CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN GUILDING, PLATING, AND COATING VARIOUS METALLIC SURFACES
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO W.
THES PRESE
COME, I, OGLETHORPE
WAKELIN BARRATT, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Experimental
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of June, in the sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herselt, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Oglethorpe Wakelin Barrett, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege
aud authority, that I, the said Oglethorpe Wakeling Barratt, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Oglethorpe Wakelin
Barratt, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN GUILDING, PLATING, AND COATING VARIOUS
METALLIC SURFACES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Oglethorpe Wakelin Barratt, 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 intolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
[Price 8d.1

page_text: 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.
my
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Oglethorpe Wakelin Barratt, do hereby declare that the nature of said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particu-
larly described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof
(that is to say):-
The first part of my Invention relates to the arrangement of a voltaic
apparatus, with which I effect the deposition of metals; I use lead as the positive
metal, and for the negative element, carbon in preference to any other. I place
them in a convenient vessel and connect them in pairs or in series in the usual
way, which is well understood, and the battery must be charged with the
following solution :-The exciting liquor is produced by dissolving one part of
chloride of sodium in three parts of water, but I do not confine myself to these
exact proportions, aud a plate of metal, as the supply metal, is suspended in
the metallic solution to the wire connected with the carbou or other negative
element of the battery, and the articles to be coated or covered are to be
suspended in the metallic solutions by the wire which is connected with the
lead or positive metal of the battery. On the circuit being closed, a decom-
position of the muriate of soda in the battery takes place, and a regular con-
tinued electric action is produced as long as any chloride of sodium remains
in the solution. The products of the battery are chloride of lead and caustic
soda mixed with carbonate of soda, the value of which products is considerably
greater than the expence incurred in the deposition of the metal.
The particular feature which I claim under this head is arranging or pro-
ducing a battery whereby a valuable product or products may be obtained
for working the battery for the deposition or precipitation of metals, which
product or products will more than counterbalance or cover the ordinary
cost or expence attendant upon the operation.
Another battery, which lemploy for the deposition or precipitationof metals,
is formed with zinc, carbon, and water. In the formation of this battery I
have found that the crucibles which are made of carburet of iron or plumbago
are very convenient and answer the purpose extremely well, although I do
not intend to confine my self exclusively to the use of vessels made of this
material, as other combinations of carbon or metals will effect the object, but
not in so convenient a manner. In making use of vessels formed of carburet of
iron, 50 of number 10 size, inseries, with zinc, and charged with water, will be
found sufficiently powerful for gilding and silveringvery large articles. To form
a battery with the crucibles above mentioned, holes should be pierced in the

page_text: sides of them, or they should be made open at the bottom and the zinc mide
a little smaller than the inside of the vessel or crucible of carburet of iron, or
other combinations of carbon, and the zinc should be separated from the
carbon or other negative element by employing paper, cloth, or other similar
substance. It should be here observed, that the object to be attained by the
employment of paper or other substance to enclose the ziuc, is to prevent the
two surfaces of zinc and carbon from coming into contact, but care must be
taken that when paper is used it should be free from size or gelatine, as the
free passage of the electricity would be otherwise impeded. The same object
may be effected by suspending the zinc in the vessel in such a manner that
the zinc shall not come into contact with the carbon or negativo element.
The connecting wires are attached in the usual way; each pair (namely, one
of carbon and one of zinc) is placed in a vessel containing water.
I claim the above described battery for dissolving, precipitating, or depositing
metals.
My next improvement relates to obtaining electricity continuously from the
magnet, and which is collected or concentrated so as to be employed for the
deposition of metals. This apparatus I denominate an electrical-maguetic
battery,or battery of magnets, and to form which any number of maguets must
be taken and fixed firmly in wood, at equal distances, in an upright position if
Lorse-shoe magnets are used, and by means of iron wire the south pole of the
first magnet should be connected with the north pole of the second, and the
south pole of the second to the north pole of the third, and so on, to any
number that it may be necessary to use. To the north pole of the first magnet
I attach a copper wire to suspend the work to be coated in the decomposition
vessel, and to conduct the electricity from the metallic solution back to the
magnet; and to the south pole of the last magnet I attach an iron wire, from
which a plate of metal of the same description as the metal held in the
metallic solution is suspended. The wire in connection with the north poles
is placed at the ends or near the points of the poles, but the wirein connection
with the south poles is placed from half an mich to an inch from the ends,
according to the power of the magnet, or the nature of the work to be coated.
Sometimes a single magnet may be employed for small work, or a compound
magnet may be used and placed in a horizontal position, but I have not found
it so convenient or easy of management as a number of magnets arranged
in a series as above described.
I may here observe, that a magnetic apparatus has been proposed by
Mr. Sturgeon, in Vol. II. of his Annals of Electricity, to be used for the

page_text: I
deposition of metals in connection with a rapid rotary motion and other
complicated mechanical arrangements; I do not, therefore, intend to claim
or use any magnetic apparatus in which such rotary motion is required, but
what I claim in reference to this part of my improvements is, the employ-
ment of a single, or compound magnet, or a series formed of horse-shoe or bar
magnets and unconuected with any motion, as has heretofore been proposed.
The next part of my Invention relates to the dissolving of the metals.
take equal parts of nitrate of potash, chloride of sodium, and sulphate of
alumina and potash, and dissolve them in water in a convenient vessel. T
then take the silver or other metal to be dissolved and immerse it in the
solution and connect it with the negative metal of a battery, and to a wire
connected with the positive metal of the battery. 1 suspend in the solution a
plate of metal of the same description as the metal to be dissolved; when the
solution is nearly saturated with the dissolved metal it will begin to be
deposited on the other plate, but I continue the action for some time after, till
the deposited metal appears of a good colour and in a firm and coherent
state on the other plate. The solution is then in a fit state to be used for
coating or covering other metals. I then remove the plate of metal, and place
in the solution the articles to be coated; I also make use of other solutions
of the metals, such as metallic silver dissolved in a solution of chloride of
sodium or hyposulphite of soda, or cyanide of potassium. Another solution
which may be used for dissolving gold, platinum, lead, silver, paladium,& other
metals, is prepared in the following manner-Take four parts of chloride
of sodium and one part of boracic acid and dissolve them in twenty parts of
water. I also use,as a solvent of the metals, twenty parts of chloride of sodium
and seven parts of tartaric acid dissolved in from 80 to 100 parts of water.
It has been proposed to dissolve platiuum in bromide and alcohol with the
battery, and it has also been proposed to precipitate metals from solutions
which did not contain them, by merely suspending a plate of metal to one of
the poles of the battery and the articles to be coated to the other pole, to
neither of which processes have I the least claim; but what I claim as my
improvement in this part of my Invention is,dissolvingandpreparingsolutions
of the metals as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Oglethorpe Wakelin Barratt, have here-
unto set my haud and seal, this Fifteenth day of December, One
thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
OG. W. (L.s.) BARRATT.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fifteenth day of December,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Oglethorpe Wakelin Barratt came
before our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery,and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion aforesaid, and all every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Fifteenth day of December, in the year above