CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WAFERS
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HARCOURT BROWN, of Fir Cottage, Putney, Surrey, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of January
(One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one), in the fourteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Harcourt Brown, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial
license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Harcourt
Brown, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Harcourt Brown, my exors, adiñiors, or assigns, should at 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,
and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in
all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WAFERS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said John Harcourt Brown,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: .
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Harcourt Brown, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and. by the following instrument in writing, that is to
say:
My Invention .consists in a process of manufacturing wafers from every
description of metal or metallic alloy, and of applying them by means of an
adhesive composition, and the preparation of the metal or metallic alloys, to
fasten, seal, and secure every description of envelopes, letters, and covers,
whether they be of paper, linen, cotton, vellum, parchment, gutta percha, or
other substance.
The ingredients of the adhesive composition are sixteen parts of the best
strong glue, four parts of clean gum arabic, five parts of treacle or other
saccharine matter, three parts of spirits of wine, one part of camphor, one part
of virgin wax, and twelve parts of distilled water. Place these ingredients in
a closed glass or earthen vessel, which immerse for eight hours in a sand bath
two degrees below boiling heat, after which the composition is to be strained
free from impurities. It is then to be placed again in a clean glass or earthen
vessel, and by the addition of a solution of alum (one of alum to sixteen
of distilled water), brought to a thin consistency for use by the sand bath at
the same temperature.
The method of manufacturing the wafers is as follows:-Obtain plates of
metal, as thin as tissue paper, or any other substance desired, the thinner the
better; cleanse and color them by the application of acids and other coloring
matters generally used for such purposes, or by gilding, electro-plating, or
bronzing. They are then to be passed through a pair of rollers, one of which
is polished, and the other very finely cut, so as to impart to one surface a rough
face for the reception of the composition. The cut surface is then to be
brushed over with the thin liquid adhesive composition in a warm state, avoid-
ing all inequalities, so that the coating appears as if it was simple water. The
plates thus prepared are then laid upon a drying stove, at ninety-three degrees,
until sufficiently hard and dry; they are then in a condition to be cut and
stamped to any shape, either embossed or plain, by the ordinary machinery
used for cutting and stamping the paper wafers of commerce.
And having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that what
I claim is,
The composition for rendering metals and metallic alloys. adhesive, as a
'means of securing envelopes and letters, and thereby rendering them imper-