others as I,the said Richard Archibald Brooman, myexecutors, administrators,
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 CERTAIN PLASTIC COMPOSITIONS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR BUILDING AND
DECORATIVE PURPOSES. AND IN LIEU OF MARBLE, STONE, BRICK. AND CEMENT,"
(communicated to me from abroad by Lippmann, Schneckenburger, & Co.,
of Paris,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman; my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Richard Archibald Brooman, do hereby.
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
From the similarity of these compositions to marble, the Inventors style
them "simili-marble."
To manufacture simili-marble intended to remain white,
Take sulphate of potass
River water
Gum arabic
Purified cement
Marble or alabaster in powder or dust
about 14 ounces."
"
16 quarts,
"
2 pounds,
20
"
"
20.
"
"
Orthese materials in or about similar proportion, and treat as follows:-.
First mixture. Dissolve over a slow fire, stirring all the time, 14 ounces of
sulphate of potass in 16 quarts of water; after fusion, dissolve two pounds of
gum arabic. Second' mixture.-Stir together 20 pounds of purified cement,
20 pounds of marble or alabaster dust, and five pounds of lime, slacked
sufficiently to cause it to crumble into powder. Pour into a mortar of marble,

page_text: porcelain, or other suitable material, a part of the first and part of the second
mixtures, and stir with a wooden or bone spatula until the ingredients assume
the state of thick paste, then beat with a pestle until the mass becomes elastic,
which will be ascertained by the composition not adhering to the pestle. To
make mouldings or castings, grease the mould, and apply a first layer of about
one-third of an inch in thickness of the composition produced as aforesaid;
this first layer is backed by another, formed by boiling for about three or four
hours over a brisk fire, hemp, tow, or other filamentous substances cut sinall
in the "first mixture" of gum and sulphate of potass. The product is mixed
with the "second mixture" in a mortar, and well beaten with a pestle until
the filamentous parts are divided through the mass, and the whole reduced
to a paste. Thus a composition of great solidity and impermeability is
produced, lighter than and taking an equal polish to marble, and resisting
the action of frost better than marble.
To make a water-resisting composition, slack the lime with linseed oil
instead of with water, the composition then takes some four or five days in
mixing, whereas when the lime is slacked with water it is fit to be handled
in four or five hours. It is completely dry in from 20 to 24 days.
The composition may be made to imitate the various shades of marble by
incorporating with it during the manufacture metallic colors, and to imitate
wood, iron, or bronze, by adding to the composition for the first layer finely
sifted iron filings, for the backing composition the filings need not be sifted ;
for some imitations, powdered slate, iron scales, copper, and other metal filings
may be used. I sometimes substitute alum for the sulphate of potass, though
I prefer the latter, as the mixture takes place quicker, and as it crystallises
the mixture better, and imparts greater transparency to the simili-inarble.
Simili-marble being much harder than plaster, cannot be advantageously
moulded in plaster moulds. Plaster moulds when employed for moulding
simili-marble become destroyed after a few mouldings have been produced.
I, therefore, use moulds made of the simili-marble, strengthened, by the addition
or incorporation therewith of hemp, tow, or other filamentous material,
prepared in manner herein-before described. In order to facilitate the
moulded articles leaving the moulds, the latter are coated with a mixture of
soap and spirits of wine previous to the application of the oil. When it is
desired to produce a great polish on the surface of the mouldings, marble
moulds are used.
Among other uses, the simili-marble may be employed for panels, for walls,
partitions, ceilings, and roofings for houses, cottages, chalets, and the like,
for horticultural frames, medallions, for the reproduction of all kinds of

page_text: statuary, and for other artistic and industrial objects. The simili-marble
panels can be made solid or hollow, with their external or internal surfaces
ornamented or not. Where the panels are made hollow, they can be
strengthened by frames of wood, or of cast or malleable iron placed inside,
and they can be rendered still further impermeable to wet by coating the
interior surface with tar, bitumen, asphalt, or other like suitable substance.
In order to make the simili-marble panels thin and light, as for example, for
ceilings, it may be moulded on to wooden or pasteboard frames. The plastic
compositions may be decorated on one or both sides, as, for instance, in the
case of some ceilings, the ornamented interior surface may form a ceiling,
and the exterior surface a roof.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,―
First, the manufacture of plastic compositions or simili-marble, by means
and in manner herein-before described.
Second, lining the interior of the mouldings of simili-marble with the
inferior composition mixed with hemp, tow, or other filamentous material,
as herein-before described.
Third, the manufacture of plastic compositions formed of simili-marble,
combined with hemp, tow, hair, or other filamentous material, as herein-
before described.
Fourth, the employment of moulds for moulding the simili-marble
composed of simili-marble alone, or combined with hemp, tow, hair, or
other filamentous material, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, havė
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of April, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty.
R. A. BROOMAN.
(L.S.)