An Improved Process for Producing on Steel, Iron, or other Metals a Durable and Smooth, either Glazed or Dull Black, Surface.
Year: 1893

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Process for Producing on Steel, Iron, or other Metals
a Durable and Smooth, either Glazed or Dull Black, Surface.
A communication by WILHELM KIESEL, of Ludwigsburg, Würtemberg, in the
Empire of Germany, Jewellery Manufacturer.
I, William PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for
Foreign Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street,
Manchester, both in the County of Lancaster, and 323, High Holborn, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement:—
This invention has for its object the production of durable and cheap mourning
ornaments in which the ground tone is either a dull or glazed black. Iron or steel,
preferably in the form of plates, is the most suitable as the tone of the colour
is finest on these metals and remains durable so that such ornaments remain
unimpaired. As the surfaces of iron or steel, or of sheets of these metals, are
rough and scale off, they are subjected to the following treatment, with the object
of making them smooth and clean like gold and silver-
The sheet is heated and boiled in diluted hydrochloric acid solution (about
3 parts of ordinary hydrochloric acid to 10 parts of water) by which means the
surface becomes of the necessary smoothness. The separate sheets are then when
cold gradually pressed or otherwise worked into the desired forms, and from time
to time or after each working are again immersed in the above named hydrochloric
acid solution. When the pressing or stamping is finished, the parts which are to be
employed for ornamentation are soldered together (by means of silver solder or the
like) then smoothed with emery, finely polished and grained (or dulled with the
sand blast). They then receive one or more coatings of balsam of sulphur with
alternate annealing or heating. A more or less glazed or dead tone of colouring
will be obtained according to the degree of heat employed. The article is
then washed in hot soapy water, to which a little sal-ammoniac (about 1%) has
been added, and is then quite ready so that it may be provided with further
ornamentations of suitable material in the form of small balls, pearls, threads or
the like.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is-
An improved process for providing steel, iron, or other metals with a coating of a
dull or glazed tone with the object of producing mourning ornaments, characterised
by the material being pressed or otherwise worked whilst cold into the desired
shapes after it has been heated and boiled in a diluted solution of hydrochloric acid,
during which pressing or working it is alternately immersed in the above named
hydrochloric acid solution and when the separate parts of the ornament have been
soldered together, and then smoothed with emery, polished and grained, they are
given one or more coats of balsam of sulphur and after each coat they are annealed
or heated, a more or less glazed or dull black thoroughly durable tone of colour
being obtained by a greater or less amount of heating.
Dated this 23rd day of October 1893.