Improved Material for Making Amalgam for Filling Teeth, and Method of Manufacturing the same.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Dec., 1891-Accepted, 23rd Jan., 1892
DE BOITTUATION.
Improved Material for Making Amalgam for Filling Teeth, and
Method of Manufacturing the same.
1, GUSTAV JUTERBOCK of 113/114 Oranien Strasse, Berlin, S. W., Germany,
Dentist, 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 invention relates to an improved material for making amalgam for filling
teeth and method of manufacturing the same, and consists in rolling the employed
alloy into very thin sheets and in depositing hereafter a layer of gold on the same
by means of an electric current.
The amalgams used by dentists for the purpose of filling teeth are composed, as
is well known, of an alloy of silver and tin, to which an addition of gold and
platinum or of either of these metals is made in order to improve the quality of the
amalgam. When required to use the latter, the mentioned alloy, which is sold in
filings or chips, is dissolved in mercury and may then easily be entered into the
holes of the teeth, as it forms a very plastic mass, whereafter it hardens very
quickly, and the whole manipulation is thus performed in a very short time.
The filling of teeth made in the described manner is not very durable and therefore
largely defective on account of the impossibility of preventing the admixture of
iron, dust and the like by the described method, and also owing to the fact, that
the fillings are more or less liable to be oxidized, whereby the homogeneousness of
the filling amalgam is impaired. The mentioned noxious admixtures are necessarily
made in the course of the manufacturing process as it is in use at present, as will be
apparent on considering that small particles of dust and dirt adhering to the tool
employed for cutting the alloy into small pieces, and also small particles of metal
detached from the tool itself will be mixed with said alloy.
The absolute purity of the amalgam is secured in my improved method by rolling
the alloy forming one of the ingredients of said amalgam into thin sheets and by
electro-plating hereafter the sheets with a strong layer of pure gold, whereby the
alloy is also protected from oxidation.
As pure gold has great affinity with mercury, the layer of gold covering the
sheet of alloy is readily dissolved in mercury and the alloy itself amalgamates very
rapidly.
In order to be made more convenient for use the gilded sheets may be cut into
small pieces and kept in bottles.
I do not confine myself to the employment of an alloy of silver and tin as an
ingredient of the amalgam.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, declare that what I
claim is :-
1.) The hereinbefore described method of manufacturing an amalgam for filling
teeth, consisting in rolling a suitable alloy into thin sheets, and in forming on the
same a galvanic deposit of pure gold, and in amalgamating the sheets prepared in
this manner, substantially and for the purpose as described.
2.) An improved material for making amalgam for filling teeth, composed and

page_text: manufactured substantially in the manner hereinbefore described, and for the
purpose set forth.
Dated Berlin. this 16th day of December 1891.
GUSTAV JÜTERBOCK,
By Robert Deissler,
38, Alexander Strasse, Berlin, C., Germany, Agent for the Applicant.