THE MANUFACTURE OF A NEW ORNAMENTAL SURFACE TO METAL OR METALLIC COMPOSITION
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LOUIS
FELIX VALLET, of Walbrook, in the City of London, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifth day of August,
in the fifty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Louis
Felix Vallet, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole, privilege and authority, that I, the said Louis Felix Vallet,
my exors, admors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term
of years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "THE MANUFACTURE OF A
NEW ORNAMENTAL SURFACE TO METAL OR METALLIC COMPOSITION;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said Louis
Felix Vallet, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent,

page_text: that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages what-
soever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as
in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, I, the said Louis Felix Vallet, do hereby declare that
the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to
be performed, are particularly described and ascertained by the following
description thereof, that is to say :-
The process of giving the new ornamental surface on metals or metallic com-
positions consists in employing those acids and saline compounds and substances
which chemically act upon tin, and which, when employed in the manner to be
stated presently, give to the metals or metallic compositions to which they are
applied the appearance of a crystalline surface variously modified. To produce
this effect the metal or metallic composition ought to be previously tinned
or covered with a thin coat of tin. If the metal be pure tin, it requires no
previous preparation. All grease remaining on the tinned surface, in con-
sequence of tinning, is to be taken off with a solution of potash, soap, or any
alkaline substances. The tin or tinned surface should then be washed with
pure water, dried, and heated to a temperature which the hand can bear.
When the surface has thus been cleaned and heated, any of the acids which
act upon tin, or the vapors of these, will cause the desired appearance of
crystallization; but I give the preferrence to the following composition, which
may conveniently be laid over with a brush or a spunge:-Take one part by
measure of sulphuric acid; dilute it with five parts of water. Take also one
part of nitric acid and delute it with an equal bulk of water, and keep each of
the mixtures separate; then take ten parts of the sulphuric acid, diluted in the
manner before stated, and mix it with one part of the diluted nitric acid, and
then apply this mixed acid to the tin or to the tinned surface with a pencil or
sponge, as above directed, and repeat the application of the said composi-
tion for several times successively, or until the result you expect proves
satisfactory. When this has been done the crystalline surface may be covered
with a varnish or japan more or less transparent and colourless or coloured,
and lastly polished in the usual manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said Louis Felix Vallet, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
L. F. VALLET. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifth day of February, in the year
of our Lord 1818, the aforesaid Louis Felix Vallet, thro' the interpretation of
Marc Isambard Brunel, the said Interpreter being first sworn, came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, 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 Fifth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighteen.