IMPROVEMENTS IN AND APPLICABLE TO ORNAMENTING AND HERMETICALLY SEALING THE BACKS OF TOILET AND OTHER DETACHED LOOKING-GLASSES AND MIRRORS.
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Thomas Lewis, of Liverpool, in the
County of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
APPLICABLE TO ORNAMENTING AND HERMETICALLY SEALING THE BACKS OF
TOILET AND OTHER DETACHED LOOKING-GLASSES AND MIRRORS.
Scaled the 13th July 1875, and dated the 21st January 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Thomas Lewis
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 21st January 1875.
I, RICHARD THOMAS LEWIS, of Liverpool, in the County of Lan-
caster, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS. IN AND APPLICABLE TO ORNAMENTING AND HERMETICALLY SEALING
THE BACKS OF TOILET AND OTHER DETACHED LOOKING-GLASSES AND MIRRORS," to
be as follows:-
My Invention relates to ornamenting the backs of toilet and other
detached looking-glasses and mirrors, and also rendering the frames of
such looking-glasses impervious to damp, thus preserving the silvering.

page_text: Looking-glasses as at present constructed are made with their backs
plain and unadorned, generally of soft wood with an imperfect fit in the
frame, and are unsightly objects in the windows of dwelling houses.
Looking-glasses so constructed are also frequently destroyed by the
action of damp on the silvering, as their position in windows renders
them liable to damp through rain or otherwise.
Now my Invention consists in forming an ornamental covering or
"backing" for looking-glasses, by preference of japanned tin, papier
maché, enamel, glass, china, porcelain, or other suitable material. Such
covering or backing I make especially ornamental by painting,
enamelling, staining, or otherwise delineating any ornamental device
thereon, such as groups of flowers, arabesques, or other artistic designs.
This covering or "backing" may be set in the framework that carries
the looking-glass, and at the back thereof by the aid of white lead,
putty, composition of india-rubber or other suitable matter that will
hermetically seal the silvered glass in the frame; or the ornamental
covering or backing" before described may be affixed by suitable
fastenings over the frame of the looking-glass and at the back thereof.
It will be seen that looking-glasses constructed according to my
Invention have a sightly and highly ornamental appearance when
viewed from the street by passers. Also the glass being hermetically
sealed in the frame will be more durable than those now constructed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Thomas Lewis in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 20th July 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
THOMAS LEWIS, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, send
greeting.
2
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of January, in the a
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Richard Thomas Lewis, Her
special licence that I, the said Richard Thomas Lewis, my executors,

page_text: administrators, and assigns, or such others as 1, the said Richard Thomas
Lewis, 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 AND APPLICABLE TO ORNAMENTING AND HERMETICALLY SEALING THE
BACKS OF TOILET AND OTHER DETACHED LOOKING-GLASSES AND MIRRORS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Thomas Lewis, my.
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Thomas Lewis, do hereby
declare the nature of my said 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 relates to ornamenting the backs of toilet and other
detached. looking-glasses and mirrors, and also rendering the frames of
such looking-glasses impervious to damp, thus preserving the silvering.
Looking-glasses as at present constructed are made with their backs
plain and unadorned, generally of soft wood with an imperfect fit in the
frame; and are unsightly objects in the windows of dwelling houses.
Looking-glasses so constructed are also frequently destroyed by the
action of damp on the silvering, as their position in windows renders
them liable to damp through rain or otherwise.
Now my Invention consists in forming an ornamental covering or
backing for looking-glasses, by preference of japanned tin, papier maché,
enamel, glass, china, porcelain, or other suitable material. Such covering
or backing I make especially ornamental by painting, enamelling,
staining, or otherwise delineating any ornamental device thereon, such
as groups of flowers, arabesques, or other artistic designs. This covering
or backing may be set in the framework that carries the looking-glass,
and at the back thereof by the aid of white lead, putty, composition of
india-rubber, or other suitable matter that will hermetically seal the

page_text: silvered glass in the frame; or the ornamental covering or backing
before described may be affixed by suitable fastenings over the frame of
the looking-glass and. at the back thereof.
⚫ It will be seen that looking-glasses constructed according to my
Invention have a sightly and highly ornamental appearance when
viewed from the street by passers. Also the glass being hermetically
sealed in the frame will be more durable than those now constructed.
Having now fully described the nature, object, and purposes of my
Invention, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself to
any particular material or design for ornamenting the backs of looking-
glasses, as the same is capable of endless variation; nor do I confine
myself to any particular method of hermetically sealing the backs of
such looking-glasses, but what I claim as my Invention and secured to
me by Letters Patent as aforesaid is,――
Firstly. The application and attachment of an ornamental back,
whether of japanned tin, papier maché, enamel, glass, china, porcelain,
or other suitable material to toilet and other detached looking-glasses
and mirrors, substantially as set forth in the before-going Specification.
Secondly. The application and use of a detached back to toilet and
other detached looking-glasses and mirrors, and setting and hermetically
sealing such backs in the frames of such looking-glasses and mirrors,
substantially as set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Thomas Lewis, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of July, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
RICHARD THOMAS (L.S.) LEWIS.