Improvements in Seamless Plated or Compound Wire.
Year: 1891

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Seamless Plated or Compound Wire.
I, LEVI LYMAN BURDOU, of No. 924, Broad Street, Providence, in the State
of Rhode Island, United States of America, Mechanic, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My present invention has for its object the production of seamless plated or
compound wire; the essential difference between my present improved wire and
seamless compound wire heretofore made is that the former has an exterior
seamless surface of gold (alloyed as desired) and an interior or filling portion of
silver united to the gold tube, whereas the ordinary seamless compound wire is
filled with base metal.
An objection to the ordinary plated wire, or seamless compound wire, is that the
interior or filling portion is composed of base-metal having no especial nor
intrinsic value; articles made of such wire arè termed "plated," which is
synonymous with and are classed with cheap or inferior goods, even though the
gold plate might be comparatively thick.
The object I have in view is to produce an improved class of compound wire
which is devoid of the objections just referred to to that end my invention consists
essentially, as before stated, of an outer or exterior seamless shell of suitably
alloved gold and an interior portion of silver united to the said gold.
In the appended drawings illustrating my improved wire, Figure 1 is a
perspective view of a compound solid wire, and Fig. 2 a similar view of a compound
hollow wire having a seamless exterior of gold and an inner tube of silver united
thereto.
a designates my improved wire complete, consisting of a seamless exterior or
portion of gold and an inner or filling portion c of silver united thereto.
The wire is reduced from a seamless compound ingot, the latter having a core c
of silver; the core may be first cast and then turned off to the proper size. The
outer portion of the ingot consists of a seamless tube of gold suitably alloyed,
and having the desired thickness. The tube may be drawn up from a disk, in
fact I prefer to thus form them, thereby producing a seamless shell. After the
two parts are made the silver core is inserted within the gold tube the adjacent
surfaces having first been properly treated with borax or other equivalent means
to effect the union of the parts when subjected to a high temperature; the core
may be covered with solder, or the shell itself lined with solder or low-fusing
metal, or even a thin sleeve or layer of solder may be introduced between the core
and shell, the core being made correspondingly smaller to admit the solder. Still
another way consists in forming a small chamber or reservoir at the top of the
ingot into which loose solder is placed. In any event the parts are subjected to a
degree of heat sufficient to fuse the solder or low-fusing metals, thereby uniting the
core and shell together; after which the compound ingot thus produced may be
reduced to wire by any of the well-known methods, when finally it may be still
further reduced by repeatedly passing it through a draw-plate provided with a
series of graduated openings. It will be found that the percentage of the two
metals, gold and silver, remains the same throughout in the wire that it possessed
in the ingot itself.
In lieu of the solid silver core e shown in Fig. 1 it may be annular or hollow as
represented in Fig. 2 wherein a central hole d extends longitudinally of the wire.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
As an improved article of manufacture a compound wire consisting of a seamless
exterior surface of fine metal, as gold, and an interior portion c of silver, united to
said exterior portion.
Dated the 17th day of Febru 1801
PHILIP M. JUSTICE,
Associate Agent.