IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUction of TILES OR SLABS FOR FLOORS AND WALLS.”
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ludwig Oppenheimer, of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE PRODUction of TILES OR SLABS FOR FLOORS AND WALLS.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ludwig Oppenheimer at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 3rd December 1873.
I, LUDWIG OPPENHEIMER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF TILES OR SLABS FOR FLOORS AND WALLS,"
to be as follows :-
My Invention consists in a method of producing ornamental tiles or
slabs in geometrical forms, so that they may be adapted to a floor or
wall in any desired pattern or arrangement. For this purpose I take
clippings of marble or other stone produced as waste or broken into
small pieces for the purpose and mix them up intimately with finely
powdered marble or other stone, and any suitable ordinary cement, or
.

page_text: with powdered stone only. When the whole is in a pasty mass I press
it into square, octagonal, or other geometrically shaped moulds, and
thus produce slabs or tiles, which may be adapted after the manner of
ordinary ornamental tiles. When dry the tiles or slabs are ground and
polished, and as the mass is similar throughout the markings are
preserved as the surface wears away.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Ludwig Oppenheimer in the Great Seal Patent 1
Office on the 2nd June 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LUDWIG
OPPENHEIMER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 1
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of December, Onc. thousand
eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Ludwig Oppenheimer, Her special license that I, the said Ludwig
Oppenheimer, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others 2
as I, the said Ludwig Oppenheimer, 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 PRODUCTION OF
TILES OR SLABS FOR FLOORS AND WALLS," upon the condition, amongst
others, that I, the said Ludwig Oppenheimer, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Ludwig Oppenheimer, 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, that is to say :-
My Invention consists in a method of producing ornamental tiles or
slabs in geometrical forms, so that they may be adapted to a floor or
wall to fit each other according to any desired pattern or arrangement
after the manner of ordinary tiles. For this purpose I take clippings
of marble or stone produced as waste at the quarry or at other places
where such materials are worked into, shape, or I take waste pieces of
larger size and break them up by any ordinary machinery into pieces of
smaller dimensions, the size being regulated by the effect which it is
desired to produce. These clippings or broken up pieces, which will be
combined with a quantity of powdered material, I. mix intimately with
water and Roman, Portland, or other such cement, and while the whole
is in a pasty condition I fill moulds of any desired geometrical form,
such as a square or octagon, therewith, pressing it firmly together. In
the course of a few hours the material will have become well set, and
may be removed from the moulds, and when thoroughly dry they are
ground and polished by machinery used in the ordinary process of
grinding and polishing marble.
I find however that in order to gain the best effect it is desirable to
leave the slabs or tiles in the rough state for some months, after which
the cement becomes so hard that it receives a polish as well as the
fragments of marble, but the period required will vary according to the
cement used. By these means ornamental slabs or slates are produced,
which are similar in character throughout their mass, and the markings
are preserved as the surface wears away, and as they are of geometrical
form they may be fitted together in any desired arrangement.
The colour of the groundwork will necessarily be modified by the
powdered marble which is in the mixed mass, but this may be sifted out
if desired and different effects may be produced by combining various
colours of marble chippings, or pigments may be added to vary the
colour.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it
to be understood that I claim as secured to me under the above in part

page_text: recited Letters Patent, and for the purposes above set forth, combining
marble or stone fragments with Portland, Roman, or other such cement,
and moulding the material into geometrical forms, which are sub-
sequently ground and polished.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ludwig Oppenheimer, have here- a
unto set my hand and seal, this First day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four..
LUDWIG OPPENHEIMER. (L.S.)