CERTAIN IMPROVED METHODS OF COATING IRON, UNDER VARIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES, TO PRE- VENT OXIDATION OR CORROSION, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
BEAUMONT NEILSON, of Glasgow, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent by Writ of Privy Seal, bearing date at the Palace at West-
minster, the Twenty-ninth day of February now last past, in the third year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said James Beaumont Neilson, He special licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said James Beaumont Neilson, my exors,
adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Beaumont Neilson,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVED METHODS OF COATING IRON, UNDER VARIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES, TO PRE-
VENT OXIDATION OR CORROSION, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said James Beaumont
Neilson, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her

page_text: said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Beaumont Neilson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is as follows (that
is to say):-
First, the nature of my Invention consists in the application of a coating
or covering of copper, or copper alloyed with zinc or tin, or with both, to the
surface of iron, whether cast or malleable, and for the purpose of preventing
oxidation or corrosion, or for the purpose of ornament.
Secondly, the manner in which the same is to be performed is as follows:-
When copper is used, the best form is that minute state of division in which
it is obtained by precipitation from its solutions; and it may be procured in this
form in the process of the manufacture of copper from the ores. It may be
used also either granulated or in very small pieces. The alloys also must be
used in a very minute division, gromulated or in very small pieces. Copper
may also be used combined in its various salts, either natural or artificial, and
the other metals with which the copper is alloyed may also be used in the
state of their various salts, whether natural or artifical. To apply the coating
to cast iron, cover the surface of the mould in which the iron is to be cast
with any of the materials above described, of which the coating is intended
to be formed, taking care that the surface of the mould be evenly covered
with the material or coating powder or substance. In dry sand or loam
moulds the coating powder or substance should be mixed with wet charcoal
powder and spread over the surface of the mould. The moulds are then filled
in the usual manner with the melted iron, disturbing the coating on the
mould as little as possible, and the casting taken from the mould will be
found covered with a coating of copper or of an alloy of that metal, according
to the composition of the coating powder or substance employed. Borax
deprived of its water by heat, or any other well-known flux, may be mixed
with the coating powder or substance to facilitate the spreading or diffusion of
the metallic coating over the surface of the casting, though for the coating of
cast iron I do not consider a flux absolutely necessary. When it is intended
to apply the coating in particular forms or to particular parts on the casting,
for the purpose of ornament or otherwise, the coating substance should be
applied in the moulds in such forms and to such relative parts of the moulds
as is desired. To apply the coating to malleable iron, whether a bar, sheet,

page_text: plate, or other article, the coating substance mixed with a small quantity of
dried borax or other well-known flux is spread over the upper surface of the
iron, or such part of it as it is intended to coat, and it is then placed in a fur-
nace heated to a temperature sufficient to melt copper or the alloy which may
form the substance of the coating. At the proper temperature the copper or
alloy diffuses itself in a fluid state over the surface of the iron, which may easily
be seen by the person conducting the process. The bar, sheet, plate, or other
article of iron, is then removed from the furnace, and while hot plunged into
cold water to detach the scale of oxide which forms upon it. If it is intended
to apply the coating to the other surface of the iron the process must be
repeated with the surface of the iron to which the coating is then intended to
be applied uppermost in the furnace. The alloys of copper before mentioned
have been those formed by zinc or tin, or both, and they it is believed will be
generally the most useful; but any other alloy of copper with a metal not
easily oxidable, either in their state of salts or otherwise, may be used for the
purpose. That which I claim as my Invention is, the method of coating or
covering iron to prevent oxidation or corrosion, or for other purposes, by
means of copper or alloys of copper applied as herein-before mentioned and
described.
JAMES B. (L.S.) NEILSON.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of August,
in the year of our Lord 1840, the aforesaid James Beaumont Neilson came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, 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 Twenty-ninth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty.