AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING DESIGNS IN ENAMEL OR ARTICLES OF BRASS AND THE ALLOY CALLED GERMAN SILVER
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Tearne, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Japanner, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR
IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING DESIGNS IN ENAMEL OR ARTICLES OF BRASS AND
THE ALLOY CALLED GERMAN SILVER."
Sealed the 12th November 1861, and dated the 17th May 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Tearne at the
Office of the Commissioners. of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th May 1861. -
I, SAMUEL TEARNE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,. Japanner,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT. OR
IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING DESIGNS IN ENAMEL ON ARTICLES OF BRASS AND THE
ALLOY CALLED GERMAN SILVER," to be as follows:-
When enamel is fused upon surfaces of brass or German silver it is found to
adhere imperfectly, so that surfaces of brass or German silver cannot be
satisfactorily enamelled by the ordinary process.
My Invention consists in coating with copper the surface of the article of
brass or German silver to be enamelled, or coating with copper that portion of
"the surface of the said article to which the enamel is to be applied to which
coating of copper the fused enamel attaches itself firmly.

page_text: I carry my Invention into effect in the following manner :-I first produce
a design upon the surface of the article of brass or German silver to be
ornamented by enamelling. The said design may be produced by engraving
or etching with acid or by transferring a design printed from a copper plate,
stone, glass, steel, zinc, or other printing surface, and biting only to the
required depth those parts to be enamelled, or by embossing the design on the
surface with dies or rollers or other tools. I then deposit a film or layer of
copper upon the whole surface or upon those parts only to be enamelled, which
coppering may be effected by the ordinary process of electrical deposition as is
well understood. The enamelling of the said coated parts is afterwards
effected in the ordinary way.
I sometimes deposit a layer of copper upon a plain piece of brass or German
silver and then float on the enamel so as to form a back ground, and after
fusion I paint or transfer designs in vitrifiable colors or gold on to the said
enamel and fuse the said colors thereon. The articles can then be plated,
dipped, lacquered, and polished in the ordinary way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Tearne in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th November 1861:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
TRADNE of Birmiram, in the County of Warwick, Japanner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Samuel Tearne, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel Tearne,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel
Tearne, my 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PRODUCING DESIGNS IN ENAMEL ON ARTICLES OF BRASS AND THE ALLOY
CALLED GERMAN SILVER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Samuel Tearne, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe

page_text: 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 Samuel Tearne, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of the improvement or improvements herein-after
particularly explained in producing designs in enamel upon articles of brass
and the alloy called German silver.
When enamel is fused upon surfaces of brass or German silver it is found to
adhere very imperfectly, so that surfaces of brass or German silver cannot be
satisfactorily enamelled by the ordinary process.
My Invention consists in coating with copper the surface of the article of
brass or German silver to be enamelled, or coating with copper that portion of
the surface of the said article to which the enamel is to be applied, to which
said coating of copper the fused enamel attaches itself firmly.
In producing designs in enamel on metallic surfaces that portion of the
surface which is to be enamelled is generally sunk or depressed, and the enamel
fused in the said sunken or depressed portions of the surface. By afterwards
grinding or polishing, the surfaces of the enamel and the unenamelled
or metallic parts are made flat or flush with one another, as is well
understood.
.
In producing the said sunken or depressed designs on articles of brass or
German silver, to be afterwards filled with enamel, I proceed as follows:-The
said sunken designs may be produced either by engraving or etching with acid,
or by transferring a design printed from a copper plate, stone, glass, steel, zinc,
or other printing surface, the said design being printed in some material not
affected by acid, and afterwards biting by acid to the necessary depth those
parts of the design which are required to be enamelled. Or the designs may
be produced by embossing or impressing the surface of the articles by means
of dies or rollers or other tools. The method of producing the sunken design
upon the surface of the article of brass or German silver.constitutes no part of
my Invention.
As the processes of engraving and etching the surfaces of brass and German
silver, as well as the biting with acid of the surface to which a printed design
has been transferred, and the impressing or embossing of designs upon surfaces
of brass and German silver with dies or rollers or other tools are well known and

page_text: commonly practised, and constitute no part of my Invention, I do not consider a
description of the said processes necessary.
After the sunken or depressed design has been produced in either of the
ways described I deposit a film or layer of copper upon the whole surface
of the article, or upon those parts only which are to be enamelled, which said
coppering I effect by the ordinary process of electrical deposition. When
those parts only of the articles which are to be enamelled are coated with
copper I stop out the other parts by means of a varnish or other non-conductor
of electricity as is commonly practised in electrical deposition. The enamelling
of the said coated parts is afterwards effected in the ordinary way. The
enamelled surface is then ground or polished and the varnish or other stopping
out material removed, and the enamelled article is afterwards finished by
silvering, bronzing, or lacquering the surface of the unenamelled or metallic
parts of the said article in the usual way.
When the form of the article is such that all parts of it can be readily
reached by any of the ordinary polishing processes it is unnecessary to stop out
any portion of the surface by means of varnish prior to the deposition of the
copper on the said article, that is to say, the whole surface of the article may
be coppered. After the enamel has been fused in the sunken parts the whole
surface of the article is ground or polished, by which grinding or polishing
the copper on the unenamelled parts of the article is removed and the enamelled
and metallic parts made flush with one another. The said unenamelled or
metallic parts of the surface of the article are afterwards finished by silvering,
bronzing, or lacquering, in the ordinary way.
My Invention may be modified in the following manner, that is to say:-
I deposit a layer of copper upon a plain piece of brass or German silver,
and then float on the enamel so as to form a ground or back ground to the
design to be produced, and after fusion of the enamelled ground I paint or
transfer designs in vitrifiable colors or gold on to the said enamel ground and
fuse the said colors thereon. The articles can then be plated, dipped, lacquered,
and polished in the ordinary way.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not
limit myself to the precise details herein described, as the same may be
varied without departing from the nature of my Invention; but I claim as my
Invention, the improvement or improvements in producing designs in enamel
on articles of brass and the alloy called German silver herein-before described,
that is to say, coating with copper the surface of the article of brass or German
silver to be ornamented by enamelling; or that portion only of the surface to

page_text: which the enamel is to be applied prior to the fusion of the enamel on the said
article, whether the surface of the article have the design sunken or impressed
thereon or be plain, the said coating of copper effecting the ready and firm
attachment of the fused enamel to the said article of brass or German silver.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Tearne, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Ninth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw.
SAMUEL TEARNE. (L.S.)