IMPROVÉ- MENTS IN PLATING Iron and in RENDERING THE SAME FIRE-PROOF, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF SUCH PLATED IRON.
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thaddeus Hyatt, of Gloucester Gardens, Hyde
Park, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVÉ-
MENTS IN PLATING Iron and in RENDERING THE SAME FIRE-PROOF, AND IN
THE APPLICATION OF SUCH PLATED IRON.'
Sealed the 27th December 1873, and dated the 18th October 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thaddeus Hyatt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the.
18th October 1873..
I, THADDEUS HYATT, of Gloucester Gardens, Hyde Park, in the.
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PLATING IRON AND IN RENDERING THE SAME FIRE-PROOF,
AND IN THE APPLICATION OF SUCH PLATED IRON," to be as follows :—
These improvements consist in plating cast and wrought iron with
lead, and adapting and applying the lead-plated metals to various new
and useful purposes; also making the same fireproof by covering the
same with asbestos.

page_text: According to one part of my Invention I lead-plate sheet iron or boiler
plate with lead for constructing the hulls of steamships and other iron
vessels, the lead furnishing a perfect means of securing water-tight joints
between the plates and around the heads of the rivets which bolt them
together.
According to another part of my Invention I lead-plate sheet iron for
roofing purposes, the lead offering perfect facility for joining parts
by simple heat, while the iron furnishes the requisite strength as a roof,
being readily corrugated the same as galvanized iron, a part of the
improvement in this new roofing material being an embossed or orna-
mental surface put upon the face of the lead by either sunk or raised
work, the raised work in some cases being filled in behind or backed
with a less costly material. In some cases the lead is made by this
process to resemble ornamental slate, and which may also be colored.
According to another part of my Invention I produce a new style of
enamelled, inlaid, or mosaic work or tiling based upon the lead-plated
metal, lead adhering readily to lead, and thus furnishing the means of
securely attaching colored glasses, stones, porcelains, or pottery to the
metal either by means of corner attachments between any four pieces or
by side attachment in the shape of lapped or overbearing bars, which
attachments may be cast upon the lead either before or after the facings
are in position, and the attachments themselves may be either all lead
or a stronger metal lead-plated. This enameled lead-plated metal I
propose to manufacture into a great variety of useful and ornamental
articles for household and other uses, such as flower vases, table tops,
fire-place facings, and the like.
According to another part of my Invention I make light cast or
wrought-iron plates, tiles, or shingles, which I lead-plate, and thus save
the necessity of any overlap, as they may be joined at their edges.
These plates, tiles, or shingles may be corrugated or otherwise
ornamented, and according to their strength and the mode of laying
them may answer as well for foot pavements as for roofs.
According to another part of my improvement I make superior and
useful pipes from lead-plated sheet metal, having the strength of iron.
with all the facilities of union at joints and seams given by the ductility
of the lead for the bendings of the pipe, using either solid-lead pipe at.
those points or lead-plated metal elbows.

page_text: According to another part of my Invention I make lead-plated
gratings for covering sunk areas in side walks and other places to
prevent slipping; also coal-hole plates; also side walk or pavement
plates, both solid, ventilating, or set with glass.
According to another part of my Invention I make lead-plated horse-
shoes to prevent the animals from slipping on the carriage ways, the
soft lead on the interior of the shoe being less hurtful and more accom-
modating to the hoof than iron.
According to another part of my Invention I make roofs upon a new
plan of construction, as appears by my application for Letters Patent
for improvements in building, bearing even date herewith, by means of
lead-plated tiles and connecting blades; or the tiles may be united to
each other without the blades; also hollow sash bars for making sashes;
hollow shells in pieces, or struck up of lead-plated thin metal for window
frames, and generally for all architectural purposes where galvanized
iron is now employed. By the same process I also lead-plate both round
and flat wire, hoop iron, and similar metal, which by simple contact of
the parts, and with a blow-pipe melting the lead coating at those points,
admits of uniting the metals, and thus without weaving or interlacing
gives a means of producing various articles of utility, such as fencing,
ornamental framework, bird cages, and the like.
In carrying out the Invention I have found a convenient means of
plating the iron with lead, which consists in first coating the surface of
the plate with a thin coating of tin, and the lead is afterwards plated
upon the tin or the iron may be galvanized in the usual way, and the
surfaces so galvanized afterwards tinned and plated with the lead, as
lastly described. By roughening the surface of the lead-plating the
compound sheet or plate of metal may be rendered fire-proof by applying
asbestos thereon by pressure or otherwise.
One of the methods which may be adopted for covering my lead-plated
sheets of iron with asbestos consists in forming projections on the
surface of the lead in the form of ribs or mushroom-headed knobs, or
their equivalent, for the purpose of affording a good holding surface to
the asbestos, which is applied thereon in a plastic condition; or the
asbestos may be applied in the form of compressed slabs or tiles, and
attached in the manner herein-before described in reference to the
attaching of colored glasses, stones, porcelain, or pottery.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thaddeus Hyatt in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 18th April 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THADDEUS
HYATT, of Gloucester Gardens, Hyde Park, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the 37th
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give 1
and grant unto me, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, Her special license that
I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, my executors, administrators, and. assigns,
or such others as I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, my executors, adminis-
trators, or 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 PLATING IRON AND
IN RENDERING THE SAME FIRE-PROOF, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF SUCH PLATED
.IRON," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thaddeus 2
Hyatt, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 2
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say:—
These improvements consist in plating cast and wrought iron and
other metals with lead, and adapting and applying the lead-plated metals
to various new and useful purposes; also making the same fire-proof by
covering the same with asbestos in the manner herein-after described.
3
My improvements in lead-plated metal according to one part of my 3
Invention produce a substitute for galvanized iron, which possesses

page_text: valuable and peculiar qualities as a building material, useful in orna-
mental architecture.
Galvanized iron for some purposes is required to be fluted, crimped,
corrugated, or embossed, which is produced in the metal by stamping or
rolling, such operations sometimes breaking the iron, the grain of the
metal, and its unyielding nature when cold, also preventing that sharp-
ness of outline and perfection of finish which is desirable in works of
this character. Now any improvements remedy these defects by forming
the designs in the soft yielding coating of the metal instead of in the
metal itself. This purpose I accomplish by lead-plating the metal not
merely by a heavy coating of lead where required, but by a coating
thicker in some places than in others, and which need be upon the
exposed side of the metal only, the opposite or inner face remaining
either uncoated or but slightly so. Such lead-plated metal I make to
receive designs by imprinting them from dies or by the action of rollers.
In other cases I coat the metal with ornamental designs in the operation
of lead-plating the sheet by placing the sheet in a suitable mould, the
operation being to withdraw the air as the molten lead is run in, or by
charging the mould with molten lead forced in under pressure.
In coating sheet or cast iron with lead I first prepare the iron by
either tinning or galvanizing it by any of the known methods. This
ornamented lead-plated metal I use for Mansard and other roofs, giving
to it the appearance of ornamental slate both by raised and sunken
figures and by coloring or enamelling it properly for the purpose.
According to another part of my Invention I form raised and sunken
figures upon the lead-plated metal so shaped and contrived that without
either corrugating or perforating the body of hard metal it becomes
capable of holding and retaining upon its face a body of plastic or other
material of a fire-resisting quality to serve as a protection against fire,
the retaining surface being in the lead coating itself, which may be in
the form of cells like a honeycomb or in any other suitable form.
According to another part of my Invention I make perforated lead-
plated metal roofs, floors, walking and vertical surfaces, which I set with
glasses for illuminating purposes, the lead-plating being cast upon the
hard metal in any desired and suitable retaining form for not only
holding the glasses, but for also holding steel knobs or any other.
substances designed either to simply protect the glasses or to both

page_text: protect and ornament the surface. And when the lead-plated metal is
made use of in small pieces or quarries in the construction of roofs,
floors, or other surfaces, a part of my Invention consists in the use and
application of lead-plated bars or blades of metal for joining the quarries
together and supporting them when joined, another feature and part of
my Invention in this connection consisting in the use and application of
lead-plated iron frames for holding lead-plated illuminating quarries and
lead-plated illuminating plates or tiles in constructing illuminating area
coverings and other illuminating work for footways and for buildings,
which work being fully illustrated and made known by my various
Patents for illuminating roofs, shutters, and walking surfaces need not
be illustrated here.
According to another part of my Invention I lead-plate sheet iron or
boiler plate with lead for constructing the hulls of steam ships and other
iron vessels, the lead furnishing a perfect means of securing water-tight
joints between the plates and around the heads of the rivets which bolt
them together.
According to another part of my Invention I produce a new style of
enamelled, inlaid, or mosaic work or tiling based upon the lead-plated
metal, lead adhering readily to lead, and thus furnishing the means of
securely attaching colored glasses, stones, porcelains, or pottery to the
metal either by means of corner attachments between any four pieces or
by side attachment in the shape of lap or overbearing bars, which
attachments may be cast upon the lead either before or after the facings
are in position, and the attachments themselves may be either all lead or
a strong metal lead-plated. This enamelled lead-plated metal I propose
to manufacture into a great variety of useful and ornamental articles for
household and other uses, such as flower boxes, table tops, fire-place
facings, and the like.
. According to another part of my Invention I make light cast or
wrought-iron plates, tiles, or shingles, which I lead-plate, and thus save
the necessity of any overlap, as they may be joined at their edges.
These plates, tiles, or shingles may be corrugated or otherwise orna-
mented, and according to their strength and the mode of laying them
may answer as well for foot pavements as for roofs.
According to another part of my Invention I make lead-plated horse-
shoes to prevent the animals from slipping on the carriage ways, the soft
.

page_text: lead on the interior of the shoe being less hurtful and more accommo-
dating to the hoof than iron.
:
In carrying out the Invention I have found a convenient means of
plating the iron with lead, which consists in first coating the surface of
the plate with a thin coating of tin, and the lead is afterwards plated
upon the tin, or the iron may be galvanized in the usual way, and the
surfaces so galvanized afterwards tinned and 'plated with the lead, as
lastly described. By roughening the surface of the lead-plating the
compound sheet or plate of metal may be rendered fire-proof by applying
asbestos thereon by. pressure or otherwise.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to
be novel and original and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me
by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The application of lead-plated metal to the various purposes of
architecture herein-before described.
Second. The manufacture of ornamental architectural details in iron
unequally or equally coated with lead, such coating being ornamented
by die printing, embossing, rolling, or moulding, as herein-before
described.
Third. The manufacture of lead-coated sheets or plates with raised or
sunk figures for the purpose of holding and retaining coatings of fire-
proof materials, as herein-before described.
Fourth. The manufacture and use of lead-plated metal in the form of
quarries or plates or sheets for the construction of roofs, floors, and other
surfaces, and of perforated lead-plated metal for the reception of glasses
in constructing the same for illuminating purposes, as herein-before
described.
Fifth. The manufacture and use of lead-plated frames for holding
lead-plated illuminating tiles or quarries and connecting them together,
in constructing area covers and other extended illuminating surfaces.
Sixth. The application and use of lead-plated metal formed with a
holding surface to receive glasses, porcelain, or pottery in the manufac-
ture of ornamental household articles, such as flower boxes, as herein-
before described.

page_text: Seventh. The manufacture of tiles or shingles of lead-plated metal,
as herein-before described.
Eighth. The manufacture of pipes or tubes of lead-plated sheet metal,
as herein-before described.
Ninth. The manufacture of shoes for horses of iron coated with lead,
as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thaddeus Hyatt, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of April,
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.