IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THIN SHEET LEAD COATED WITH TIN"
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tosco Peppé, of 8, Peak Hill, Sydenham,
in the County of Kent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF THIN SHEET LEAD COATED WITH TIN"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Tosco Peppé
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 22nd March 1860.
I, GEORGE TOSCO PEPPE, of 8, Peak Hill, Sydenham, in the County of Kent,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MANUFACTURE OF THIN SHEET LEAD COATED WITH TIN," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of thin
sheet lead coated with tin, and consists in taking advantage of the clean surfaces
of lead consequent on continually cutting such sheets from the outer surface
of a mass or cylinder of lead, in order to apply thereto coatings of tin by the
electro-plating or depositing process.
For these purposes as the lead is cut from a mass or cylinder, and whilst it
still retains its bright and clean surfaces, it is conducted into a suitable
solution of tin, in order to have that metal deposited on to the two surfaces
thereof.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Tosco Peppé in the Great Seal. Patent Office on
the 22nd September 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
Tosco PEPPE, of 8, Peak Hill, Sydenham, in the County of Kent, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me
the said George Tosco Peppé, Her special licence that I, the said
George Tosco Peppé, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said George Tosco Peppé, my 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF THIN SHEET LEAD COATED WITH TIN,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Tosco Peppé, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 George Tosco Peppé, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
The thin sheets of lead herein referred to are obtained by cutting from the
outer surface of a mass or cylinder of lead, and I propose to utilise the fresh
unoxidized surface of the thin sheet lead so obtained, to deposit thereon a con-
tinuous, unbroken, and adherent coating of metallic tin, by means of the
electro-plating process.
The electro-plating of lead has been attempted before, but has not been
commercially successful, on account of the expense of cleaning the surface of
other than thick sheets of lead, and the difficulty of obtaining by the electro-

page_text: chemical process a proportionate thickness of reguline or metallic tin to admit
of profitable lamination with the lead by means of rollers.
:
The cleaning of thin sheets of lead by other than the cutting process, and
upon which an adequate thickness of reguline tin can be deposited by electro-
chemical means so as to admit of lamination being impracticable on account
of the expense, I take advantage of the freshly cut unoxidized surface,
which is incidentally obtained in the cutting process to deposit on it a pro-
portionate thickness of tin to bear lamination by rolling.
I take the thin sheet lead as it comes in a continuous sheet from the cutting
machine and conduct it into a trough containing, by preference, stannate of
soda, but other solutions may be used, such as the stannate of potash, or a
solution of cyanide of potassium and tin. These solutions are maintained at
a temperature varying from 150° to 170° of Fahrenheit, either by means of a
gas stove underneath an earthenware trough, or by the injection of steam into
a wooden trough. The depositing trough must not be made of any metal
capable of having tin deposited on it. The thin sheet lead is conducted along
the bottom of the trough on a series of wooden rollers revolving freely on axes
within the trough. The thickness of the coating of tin will depend upon the
length of the depositing trough, and the speed with which it is passed along it,
and also upon the intensity of the battery power employed, when the period
during which the lead remains in the trough is limited. In the depositing
trough I suspend over the sheet lead a plate of metallic tin of the same
dimensions as the immersed portion of the lead. This tin anode is connected
with the positive pole of the battery or batteries employed,, while the negative
pole is connected with the sheet of lead either through the cutting machine or
through the medium of the metallic rollers which receive the sheet. lead as it
emerges from the bath. The tin anode is kept from coming in contact with
the sheet lead by means of wooden or glass supports, which can be elevated or
depressed at pleasure, so as to regulate the distance between the lead and tin...
I prefer to suspend the tin anode directly over the lead. cathode, but it may
be placed vertically when the lead is in the same position alongside it.
In cases where it is desired to plate the lead with a thicker coating of tin
than can be deposited upon it during the time it is passing through the trough
in connection with the cutting machine, I first allow the lead to pass through
the trough in order to protect the surface from oxidation by the deposition of
a thin coating of tin as before described. I cut the sheet lead as it comes
from the machine into pieces of a convenient size, and immediately immerse
them in thin solutions in suitable depositing troughs, having no connection

page_text: with the cutting machine, and having a tin anode as before described, con-
nected with the positive pole of the battery or batteries employed, while the
lead is connected with the negative pole.
By increasing the intensity of the current of electricity while the quantity
remains the same, the rapidity of deposition, and the thickness of the tin
coating, may be regulated with facility, and other means usually employed by
electro-typists. When a sufficient thickness of the tin coating has been obtained,
the lead is to be passed between laminating rollers until it is drawn out to
the thinness required. By this means the surface of the tin deposit is rendered
bright and smooth. If required the laminated lead may be again put into
the depositing trough to receive a fresh coating of tin, and again extended
and smoothed by passing between the rollers, and the same process may be
repeated so as to give any required degree of thickness to the tin coating. The
lead so coated may be used as a material for wrapping up articles which are
injuriously acted upon by lead, or it may be formed into capsules or covers
for closing the mouths of bottles and other vessels.
Having described the nature of my Invention and how it is to be performed,
I do not claim the cutting of thin sheets of lead from a revolving cylinder, nor
.do I claim the deposition of tin on surfaces of lead prepared by other than the
cutting process, what I do claim is the utilization of the fresh and clean
surface incidentally produced by the cutting process, to apply thereto a con-
tinuous, unbroken, and adherent coating of metallic tin, of sufficient thickness
in proportion to the lead to admit of lamination, or rolling into thin leaves,
without exposing the lead surface.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tosco Peppé, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of September in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
G. T. PEPPE. (L.S.)