Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/188

 172 THE BUILDING NEWS. Marcu 1, 1872. and the line pencilled in with the stopping varnish, and when this is thoroughly dry and hard the whole of the black, except that portion covered by the stopping varnish, may be removed with a sponge and clean water. This black should be washed off perfectly clean, so that it will not interfere with the grain of the other woods, which may now be done and stopped as before. If the lines are run clean and sharp with the varnish, they will appear so when the stopping is removed, and, of course, will add very ma- terially to the beauty of the work when finished. Sometimes it will be required to inlay dark woods upon a light wood, the latter forming the mass of the work, and the former forming the pattern ; in these cases it is the best plan to grain the light wood first, and give it a coat of ordinary varnish ; when this is dry and hard we may then proceed with the other woods, just as if it were a plain ground, as before described. It will be seen that we have here a method of ornamentation, which, when used with skill and good taste, is of infinite im- portance as a decoration; twenty different woods may be used on the same design, with a command of colour quite as extensive as is ever necessary to produce harmonious com- positions in any style. Itis also a style of decoration allowing and capable of the utmost elaboration as well as of the simplest designs, both being equally effective and pleasing. Wenow proceed to describe the process of inlaying upon real wood by means of graining and staining. Most persons who visited the International Exhibition of 1871 will no doubt remember the beautiful specimens of this kind of work exhibited by Messrs. 'Trol- lope and Sons ; for excellence of workmanship, beauty of design and harmony of colour, these examples were worthy of the highest praise, and, we believe, have received universal com- mendations. Having said thus much in favour of these works, we must still further say that we cannot understand why Messrs. Trollope, or rather Mr. Andrew Fingar Brophy, a gentleman, we believe, in Messrs. Trollope’s employ, should have taken out a patent for what he calls a new process of staining and ornamenting wood, and which process is ex- actly identical with the process we have de- scribed above, and has been applied to the ornamentation of painted work and on both white and pitch pine fora great number of years within our own personal knowledge and practice. We do not doubt fora moment but that Mr. Brophy was, at the time he took out the patent, under the impression that he had found out a new process, but it had been in practice possibly years before he was born. Mr. Andrew Fingar Brophy’s specification sealed on December 10, after the usual pre- amble goes on to say :— In order that my said invention may be most fully understood and readiiy earried into effect, I will proceed to describe more in detail the manner in which I prefer to operate. Any of the ordinary woods used by cabinet makers are suitable to be ornamented by my invention. As the grain of the wood remains visible in the finished work, more especially in the lighter parts thereof, woods with little figure, and consequently the least expensive, are the most suitable. The surface of the wood is powdered with chalk to facilitate the manipulation of the design, which is then traced or marked on the surface of the wood in any convenient manner, and then so much of the design as is to remain of the natural colour of the wood is painted or coated by the artist with white hard varnish or stain-resisting solution; gums dissolved in spirit are suitable; I use white hard varnish. It is applied with a brush in such mamner as to obtain a sound varnish coating on the parts of the design where it is required. If on the first application of the varnish a sound coating of the surface is not obtained, in consequence of the varnish sinking in, the operation must be repeated. ‘The varnish being set, the lightest stain which is to be employed is next laid on, and when this is dry such parts of the surface as are to remain without further colour are in turn coated by the artist with varnish. Over this, when it is quite set, another darker stain is applied, and in this way the work proceeds, the artist employing any number of stains requisite to produce the effect he de- sires. These stains may or may not be laid over the entire surface, as may be most suitable or convenient to the work in hand; but the stains will in all cases overlap the one on the other, for in laying on the stains they are not to be worked to an outline of the design, but the outlines are to be ob- tained by the careful laying on of the solution or varnish, which prevents the stains at certain parts from sinking into the wood. When all the stains necessary to the desired effect have been laid on in regular gradations, from the lightest to the darkest, the work has to be cleaned off—that is to say, the upper films of the various coatings of resisting varnish, which will be discoloured by the stains, must be removed with great care and by degrees, or the wood beneath will be soiled. ‘This is a work of some delicacy ; it requires the application of a var- nish solvent of such a nature as to be under com- pletecontrol. I employ as a solvent spirits of wine, and I temper its action by the addition of French polish. At the commencement of the cleaning opera- tion, a mixture containing but a very small propor- tion of spirit is used, and by degrees the proportion is increased until the end of the process, and then spirits of wine is alone used. The work may, when it has been thoroughly cleaned, be French polished or varnished in the usual way. The solutions ordi- narily used for staining wood are applicable to the proeess above set forth. Having thus described the nature of my said invention, and the manner of per- forming the same, I would have it understood that what I claim as my improvement in staining and. ornamenting wood, is: ‘The application of succes- sive partial coatings of a resisting solution or var- nish in accordance with the pattern or design it is desired to attain, and the alternating such resisting coatings with coatings of staining solutions, the one overlapping the other substantially, as described.” —In witness whereof, &c. We would direct the reader’s attention to the last extract from the specification, in which Mr. Brophy sets out the particular and special points of the process he claims, and on which he grounds his patent right upon. Tt will be at once evident that he has no grounds for an exclusive patent right, simply because it is an old process, and has been for years commercially used in the trade. Xylatechnigraphy, by which not very eupho- nious name Messrs. Trollope have chosen to introduce their patent process to the public, does most decidedly give a wrong impression of its value. Had they simply said that it was an example of what might be done by the ordinary process of imitating inlaid woods by means of staining and graining, when the highest degree of taste and manipulative skill were directed to its capabilities, they would have exactly described what the speci- mens they exhibited were, and we, no doubt, should have had the disciples of Ruskin con- demning them as shams, and necessarily hate- ful, and to be avoided upon that account ; but being, as they were, admirably executed and offered to notice under a very high sounding and mystical title, we find architects, artists, and men who make a great point of storming at what they consider shams, all joining to commend and adopt these works, as a new style of decoration of great beauty and value. We would not, for a moment, be thought to insinuate that the eminent firm of Trollope and Sons have in this matter intended to deceive the public. We most emphatically disclaim any such intention, but that they themselves have been acting under a mis- taken impression there cannot be a shadow of doubt; else why go to the expense and trouble of taking out a patent for a process which is void in law, and which cannot be protected by reason of its having been public property years before the date of the patent ? We haye thought it our duty to put this matter right, inasmuch as the claim of a patent right to the sole practice and production of such like works would haye the effect of deterring many persons from using the pro- cess, to the manifest injury of the best in- terests of decorative art. (To be continued.) ———— Part of the site belonging to the School for the Indigent Blind, S. George’s-road, Southwark, is offered for sale. ‘The land, somewhat under two acres, with the building thereon (erected from a design by the late Mr. Newman), will probably be converted to other uses than those to which it has long been consecrated. ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION. A’ the ordinary general meeting of this associa~ tien on Friday evening last, Mr. Rowland Plumbe, President, in the chair, the minutes of the last meeting having been read and confirmed, Messrs. A. G. Lander, M. B. Buckle, and A. P. Sidney were elected Members; and Messrs. R. Curwen, jun., A. W. N. Burder, W. Blackwell, A. Drew, and G. W. Nicholay were proposed for membership. Mr. J. S. Quilter, hon. sec., next proposed a vote of thanks to Mr. Horace Jones, the City architect, for his kindness in permitting the members of the associa- tion to visit the works of the New City Library on Saturday week, and he would beg to include in the vote the names of Dr. Saunders, the chairman of the Library Committee of the corporation, and Mr. Charles Baily, of the City Architect’s office, who kindly ac- companied the members over the works. The vote was carried by acclamation. Mr. Quilter then. an- nounced that it was hoped that visits to works in pro- gress or to ancient or modern works near London would be able to take place every fortnight till the end of the session. The next, he said, would take place to-morrow (Saturday), when the members would, by thekind permission of Mr. Pearson, visit that eminent architect’s new Church of §. Augustine, Kilburn, which has just been finished. Possibly other buildings in the same neighbourhood would be visited on the same day. Mr. Boyes proposed and Mr, Quilter seconded a vote of thanks to the gentle- men who had assisted in making arrangements for the recent members’ soiree, which, having been carried, Mr. Lacy W. Ridge, Past-President, referred to the Elementary Class of Design, which, he thought, ought to include a larger number of the members of the association than it did. New members were constantly coming into the association, and it was possible that their attention was not sufficiently drawn to this class. He earnestly invited all the junior members of the association to join this class, as it would prove of inestimable value to them. Thepre- sident having heartily indorsed Mr. Ridge’s remarks, Mr. Quilter said he was requested by one of the vice- presidents of the association, Mr. J. Douglass Mathews, and who was also acting as secretary to a sub-committee which had been appointed by the Institute of British Architects to consider the subject of professional charges, to submit for the approval or opinion of the association the revised schedule or scale of charges. He (Mr. Quilter) begged to pro- pose that the schedule should bereferred to the com- mittee of the association for consideration, in order to report to Mr. Mathews their opinion thereon. Mr. Lacy W. Ridge objected to such a course. While he had every confidence in the committee, their report ought to be submitted to the general body for approval before being issued as the opinion of the association. He strongly objected to the committee's. reporting on its own responsibility. It was a line of conduct very common ‘in another place,” but, he thought, an uncommonly bad course to pursue. Some remarks on the subject having been made by Messrs. G. R. Redgrave, R. Phené Spiers, and the President (Mr. Quilter’s motion not being seconded), Mr. H. H. Stannus moved that the matter should be referred for consideration to the committee, who should pre- pare a report to be submitted to the members at the next meeting. Mr. Quilter said that as his proposal had found no seconder he would second Mr. Stannus’s motion. The motion was then carried. The Preswwent then called upon Mr. R. Paenr Spiers to read a paper on THE ABBEY CHURCHES OF CAEN. Having given very complete descriptions of the: Abbaye aux Hommes and the Abbaye aux Dames, Mr. Spiers adverted to the complex questions con— nected with the nave vault of the Abbaye aux Hommes. He said that previous to the investiga- tions of Messrs. J. H. Parker, M. Ruprich Robert, and M. Bouet, it had been supposed that the exist- ing clerestory, with its openings, was of the same period as the lower walls of the nave. The dis- covery, however, of two arches above the web of the present vault by M. Ruprich Robert in 1860 pointed out that with the arches in front of the windows, there were in each double bay of the nave a series of four arches carried on columns, It had also been assumed that the nave and transepts were vaulted in the first instance, whereas now it was generally agreed that the first church (as all churches in the North of France at that epoch) was covered with a wooden roof. The exact nature of this wooden roof, and its relation to the four arched openings, and to the vaulting shafts, had been the subject of much conjecture. These vaulting shafts consisted alternately of a three-quarter detached column with and without a pilaster. They are both of the same date as the nave walls, and one of the points in dis- pute turned upon the original object in the difference —