IMPROVE- MENTS IN COATING IRON AND STEEL WITH SILVER, GOLD, PLATINUM, OR PATLANTION AND IN ODEARENTING ARTICLES WITH SUCH METALS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jacob Baynes Thompson, of Rothwell Street, Regent's
Park Road, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN COATING IRON AND STEEL WITH SILVER, GOLD, PLATINUM, OR
PATLANTION AND IN ODEARENTING ARTICLES WITH SUCH METALS."
Sealed the 23rd May 1865, and dated the 14th December 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jacob Baynes Thompson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th December 1864.
I, JACOB BAYNES THOMPSON, of Rothwell Street, Regent's Park Road, in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING IRON AND STEEL WITH SILVER, GOLD, PLATINUM,
OR PALLADIUM, AND IN ORNAMENTING ARTICLES WITH SUCH METALS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in coating iron and steel
with silver, gold, platinum, or palladium, and in ornamenting articles with
such metals. For this purpose the surface of the iron or steel is alloyed with
one or more metals which are suitable for receiving the above metals by the
electrolytic process, that they may not peel off in burnishing, as they would
do if electro-deposited directly on the iron or steel without the intervention of
some suitable metal or metals to alloy-with the surface of the iron or steel.

page_text: The metal most suitable for this purpose is an alloy of tin, copper, and nickel,
in such proportions that it is about the hardness of the metals to be deposited.
Other alloys may be used, providing they have a sufficient affinity for the
metal to be deposited upon them, and are of proper hardness, and do not
require too great a heat to maintain them in a fluid state. Even tin may be
used if put on the proper thickness. If too thin, then the surface is too hard,
and the deposited metal spreads in burnishing, and consequently blisters. If
too thick, then it is too soft, and in burnishing yields more than the deposited
metal, and the latter cracks and peels.
When gold and platinum are used only for ornamentation on the silver as
a ground, they may be put on with a pencil of the following construction:-
The pencil may be made of fine spun glass, asbestos fibre, or even hair. This
pencil must have a hole down the centre of the handle for the battery wire to
pass, which may serve also as a reservoir for the solution if need be. A
strand of fine platinum or gold wires, according to the solution with which it
is used must be spread out in the brush part of the pencil, but only sufficiently
extended to be in contact with the solution held in the brush, and connected
above through the handle by means of an insulated copper wire to the positive
pole of a battery, while the article to be ornamented is connected to the
negative pole. In such ornamentation the gold will serve as the body of the
design, and the platinum for shading or bringing up the design in relief.
This metal painting can be gone over as often as required to bring it to the
desired thickness in the different part of the design. The ordinary way of
etching these ornaments on insulating varnish and submitting them to the
bath may be used.
The application of these processes of silvering, gilding, and platinating is,
firstly, for dessert knives and forks; secondly, for ordinary dinner knives and
steel forks; and, thirdly, for carriage and other harness, spurs, stirrups, and
besides these for other articles made of steel or iron, but which it would be
desirable to cover or ornament with one or more of the precious metals for
protection or ornament, such as the handles of fire-irons, scissors, and all
kinds of steel surgical instruments.
generally for the ornamenting
Also by it the process called
The process for ornamentation can be used
of silver or electro-silvered or other articles.
stopping off can be dispensed with, and the parts to be gilt can be directly
done with the pencil in less time than the varnishing or stopping off, and at a
.much less expense of gold than when using the vat.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jacob Baynes Thompson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 13th June 1865.
TÓ ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS. SHALL COME, I, JACOB
BAYNES THOMPSON, of Rothwell Street, Regent's Park Road, in the County
of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Jacob Baynes Thompson, Her special licence that I, the
said Jacob Baynes Thompson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Jacob Baynes Thompson, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING IRON AND STEEL
WITH SILVER, GOLD, PLATINUM, OR PALLADIUM, AND IN ORNAMENTING ARTICLES
WITH SUCH METALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Jacob Baynes Thompson, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of 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 immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Jacob Baynes Thompson, 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 improvements in coating iron and steel
with. silver, gold, platinum, or palladium, and in ornamenting articles with
such metals. For this purpose the surface of the iron.or steel is alloyed with
one or more metals, which are suitable for receiving the above metals by the
electrolytic process, that they may not peel off in burnishing, as they would
do if. electro-deposited directly on the iron or steel without the intervention of
some suitable metal or metals to alloy with the surface of the iron or steel..
The metal most suitable for this purpose is an alloy of tin, copper, and nickel.

page_text: in such proportions that it is about the hardness of the metals to be deposited.
Other alloys may be used, providing they have a sufficient affinity for the
metal to be deposited upon them, and are of proper hardness, and do not
require too great a heat to maintain them in a fluid state.
Even tin may be
used if put on the proper thickness. If too thin, then the surface is too
hard, and the deposited metal spreads in burnishing, and consequently blisters.
If too thick, then it is too soft, and in burnishing yields more than the
deposited metal, and the latter cracks and peels.
The following is the manner in which it is preferred to proceed :-I
prepare
an alloy of sixty parts tin, twenty parts copper, and twenty parts nickel. I
melt first the nickel, then add the copper, and lastly the tin. I melt this
alloy in a suitable pot or ladle, and cover the surface of the alloy with a flux,
sal ammoniac, or borax. I then dip the article, say, for example, a steel knife
blade, into the alloy, the blade should be quite polished and bright, and I
prefer to dip, first, the tang end with the shoulder of the blade, and after-
wards the point end. The dippings should be made as rapidly as is con-
venient, and then the blade is plunged into melted oil and tallow to prevent
oxydization. The alloy which remains on the surface is perfectly wiped off
with any soft material, and the blade plunged into cold water, which will give
the proper temper, if the blade were of such a heat that the alloy wiped off
perfectly clean, yet retained its lustre. If the article be of wrought iron,
plunging into water is, of course, unnecessary, except for cooling. The knife
blade or other article being thus prepared; it is cleaned by washing with a
solution of caustic potash, and then dipped in a bath of one part of commercial
hydrochloric acid mixed with four parts of water, both the potash and the acid.
should be used cold. It is not necessary to use a solution of mercury, as is
commonly done, perfect adhesion can be obtained without.
The article being now washed with clean water, it is ready for the depositing
bath. The process of depositing the precious metal, whether it be sllver,
gold, platinum, or palladium, is in all respects the same as that heretofore
employed in depositing these metals. Usually when the surface is to be of
gold, platinum, or palladium, I deposit, first, a layer of silver, but this is not
essential. The surfaces after the precious metals have been deposited thereon
may be burnished if not deposited bright, or it may be done to harden
the deposit.
I would remark that the alloys above mentioned may be varied by sub-
stituting silver or copper for the nickel in equal quantities; or silver may be
substituted both for the nickel and the copper.
I claim as respects this part of my Invention, the alloying the surface of

page_text: articles of iron and steel by dipping them into a bath of melted metal, and
then depositing on to the surface so alloyed silver, gold, platinum, or palla-
dium, as described; and in particular I claim the employment in this process
of a bath of an alloy of tin with other metal (such as copper and nickel) to
make a suitable alloy for electro-depositing upon and of a suitable hardness,
and having a suitable melting point for wiping and tempering.
When gold and platinum are used only for ornamentation on the silver as
a ground, they may be put on with a pencil of the following construction :-
The pencil may be made of fine spun glass, asbestos fibre, or even hair, and
indeed a sable hair pencil I prefer. This pencil should have a hole down the.
centre of the handle for the battery wire to pass, and the handle may serve
also as a reservoir for the solution; it is, however, simpler and more con-
venient, as I find, to take the solution from a separate vessel as an artist
works with water color. A strand of fine platinum or gold wires, according
to the solution with which the pencil is used should be spread out in the
brush part of the pencil, but only sufficiently extended to be in contact with
the solution held in the brush, and these wires should be connected above.
through the handle by means of an insulated copper wire to the positive pole
of a battery, while the article to be ornamented is connected to the negative
pole. In such ornamentation the gold will serve as the body of the design,
and the platinum for shading or bringing up the design in relief. This metal
painting can be gone over as often as required to bring it to the desired
thickness in the different parts of the design.
The solutions which I employ in working with this process are such as are
employed for electro-deposition in a bath, and the articles to receive the
deposit are cleaned in a similar manner.
The battery employed should also be such as to produce electricity of about
the same tension as would be used in working with the same solutions in a
bath, but of course the quantity of electricity required will be very much less,
and it is convenient to keep the quantity of electricity down to a proper
working amount by using a length of fine wire to connect the brush to the
battery, and to increase and diminish this length until a suitable action is
obtained. The metallic wires in the brush will gradually waste away, and
must be replaced when necessary.
I claim as respects this part of my Invention the ornamenting surfaces of
silver by the application of gold, or gold and platinum thereto by means of
an artist's brush or pencil of hair or fibre containing a solution of the metal
to be applied and coupled up with a battery, as herein described.
The principal applications of these processes of silvering, gilding, and

page_text: platinating are, firstly, for dessert and fish knives and forks; secondly, for
ordinary dinner knives and steel forks; and, thirdly, for carriage and other
harness, spurs and stirrups, and besides these for other articles made of steel
or iron which it would be desirable to cover or ornament with one or more of
the precious metals, such as the handles of fire-irons, scissors, and all kinds
of steel surgical instruments.
The process for ornamentation can be used generally for the ornamenting of
silver or electro-silvered or other articles. Also by it the process called
stopping off can be dispensed with, and the parts to be gilt can be directly
done with the pencil in less time than the varnishing or stopping off, and at a
much less expense of gold than when using the vat.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jacob Baynes Thompson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.