US5327A - Ornamenting book-covers - Google Patents

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- UNITED sragrgnseagiriNT-QFFICE: f

wM. MeADAMs, or ALBANY, New YORK.

' ORNAMENTING BooK-covRsj To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM MoADAMs, of the city of Albany, in the county of Albany and State of New York, have invented a new and useful process of illuminating or o-rnamenting with colors the leather covers of books or fancy articles covered with leather, which I denominate stereographic binding, which is described as follows.

The mode heretofore practiced in effecting the above named result on book covers, has

, been, either, by cutting out pieces of leather of the desired form and colo-r, and after paring or thinning them, kpasting them upon the 'covers in their required relative positions, or by the hand of an artist, painting such devices as are designed for the covers in water colors in they same manner that it is done upon paper. Both of these processes it will be seen are very elaborate; the one first above named, requiring in the performance some two or three days, where the devices are in any degree intricate, or numerous, while that last above named may require as many weeks.

By my improvement in the art, hundreds of volumes may be done in the same time, and as well as by the process of applying colored pieces of leather that one volume could'be completedby the old mode and much cheaper.

My process is as follows: The leather used must be white, or what is termed virgin leather, tanned with oak bark, and free from grease, acid, and alkalies.- The covers may be made in the usual manner, and left to dry for four or five days, and then stamped in blank with a heated die (that is to sayithe brass die that is to be used in stamping the gold).A This blank impression acts for a gage by which to put on the colors, and is absolutely necessary to prevent the colors from spreading.

The colors are prepared in the following manner: For a red color take one ounce of cochineal; three quarters of an ounce of Brazil wood, simmered in a pint ofv rain water till nearly dry; and then poured into a very fine linen cloth, andas much of the color pressed through it as possible, bya binders common press, into a china vessel; then add/ four or five drops of aqua-regia to be used cold. For a light green take Persian berries two ounces, simmered down in a pint of rain water, and subjected to the same process as with the red, and brought ltoy the required shade lwith chemicksbluep The purple is the ,same as ybinders use. Fori black take iron filings simmered in vinegar for several days. For a y ellow color use aqua regia. The pans in which the colors are prepared must be lof china ware, as a vessel of a metallic substance would be corroded with the acid in the colors and spoil them.

The colors must be purified, or liltrated from all sediment in the following described manner: Take several thicknesses of fine soft flannel and lay them in a vessel so as to leave a space betweenthe lower piece of flannel and the bottom of the vessel. Pour the color into that space at theside of the vessel until it reaches the annel through -which Vit will rise in a pure state leaving t-he sediment behind; for should any sediment rise to the`- upper surface of the flannel it could not be used in staining the leather as it would stick to the die and smear and spoil the impression.

The dz'es.-The dies are prepared in theA following manner. Take blocks of a soft pine wood that will absorb and impartthe colors prepared as above described and bring them to the required length, breadth, and thickness. Make the surface on which the design is to be formed smooth. Draw the required design thereon. Cut away the block half an inch deep at right angles to the face thereof leaving the portions that are to stain the leatherk smooth and the sides wall-sided to prevent the colors from running together, or mixing, and not like common wood cuts. i

Manner of staining the Zeather.-Place i ner; orseveral colors may be transferred to the face of the kdie at the same time by making a vessel to contain the several colors l with partitions in it formingspaces corresponding with the shape of the design on the die in which the several colors are placed by rnetallic dies to prevent the spreading Vand mixing of the colors, and then stamping the colors (previously-prepared in the particular manner above described) by means 15` of soft porous Wooden stamps made Wall sided, as herein more particularly set forth,

by Which the ends above stated are attained.

' WM. .MCADAMS Witnesses: I

WM. P. ELLIOT,

A. E. H. JOHNSON.

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