IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER TUBES AND VESSELS
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER'
JONES, of King Street, London, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of January, in the fourth year of Her reign,"
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said'
Alexander Jones, Her especial licence that I, the said Alexander Jones, my
exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Jones, my
exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should'
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales;
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER TUBES AND VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Alexander Jones, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the

page_text: date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Alexander Jones, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to
consist in manufacturing tubes and vessels of copper deposited or thrown
down in the form and of the substance of the tube or vessel required to be
manufactured, by the action of voltaic electricity; and in further compliance
with the said. proviso, I, the said Alexander Jones, do hereby describe the
manner in which my said Invention is to be performed, by the following
.statement thereof, that is to say :-
When about to manufacture or form copper tubes by this process, I proceed
in the following manner:-A solid or other mould, of the diameter and form
of the required tube, has to be prepared. It may be made of any of the
following substances: wood, clay, earthenware, plaster of Paris, wax, or
other non-conducting substance that is capable of being moulded or formed-
into the shape of the required tube, or the mould may be of lead or other
metal fusible at a less degree of heat than the copper of which the tube is to
be formed. Should the mould be of the class of non-conducting substances, it
may be rendered a conductor of electricity by any of the following methods:
by an application of the solution of nitrate of silver. This solution may be
applied to the mould by the aid of a brush, or the mould may receive a coat-
ing of it by immersion. The silver contained in solution that has been applied
to the surface of the mould must be reduced to the metallic state for this
purpose. I prefer an application (by means of a brush or immersion) of
proto-sulphate of iron in solution, or phosphorous, either in solution or in
vapour. Surfaces for this purpose may also be rendered conductors of elec-
tricity by the application of plumbago, or by any metallic leaf or foil, or by
the substance usually termed bronze powder. But no claim is here made for
any of the methods of rendering non-conducting surfaces into .conductors of
electricity. Should the mould, however, consist of lead or other metal as
aforesaid, no other preparation of its surface is necessary after it has been
moulded into the required shape or form, and smoothed or polished. The
mould being put into a vessel containing a salt of copper,-either the solu-
tion of the sulphate or nitrate may be used, but I prefer a solution of the
sulphate, it is then to be surrounded by a cylinder of copper of a larger
interior diameter than the required tube when it shall be formed. The mould
and this surrounding cylinder being placed in the solution, wires or slips of
metal must be attached to each of them, in order that a communication may
thus be made with a galvanic battery. The wire that proceeds from the

page_text: mould that is to receive the deposit of copper must be made to communicaté
with the zinc end or positive plate of the battery, while the wire which is
attached to the surface of the surrounding copper to be eroded, must be
attached to the platinum or negative plate or end of the battery. The com-
munication being thus made, and the battery being excited into action by any
of the usual methods, copper is deposited on the surface of the prepared
mould. This action must be continued until a tube is formed of the required
thickness. Five or six days at a common temperature, say about sixty-five
degrees of Fahrenheit, are usually required for this operation. For each
portion of copper that is deposited on the mould a like portion is eroded or
dissolved from the surface of the surrounding copper contained in the same
vessel. When the tube has acquired the requisite thickness, it may be
removed from the mould on which it has been formed by mechanical force, or
more generally by the application of heat, this depending on the nature of
the substance of which the mould is formed. Should it be of lead or other
metal, as aforesaid, a degree of heat sufficient to melt the metal will be neces-
sary. Instead of a cylinder of copper, that is made to surround the matrix or
mould required to be deposited on, the copper for this purpose may consist of
clippings, turnings, or other refuse of copper, and be made to oppose the
surface of the mould by being placed in a frame of wickerwork sufficiently
close to prevent any portion of such copper from coming into contact with
the surface of the mould. In forming all sorts of copper vessels by this
power, the same process applies that I have already-described as applicable
to the manufacture of tubes. In some instances, however, it is convenient to
form vessels in separate portions, and afterwards to join the said portions,
which I perform by means of galvanic electricity, as aforesaid. Stopcocks and
other useful and ornamental appendages may be thus subsequently attached to
them. When I am desirous of joining parts of tubes or vessels together by
the means of voltaic electricity, I proceed in the following manner :-Every.
portion of the metallic surface is protected from the electrical action by
the application of a non-conducting substance (common resinous varnish.
answers this purpose), with the exception of the edges that are required
to be joined together, and a small portion, equal to one eighth of an inch, on
each side. These exposed portions must be perfectly cleaned with a dilute
acid or alkali, in order that any grease or oil may be removed. The edges are
then to be brought into contact, and thus placed in the vessel containing the salt
of copper in solution. They must be opposed by a surface of copper in the
same way as already described in the formation of tubes, and each in like
manner be connected with an adjoining galvanic battery until sufficient copper

page_text: is deposited in the interstices of..the joint to fasten them firmly together. For
the better understanding of this process; I subjoin a Drawing showing how the
battery is connected with the vessel containing the mould. of the tube and the
opposing copper surface. At the same time. I wish it to be understood that.an
indefinite number of tubes or vessels may thus be formed in the vessel' con-
taining in the salt of copper; but each separate surface must be attached or in
connection with the positive plates of the battery in the same mould as if only
one were about to be formed. It is also possible to cause the surface .to be
deposited on to act as a negative plate or electrode of a single pair, and in
this case the electrical action may be excited by a plate of zinc or other more
positive metal contained in the same vessel, but separated from the first by a
division of a porous material, as unglazed earthenware, or ánimal membrane,
as bladder. In. using this latter species of apparatus, it will be necessary to
keep up a constant supply of the salt of copper that may be used in crystals,
but in all cases I prefer to use the sort of apparatus of which I append the

page_text: real substance of the manufactured article being copper; but whereas the
causing of a deposit to be made on a mere mould, which mould is not to form
a constituent part of the article when manufactured, and the causing of that
deposit to be of a thickness suitable to the required substance of the article
when manufactured, so that the whole part of that article which is of copper
is formed of copper deposited by the action of voltaic electricity, and also
the uniting of parts together, or forming of joints in manner aforesaid, is
new; and whereas, therefore, I claim as my Invention the manufacturing of
copper tubes, and also of vessels, such as urns, cans, kettles, stew pans, and
the like, of the usual substance of such copper articles, wholly from copper
deposited or thrown down by the action of voltaic or galvanic electricity, as
herein-before described, upon moulds, such moulds not forming any part of the
said manufactured article when complete, but withdrawn therefrom by melting
out or otherwise, according to the nature of the mould, when the copper tube
or vessel is complete, and also the making of joints or joinings as. herein-before
described, by means of which improvements in the manufacture of copper
tubes and vessels I can form tubes or vessels in one piece which heretofore
were necessarily made in several pieces, can secure a more even and uniform
texture of metal, and can join pieces or parts together without the aid of other
metals, as solder, and without the practice of soldering or the application of.
heat for that purpose; and such my Invention being, to the best of my know-
ledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her
said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
Her said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby
declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that do verily believe
this my said Specification doth comply in all respects, fully and without rescrve
or disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right
and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Jones, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Tenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
ALEXANDER (L.s.) JONES.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the
presence of
T. MORLEY,

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of May, in the year
of our Lord 1841, the aforesaid Alexander Jones came before our said Lady
the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute made for that purpose..
Inrolled the Eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-one..