IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING METALS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Morewood, of Stratford, in the County of
Essex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING METALS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Morewood at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
August 1863.
I, EDMUND MOREWOOD, of Stratford, in the County of Essex, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING METALS,"
to be as follows:-
When I coat sheets or suitable pieces of iron or other metal with melted
coating metal, I prefer to use rosin, sal-ammoniac, chloride of zinc, or other
suitable metallic salt, as a flux, either in what I call the preparatory flux
bath (being that in which the cleaned iron or other metal is submitted to
the action of flux preparatory to submitting it to the coating metal), or on
the surface of the melted coating metal where the sheets or pieces first enter
or come in contact with such melted metal, and then I find it important to
use such a rack or apparatus as will readily cause the sheets or pieces which
it receives from or through such flux to pass to such a position in relation to
the withdrawing instrument or to such place in the bath of coating metal,
that the sheets or pieces in process of coating can be withdrawn from the
coating metal or flux between rollers or otherwise free from the flux through
which they may have passed before coming in contact with the coating metal.

page_text: I thus use such rack or apparatus in combination with the aforesaid fluxes,
(which make the sheets take the coating metal readily, but which are
objectionable in the after parts of the process) either in the preparatory flux
bath or in the first coating metal bath, or in combination with the said fluxes
or coating metal around or about the rollers or other coating, rectifying, or
withdrawing instruments. My object being to cause the sheets to take more
readily, or at a lower temperature, or with less labor than by the present mode.
In connection with the rack or apparatus I prefer to use what I call a
feeding tube, or arrangement whereby the workman (especially when feeding
for several racks or for several withdrawing rollers at the same time) may
drop or place his sheet in the feeding tube or holder, and it will remain
therein until the other part of the rack is in proper position to receive and
pass it on, and then by a mechanical movement at the proper time the sheet
is released from such feeding tube, so that there is much less occasion for
attention on the part of the workman than if no such feeding tube were used.
When I use this rack or feeding arrangement in melted coating metal or flux,
I consider it important to arrange the joints, axles, or points, which give or
receive or transmit motion, and which would be liable to be injured or
hindered in their proper working by the clogging or expansion of the metal
of which they are made, so that they shall be out of the coating metal and,
sufficiently removed from the heat. Sometimes, especially when the specific
gravity of the coating metal is greater than that of the pieces of iron or metal
to be coated, and when the rack works in the melted coating metal, I furnish
the rack or apparatus with such an instrument or arrangement as will enable
it to draw down or catch or hold under the coating melted metal the sheets
or pieces which it is intended that such rack or apparatus shall assist in
causing to travel through and out of the melted coating metal. And I also
prefer to arrange so that as the sheet is passed up again out of the coating
metal such hold is relaxed.
'When I wish to prevent the sheets or pieces losing their surface heat as
rapidly as when they come immediately into contact with an open atmosphere
after leaving the coating metal or flux, or to obtain a supply of heat on the
rollers or forms, or on the exit side of the surface beyond and independent of
that obtained from the metal or flux on the sides and bottom of the bath, or
to enable me to work with the body of flux or coating metal at a lower heat,
then on the exit side of such bath or in other suitable position, and in or in
contact with or above the coating metal or flux, I have rollers or other
forms of copper or iron or other suitable material, which I prefer to heat as
herein-after mentioned, and to arrange and place above, near to, or in contact

page_text: with the coating metal or flux, so as to cause heat to be communicated to the
coating metal or flux, which is about, around, or in contact with such rollers
or forms, or to the surface of the sheet or piece of coated or coating meta
which is passing close to or against or between such rollers or forms of iron
or other metal. And these rollers or forms of copper or other metal are heated
by means of tubes conveying hot air from a fire or by other suitable arrange-
ment. Sometimes, especially when such heated surfaces are placed or act in
flux or out of conting metal, I feed them or keep them coated with melting or
melted coating metal, by causing such coating metal to be supplied to them
from a reservoir, or supply of melted or melting coating metal, so that tho
metal put upon the coating sheets as they pass close to, between, or against
such heated rollers, forms, or surfaces may be of other or better quality than
that which such coated or coating sheets bring up with them from their
previous coating when they approach such heated rollers or forms of iron or
other metal. If such sheets or pieces have not received a previous coating,
then the supply of coating metal to such rollers or forms should be of first
quality. In some cases I find it important to use copper, or alloys of copper..
or iron or other metal faced with copper, in preference to iron or other material
for such rollers or forms or surfaces. I also employ such rollers, surfaces, or
forms as instruments for coating, rectifying, brushing, wiping, rubbing, or
thinning the coating or coated surfaces of the sheets or pieces of metal in
process of coating, or for guiding such sheets or pieces in their travel through
the process. And I find it important to cause such rollers or forms of iron
or other metal to work, bear, or press directly or indirectly against, or to
work in connection with, some elastic matter, as india-rubber, or something
which will yield to pressure, as a lever, so that there may be as little as
possible of any thing rigid or as little jolt or jar as may be in or about the
rollers, forms, or instruments, (which may be guides, as described in my
Patent of the 4th April 1859, No. 846,) and which the coating sheets have
to pass, or with which they come in contact in their travel into, through, or
from the coating metal or flux. I consider it important so to arrange the
withdrawing rollers or forms of iron between or against which the sheets
pass when making their exit above or near to the surface of the coating metal
so that the coating of soft or fluid metal on one side of the sheet shall not
bear or press more than the other side against such roller or form. When I
use two or more baths of flux or of melted metal working in connection for
the purpose of coating, I cover over the intervening space between the two
baths, so as to confine it, and I prefer to cause the sheets or pieces to travel
through flux or through the vapour of flux in their passage from one bath to

page_text: the other, one object being to avoid waste of flux, another to keep the coating
surfaces as much as possible from the atmospheric air whilst undergoing the
process of coating, and to give them the advantage of a longer travel through
the flux. And by a rack or apparatus similar to that used in the flux or
in the coating metal, but reversed, or in other words turned upside down, and
working with or without rollers in the space between the two or more baths,
(and which space I prefer to confine as described,) I cause the sheets or
pieces coated or undergoing the process of coating to travel from one bath to
another. Or the movement of the rack with or without rollers may be so
arranged that the sheet shall have a backward and forward movement through
the same or adjoining coating metal or flux in the process of coating, and
thus I give them the advantage of an alternating or up-and-down travel
through the flux or conting metal. The mode of giving this motion may be
varied, and it may be applied in other parts of the coating process, and
whether two or more baths are used or not. Sometimes I use a rack
apparatus or arrangement in the acid cleaning tank, so as to enable me to
cause the sheets or pieces after having remained in the acid the desired time
to be raised mechanically. I prefer to use a travelling rack for this purpose.
By means of a suitable rack or apparatus I am enabled to work with advantage
with a lid or cover to the acid or cleaning tank, such lid or cover confining
the vapour of the acid, and having only a sufficient opening to admit of the
sheets or picces passing in through one opening, and after a travel in contact
with the acid or its vapour by the aid of the rack or apparatus, another
opening admits of their being raised and passing out through another.
The object of this arrangement is to accomplish one or both of the following
points. To save the workman from the unpleasantness and injury of bending
over and inhaling so much of the acid vapour, and also to prevent so much
id
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edmund Morewood in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 30
6th February 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
MOREWOOD, of Stratford, in the County of Essex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord 85
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her

page_text: reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,. the
said Edmund Morewood, Her special licence that I, the said Edmund More-
wood, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Edmund Morewood, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN COATING METALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Edmund Morewood, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my or their, or one their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said Edmund Morewood, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
In coating sheets or suitable pieces of iron or copper with tin, terne, or other
melted metal, by dipping them into the melted coating metal and then with-
drawing them, as generally practised in tin and terne plate making; it has been
found objectionable to use such fluxes as rosin, sal-ammoniae, chloride of zinc,
or chloride of tin mixed with carbonate of soda and other suitable metallic
salts in a fluid state, either in the preparatory flux bath, as mentioned in my
Patent of the 14th January 1863, or on the surface of the melted coating
metal, at that part where the sheets or pieces to be coated enter or first come
in contact with such melted coating metal, because, although such fluxes greatly
assist in making the sheets or pieces take the coating metal readily, yet they
are apt more or less to cling to or injuriously affect the surface of the sheets
or pieces which have undergone the process of coating if they have been
withdrawn through such fluxes from the melted coating metal. And there is
considerable labor and inconvenience in the present mode of dipping sheets by
hand into the melted coating metal through one kind of flux and then with-
drawing them by hand through another kind of flux, or else through no flux
at all; therefore, when using the before-mentioned fluxes, which ought to be
confined to the entranco side of the bath of coating metal, and through which
it is not desirable that the sheets or pieces to be coated should be withdrawn
from the melted metal, I find it is important to use such a rack or apparatus

page_text: as will cause the sheets or pieces which it receives, after they have passed
through the before-mentioned fluxes (which must be confined to the entrance
side) to travel from under the surface of that part of the coating metal through
which they enter and pass, whilst still below the surface, to the other or exit
side, which is free from the flux through which the sheets entered (such exit
side being either covered with no flux at all or with some other flux), and
from this exit side I prefer to have the sheets withdrawn by rollers. And by
the combined use of such rack or apparatus as herein described and the before-
mentioned fluxes, either in what I term the preparatory flux bath (and which,
as I use it, is a bath containing chloride of zinc and soda in a fluid state in
the proportion of one half pound of soda to three pounds of chloride of zinc
and five gallons of water), or else by the use of such rack or apparatus com-
bined with the said fluxes on the entrance side of the bath of coating metal,
I am enabled to cause the sheets or pieces to acquire their coating more
rapidly, or at a lower temperature, or with less labor, than by the present
modes. I prefer to use for this purpose a travelling rack, as shewn in the
annexed Drawing, Figure No. 1. In connection with such rack I use a feeding
tube and also a holder or catch, as described in the Drawing, Figure No. 1, the
holder being especially useful when the apparatus is applied to conveying the
sheets or pieces under the surface of such melted metal as has a specific
gravity greater than that of the sheets or pieces undergoing the process of
coating. I endeavour to place the joints or such parts of the machine as have
and communicate motion, and which may be liable to get clogged or bindered
in their proper action by the coating metal or flux, or heat, or acid, in such a
position that they shall be out of reach of injury from such causes. When
this cannot be avoided I make all the joints to work very easy, so as to allow
fully for expansion by heat and for the filling up by the coating metal. I
also place surfaces or forms (not revolving) of material suitable for guiding,
cleaning, or sweeping the surfaces of the coating sheets in such a position
that they shall rub or brush upon the surface of the sheet or piece of metal
which has been in contact with the flux through which it entered, as shewn in
the annexed Drawing, Figure No. 1, it being important to get rid of such
flux before the sheet leaves the coating metal. For this purpose I use, by
preference, a pair of surfaces of smooth iron made hollow so as to admit of a
current of hot air passing through them, and so placed, as shewn in the
annexed Drawings, Figures 1. Sometimes I use as a rubbing surface what
may be called a brush of fine iron wire, say, 36 or 38 guage. To theso
brushing or guiding forms or surfaces I attach a spring, or I arrange them so
that they shall work in connection with such an apparatus or arrangement as

page_text: will enable them to give or yield, or to open and close, if any very slight pres-
sure come against them, so that thick or thin plates may pass readily between
them. Such forms or surfaces (not revolving) but with such yielding faculty,
may be applied on the exit side of the bath, either to thin the fluid coating
metal, which the sheets would otherwise bring up with them, or to assist
in getting rid of flux or dirt or foreign matters which may cling to the
surface of the sheets, and to rectify or give a finish to the coating. If used
for assisting in removing the finishing flux I place them above the withdrawing
rollers, as shewn in the Drawing, Figure 1, and in such case 1 make them of
copper, or iron, or brass, and hollow, so as to admit of being heated by hot air.
If for brushing, sweeping, or clearing off foreign matters, or for wiping, thin-
ning, or rectifying the surface, I place them below the withdrawing rollers, as
shown in Figure 1, so that there shall be an interval of about four inches from
the point at which such pair of surfaces meet, or most nearly meet each other,
to the centre or nip of the withdrawing rollers; but the point at which the
pair of forms or rectifying surfaces most nearly meet each other is still in the
flux and above the body of coating metal, as per Drawing, Figure 1.
Sometimes I cause the withdrawing rollers to work in a slot, as shewn in
the Diagram A, where the moveable roller B is made more sensitive by
revolving upon another roller or wheel C, or otherwise arranged so that the
rollers readily open to the sheet passing between them and close when its
pressure is withdrawn; or the withdrawing rollers or their axles or wheels
may press directly upon a spring or lever, or upon clastic or yielding matter,
as Diagram B shows, or be connected with axes having collars made to yiekl
by their rims pressing upon a spring or elastic or yielding matter. If I use
springs, that part of the rollers or of the wheels which works against or upon
the springs is in contact with tallow or other matter at a point where such
tallow is either cooled artificially, by having tubes of cold water running
through it or otherwise, or by being removed so far from the melted coating
metal that the temper of the springs shall not be materially injured by the
heat. In order to effect this I lengthen the rollers or their axles, and so shape
the bath that the tallow or other matter with which the springs are in contact
is on one side of, and not directly over, the melted coating metal., I aim, in all
cases, to place the finishing rollers so that the sheet or piece undergoing the
process of coating shall not, as it enters between the said rollers, bear or press
more heavily against one than against the other roller of the pair; and I cause
one of each of the pairs of other rollers, surfaces, or forms between which the
sheets or pieces pass in the process of coating, to be connected with a spring,
or to be otherwise made elastic or capable of, yielding to slight, pressure; and

page_text: by the combined working of such yielding forms F, F, as shewn in Drawing,
Figure 3, with the revolving rollers, I am enabled to detain the flux without
unduly pressing upon the surface coating of melted metal which the sheet or
piece is acquiring in its travel through such coating metal. These rollers,
surfaces, or forms, may be made to act as guides, as described in my Patents,
4th April 1859, No. 846, and 3rd October 1859, No. 2235, for the sheets
in their travel through flux or coating metal, as shown in Drawing,
Figure 3.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of a bath and apparatus arranged and
snitable for coating sheets of iron or copper. For this purpose I use a feeding
tube B, from which the plates A to be coated are fed into a rack C. The
feeding tube B has a spring catch B', which (as catches C₁ of the rack C
passes and strikes against its lower end) opens it and releases therefrom the
plate A, which has been deposited in the tube B, and which falls into the
division below. On the top of each division of the rack C are a series of
catches C, C, which as they successively pass beneath and open the catch B
release a plate A, which falls into the division which for the time being is
beneath the feeding tube. When all the divisions of the rack C have been
filled the rack is caused to return under the surface of the coating metal to the
opposite end of the bath, and in order that it may do so without causing fresh
plates to descend from the feeding tube B, the catches C' are pin jointed or
hinged, so that on their return movement they, by coming in contact with the
spring catch B', tilt up and move out of the way while moving past the
catch B¹ by coming in contact with it, and again fall into their original posi-
tion by means of the weights C attached to them. The division of the rack C
nearest to the withdrawing rollers F (being under them), the plate A con-
tained in that division is raised by hooks D and crank E up to the bite or nip
of those rollers F, F; as the plates travel up to the withdrawing rollers they
are caused by means of a guide to pass between brushing surfaces G, which
instead of being fixed rigidly in their position are made capable of yielding or
of moving away from each other slightly. After having passed the with
drawing rollers F, F, they travel midway between the heating surfaces H, H.
They are then received by tongues or other suitable arrangement. The rack C
is caused to move to and fro as required by means of endless chains I, I,
having stops 1', 1', between which a projection from the rack C is placed. The
endless chains I, I, work over chain wheels K, K, which are caused to move
in either direction as required by double-clutch apparatus in the ordinary way.
L, L, are passages to admit of heated air through the flux box M. When the
specific gravity of the plates is less than that of the coating metal they have a

page_text: tendency after they have been fed into the divisions to rise again to the
surface; to obviate this small bent levers or catches are employed (binged
or jointed) so arranged as to be pushed out of the way by the plate as it
descends, and return again into position when the plate has passed it, thus
offering a slight resistance to the plate rising out of the division until the
desired time. A view of a suitable catch is shewn in Figures 1 A. When
necessary I use a bent rod or suitable instrument to press down or assist the
plate to descend through the feeding tube into its place in the rack.
When the coating metal is of greater specific gravity than the apparatus it
will be necessary to act upon the catches by floats instead of weights to keep
them in their proper position; such floats, of course, being placed on the
opposite side of their axes to that on which the weights would have been
placed had they been suitable. These bent levers or catches may be made to
act as brushes to sweep off the flux through which the sheet or piece falling
from the feeding tube has passed, and again to act as a rubber when the
sheet or piece is being raised.
When I use two or more baths of coating metal, or of flux, or of flux and
coating metal, I sometimes proceed as follows:-On emerging from the first
bath of melted metal or flux the sheet or piece is ruised by the revolution of the
withdrawing rollers until it is introduced into the catch or holder of a machine
similar to a rack or apparatus reversed or turned upside down, and which may
be worked with or without rollers. This reversing or transferring apparatus
works as shown in the Drawing annexed, Figure 2. But after receiving the
sheet from below the rack rises vertically in guides, and in descending makes
a partial revolution, and by a suitable arrangement, as shewn in the Drawing,
drops the plate into the feeding tube of the second bath of melted metal or
flux, and the sheet may travel through and out of the second bath by a rack
or apparatus, as herein-before described and shewn in Drawing Figure 1. Or
such sheet may be caused to descend again into the same bath as that from
which it has just been raised, but I prefer to make it enter a second bath as
described. The mode of obtaining this backward and forward or up-and-down
movement may be varied. The advantage of it is, that it tends more com-
pletely to insure the coating being made perfect, as the surface of the sheet
moves both ways in the coating metal or flux. And I prefer to cause such
sheet to make its final exit through withdrawing rollers working in contact
with the surface of the flux, as described in my Patent 14th January 1863.
Figure 2 is an arrangement suitable for giving an up-and-down movement
to plates, or for transferring them from one bath to another. Figure 2 is a
side elevation. A is a plate passing upward between withdrawing rollers B, B,

page_text: into a spring clip or holder C. This spring clip C is mounted upon an
axis C', which is capable of rising and falling in a groove or slot D' of the
framing D; C is a weight on an arm of the spring clip or holder C, which
causes it at all times to have a tendency to lean over or return to the stop E
fixed to the framing D. The plate having been fed into the spring clip or
holder C, the axis C¹ rises in the slot D¹ until the projection C³ comes against
the stop F carried by the frame D, which causes the spring clip or holder C
to pass over in the direction indicated by the red lines, and in doing so the
end of the longer arm of the spring clip or holder strikes (against the stop G
carried by the frame D, and thus releases the plate A, which falls into the nip
of the receiving rollers H, H, or other feeding arrangement of the second
bath. After having delivered its plates the spring clip or holder is enused to
drop, and in doing so resumes its original position ready to receive a fresh
plate. Or this apparatus may be applied to finally withdrawing sheets from
a bath of coating metal or flux.
Sometimes I cause the sheets to make their exit from one or more of the
machines or racks, or baths of conting metal or flux between pairs of rollers,
forms, or surfaces, (of tinned steel or iron, or other suitable material,) which
are heated by hot air conducted into them by a tube or otherwise from the
fire-place, the object being to communicate more heat to the surface of the
forms than they would receive if they depended only on the heat they obtain
from the melted metal or flux with which they are in contact unless the
coating metal or parts of it were overheated. And by beating the finishing
or withdrawing rollers or forms, whether revolving or not, I am enabled to
keep the coating metal and flux at a much lower temperature than would be
necessary if it were part of their duty to keep the pairs of withdrawing or
finishing rollers or surfaces (which have their uppermost surface slightly abovo
the flux) at their proper working heat. I keep these beated pairs of with-
drawing or finishing rollers or forms so set in the finishing flux that such flux
rises to the height of about 1 to 1 inches above the point at which such pairs
of rollers or forms mcet or most nearly meet, as shewn in the Drawing,
Figure 3; and I keep the surface of these finishing rollers or forms, whether
revolving or not, but which are in contact with the finishing flux, at about
460° to 500° Fahrenheit, preferring about 470° to 480° when coating with
tin. If coating with other melted metal, then at a heat proportionato
according to the melting point of the metal used. If I place heated surfaces
or forms above the finishing rollers or forms which are in contact with the
flux, as shewn in the Drawing, Figure No. 1, I keep the surface of such
heated forms which are above and not in contact with the flux or melted

page_text: coating metal at about 50 degrees below the melting point of the coating
metal, and I prefer to give such rollers, surfaces, or forms (if they are placed
or work in the finishing flux) a complete coating with the fluid coating metal
before I begin to work with them. And after starting I keep them supplied
with fluid coating metal, by the arrangement as herein-after described, and as
shewn in Drawing Figure 3, of what I call the roller supplier, which feeds the
surface of the rollers or forms with fluid coating metal of first quality. When
such rollers, surfaces, or forms are not in contact with the body of the
melted coating metal, and are exposed only to about the heat of the melting
point of tin, I prefer to make them of copper, or alloys of copper, as brass;
or, if of iron, to face them with copper.
Sometimes I use such heated pairs of rollers, forms, or surfaces, in the
earlier stages of the process in order to convey more heat to the plates as they
pass between them, either on their way through the flux or through the melted
coating metal on the entrance side, it being very important when coating with
melted metal, especially with tin or zinc, to cause the sheets or plates to
acquire beat from some other source, in addition to that they may obtain from
the melted coating metal, and that they should obtain it as soon as possible
after they enter the flux or coating metal, because the flux is more disposed to
cling to the surface of the sheets undergoing the process of coating, and they
are more apt to come out imperfectly coated if they do not quickly acquiro
the desired heat after entering and passing through the flux on the entrance
side of the melted coating metal. I therefore keep the heated pairs of rollers,
surfaces, or forms, on the entrance side, at a heat considerably greater than
those on the exit side, say, if those on the exit side are 490°, I make those on
the entrance side 600° to 700° Fahrenheit. When I use two or more baths
of melted metal or flux working in connection for the purpose of coating, I
prefer to form the floor of the space between the two baths by laying the side
flanges horizontally so as to form a flat surface well luted at the point of
junction, and two side walls, stretching from bath to bath at their ends, are
formed of stout iron plates, say about or of an inch thick. This wall of
iron plate extends along and from the flux box of one bath to and along that
of the other, so that the intermediate flux as well as that in the bath is
prevented from overflowing. I have a door or opening in this wall which I can
open and shut, so as to enable me to alter, arrange, or add to the flux within
from time to time. About eight inches above the floor of the intervening space
I place a hood or roof of iron or of suitable material. This roof covers the space
from the flux box on the exit side of the first bath to the flux box on the
entrance side of the second or next bath, so as to include both flux boxes under

page_text: This bood or roof bas
the hood; and consequently the space so covered in contains the vapour of
the fluxes which are on the surface of the underlying metal. If the baths
contain flux only, then the roof covers over the surface of such flux so as to
confine it, leaving only sufficient space on the entrance side to introduce the
sheets or pieces which are to undergo the process of coating, and a sufficient
space on the exit side to allow them to pass out; and the walls or supports of
such roof have a door or opening which will open and shut, and by means of
which the flux can at any time be altered or arranged.
a chimney with a damper so as to enable me to regulate the quantity and
density of the flux vapour by opening or closing it, and so making or closing
the draft up the chimney. Through this intermediate covered way containing
flux in vapour the sheets travel with the assistance of guides or rollers or
otherwise from bath to bath. The flux in vapour well confined has much the
same kind of action on the surface of the coating sheet as tho flux in a fluid
state, but I do not consider it so efficient. Or this intervening space between
the surface of the melted metal or fluid flux on the exit side of the first bath
and the melted metal or fluid flux on the entrance side of the second bath,
say, three or four feet, may be formed into an intermediate bath or vessel of
fluid flux. The object of this covered way between the baths is to give the
sheets or pieces of metal the advantage of being longer under the action of the
flux or of its vapour than they would be if such vapour were not confined but
allowed to pass off as is usual. The waste of flux is also thereby lessened,
and the coating surfaces avoid nearly, if not altogether, exposure to the
atmosphere in their passage from vessel to vessel.
Figure 3 is a longitudinal section of the roller system with three baths.
The plate enters the preparatory flux bath at A, and travels on through the
rollers B and C, D and E, through a pair of heated rubbing surfaces F,
previously referred to, into the first melted coating metal, and thence through
the rollers G, II, I, J, K, into the second bath of coating metal, and through
it by means of rollers L, M, through the flux box into the withdrawing
rollers N, N; O is a roller supply vessel containing melted coating metal
which is heated by a tube supplied with hot air. The melted metal drops
upon the roller from small apertures in the vessel. The intermediate spaco
between the baths is covered by covers P, P, with funnels or chimneys Q,
supplied with dampers R. A door is placed in this cover so as to enable the
workman to feed from time to time with flux, and to arrange and keep it in
working order. In preparing sheets or pieces of iron for the process of coating
with melted metal I clean them with acid, and for that purpose proceed as
follows: I make a long acid cleaning tank lined with lead, or 1 make it

page_text: of other suitable material; this I fill to a suitable extent with acid or its
vapour, but instead of leaving the top open I cover it over, leaving only an
opening where the plates enter and are withdrawn. Inside the tank is a
rack or travelling or moveable arrangement or apparatus with pegs or supports
which I make of wood or of earthenware. This rack is formed of a frame
having suitable pegs or projections between which the plates are introduced,
and pins are fixed in the upright pegs, against which the sheets or plates rest,
as shewn in the annexed Drawing.
Figure 4 shews the side elevation; Figure 5, a transverso vertical section
of a bath according to this part of my Invention. A is a driving shaft, on
which is a pinion B, taking into and driving a spur wheel C on the axis D;
on the axis D are also two chain wheels E, E, around which, and to other
chain wheels G, G, on the axis H, endless chains F, F, work; F', are pro-
jections made of iron (which, as well as the chains, may be coated with gutta
percha or suitable material), formed on or affixed to the endless chains F, F,
which press against and carry forward the racks or holders I, I, into which the
plates to be cleaned have been introduced. The racks I, I, are formed of a
frame having rows of pegs 1', 1', between which the plates are introduced;
12, 1, are small pins placed in the upper portions of the pegs I', against the
points of which the upper portions of the plates rest. The racks I, I, and the
plates therein are lowered into the bath means of the crane J, at one end
of the bath, and they are withdrawn at the other end by means of the crane K,.
the endless chains F, F, continuing to travel round in order to receive and
carry forward successively the racks I. There is a cover L to the acid tank
to prevent the acid vapour escaping more than is necessary, and a condensing
receiver for the vapour which passes from the acid tank into it.
What I claim is,-
First, the arrangement of a rack or apparatus (working in contact with the
melted coating metal) in combination with a flux as described, whereby I
obtain the advantages of such flux, and am also enabled readily to withdraw
the pieces of metal (which have acquired a coating, or are in process of doing
so) free from the said flux through which they passed before entering such
coating metal as described.
Secondly, the arrangement of the withdrawing or finishing rollers as
described, so that one or both of the pair, or their axles, or collars, or wheels,
shall work in a slot or shall press directly upon elastic or yielding matter, as
described; and also the arrangement of the other pairs of rollers, surfaces, or
forms (between which the sheets or pieces pass in the process of coating)
so that they shall yield to pressure or have elastic movement as described.

page_text: Thirdly, the apparatus or machinery as described, whereby I am enabled
to give a double clutch or backward and forward or up-and-down movement
to the pieces undergoing the process of coating or to withdraw them from the
coating metal or flux, as described.
Fourthly, the arranging of the withdrawing or finishing rollers or forms,
and apparatus connected therewith, so as to give them the heat most desirable
for them, as described, without overheating the coating metal or flux which is
below or around these rollers or forms.
Fifthly, the apparatus as described for supplying the rollers or forms with
fresh coating metal.
Sixthly, the arrangement of machinery so that the sheets or pieces of metal
undergoing the process of coating pass between pairs of heated rollers, forms, or
surfaces when entering, or almost immediately after entering, the flux or
coating metal as described, whereby I cause the said pieces to get rid of the
flux (which clings to them as they enter the melted metal) more quickly or
with more certainty than they otherwise would do.
Seventhly, the apparatus whereby the space intervening between two or
more baths of coating metal or flux is roofed or closed in, as described.
Eighthly, the arrangement of a travelling rack or machine and apparatus
in the bath of cleaning acid or vapour, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Morewood, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.