IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF COATING CAST IRON WITH OTHER METALS AND THE ALLOYS OF OTHER METALS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF COATING
CAST IRON WITH OTHER METALS AND THE ALLOYS OF OTHER METALS."
-A communication.
Sealed the 12th December 1858, and dated the 5th August 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 5th August 1853.
I, WILLIAM NEWTON, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF COATING CAST IRON WITH
OTHER METALS AND THE ALLOYS OF OTHER METALS" to be as follows:→
It has long been deemed highly important to discover some cheap,
practical, and efficient mode by which articles made of cast iron could
be coated in a permanent manner with copper or the alloy called brass,
so as to present a surface of either copper or brass for use, or as a base

page_text: for an after coating or plating of silver or gold, or for bronzing; and
although to some extent wrought iron has been coated with copper,
yet no one has yet succeeded in thus coating cast iron, which is a
carbonate of iron.
The first part of the Invention consists in coating cast iron perma-
nently with copper by depositing the copper by galvanic action from a
solution prepared by first taking a saturated solution of sulphate of
copper in water and precipitating with carbonate of potash, and then
redissolving in cyanide of potassium, whether the copper be deposited
directly on the surface of the cast iron or on zinc previously deposited
thereon.
The second part of the Invention consists in coating cast iron with
the alloy of copper called brass by first coating the cast iron with
copper or zinc, or both, and then depositing the brass thereon by gal-
vanic action from a solution formed by mixing with the solution of
copper employed in the first part of the Invention a solution of zinc
prepared in substantially the same manner.
The iron articles thus coated may be subsequently coated with-silver
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 4th February 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, T,
WILLIAM NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Newton, Her special license
that 1, the said William Newton, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Newton, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no

page_text: 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
THE PROCESS OF COATING CAST IRON WITH OTHER METALS AND THE ALLOYS
OF OTHER METALS," being a cominunication from abroad, upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said William Newton, 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 said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said William Newton, 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 (that is to say):
It has long been deemed highly important to discover some cheap,
practical, and efficient mode by which articles made of cast iron could
be coated in a permanent manner with copper or the alloy called brass,
so as to present a surface of either copper or brass for use, or as a base
for an after coating or plating of silver or gold, or for bronzing; and
although to some extent wrought iron has been conted with copper,
yet no one, as far as I am aware of, has hitherto succeeded in thus
coating cast iron, which is a carbonate of iron.
The first part of the Invention consists in coating cast iron permia-
uently with copper by depositing the copper by galvanic action from a
solution prepared by first taking a saturated solution of sulphate of
copper in water and precipitating with carbonate of potash, and then
redissolving in cyanide of potassium, whether the copper be deposited
directly on the surface of the cast iron or on zinc previously deposited
thereon.
The second part of the Invention consists in coating cast iron with
the alloy of copper called brass by first coating the cast iron with
copper or zinc, or both, and then depositing the brass thereon by gal-
vanic action froni a solution formed by mixing with the solution

page_text: .
of copper employed in the first part of the Invention a solution of zinc
prepared in substantially the same manner.
The iron articles thus coated may be subsequently coated with silver
or gold, so as to give them the appearance of these latter metals.
The articles of cast iron to be coated or plated are first to be
cleansed by what is known as the "pickling" process with dilute sul-
phuric acid, and then "scratch-brushed" as it is terined to free the
surface from scale, sand, and other foreign substances which may not
have been removed by the acid, and after this the castings are to be
immersed in dilute nitro-muriatic acid. Any other mode of thoroughly
cleansing the surface may be substituted for that above indicated.
I then prepare a solution of zinc in the following manner :-Dis-
solve the sulphate of zinc in water until the water be saturated, and
precipitate by means of prussiate of potash. The precipitate is then
collected in a filter and redissolved in cyanide of potassium. This
constitutes solution number one.
.
I then prepare a solution of copper in the same manner by dis-
solving sulphate of copper in water and precipitating with carbonate of
potash, and dissolve the precipitate in cyanide of potassium. This I
call the second or copper solution.
I then prepare the third or what may be termed the brass solution
by mixing together the first or zinc solution with the second or copper
solution in such proportions as to produce the shade of color required,
increasing the proportional quantity of the one or the other at the dis-
cretion of the operator.
The iron castings having been thoroughly cleansed are first im-
mersed in the first or zinc solution, and the galvanic battery applied in
the usual manner of electrotyping, and continued until the required
thickness of zinc is deposited on the surface of and caused to unite
with the surface of the cast iron, which is a carbonate of iron.
The castings thus coated or plated with zinc are then to be immersed
in the second or copper solution, and the galvanic battery applied as
with the first or zinc solution, and continued until the required thick-
ness of copper shall have been deposited.
In this way it will be found that the copper coating has become a

page_text: thoroughly attached to the zinc and the zinc to the iron, so that they
cannot be removed except by filing or cutting as in the case of a solid
mass of copper, so that articles of whatever form desired which can be
made of cast iron, that is, of carbonate of iron, can be coated with
copper so as to answer nearly if not all the purposes to which they
could be applied if made of solid copper, thus greatly economizing in
the cost.
Although I have above specified that the cast iron is to be first
coated with zine preparatory to the copper, I have done so because it is
the most effectual mode. I do not, however, wish to confine myself
thereto, as the copper can by my process be deposited directly on the
surface of the cast iron.
After the surface of cast iron has been coated with zinc or with
copper, or with zinc and then with copper, which latter is much the
best, if it be desired to coat it with brass it is to be immersed in the
third or brass solution, and the galvanic battery applied until the
required thickness shall have been deposited.
In doing this it is important that the positive pole of the battery
should be made of brass, and as near as practicable of the shade of the
brass to be deposited, for if a copper pole be applied it will deposit in
excess the copper portion of the solution.
If desired, the brass can be deposited on the coating of zinc instead
of the coating of copper; but it will be found decidedly better to
deposit the brass on the coating of copper, whether the copper be
deposited directly on the cast iron or on a coating of zinc, although
the latter is the best. In this way I am enabled to produce articles
having all the appearance and answering nearly if not all the same
purposes as if made entirely of brass, and at much less cost.
The cast iron being thus coated with brass, the surface may be
bronzed in the usual and well known manner of bronzing brass; and.
as the process of bronzing on brass and copper is well known it will be
unnecessary to give a detailed description of it.
The surface of the cast iron being thus coated with brass or with
copper can then be coated effectually with silver or gold in any of the
well known modes of coating brass or copper with those fine metals;

page_text: it will not, however, be necessary to give- the details of such mode or
modes, as they are well known in the arts. I will here state that it
will.be found better to deposit tho silver or gold on the brass coating
than on the copper coating on account of the color, particularly when
from reasons of economy it is desired to make the coating of fine
metal very thin.
What I claim as new in the present Invention, and desire to secure
by Letters Patent, is, the process herein described, or any mere modi-
fication thereof, for coating cast iron (carbonate of iron) with copper
by causing the copper from a solution, such as above described, to
deposit by galvanic action directly on the surface of the cast iron, or on
the zinc previously deposited thercon, as set forth.
And I also claim the process herein described, or any mere modifi-
cation thereof, for coating cast iron with the alloy of copper known as
brass, by causing the brass from a solution, such as above described, to
deposit. by galvanic action on to the surface of the cast iron previously
coated with zinc or copper, or both, as specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Second day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
WILLIAM NEWTON. (L.S.)