US726526A - Process of imprinting and fixing colored pictures or designs upon enameled metal, &c. - Google Patents

Description

CHARLES JOHN GREENLEY AND JOHN DAY, OF WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND.

PROCESS OF IMPRINTING AND FIXING COLORED PICTURES 0R DESIGNS UPON ENAMELED METAL, &c.

srncrrrcerron arming part 6f Letters Patent No. 726,526, dated April 28, 1903. Application filed August 7, 1902. Serial No. 118,809. (No specimens.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES JOHN GREEN- LEY, residing at Spring Cottage, Merridale street, and JOHN DAY, residing at 156 Penn road, Wolverhampton, in the county of Stafford, England, subjects of the King of Great Britain, have jointly invented an Improved Process of Imprinting and Fixing Colored Pictures or Designs upon Enameled Metal and the Like, of'which the following is a specilication.

Thisinvention consists in an improved process of imprinting and fixing colored pictures or designs upon enameled metal and other surfaces Which are afterward subjected. to heat or stoved, so as to burn in the ornamentation.

By this invention weare enabled to greatly reduce the number of burnings or stovings of such metal or other surfaces,so that evenfor the most complicated colored design or pic ture three burnings are sufficient; thus materially reducing the costof production. We are also enabled to insure that each portion or part of the picture or design is more quickly and also more correctly and accurately registered or placed in position before burning or stoving than has hitherto been possible.

According to the present method of producing pictures or designs on enameled metal plates each section or part representing a particular shade or color has to be. put on the plate separately bya paper transfer, the plate being on each occasion afterward fired or stoved, so that the number of burnings depends upon the number of colors or variations of color in the picture or design to be produced.

In carrying this invention into practice We use a transparent medium,of gelatin or its equivalent, for transferring the design from the stone to the enameled plate in place of paper transfers. This transparent medium is made in the following manner: WVe take a piece of celluloid, mica, or the like which is more or less flexible, and upon this we put a coating of transparent or semitransparent gelatin or its equivalent. The gelatin is first heated into a liquid state and run upon a sheet of glass or other flat surface, which is moved about so as to spread the liquid gelater cooling the sheet of celluloid and the tin evenly over the whole surface. The celluloid sheet or its equivalent is then laid upon the gelatin while the glass is still warm and pressed onto the gelatin, so as to adhere to 55 it. The surface of the glass upon which the gelatin is run must be kept quite clean and polished-say with French chalk. Af-

gelatin to which it now adheres arestripped 6 off the glass and form together a transfer medium or rubber which is ready for use. \Ve now take this transparent medium or rubber and imprint in a sticky medium upon its gelatin face from a lithographic stone or plate the lines of the drawing, or so much thereof as is required to be transferred onto the metal plate or its equivalent, which is previously enameled, and in order to greatly reduce the number of firings we transfer the lines of the darkest shades first, which is exactly the contrary to the practice which has hitherto been generally adopted. After transferring the lines we dust them in with ceramic or enamel color of the darkest shade. 7 We now cleanse the surface of the gelatin with turpentine, benzolin, or the like and then by means thereof and in the same manner as before transfer from the stone to the plate the necessary lines for a lighter shade of color on the same scale chromatically, and so on until a sufficient efiect is produced. Thisis an important feature of our invention, as by this means we can make several distinct and successive prints upon the same metal plate or surface and considerably reduce the risk of injury to the plate or other substance worked upon which each firing involves, and by this means we can with not more than three burnings or firings of the plate or other substance reproduce a most elaborate and complicated picture.

For example, supposing we wish to produce an enameled picture in which there are the following colors-black, brown, red, buff, and flesh colorwe should take the imprint from the stone for black and transfer it by our transfer medium to the enameled plate and dust in with black-enamel color. Then We take another print or impression from the brown and transfer it to the plate on the top of the black impression and dust in with brown enamel color, and so on with each color, finishing With the flesh or lightest tint last. These five printings or colors can then be fused, set, or fixed on the plate or substance being Worked upon by only one firing or heating of the latter.

In addition to metal goods this process may be used for pottery, glass, tiles, and all other goods Where the colors of the design or picture have to be burned in, and the transparent medium may be used by lithographers or the like for transferring from stone to stone or plate to stone.

What We claim, then, is-

The process of imprinting and fixing colored pictures or designs upon a plate of enameled metal or the like, consisting in preparing a plurality of designs on lithographic stone, one for each color, shade or tint, imprinting said designs upon a transparent adhesive surface, transferring each imprint to the plate, said transfers being made in chromatic order, beginning with the darkest and finishing with the lightest, dusting in each color after its corresponding imprint has been made, and firing not more than three times during the process.

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of two Witnesses.

CHARLES JOHN GREENLEY. JOHN DAY. Witnesses:

A. MATHEWS, A. G. OCKFORD.