A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN VENETIAN BLINDS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Simpson and Edwin Rimmer, both of
Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Carvers and Gilders, for the
Invention of "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN VENETIAN BLINDS."
Sealed the 23rd October 1857, and dated the 25th April 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Simpson and Edwin
Rimmer at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 25th April 1857.
We, JAMES SIMPSON and EDWIN RIMMER, both of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Carvers and Gilders, do hereby declare the nature of
our said Invention for "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN VENETIAN BLINDS," to be as
follows:-
Our Invention consists in coating or covering the laths of which "Venetian
blinds" are composed with a metallic surface, which may be either burnished
or plain, such metallic surface acting as required (according to the angle at
which the laths may be adjusted) more or less as "a daylight reflector."

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Simpson and Edwin Rimmer in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 24th October 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
SIMPSON and EDWIN RIMMER, both of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Carvers and Gilders, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
James Simpson and Edwin Rimmer, Her especial license that we, the said
James Simpson and Edwin Rimmer, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said James Simpson and Edwin Rimmer,
our executors, 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 "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT IN
VENETIAN BLINDS," upon the condition, amongst others, that we, the said
James Simpson and Edwin Rimmer, by an instrument in writing under our
hands and seals, should particularly 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 we, the said James Simpson and Edwin Rimmer,
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 and accompanying Drawings (that is to say) :-
Our Invention consists in coating or covering the laths of which "Venetian
blinds" are composed with a metallic surface, which may be either burnished
or plain, such metallic surface acting as required (according to the angle at
which the laths may be adjusted, more or less as a "daylight reflector."
The process which we prefer for coating or covering the said laths with the
reflecting surface is as follows:-The laths are first covered with a white
pigment, similar to that usually employed before gilding, then a metallic
composition of the following ingredients and quantities is laid on by hand
after the manner of paint. In preparing this composition we form a solution
of muriate of tin, one part of muriate of tin to three of water, and into such

page_text: solution is dipped a plate of zinc or other white metal, the effect of which will
be to blister or scale the surface of the zinc; the scales or particles of zinc thus
raised are then scraped off into clean water until a sufficient quantity of such
granulated or blistered zinc has accumulated, it is then put into a solution
containing a quarter of a pound of American black ash to one gallon of water
to destroy the acid of the former solution, it is then to be thoroughly washed
through many waters and seived into a fine powder, which is mixed with any
ordinary animal size and then laid in an even layer upon the laths. When
the laths are required to be polished, they are passed between a series of
calendering rollers, two of which rotate rapidly and impart a polish or
burnished surface to the metallic coating of the laths, which when formed into
"Venetian" or other blinds made of laths will have the effect of a daylight
reflector. If required, this reflecting surface may be covered with a transparent
paint or coloring matter, or otherwise ornamented by patterns or devices.
We would remark, that though at present we prefer the composition herein-
before named to produce the desired reflecting surface, a like result may be
obtained by compositions made from different ingredients, or that the laths
may be coated or covered with "foil" or leaf metals.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, together with the
manner of carrying the same into practical effect, we wish it to be distinctly
understood that we claim the coating or covering laths used in the con-
struction of Venetian, and other blinds, with a metallic composition foil or leaf,
so as to produce thereupon a reflecting surface, whether burnished or plain,
ornamented or otherwise, as required.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Simpson and Edwin Rimmer,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-third day of
October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-seven.