AN IMPROVEMENT IN COATING IRON WITH COPPER
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Richard Southby, of Bulford, Amesbury, in
the County of Wilts, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN COATING
IRON WITH COPPER."
Sealed the 4th July 1856, and dated the 15th April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Richard Southby
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th April 1856.
I, EDMUND RICHARD SOUTHBY, of Bulford, Amesbury, in the County of
Wilts, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN COATING IRON WITH COPPER," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in coating iron with copper.
For this purpose the surfaces of the sheets or other forms of iron are first
cleaned, as heretofore, then boiled or heated when immersed in an alkaline
solution, or a solution having an alkaline reaction on test paper, and then
coated by depositing copper thereon, preferring it to be from a hot cyanide
solution of copper.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edmund Richard Southby in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDMUND
RICHARD SOUTHBY, of Bulford Amesbury, in the County of Wilts, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edmund Richard Southby, Her special licence that I, the said Edmund Richard
Southby, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Edmund Richard Southby, 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 "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN COATING IRON WITH COPPER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Edmund Richard Southby, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edmund Richard Southby, 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 :-
This Invention has for its' object an improvement in coating iron with copper.
For this purpose the surfaces of the sheets or other forms of iron are first
cleaned, as heretofore, then 'boiled or heated when immersed in an alkaline
solution, or a solution having an alkaline reaction on test paper, and then
coated by depositing copper thereon, preferring it to be from a hot cyanide
solution of copper.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood. and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe more minutely the process
which I prefer to employ.
I first completely clean the article of wrought iron, cast iron, or steel, which

page_text: I desire to coat with copper, by pickling or scouring; and then, if an acid pickle
has been used, I dip the article into a weak alkaline solution, and having dried
it I scour it with dry sand.
Having thus prepared the article, I suspend it by iron wires in a vessel
containing an alkaline solution, that which I prefer being formed by dissolving
two pounds of carbonate of soda in one gallon of water. I heat this solution,
and the article suspended therein, to the boiling point of the solution, and I
maintain this temperature for about an hour. At the end of this time I remove
the article from the alkaline solution, and immediately place it in the coating
bath, which I prefer to prepare by dissolving ten ouces of cyanide of potassium
in one gallon of water, and adding thereto as much freshly precipitated oxide
of copper as it will take up. This bath I work at a temperature of 180°
Fahrenheit, with a copper pole, and with the precautions which are usual
when depositing copper.
I would remark, that in place of preparing the article for receiving the
coating of copper by means of a separate alkaline solution, the solution which
is used in the coating bath being alkaline may be used for this purpose, the
article being kept heated for some time in this bath before the deposition is
commenced, and this process has advantages in coating large masses of iron.
When articles of wrought iron, cast iron, or steel are coated with copper
by the process which I have described, the copper will adhere firmly to such
articles, and will not scale off when the article is heated to a red heat.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine
myself to the exact details described; but what I claim is, the treating
articles of wrought iron, cast iron, or steel with a hot alkaline solution,
previous to depositing copper thereon.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Richard Southby, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Seventeenth day of June, in the
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
year of
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
EDMUND RICHARD SOUTHBY. (L.S.)