AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR ANNEALING COPPER OR ITS ALLOYS
Year: 1885

page_text: I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake, and Co Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of my invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR ANNEALING COPPER OR ITS
ALLOYS" and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following.statement:-
This invention relates to an improvement in the process of annealing copper or
its alloys and especially adapted for annealing wire, made from copper or its alloys,
such as used for electrical purposes, and which necessarily must be in the softest
possible condition; but it possesses advantages in annealing copper or its alloys for
other uses.
Under the usual process of annealing, the surface of the article is oxidized to such
an extent as to form a considerable scale, which scale must be removed by pickling
or otherwise, before the said article is in a merchantable condition. The scale is
also irregular in its thickness, due to the variation of heat at different points; the
removal of the scale therefore makes irregularities in the surface, and reduces the
thickness or size of the objects, causing a defect where perfect uniformity is
desirable, especially in electrical work.
The object of this invention is to avoid the scale heretofore produced in the
annealing process, and it consists in packing the wire or other objects in pots with
oxide of copper, and then heating the same.
In describing my process I will do so with relation to wire, this application being
sufficient to enable the invention to be applied to other objects made from copper
or its alloys.
In carrying out this process the commou annealing pot is employed. The coils
of wire are removed from the blocks in the usual manner. A layer of oxide of
copper is first placed at the bottom of the pot, then a coil of wire is laid thereon,
this being covered with oxide of copper; then another coil of wire is placed in the
pot a covering of oxide of copper being placed over this, and so on, alternately a
coil of wire and a filling of oxide of copper, until the pot is full. The pot thus
filled is placed in the annealing furnace, and there subjected to heat, for say one

page_text: hour more or less, according to the size of the wire. At the proper time it is
removed from the pots, in the usual manner.
While the surface of the wire will be slightly discolored, it does not lose its
lustre in the process of annealing, and may be put upon the market in that
condition; if, however, a clear surface is desirable the wire may be pickled, but as
there is no scale produced in the process of annealing, such pickling or cleaning
will not reduce the diameter or change the surface of the wire, the wire therefore
after this annealing process, has the same uniform diameter and surface as when it
comes from the block.
If the wire annealed under this new process be pickled, to give it a clear surface,
that surface will be much brighter than in the old process where the scale is
removed by pickling, the wire therefore is readily distinguishable from that
produced under the old method of annealing.
Substantially the same advantages as described in the application of this process
to wire, will be found to result from its application to other objects or articles made
from copper or its alloys.
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
1 claim is
The process berein described of annealing copper or its alloys, consisting in
packing the same in pots with oxide of copper, and while so packed subjecting
them to heat in the annealing furnace, substantially as described.