An Improved Method of Treating Levigated Slate for the Manu- facture of Chimney Pieces and other Slate Goods.
Year: 1898

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Method of Treating Levigated Slate for the Manu-
facture of Chimney Pieces and other Slate Goods.
I, HENRY MILLER, Walcot Villa, Conduit Street, Gloucester, Manager of Slate
Works, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:
11:
An improved method of treating levigated slate by mixture, compression, and
heat; by which it can be adapted to the manufacture of various articles, such as
chimney pieces and the like, and to other purposes, for which slate slabs are
generally used.
By this method I shall take all kinds of waste slate, grind it to powder, mix
it with resinous compounds, the whole being boiled together and while hot placed
in moulds of the required form, then pressed, and afterwards treated as ordinary
slate.
An Improved Method of Treating Levigated Slate for the Manu-
facture of Chimney Pieces and other Slate Goods.
I, HENRY MILLER, of Walcot Villa, Conduit Street, in the City and County
of Gloucester, Manager of Slate Works, 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 an improved method of treating levigated slate by
which it is rendered adaptable to the manufacture of various articles, such as
chimney pieces and the like, and to other purposes for which slate slabs are
generally used.
In carrying out my improved process or method of treating levigated slate I
proceed as follows:-I take all kinds of waste or scrap slate and grind it to an
impalpable powder which can be conveniently effected by first breaking the
scrap slate into small pieces and then passing it through a disintegrator.
The powdered slate is put into an ordinary heating pan or furnace and I then
add thereto a sufficient quantity of a resinous compound to make the ground
slate moist and bind the particles together. Heat is then applied to the pan or
furnace and the mixture is kept stirred and at a temperature of about 300° F.
until the whole is heated through and becomes a well mixed sticky mass.
resinous compound which I find most suitable is a varnish composed of boiled
TD 077
The

page_text: oil, asphaltum and gum arabic, and, commercially known and sold as
"Black
Varnish." To this varnish I add a piece of resin about the size of an ordinary
walnut per pint. Any other suitable resinous compound may be used.
When sufficiently mixed the sticky mass is taken out of the pan or furnace
and while still hot placed in press moulds of the required form and subjected
to a pressure of about 1000 lbs. to the square inch so as to conglomerate the mass.
After pressure the mass is removed from the moulds, and left to dry in the air
for a few days and is then trimmed up and placed on the top of a stove where
the heat is very moderate so as to prevent the cracking of the moulded mass.
Here the mass is allowed to remain until it becomes partly hardened after which
it is placed in a stove at a temperature of about 180° F. and left there for a
period of from 10 to 14 days to get thoroughly hard, when it is ready to be
treated same as slate grained in imitation of marbles woods &c., varnished and
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. The process or method of treating levigated slate herein described consist-
ing in mixing the ground slate with a resinous compound, then heating the
mixture and pressing it in moulds while in the heated state, then drying the
mass in the air, and afterwards partly hardening it at a moderate temperature
and subsequently firing it in a stove until thoroughly hard substantially as set
forth.
2. The herein described process or method of treating levigated slate for the
production of chimney pieces, ornaments and other articles consisting in binding
the levigated slate particles together with a heated resinous compound and then
moulding the mass under pressure and subsequently drying and firing the
moulded article subsequently as described.
3. A moulded slate chimney piece, ornament or other article formed of levi-
gated slate bound together with a resinous compound and subjected to heat and
pressure to mould the mass and subsequently dried and fired substantially as
described.
F. W. GOLBY,
36, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Patent Agent for the Applicant.