✓✓ PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS, LEAVES AND FRUIT
Year: 1862

page_text: of Middlesex, Engineer & Patent Agent, for the Invention of "Im-
✓✓ PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS, LEAVES AND
FRUIT." A communication from abroad by Joseph Dominique Alphonse
Favier, of 29, Boulevart St. Martin, Paris, Artificial Flower Maker.
Sealed the 18th July 1862, and dated the 24th January 1862.
I, WILLIAM CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer & Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS, LEAVES, AND
FRUIT," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved manufacture of artificial flowers, leaves,
foliage, or fruit, which are made transparent, and closely resembling nature.

page_text: I form them of paper or other tissue, and apply a thin coating of india-rubber
on each side. The flowers or other objects may be colored and finished in the
ordinary manner; but in order to render them transparent and supple, I soak
them in some thick liquid, such as wax or paraffin melted by heat or held in
solution in any suitable essence.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Clark, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd July 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer and
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Clark, Her special licence that I, the said William
Clark, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said William Clark, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS, LEAVES, AND FRUIT," a
communication from abroad by Joseph Dominique Alphonse Favier, of 29,
Boulevart St. Martin, Paris, Artificial Flower Maker, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Clark, my executors or administra-
tors, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their 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 I, the said William Clark, 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 (that is to say):-

page_text: Artificial flowers and leaves manufactured according to this Invention are
formed with two thicknesses of paper forming the two outside surfaces of the
leaf or flower, between which I place a thin sheet of a plastic, flexible, elastic
substance, in order to impart greater softness and fineness for receiving
impressions. I also replace the metallic wires which are now employed for
stiffenings and for forming the stems of leaves by violin strings, hardened gut,
india-rubber, and bristles, or other flexible and transparent matters, so as
to give to the leaves and flowers more elasticity and transparency, and
consequently render the illusion more complete. The leaf or flower thus
prepared is then impregnated with a fatty substance, which renders it
translucid.
The tissues of paper or fabrics forming the two faces of the leaf may be of
muslin, gauze, or other tissues, such as at present employed for the manu-
facture of artificial leaves and flowers, or of other nature. The interior layer
is composed of india-rubber, gutta percha, or other natural or artificial
substance possessing similar properties, that is to say, being of a plastic,
transparent, adherent and elastic nature. The three thicknesses forming the
leaf are caused to adhere together by the application of hot pressure between
the plates of a press, or between rollers. In order to impart transparency to
flowers or leaves, they are dipped in melted wax or other analogous body
possessing the same translucent properties, such as vegetable wax, paraffine,
stearic acid, fatty bodies of an animal, vegetable or mineral nature, or it may
be resinous varnish.
The same method is employed for the manufacture of artificial fruit; flowers
and leaves thus made have the advantage of perfectly resembling nature.
I may also use goldbeaters' skin instead of the textile materials herein-before
enumerated in the above manufacture.
IIaving described the nature of this Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be protected
by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First, the manufacture of fruit and flowers, and especially leaves and
foliage, by means of two tissues of a suitable nature, between which is inter-
posed a thickness of flexible, light, elastic, plastic and resistant material, such
as india-rubber, or gutta percha, the whole being suitably shaped and goffered,
and afterwards dipped in fatty matters in order to give them a transparent
appearance more closely resembling nature.
Secondly, I claim the use instead of the metallic wires at present employed
of a flexible and transparent matter, such as violin strings, gut, india-rubber, or

page_text: bristles, for the stiffenings and mounting of the leaves or stems of flowers,
leaves, foliage, and artificial fruit, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Clark, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
W. G. E. SWINNOCK,
53, Chancery Lane, W.C.
W. CLARK. (L.S.)