A NEW KIND OF PLATE, WHICH WE' DENOMINATE AMOPHOUS METAL PLATES, AND LIKEWISE A CERTAIN IMPROVED AND MORE PERFECT METHOD OR METHODS OF CHRYSTALIZING OR RENDERING CHRYSTALIZABLE THE SURFACE OF TIN PLATES OR IRON OR COPPER PLATES' TINN'D; WHICH PLATES WE CALL AMORPHOUS METAL PLATES
Year: 1818

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD
BLAKEMORE, of Mellingriffith Works, in the County of Glamorgan, and
JOHN JAMES, of Lower Redbrook, in the County of Gloucester, Ironmasters
and Tinplate Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third; by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of July,' in
the 'fifty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Richard
Blakemore and John James, our executors, administrators, and assigns, His
special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Richard
Blakemore and John James, our executors, administrators, and assigns, during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use;
exercise, and-vend; within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed; our Invention of "A NEW KIND OF PLATE, WHICH WE' DENOMINATE
AMOPHOUS METAL PLATES, AND LIKEWISE A CERTAIN IMPROVED AND MORE PERFECT
METHOD OR METHODS OF CHRYSTALIZING OR RENDERING CHRYSTALIZABLE THE
SURFACE OF TIN PLATES OR IRON OR COPPER PLATES' TINN'D; WHICH PLATES WE
CALL AMORPHOUS METAL PLATES;" in which Letters Patent' there is contained
a proviso obliging us, the said Richard Blakemore and John James, under
our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us; to cause
a particular description of the nature of our said Invention; and in what'
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's' High'
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next" and immediately after

page_text: the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same
(relation being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the proviso in the said Letters
Patent, I, the said Richard Blakemore, do declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which it is performed, are particularly
described, set forth, and ascertained by the following description thereof, that
is to say:-
The process of rolling and preparing the iron or copper plates or sheets
for the reception of the amorphous metal, by the application of which
the amorphous metal plates are produced, is the same as that ordinarily
used in the manufacture of tin plates. The process also of uniting the
amorphous metal to the sheet or plate of iron or copper, so as to produce
the amorphous metal plate, is the same as that adopted or in use at the
tin plate works in the manufacture of tin plates, save only that there is
or may be some difference in the degree of heat or temperature necessary
to raise the amorphous metal to a due and proper state of fluidity, and to
retain and regulate it in that state, and which can be ascertained and regu-
lated only as the process or operation in its different stages proceeds by the
skill and ability of the workman employed at the tin wash and grease pots,
for which however we do not lay claim for any peculiar discovery or invention;
but we declare that our Invention or discovery consists in adding to the tin,
whether grain, refined, or common, used in the manufacture of tin plates a
mixture or alloy of some or any other metal or semi-metal capable of uniting
in fusion with tin or of any two or more of such metals or semi-metals, which
said metals or semi-metals fuse or become fluid, or, being in a state of fusion,
cool or become fixed at a different degree of heat or temperature from that of
tin; and so that the quantity of such metals or semi-metals so added to or
alloyed with the tin be sufficient, and not more than sufficient, to produce or
leave upon the surface of the sheet or plate, after the process is completed,
evident and visible marks or impressions of crystallization; and the tin, when
mixed or alloyed with such metals or semi-metals, or with any or either of
them, we term "amorphous metal," and the iron or copper sheets or plates
when coated or covered therewith we term "amorphous metal plates." The
metals or semi-metals we have found most convenient and proper for this
purpose are zinc, bismuth, copper, lead, and brass; but we do not confine our-
selves. to the use thereof exclusively, as before mentioned; the quantity or
proportion of such metals or semi-metals, to be added to or alloyed with the
tin to make the amorphous metal, and to produce the desired and certain
effect of a pleasing brilliant and varied crystallization in the amorphous metal

page_text: plates we find variable, according to the degree or depth of crystallization
desired; and also according to the general character and crystaline figure or
appearance which may from time to time be in vogue or called for or suited
to the taste, caprice, and opinion of the public by whom the manufactured
goods are to be purchased or consumed. The quality of the block tin as it
may be more or less pure, will also considerably influence as well the quantity
and proportion of the alloy or mixture to be added, as also in determining
the particular metal or semi-metal, or the combinations thereof most proper
for producing beautiful and brilliant crystals; much will also depend upon the
nature of the heterogeneous substance or substances, which are always found
to be more or less combined with the block tin, as it comes from the smelter:
It is therefore, we conceive, impracticable to lay down or define any fixed pro-
portion or proportions for the mixture of the metal or metals to be used in
the composition of the amorphous metal; experience, attention, and the skill
and judgment of the practical operator must, under a due consideration of the
existing circumstances, regulate it. The proportions we have used have varied
from the twentieth part and upwards of alloy to each part of block tin, and
the effect of an improved crystalization will be produced whether such
mixture or alloy be introduced into or added to the tin, either by the mixture
of the ores of the respective metals or semi-metals, or either of them, or
otherwise previous to or in the smelting of the block tin before coinage or
afterwards to the block, in the manner above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Blakemore, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of January, in the year of
Our Lord One thousand eight hundred and nineteen
RICH BLAKEMORE. (L.S.).
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of January,
in the fifty-ninth year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third,
the said Richard Blakemore came before our said Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every
thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the
Instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made
in the fifty-fifth year of His said Majesty's reign.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of January, One thousand eight hundred
and nineteen.