IMPROVEMENTS IN GOLD COVERED ALLOY
Year: 1886

page_text: I, CHARLES BEATTY HEADLY, of the City of Philadelphia, in the County of
Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, United States of America, Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of my invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GOLD
COVERED ALLOY" and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The object of my invention is to produce a new article of manufacture consisting
of an alloy of copper and tin in the proportions necessary to give the color,
elasticity, and non-oxidizable quality of such fourteen carat gold as is made from
substantially two hundred and twenty penny-weights of United States gold coin,
sixty five penny-weights of pure silver and sixty seven penny-weights of pure
copper said alloy being provided with an outer surface or coating of gold, with the
result that articles of various kinds may be manufactured therefrom, so as to
present on their outer or wearing surfaces a surface or coating of gold, the inner
substance of said articles being composed of the alloy specified.
The alloy employed by me for making said article of manufacture is composed
of substantially one hundred parts of copper and twelve parts of tin, and is made
by melting the same together or by melting them separately and afterwards mixing
them together.
This alloy possesses the color, the elasticity, and the non-oxidizable characteristic
of gold of about fourteen carats fineness.
The application of gold to the outer surfaces of this alloy may be accomplished
by electro-deposition, or, preferably, by the ordinary process of applying sheets of
gold to sheets of base metal by soldering and rolling, then bending said sheet or
strip of gold-surfaced alloy into the form of a cylinder or tube, soldering the edges
together and drawing said gold-surfaced tube through dies to produce a gold-
surfaced rod or wire of the desired size.
I do not, however, limit myself to any specific means of providing said alloy
with a surface of gold, as any suitable method may be employed for the purpose
without changing the nature of my invention.
I am aware that gold-surfaced alloys have heretofore been made, but in all such
cases they have been open to one or more of the following objections, viz :—that
the alloy was not the same in color as gold, or that it did not possess its non-
oxidizable characteristic, and therefore became plainly visible and easily tarnished

page_text: in case of the wearing off of the outer surface of gold, or to the objection that said
alloy did not possess the degree of elasticity of gold, with the result that the article
manufactured therefrom was not elastic in the degree desired.
My article of manufacture possesses the following advantages, viz:-that the
elasticity of articles manufactured therefrom is as great as though fourteen carat
gold such as I have above described had been used, as the elasticity of the alloy
employed is the same as that of gold itself, and in the case of the wearing off of
the outer surface of gold a non-oxidizable surface of the same color as gold is
presented.
My new article of manufacture is, as will be well understood, suitable for many
purposes for which fourteen carat gold such as I have above described is employed,
and it is especially suitable for the manufacture of spectacle and eye glass frames,
in which the desirable characteristics above enumerated are required.
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 which
I claim is:
A new article of manufacture, an alloy composed of one hundred parts of copper
and twelve parts of tin, said alloy being provided with an outer surface of gold.
Dated this 12th day of March 1886.
CHARLES BEATTY HEADLY.
Carpmael & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.