An Improved Material for Covering Floors, Walls, or other Surfaces in Wood, Mosaic, or Parquetry Work, or Imitations thereof.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 28th May, 1889
Complete Specification Left, 27th Feb., 1890-Accepted, 29th Mar.,
1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Material for Covering Floors, Walls, or other Surfaces
in Wood, Mosaic, or Parquetry Work, or Imitations thereof.
I FRANCIS FAULKNER BROWN of Eastgate Row, Chester, in the County of
Chester Cabinet Maker do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:
My Invention has for its object to provide an improved material for covering
floors walls or other surfaces with wood mosaic or parquetry work or imitations
thereof in an economical and effective manner without much of the trouble and
expense due to the special preparation of the floor or alteration of doors or other
parts of rooms or buildings necessitated by the considerable thickness of parquetry
work as hitherto carried out. According to my Invention I prepare the wood of
which the mosaic or parquetry work is formed in any suitable way but in thin layers
of a thickness preferably not exceeding or but little exceeding the thickness of
ordinary veneer.
I prefer to treat this wood and prepare it and arrange it in accordance with the
direction of the grain in the manner and for the purpose described and claimed in
the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me as of the 9th day of January 1884
No. 1029.
I attach these layers of wood cut across the grain and arranged as described in
the said Specification to a backing of a material which is not liable to warp and
is not of objectionable thickness and can readily be attached to the surface to
which the material is to be applied. Canvas is a suitable backing and with it may
be combined other materials to give any required additional qualities in the backing
such for instance as a layer of thin wood, pitch, paper, paint or any or all of them
in combination. The component parts are securely cemented or fastened together
and the material may be kept under pressure until it is dry. The cementing
material may be waterproof in character if desired and the wood of the mosaic
or parquetry work may be laid in any desired pattern or forms of the individual
pieces with the joints in any desired positions relatively to each other.
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Material for Covering Floors, Walls, or other Surfaces
in Wood, Mosaic, or Parquetry. Work, or Imitations thereof.
I FRANCIS FAULKNER BROWN of Eastgate Row in the City of Chester in the
County of the same City Cabinet Maker, 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 :-
My Invention has for its object to provide an improved material for covering
floors walls or other surfaces with wood mosaic parquetry work or imitations
thereof in an economical and effective manner without much of the trouble and
expense due to the special preparation of the floor or alteration of doors or other
parts of rooms or buildings necessitated by the considerable thickness of parquetry
work as hitherto carried out. I prepare the wood of which the mosaic or
parquetry work is formed in any suitable way but in thin layers of a thickness
perferably not exceeding or but little exceeding the thickness of ordinary veneer
but differing from ordinary veneer in the fact that in this case the grain of the

page_text: wood is perpendicular to the surface. I prefer to treat this wood and prepare it
and arrange it in accordance with the direction of the grain in the manner and
for the purpose described and claimed in the Specification of Letters Patent granted
to me as of the 9th day of January 1884 No. 1029. I attach these layers of
wood cut across the grain and arranged as described in the said Specification to a
backing of a material which is not liable to warp and is not of objectionable thick-
ness and can readily be attached to the surface to which the material is to be
applied. Scrim or canvas is a suitable backing and with it may be combined other
materials to give any required additional qualities in the backing such for instance as
a layer of thin wood pitch, paper, paint or any or all of them in combination. The
component parts are securely glued or cemented together and the material may be
kept under pressure until it is dry. The cementing material may be waterproof in
character if desired and the wood forming the surface of the material may be laid in
any desired pattern with the joints in any desired position relatively to each other.
The method of manufacture I have hitherto found most advantageous is first to
prepare tiles in the manner described in the Specification of the said Letters Patent
granted to me as of the 9th January 1884 and after glueing several of them together
by their edges until their united area is from four to nine square feet to cut them so
united into veneer by the ordinary means but so that the grain is perpendicular to
the surface of the veneer I then take a sheet of stout paper and glue scrim or
coarse canvas over it and to the scrim or canvas I glue the veneer and put the
material thus formed to dry under sufficient pressure to keep it flat I prefer to do
the glueing at one operation. I find it most convenient to apply the requisite
pressure by means of a veneer press heated by steam. When the material is dry I
smooth & polish the surface of the veneer according to taste and give the paper at
the back one or two coats of paint. The material thus formed has considerable
flexibility & is not thicker than linoleum.
If these qualities are not desired I substitute for the paper a backing formed of
pine in boards from two to three inches wide and about a quarter of an inch thick
tongued & grooved and put together dry. To this backing I glue the scrim or
canvas and to that the veneer as before described and let the whole dry under
pressure as before described. I give the pine backing one or two coats of paint as
I do the paper.
Though the method of a manufacture I have described is the one I have hitherto
found most advantageous, I am aware that satisfactory results can be obtained in
other ways and that the backing may be formed of other materials than those before
described.
I wish it to be understood, that I do not bind myself to any particular method
of manufacture nor claim any novelty for the processes of manufacture hereinbefore
described.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is ;
1. The combination of a thin layer of wood cut across the grain with a backing
of Scrim canvas, or similar substance with or without the addition of thin wood
paint pitch paper or other substance so as to form a material for covering floors
walls or other surfaces in wood Mosaic or parquetry work or imitations thereof.
2. A material substantially as hereinbefore described for covering floors walls or
other surfaces in wood Mosaic or parquetry work or imitations thereof.