Iм• PROVEMENTS IN GRAINING OR IMITATING WOOD, AND IN THE MEANS EMPLOYED FOR SUCH PURPOSE
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Embley and William Pilkington, both of
Blackburn, in the County of Lancaster, for the Invention of “Iм•
PROVEMENTS IN GRAINING OR IMITATING WOOD, AND IN THE MEANS EMPLOYED
FOR SUCH PURPOSE."
Sealed the 18th January 1876, and dated the 22nd October 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Embley and
William Pilkington at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 22nd October 1875.
We, HENRY EMBLEY and WILLIAM PILKINGTON, both of Blackburn,
in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GRAINING OR IMITATING WOOD, AND IN THE
MEANS EMPLOYED FOR SUCH PURPOSE," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a means of obtaining from various kinds of
woods impressions of the natural grain upon paper, and then trans-
ferring such impressions on to plain wood, paint, or other surface
requiring to be decorated in imitation of the grained wood.
We first bring the face of the grained wood to a smooth and level
surface, and we either lay a piece of transparent glass thereon and trace
the grain by hand by means of a camel's hair pencil and Brunswick

page_text: black, or wax. We then etch out the ground or glass where the
Brunswick black or wax has not been applied, so as to leave the graining
projecting or raised above the ground. Or we prepare the grained wood
by cating away or destroying the soft parts thereof by means of a strong
caustic alkaline solution (such as what is called "Gray's solution " used
by printers) leaving the grain projecting. We then apply paint or
coloring matter thereto by means of a roller, and print therefrom on to
the glass. We then proceed to etch out the ground with fluoric acid as
before. Having obtained the etched glass surface, either by tracing by
hand or by printing the grain from the wood thereon in the manner above
described, and then etching away the ground by fluoric acid. We use
this etched surface as a block for printing on to the transfer paper in the
following manner :-We take a sheet of paper, cither prepared with starch
(or otherwise so prepared that it will not absorb the paint or coloring
matter below the surface, and having applied paint or other coloring
or graining matter to the etched glass surface by means of a roller,
we lay the paper thereon, and by means of a cloth or the hand, or other
slight pressure at the back transfer the impression thereto. This
impression or transfer or prepared paper can then be re-transferred direct
on to the panel or other surface to be ornamented or grained.
By the above described means of procuring a raised surface on glass
by tracing or printing and etching, the transfer paper does not require
to be damped. The impression is taken much more easily, and time and
labor are economized.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Embley and William Pilkington in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st April 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
EMBLEY and WILLIAM PILKINGTON, both of Blackburn, in the County
of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said Henry Embley and William

page_text: Pilkington, Her special license that we, the said Henry Embley and
William Pilkington, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Henry Embley and William Pilkington, our
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 GRAINING OR IMITATING WOOD, AND IN THE MEANS EMPLOYED FOR SUCH
PURPOSE," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Henry
Embley and William Pilkington, our executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under our, or one of our, 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 Henry Embley (on behalf of
myself and the said William Pilkington), 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:-
This Invention relates to a means of obtaining from various kinds of
woods impressions of the natural grain upon paper, and then trans-
ferring such impressions on to the plain wood, paint, or other surface
requiring to be decorated in imitation of the grained wood.
Such being the nature and object of our said Invention we will now
proceed to describe in detail the manner in which the same is to be
or may be performed or carried into practical effect.
We first bring the face of the grained wood to a smooth and level
surface, and we either lay a piece of transparent glass thereon and trace
the grain by hand by means of a camel's hair pencil and Brunswick
black or wax. We then etch out the ground or glass where the Bruns-
wick black or wax has not been applied, so as to leave the graining
projecting or raised above the ground. Or we prepare the grained wood
by eating away or destroying the soft parts thereof by means of a strong
caustic alkaline solution (such as what is called "Gray's solution" used
by painters) leaving the grain projecting. We then apply paint or

page_text: coloring matter thereto by means of a roller, and print therefrom on to
the glass. We then proceed to etch out the ground with fluoric acid as
before. Having obtained the etched glass surface either by tracing by
band or by printing the grain from the wood thereon in the manner
above described, and then etching away the ground by fluoric acid, we
use this etched surface as a block for printing on to the transfer paper
in the following manner:-We take a sheet of paper, either prepared
with starch (or otherwise so prepared that it will not absorb the paint or
coloring matter below the surface) and having applied paint or other
coloring or graining matter to the etched glass surface by means of a
roller, we lay the paper thereon, and by means of a cloth, or the hand,
or other slight pressure at the back, transfers the impression thereto.
This impression or transfer, or prepared paper can then be re-transferred
direct on to the panel or other surface to be ornamented or grained.
By the above described means of procuring a raised surface on glass
by tracing or printing and etching, the transfer paper does not require
to be damped, the impression is taken much more easily, and time and
labor are economized.
Having now described the nature and object of our said Invention,
together with the manner in which the same is to be or may be per-
formed or carried into practical effect, we wish it to be understood that
we claim as our Invention, the methods of graining or imitating wood
substantially as herein-before described, and more especially we claim,
first, obtaining or producing a raised surface on glass by tracing or
printing the grain and etching away the ground, then printing from
this surface on to transfer paper, and afterwards transferring the pattern
therefrom on to the plain wood, paint, or other surface to be decorated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Embley (on behalf of myself
and the said William Pilkington) have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.