Process of Ornamenting Metal Articles and Metal Articles Ornamented by the said Process.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Aug., 1899-Accepted, 9th Sept., 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Process of Ornamenting Metal Articles and Metal Articles Ornamented
by the said Process.
I, IGNAZ MAYER, of Bogorodsk, near Moscow, in the Empire of Russia, Director
of Rubber Goods Factory, do hereby declare the nature of this 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 relates to ornamenting or decorating cane-heads, door-knobs,
knife-handles, furniture and fancy goods of any description, and it has for its
object to provide durable ornamentations which do not warp nor shrink and can
easily be cleaned.
According to my invention, ornaments are made, in which a design composed
of metallic strips and faces appears on a ground of hard rubber or celluloid of any,
colour.
For preparing such decorations, the article to be ornamented, i.e. the handle,
knob, plate etc., is first made of metal, and is afterwards by engraving, pressing,
punching, sawing, etching or the like provided with the desired design, composed
of projecting metal ribs. In preparing this design, the process may be such that
between the metal strips and faces mere trough shaped recesses or cells are formed
in the metal plate or wall, or the cells may extend completely through the said
plate or wall.*
Instead of obtaining a design composed of projecting strips and faces upon the
metal bodies or plates in the manner herein before described I can cast the bodies
or plates with the desired designs.
Or the design may be composed of suitably curved wires or metal strips, soldered
together at the requisite points and finally soldered into a metal frame, or
fastened by solder upon a metal base.
Into the trough-shaped recesses or cells between the ribs constituting the
design upon the metal body, or into the openings between the wires or strips
forming the design I fill a mixture of crude (not vulcanized) rubber, sulphur,
and, if desired, a pigment the latter being of such a nature that it does not alter
its colour at temperatures of from 100° to 180° Celsius. It will be readily under-
stood that a mixture of rubber, sulphur and pigment of one and the same colour
can be filled into all the cells between the ribs or mixtures of different colours
be filled into different cells or groups of cells.
The next operation is vulcanizing. When articles of more or less irregular
shape, such as handles, knobs, and the like are to be ornamented it is preferable
to perform the vulcanizing in the well known closed sheet iron receptacles, within
which steam is allowed to act on the mixture.
The rubber of decorated metal plates is advantageously vulcanized by means
of a press with heated dies. When submitted to pressure between the heated dies,
the surfaces of the plates are smoothed and at the same time the heat causes the
combination of the rubber and sulphur.
When the rubber filling of the cells has been vulcanized, the metal articles
treated in the described way are freed from the surplus hardened rubber, which
partly covers their surface, this being effected according to the shape of the
article, by planing, turning or grinding. In this way, the metallic design is

page_text: caused to stand out distinctly from the hardened rubber ground. Finally the
whole is polished.
If desired, the metal surfaces forming the design, can afterwards be electro-
plated with nickel, copper, silver, gold etc., without injury to the hardened
rubber surfaces, as the same are not attacked by the baths employed.
For preparing, by the described process, plates which can be glued on like
veneer, the lower surface of the plate is coated with a thin sheet of wood or a
woven fabric, the said sheet of wood or fabric being cemented to the metal plate
by a thin layer of hardened rubber. Plates whose cells are trough-shaped and
do not extend through the plates, are perforated at several points, in order to
allow the mixture of rubber and sulphur to pass through the holes when pressure
is applied to the plate, and thereby get between the metal plate and the sheet of
wood or fabric and cement them together,
In the accompanying drawing:
Figure 1 is an elevation of a metal plate, decorated according to this invention;
and
Figure 2 is a cross section on line 2-2 of Figure 1.
It will be seen that the metal plate a is perforated according to the chosen
design, and that its openings are filled up with hardened rubber which is
marked with crossed hatchings in the drawing. The woven fabric c, covering
the underside of the plate a is effectively cemented to the same by a thin layer d
of hardened rubber.
In preparing the decorated metal articles in question, the hardened rubber
may be replaced by celluloid, which, however, is less durable and shrinks after
a certain time. When celluloid is used, it is introduced in a state of dough into
the cells between the ribs forming the design and after pressing (if pressing be
required) and drying, the articles are planed, turned or polished.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
1. Metal articles upon the outer surface of which a design is formed by suitably
shaped recesses or suitably shaped openings through their sides, the said recesses
or openings being filled up with hardened rubber or celluloid, substantially as
set forth.
2. Metal plates of the kind described in the 1st Claim and having a thin leaf
of wood or a woven fabric cemented to their underside by means of hardened
rubber or celluloid, substantially as set forth.
3. A process of making metal articles of the kind described in the 1st Claim,
the said process consisting in first providing the metal article with a design
formed of projecting ribs and intervening recesses or perforated cells, afterwards
filling up the cells with a mixture of crude rubber and sulphur with or without
a pigment, vulcanizing the mixture, and finally finishing the article according
to its shape, by planing, turning or grinding and polishing, substantially as set
forth.
4. In the process defined by the 3rd claiming clause electroplating the finished
article, substantially as set forth.
5. In the process defined by the 3rd claiming clause replacing the mixture of
crude rubber and sulphur by celluloid in the state of dough, and the vulcanizing
by drying, substantially as set forth.
Dated this 8th day of August 1899.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.