UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.
WILLIAM LINCOLN, OF OAKHAM, MASSACHUSETTS.
PROCESS OF PAINTING OR VARNISHING WOVEN W lFiE.
Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. [4,320, dated February 26,1856.
To all whom it may concern:
Be it known that I, WILLIAM LINooLN, of Oakham, in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new process of applying varnish or a liquid coloring to dish-covers or other articles made of woven wire; and I do hereby declare that the same is fully described in the following specification.
In varnishing or coloring woven-wire work having fine meshes it has been customary to apply the varnish or liquid color by means of a brush, such a method of procedure having to be done with great care in order to prevent more or less of the meshes from being filled up with the varnish or coloring-matter and secure uniformity of color.
In carrying out my invention I put the varnish or coloring-matter into an open tub or vessel, and immerse in it the wire-work netting or article, or part or portions thereof to be covered by it. I next removethe same from the liquid varnish or coloring-matter, and expose the dipped surface or surfaces to the action of a strong blast of air, which, passing through the meshes, completely drives all the varnish or coloring-matter out of them and causes it only to surround the wires. Besides this, the surplus varnish or coloring may be removed from the article by the blast of air,
and it may becaught in a suitable vessel, if
deemed advisable. This process of covering wire-work netting with a coloring liquid or varnish can be conducted with great expedition and to much greater advantage than that of applying the varnish or coloring-matterby means of a brush.
I do not claim dipping a window-blind or any article in a paint or liquid, and next submitting it to either a rapid whirling or revolving motion in order to discharge the paint or liquid therefrom, as I am aware that clothes have been dipped and washed in water, and
' subsequently revolved in order to dry them;
also, that sugar has been so treated in order to cleanse it and discharge from itliquid and saccharine matter. Such a mode of procedure not only differs from my process, but I have found it is not applicable to varnishing dishcovers and like articles made of woven wire, as when such are rotated in a case the varnish will gather or pile at the mostprojecting parts and cannot be easily spread so as to open the meshes without great labor and care. No good practical results are attainable from such a mode of procedure in comparison to the employment of a powerful blast of air against the cover after it has been dipped. The airblast not only clears the meshes, but forces the varnislf to pile on one side of each wire of a mesh, giving to the article or cover a very different appearance or darker color on one side from what it has on the other, such greatly improving the finish of the article. By the use ,of the air-blast a workman graduallysubjects each part of the wire-work cover to such, and thus he can easily even the varnish over the whole article and prevent it from piling too much in any one place, so as to choke the meshes, whereas were centrifugal force employed to remove the varnish it would act on the whole of the article at once, and there would be great difficulty in laying the varnisheven and clearing the meshes. My process for all useful and profitable results would be as inapplicable to painting a common windowblind as that of accomplishing such by dipping it into paint and revolving it is to varnishing articles or dish-covers made of woven wire; Each process is only profitably advantageous in regard to the article applicable to it as described.
What I claim is- Exposing the wire-work cover or article after having been dipped in the varnish to a powerful blast or current of air so brought to bear upon it as to pass through and clear its meshes of the liquid varnish and pile it more on one sideof each of the wires than on the opposite side thereof, in manner and so as to produce an effect as stated.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my signature this 2d day of March, A. D. 1855.
- WILLIAM LINCOLN.
\Vi tnesses: ALFRED E. BURT, LEWIS DEAN.