IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF DOOR PLATES. SIGN BOARDS, AND OTHER SURFACES HAVING INSCRIPTIONS, DESIGNS, OR ORNAMENTS THEREON, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF DETACHED LETTERS, DESIGNS, AND ORNAMENTS TO BE AFFIXED TO WALLS AND SIGN BOARDS, OR USED FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Schaub, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Electro Metallurgist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF DOOR PLATES. SIGN BOARDS, AND OTHER SURFACES HAVING
INSCRIPTIONS, DESIGNS, OR ORNAMENTS THEREON, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
DETACHED LETTERS, DESIGNS, AND ORNAMENTS TO BE AFFIXED TO WALLS AND
SIGN BOARDS, OR USED FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES."
Sealed the 23rd November 1858, and dated the 22nd June 1858. .
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said. George Schaub at the,
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Peution, on the 22nd.
June 1858.
I, GEORGE SOHAUB, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Electro'
Metallurgist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE.
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF DOOR PLATES, SIGN BOARDS. AND OTHER SURFACES
HAVING INSCRIPTIONS, DESIGNS, OR ORNAMENTS THEREON, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF DETACHED LETTERS, DESIGNS, AND ORNAMENTS TO BE AFFIXED TO WALLS AND
SIGN BOARDS OR USED FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in manufacturing door plates, sign boards, and other
surfaces having inscriptions, designs, or ornaments thereon of copper or other
metal or alloy capable of being deposited by the process of electro-deposition,
the said manufacture being conducted in the manner hereinafter described.
Also in manufacturing detached letters, designs, and ornaments to be applied
to walls and sign boards, or used for other like purposes of copper or other
metal or alloy capable of being deposited by the process of electro-deposition,
the said manufacture being conducted in the manner hereinafter described.

page_text: In manufacturing door plates, sign boards, and other such like articles
according to my Invention, I proceed as follows:-I first make pattern letters
or designs,and build up or compose therewith an inscription or design similar
to that to be manufactured, in the same way as words and sentences are com-
posed of printing types by printers. If the plates to be produced require large
margins, I add plain metal pieces to the composed pattern, so as to produce
the required margin in the way that the printer fills up blank places with
quadrats and spaces; I take a mould or matrix of the composed inscription or
design by means of gutta percha or plaster of Paris, or other suitable material.
I cut away from the mould produced, the relief joiuts produced between and
at the junctions of the single patterns. By means of the process of electro-
deposition I obtain from the mould or matrix a deposit in copper or other
metal or alloy, which deposit constitutes the door plate or other surface, with
an inscription. or design thereon.
The deposit may be finished and strengthened in any desired manner.
Instead of using detached patterns and taking a mould from an inscription or
design built up of the said detached patterns, I sometimes use detached
metallic or other moulds or matrices, and build up or compose the inscription
or design therewith, and obtain from the composed mould, or matrix, a direct
deposit without the intermediate process of taking a cast to deposit upon. In
making detached letters, designs, or ornaments, I first produce matrices or
moulds of the pattern letters or designs, the said matrices being made of
copper by electro-deposition or made in any other manner. The said matrices
are varnished in all the parts not occupied by the letters or designs, and an
electro-deposit is made on the said matrix. The deposit of metal does not
take place on the varnished parts, and the letters or designs produced are
detached from one another. The said letters or designs may be used for
making inscriptions,designs, or ornaments upon walls, sign boards, wire gauze
window, blinds, and for other like purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Schaub in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th December 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ⚫ GEORGE
SCHAUB, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Electro Metallurgist,
send greeting.
"WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters.
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of June, in the year of our Lord

page_text: One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said George Schaub, Her special licence that I, the said George Schaub, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George
Schaub, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF DOOR PLATES, SIGN BOARDS, AND OTHER SURFACES HAVING IN-
SCRIPTIONS, DESIGNS, OR ORNAMENTS THEREON; AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
DETACHED LETTERS, DESIGNS, AND ORNAMENTS TO BE AFFIXED TO WALLS AND SIGN
BOARDS, OR USED FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said George Schaub, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 George Schaub, 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 in manufacturing door plates, sign boards, and other
surfaces having inscriptions, designs, or ornaments thereon of copper or other
metal or alloy capable of being deposited by the process of electro-deposition,
the said manufacture being conducted in the manner hereinafter explained.
Also in manufacturing detached letters, designs, and ornaments to be applied
to walls and sign boards, or used for other purposes of copper or other metal
or alloy, capable of being deposited by the process of electro-deposition, the
said manufacture being conducted in the manner hereinafter explained and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
In manufacturing door plates, sign boards, and other such like articles
according to my Invention, I proceed as follows:-I first make pattern letters
or designs and build up or compose therewith an inscription or design,similar
to that to be manufactured, in the same way as words and sentences are com-
posed of printing types by printers. If the plates to be produced require large
margins, I add plain metal pieces to the composed pattern, so as to produce
the required margin in the way that the printer fills up blank spaces with

page_text: "quadrats and spaces. I take a mould or matrix of the composed inscription
"ör design by means of gutta percha,plaster of Paris, or other suitable material.
I cut 'away from the mould produced the relief joints or projecting lines pro-
"duced between and at the junctions of the single patterns. By means of the
process of electro-deposition I obtain from the mould or matrix a deposit in
copper or other metal or alloy, which deposit constitutes the door plate or
other surface with an inscription or design thereon.
The deposit may be finished and strengthened in any desired manner.
*Instead of using detached patterns and taking a mould from an inscription or
design built up of the said detached patterns, I sometimes use detached
metallic or other moulds or matrices and build up or compose the inscription
or design therefrom, and obtain from the composed mould or inatrix a direct
'deposit without the intermediate process of taking a cast to deposit upon.
I sometimes carry this part of my Invention into effect, that is to say,
the production of door plates or sign. boards, and other surfaces having
inscriptions or 'designs thereon, in the following manner:-I take a well
polished copper or other metallic plate and place thereon detached matrices of
letters or ornaments with their faces upwards, the said letters or ornaments
being arranged so as to producea mould or matrix suitable for the production
of the required 'inscription or design: The detached matrices of lette:s and
ornaments are secured to the plate by means of wax or other easily applied
adhesive substance. After the matrices have been secured to the plate, -I
brush over the said plate and matrices black lead or other substance which
will render the wax'a conductor of electricity. This treatment is necessary in
order to bring the matrices into electrical continuity with the plate on which
they are fixed as the wax attaching them is a non-conductor of electricity and
isolates the inatrices from the plates. By means of the ordinary processes of
electro-deposition, I produce from the plate, prepared as last described, an
impression in copper or other metal or alloy capable of being deposited by
electricity, the said impression constituting a plate having an inscription or
design upon it. The copper plate to which the matrices are attached, as well
as the matrices themselves, may be used over and over again for the production
of other inscriptions and designs.
'If the matrices are taken from engraved patterns, the engraving will be
reproduced in the deposit, and if the matrices are taken from patterns or
designs in relief, then the inscription or design will be produced in the deposit
with an appearance of relief.
In making detached letters, designs, or ornaments according to my Inven-
tion, I first produce matrices or moulds of the pattern, letters, or designs, the

page_text: said matrices being made of copper by electro-deposition, or made in any
other manner. I make the said matrices in sheets, that is, I produce, by
preference by electro-deposition, a sheet or plate, having thereon the matrices
of several letters or designs. I partially varnish the sheet or plate of matrices
with mastic or other varnish insoluble in water, that is to say, I varnish all
.those parts of the plate not occupied by the letter or design, leaving only the
letters or designs unvarnished.
This part of my Invention will be understood by an examination of
Figure 1 of the Drawing, which represents a portion of a sheet or plate of
matrices. In preparing the plate, Figure 1, for producing letters therefrom
by electro-deposition, I varnish all those parts of the piate external to the
inverted letter L on the plate, leaving only the said letter unvarnished. The
said letter L is either formed upon the plate by being sunk below the other
'portions of the plate, or it is formed by a projecting outline produced either by
a transfer or by a deposit from an engraved plate, as hereinafter explained.
I then take a deposit by electro-deposition from the plate of matrices,
Figure 1, when the reduced metal is deposited upon the unvarnished parts of
the plate, and a series of separate or detached letters or designs is produced.
In producing the plates of matrices, Figure 1, on which the detached letters
or ornaments are to be deposited, I take an ordinary copperplate, and by the
ordinary method of engraving engrave the outline of the letter or ornament
on the said plate. I next take an impression of the said plate by electro-
deposition, in which said depression the lines bounding the letter or ornament
are in relief,and the said lines serve as a guide for the workman employed in
varnishing those parts of the plate external the letter or ornament. From
one engraved plate any number of plates, serving as matrices,may be obtained
by the process of electro-deposition.
When the letters or designs to be deposited are required to be strong, and
the deposit must in consequence be made thick, the deposit frequently grows
or spreads over the edge of the varnish, and the deposit has not a sharp edge
or outline. To obviate this defect, I proceed in the following manner;-I
take the pattern letter or design (which I will call the pattern piece), having a
conducting. wire soldered to its back, and lay it upon a well polished plate;
with an exactly similar piece between it and the plate, the edges of the two
being made exactly to coincide.
The
This arrangement is represented insection in Figure 2, where a represents
the pattern piece, and 6 the conducting wire soldered to its back.
deposit, of exactly similar shape and size, is marked c, and the two pieces,
exactly covering one another, are placed upon the plate d, as represented.

page_text: Gutta percha, or other suitable moulding material, is then pressed or poured
while in a plastic or liquid state upon the plate d, so as to cover the pattern
'piece a. The gutta perchia is marked, in Figure 2. When the moulding
material has solidified, the said moulding material is removed from the plate d,
bringing with it the pattern piece a. Figure 3 represents the mould produced,
which consists of the pattern piece a and conducting wire b, the said pattern
piece a constituting the metallicbottom of the shallow mould formed inthe gutta
percha e. By depositing in a mould of the kind represented in Figure 3, no
spreading of the edge of the deposit takes place until the deposit has acquired
a thickness equal to the depth of the mould.
Besides engraving the outline of the pattern letter or ornament upon the
original copperplate from which matrices are taken, I sometimes engrave
upon the said pattern plate or upon the matrices taken therefrom, lines, figures
or designs, within the outline of the letter or design, or external to the said
outline, which engraving is reproduced in the finished letter or design. For
example in the letter L represented in Figure 4, the s space enclosed between
the lines and g, is no part of the letter L, but the said space when covered
with a colour or shading constitutes the shadow or shading commonly applied
to ornamental letters, and in producing letters by ny Invention which it is
intended shall have a shadow or shading applied to them, I produce the lines
g, g, within the deposit, as a guide for the painter in filling up the space
enclosed between the lines f, g. Sometimes, as in the letter represented in
Figure 5, double lines are employed to separate the letter from its shadow.
In such a case a different coloured paint may be used between the double lines
from that constituting the shadow of the letter.
Figures 6, 7, and 8, are other illustrations of this part of my Invention.
Figure 8, represents an ornament suitable for the corner of a book cover,
the said ornament consisting of piercings, some of which are marked h; and
raised and sunk portions. The raised and sunk portions are the counterpart
of the matrix, while the pierced portions / correspond to those portions of the
matrix which were varnished, and on which no deposit took place.
Instead of producing matrices on which to deposit the letters or ornaments
by varnishing or stopping out those portions of the plate on which it is wished
no deposit shall take place, I sometimes proceed as follows:-1 draw upon a
lithographic stone, and in the ordinary manner, those portions of the design
which I wish to stop out, and I print impressions therefrom on transfer paper
in the ordinary way, and I transfer the impression to copperplate. By
depositing upon the said copperplate, I obtain a deposit on those portions
only of the plate to which the transfer does not extend. The finer lines or

page_text: parts of the design may alone be stopped out by the method of transferring
described, and the broader surfaces may be stopped out with varnish applied
with a brush. Instead of transfers from lithographicstones, transfers fromany
other printing surface may be employed. By the method last described,
plates having inscriptions or designs thereon, may be produced suitable for
printing from. For example, if a series of lines constituting an inscription or
design, be drawn upon a lithographic stone, and a transfer obtained there-
from upon a copperplate, when the said plate is made to receive an electro-
deposit the copper is first deposited upon those portions of the plate not
covered by the lines of the inscription or design; but after a time the depo-
sited copper gradually extends over or spreads upon the lines of the transfer,
and a continuous plate is produced, which when stripped off the plate it was
deposited on has the design in sunken lines upon it, and may be printed from
as an ordinary copperplate. The thickness or height of the ink lines may be
increased so as to produce deeper lines in the deposit by the following
method:-During the deposition, the plate is removed from time to time from
the depositing vat, and a printing roller charged with printing ink passed over
it. The ink attaches itself to the ink previously transferred to the plate, but
does not adhere to the wet plate..
I do not think it necessary to explain in detail the method employed, or
the materials required in producing the transfers referred to in the last
described part of my Invention, as the method of printing the said transfers is
well known and commonly practised in various manufactures. The letters or
designs may be used for making inscriptions, designs, or ornaments upon
walls, sign boards, wire gauze window blinds, and for other like purposes.
I sometimes make door and other plates, having inscriptions or designs
thereon, by the use of detached letters and designs in the manner illustrated
in Figures 9 and 10, Figure 9 being a plan of the arrangement employed in
carrying this part of my Invention into effect, and Figure 10 is a vertical section
of the same. I take a large planed iron plate i, and iron strips or bars k, k, k;
by means of the said strips or bars I enclose a space upon the plate i of a size
equal to the plate to be produced; I place the letters or ornaments upon the
plate i inside the frame made by the bars k, k,k. The said letters or ornaments
are placed.with their faces downwards, in such order that when they have
been embedded in a mass of metal or other material, as herein-after explained,
the plate produced on being lifted from the mould will present the desired
inscription or design. I next take a crossbar of iron l, shown separately in
plan in Figure 1], and seen in section in Figure 10. The said bar is pro-
vided with a number of screwed holes, through which screws m pass. The

page_text: said screws m have long conical points. The said screws I screw down upon
the letters or ornaments, so as to hold the same firmly upon the surface of the
plate. The bar / may either be temporarily clamped to the plate i, or it
may be made so heavy that its weight holds it down with sufficient force. I
then pour melted zinc or other soft inetal into the space enclosed by the bar's k,
the said metal running over the letters or ornaments, and forming a slab or
plate, with the letters or ornaments embedded therein. The backs of the
letters or ornaments may be tinned for the purpose of attaching the same.
securely to the fused metal poured upon them. Instead of melted zinc or
other metal, plaster of Paris or other cements sufficiently hard may be
employed. Between the letters or designs and the plate i I sometimes place
a sheet of glass, and pour plaster of Paris or other cement upon the said glass
covering the letters or designs, and forming a slab upon the glass. In this
case the glass and plaster of Paris or cement are attached together, and the
inscription or design is seen through the glass which protects the said
inscription or design.
Although, for convenience of description, I have principally described
matrices and deposits of copper, I wish it, to be understood that plates having
inscriptions and designs thereon, as well as detached letters and ornaments of
other metals than copper may be made according to my Invention, my said.
Invention being applicable to the production of plates having inscriptions"
and designs thereon, as well as separate letters and ornaments of all such
metals and alloys as are or may be deposited by electricity. When I produce
deposits of silver, I prefer to use matrices of silver instead of copper.
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, firstly, the method, herein-before described,
of manufacturing door plates, sign boards, and other surfaces having inscrip-
tions, designs, or ornaments thereon, that is to say, making the said platesand
other surfaces by electro-deposition, either upon a compound matrix composed
or built up of separate or detached matrices, or upon a matrix obtained by
taking a mould or impression from a pattern plate or other surface composed
or built up of separate pieces, or made of separate pieces attached to a plane
surface.
Secondly, the method herein-before described, and illustrated in Figures 9,
10, and 11 of the accompanying Drawing, of manufacturing door plates, sign
boards, and other surfaces having inscriptions, designs, or ornaments thereon,

page_text: that is to say, manufacturing the said plates and other surfaces, by casting an
easily fused metal or alloy, or plaster of Paris, or other cement upon the
backs of the letters or ornaments placed. face downwards in the proper order
upon a plane surface, whether the said plate be defended with glass or left
undefended.
Thirdly, the methods of manufacturing detached letters, designs, and orna-
nients, to be affixed to walls and sign boards, or used for other like purposes
herein described, that is to say, making the said letters, designs, and ornaments
by electro-deposition, the said deposition being effected on matrices, portions
of which are stopped out by varnish, gutta percha, or other non-conductor
of electricity, the, said matrices being obtained by electro-deposition from
plates engraved with lines, serving as guides in applying the varnish, or
the said matrices being produced by transferring designs to plates, the said
designs being obtained from lithographic stones or other convenient printing
surfaces.
Fourthly, the method of making plates, having inscriptions, designs, or
ornaments thereon, to be used as printing surfaces, or for such other purposes
as the same are or may be applicable to, herein-before described, that is to
say, by taking an electro-deposit from a metal plate on which a design printed
from any convenient surface has been transferred, the deposition being con-
tinued until the reduced copper or other metal has spread over and covered
thelines of the transfer, and thus produced a continuous plate having a sunken
design thereon.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Schaub, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
GEORGE SCHAUB. (S.)