of "LINING, EDGING, PLATING, AND COVERING, EITHER IN THE WHOLE OR IN PART, WITH SILVER OR GOLD, OR OTHERWISE, BUCKLES AND OTHER ARTICLES MADE OF IRON,. COPPER, OR OTHER METALS OR MIXT METALS, BY THE USE AND APPLICATION OF TIN OR ALLOYED TIN
Year: 1785

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
ALSTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Buckle and Button
Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Nineteenth day of November, in the twenty-sixth year of
His reign, did give and grant unto me, the said James Alston, my
exors, admors, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole priviledge
and authority, that I, the said James Alston, my exors, admors, and assigns,
and every of them, by myself and themselves, or by my and their deputy and
deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said James Alston, my
exors, admors, or assigns, should agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times hereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my Invention
of "LINING, EDGING, PLATING, AND COVERING, EITHER IN THE WHOLE OR IN PART,
WITH SILVER OR GOLD, OR OTHERWISE, BUCKLES AND OTHER ARTICLES MADE OF IRON,.
COPPER, OR OTHER METALS OR MIXT METALS, BY THE USE AND APPLICATION OF TIN
OR ALLOYED TIN," as to me, the said James Alston, my exors, admors, or

page_text: assigns, or any of them, should in their discretion seem meet, and that I, the
said James Alston, my exors, adñors, and assigns, should and lawfully might
have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage, from time
to time coming, growing, and arising by reason of the said Invention during the
term of years therein mentioned; to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence,
powers, privileges, and advantages there n-before granted or mentioned to be
granted unto me, the said James Alston, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, for and
during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date of the
said Letters. Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat and
ended according to the Statute in such case made and provided; in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a provisoe obliging me, the said James
Alston, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately after
the date of the said 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 said provisoe, I, the
said James Alston, do hereby declare that my said Invention of Lining,
Edging, Plating, and Covering, either in the Whole or in Part, with Silver
and Gold, or otherwise, Buckles or other Articles made of Iron, Copper, or
other Metals or Mixt Metals, by the Use and Application of Tin or alloyed
Tin, is described in manner following (that is to say) :-
Some of the methods I have invented for plating and covering of buckles
are consequent upon and depend on those which are already in use, and are
therefore required to be set forth, with their necessary apparatus, that my
description may be rendered complete, in the doing of which I shall carefully
discriminate between the present practice and my new discoveries and improve-
ments. In the present practice the apparatus necessary for plating buckles is
as follows, namely, a plating stove, a ladle or kettle to melt tin, large enough
to admit any buckle, a small pouring ladle, generally from one to two inches
diameter at the lip or beak; tongs or nippers to move the buckle with; a
buckle called a captain, inclosed in a tin stock called the swageing stock, a
swageing steady or small anvil of iron, a leaden hammer and cloth list for
swageing with, a plating stock, vyce, scissars, anointing brushes, spring or
hurds; a vessel holding sal ammoniac water, a bottle and cup for sublimate
water, a vessel for clay, whiting, or other earth moistened in water. The
plating stove is of brick about twenty seven inches high, and forming a flat or
platform on the top, thirty inches square. In the masonry on the top is

page_text: inserted a cast metal frame eighteen inches square, with a groove half an
inch deep, nine inches wide at the front, and thirteen inches and one half long,
in which a sliding cover or plate is fitted to move easily backwards and
forwards by a handle. In this groove under the cover is a round hole seven
inches diameter, through which the fuel is put into the fireplace below, which is
about nine inches square, having three flews, one passing directly back into the
chimney, the other two under the brickwork on each side of the frame. The ash
hole is placed in any convenient direction, and the whole of the dimensious may
also be varied at pleasure. For buckles not intended to be stampt, an original
pattern of lead or other metal is made unbent, whereon is engraved, chased, or
cut such work as is thought best adapted to its form, and it is then trimmed
up to be cast from. From this original all the buckles are cast of suitable
materials, one of them being prepared for what is called a captain, as follows:-
The buckle is neatly filed and smoothed on the edges (and in the holes, too,
when it is a pierced pattern); then it's anointed on the top with wet clay,
whiting, or some other earth, which being dried on, the bottom and edges, are
tinned by dipping it first into a solution of sal ammoniac and water, then dried
and put into melted tin, which, as soon as it conveys its own degree of heat to
the buckle, will coat it over, except on the top, which is protected by the clay,
whiting, or earth, as above mentioned. It is then pressed a small depth (its
top being downwards) into a smooth bed or flask of casting sand, placed
exactly level or horizontal, surrounded with a square frame commonly made of
four plates of sheet iron, sunk likewise a little into the sand to confine melted
tin within the given bounds; the tin is then poured upon it to the depth of an
inch or thereabouts, and when cool, the rag or fraze on the edges where the
metal has flushed is taken off. The buckle is then chased, its edges disengaged
from any unevenness of the surrounding tin, and with an engraver or cutting
punch, four or more guiding holes or cavities are cut into the stock close to the
outer edges of the buckle near the corners, each about half an inch long
and about a quarter deep; three or four holes are likewise drilled in the reverse
side or bottom of the stock to fit the same number of pegs fixed upon the
face of a flat die or steady of iron, called the swageing steady, which is
about an inch think, and of a larger surface than the stock itself, with a
square shank for fixing it in a vyce. The buckle, when thus prepared, is
called the captain, and the tin frame round it is called the swageing stock.
The steady being screwed fast in a vyce, and the swageing stock fixed upon
it, a plate of thin rolled silver of a proper breadth and thickness is put
úpon the captain, always large enough to do more than cover it, namely a
little larger than the buckle, and kept close down upon it by the weight of the

page_text: foot with a stirrup or cord. Swageing or giving the impression of the captain to
the silver, is then done by striking with the leaden hammer, and some folds of
cloth, list or other soft elastic substance intervening, so as to prevent the
silver being cut or broke, and to force it down the better upon the captain.
The silver is afterwards anointed on the outside with wet clay, whiting, or
other earth, and on the inside with a solution of corrosive sublimate or sal
ammoniac, and sometimes with Venice turpentine. There is another stock
called the plating stock, made by inclosing the swageing stock with the face
uppermost within the iron frame on sand, as above described, the swageing
.stock being previously smoked with a candle, or anointed with clay, whiting,
or earth. Melted tin is then poured upon it to the depth of an inch, and the
plating stock, when cool, is also frazed and anointed on the top with clay. A
concave impression is thus obtained, exactly fitting the captain, in which the
silver is laid, and also four prominencies, which have been made by the guiding
holes, to keep the buckles to be plated in a true direction upon the silver. The
plating stock is put, when used, in a moderately hot place, and in a position
exactly level or horizontal. The buckles to be plated are commonly called
blanks, because it is sometimes found convenient, especially for stampt and iron
buckles, to be without any impression, and quite plain on the tops. Blanks
are prepared for plating by what is called rough edging, and sometimes, when
peirced, by opening the holes with a coarse file, for the sole purpose of taking
off any fraze or metal flushed in the casting. They are then tinned all over,
or on the face and edges only, as you chuse, and are plated by two different
methods, the one called filling, the other dipping. The first is done by putting
one of these tinned blanks cold into sal ammoniac and water, and then heating
it over the stove until the sal ammoniac is nearly evaporated, and the tin upon
the blank becomes fluid; then melted tin is poured upon the silver in the
plating stock in two or more places, which, with the heat and pressure of the
blank now put upon it, will flow all over the silver and unite them together.
The other method, called dipping, is done by wetting a cold blank in the sal
ammoniac, and heating until the sal ammoniac looks like a white frost; then
dipping it in the melted tin until they cohere; it is then placed hot, with what
extra tin it sucks up, upon the silver. The selvidge of silver and tin which
alheres in a body at the edges is now filed off, and the buckle finished for
sale.
But it is necessary to remark, that the metal plated upon by others has
always been exposed to view at the edges and bottoms of the buckles, and
which exposure of a different coloured metal is the thing I have endeavoured
to obviate. The methods here described are the best and newest which I know.

page_text: to be practised by others in plating in means of tin upon iron, or copper, or
any mixture thereof, and apply to all buckles, whether stampt or not (except
in so far as respects making the patterns for stamping, which, instead of
being chased, as I have described, are stamped of a mixture of lead and tin,
and flattened for plating). Iron blanks are first stamped hot in a flat die, to
give the right size, and, when frazed and plated, are either stampt a second
time in a bent die, to give the top impression to the silver, or are chased by
hand. In all the foregoing operations of tinning and plating, tin unmixed
with any other metal is used, and the rolled silver is annealed, to make it more
ductile and flexible. Stamping of plated buckles of all kinds is done at present,
after they are plated, as follows:-The die, which has on it the work of the
top part of the buckle, called therefore the top die, is placed on the anvil of
the stamp; and the bottom die, which usually has no other impression given to
it, but two vessels or cavities for the bridges, is fixed by a shank into the
hammer of the stamp, and is drawn up with it. The two dies are fitted
exactly to meet each other in a right direction, and the top is secured in that
situation by four screws. The blows necessary to compleat the impression
spread out the metal or iron blanks, as well as the tin and silver, and in taking
off the fraze and finishing the buckles the metal of the edges has always been
exposed to view. The foregoing is only a description of the present methods
now in use for plating and stamping of buckles, and is inserted to explain and
distinguish more precisely between the present practice and the nature of my
improvements, as well as making the subject more compleatly intelligible.
The several new methods by which I produce the desired effect, of lining,
edging, plating, and covering, either in the whole or in part, with silver, or gold,
or otherwise, buckles and other articles made of iron, copper, or other metals,
or mixt metals, by the use and application of tin or alloyed tin, are described
and distinguished from each other as follows:-
No. 1. By the Process I call No. 1, my chased blanks are prepared by
being compleatly filed and finished on the bottoms and edges. They are then
tinned all over with a smooth coat, by brushing or wiping off any knots or
roughness which usually adhere, and, when found necessary, I anoint them on
the bottoms with clay or other earth, to prevent any more tin lodging there in
the subsequent process of plating. In chasing the captain buckle, great care
must be taken not to spread its original impression, and even occasionally to
make it a small thread less, to answer what is taken off in dressing the blanks.
Before they are plated I cut or pare the silver so close to the impression given
to it by the captain as exactly to fit the blank it is to be plated upon, without
projecting in the least beyond it, and I either plate them by dipping, as

page_text: before described; or if by that method I draw up too much or too little tin
for any particular pattern, I fill them as has been described; but I measure
my tin with ladles of different sizes, made like bullet molds, each size
numbered, by which the proper quantity is precisely ascertained. Thus pro-
portioning the blanks, the silver, and the tin to each other, any selvedge on
the edges, and consequently the necessity of filing it off, is avoided; the coat
of tin remains undisturbed on the blanks; and the buckles, when finished, are
compleatly covered with silver and tin so as to be white all over. When they
are pierced patterns, I sometimes pierce the silvers before they are plated, to
answer the holes in the blanks; but generally the silver is left solid, and I
take care, in opening the holes after they are plated, to leave the coat of tin
undisturbed by the file; or I pierce them at a common piercing press with a
punch either a little convex on the face, or with a flat face with the edges cut
off obliquely, which carries the silver into the hole with it; but in case of any
metal appearing I afterwards cover it with silver by my Process No. 10.
When I want to tin the edges only, and not the bottoms, I leave the latter
rough and unfinished until after they are plated.
For this purpose of
tinning the blanks, I use tin unmixt or tin alloyed with an eighth of its
weight of copper or brass, or with half that quantity of either of them, and
an equal weight of zink or regulus of antimony, and fill them with tin
itself, or mixt with bismuth in the proportion of half an ounce to the
pound, which last mixture I likewise use for both tinning and plating. Any
other composition of tin of a good colour, and which doth not thicken too
much whilst in fuson, or is not too brittle nor too hard when cold, may be
used at pleasure.
No. 2. By the Process I call No. 2, instead of tinning the blanks, as by
Process No. 1, I French-plate them at the bottoms and edges with leaf silver
burnished on whilst they are hot (in the method commonly practised, or
otherwise, without heat, as by Process No. 10), and I anoint the face with
sublimate, and coat the French plate with clay or other earth moistened with
coarse sugar and water and well dried on; after which, I plate them by
dipping or filling, but in the former method the face of the blank is only
immerged in the tin; and when it does not draw up a sufficient quantity of tin
with it, I spread shreads of gold tin on the silver previous to the hot blank
coming on it. The coat of clay should be kept on or renewed whilst the
buckles undergo the other subsequent operations, and when finished, is then
to be taken off by steeping in warm water, and brushing with a soft brush,
and whiting, or a spunge; and, lastly, the edges and bottoms are re-burnished.
Sometimes when the blanks are of copper or brass, or any mixtures thereof,

page_text: instead of making use of French plate, I silver them all over by what is well
known by the name of hot silvering, and proceed in every respect as when
French plated.
No. 3. By the Process I call No. 3. I plate the edges of buckles, as well as
the tops, with the same piece of rolled silver, and by the same process which
I use for plating the tops. My method is the following:-In dressing the
edges of the captain, I leave them slanting outwards towards the bottom, and
tin only the bottom, the top and edges being protected with clay. When I
make the swageing stock, I press the captain with its face downwards its
whole thickness into the sand, and also raise the sand on the outside as high
as the bridges; then pour on the melted tin as before described, and after-
wards cast a plating stock upon it, which, by this means, has a compleat rim all
round its concave impression of the captain, of a corresponding height every-
where with the edges of the buckle, and must be smoothed away a little within-
side so as to contain easily both the silver and buckle within it. I then cut
the silver sufficiently large to cover over the edges and bridges of the buckle,
and swage the top impression upon the captain, and afterwards squeeze it
between the two stocks, gently hammering them together. By this means the
silver edges are carried down between the rim of the plating stock and the
edges of the captain (slitting the edges in different parts, previous to their
being thus pressed between the two stocks, is of advantage, to prevent their.
puckering). I then anoint the silvers withinside and coat them without, and:
place them in the plating stock, which I previously smoke with a rosin torch, or
anoint with clay. The blanks are filed e ery way a thread narrower than the.
web of the captain, so as to fall readily within the silver after they are coated with
tin. They are then soldered on, either by dipping or filling, as before described.
No. 4. By the Process I call No. 4 I plate buckles with rolled silver on the
top, bottom, and edges, in the following manner:-I file a buckle with the
edges slanting inwards towards the bottom, which is thus made the narrowest
part, and from it make a plating stock with an impression of the top only. I
afterwards tin the buckle smoothly and clay it all over, and laying it into the
plating stock, cast upon it a bottom stock. I swage or give the impression.
to the silver, for the bottom and edges, upon this buckle, or another which has
not been tinned, and when clayed and anointed, press it with the buckle within.
it into the bottom stock. The blank is made of a proper size that when dipped
it may easily fall within the silver, and by that method I plate them together.
The bottom and edges being thus plated, the superfluous edges of the silver are
then pared off. The top silver being swaged and pared close to the impression and...

page_text: anointed as usual, I put it upon pasteboard or some folds of stiff paper, with
the clayed side next to the paper, and lightly draw the inside (first one half
and then the other) over melted tin (which must not be too hot), and thus
coat it over on the inside with nearly and equal thickness of tin, or I swage
rolled tin on the captain and pare it, so as to fall in and fill up the inside
of the silver, which I then inclose within a plate of rolled copper, which hath
also been swaged upon the captain, and with the edges turned up to serve as
guides. I anoint the face of the plated blank with sal ammoniac, and also the
top silver, and heat them on the stove until the tin becomes fluid, both on the
top silver and on the face of the blank, which I then put upon the top, and
thereby join them together. Instead of tinning the inside of the top silver
with tin, as above mentioned, either cold or hot tin may be put upon it,
or both; and by using a solder consisting of sixteen parts of tin and one of
bismuth for plating the top silvers, and tin unmixt for the bottoms, the
process may be performed with less danger than when tin alone is made use
of for both; or, after mixing the inside of the top silver with tin, small shreds
of glaziers' or other quick-running solder may be put between it and the blank
(both being previously anointed), and in that situation they will plate together
as soon as the intermediate solder becomes fluid. If the quantity of solder be
well proportioned, the top and bottom silvers will meet each other; but, if
necessary, I make use of Process No. 10 to cover the intervening tin from
sight.
Process No. 5. In all cases where plated buckles are afterwards to be
stamped, it is material that they should be made of an equal thickness; there-
fore the impression in the plating stock should run exactly parallel with the
face of the stock, and be cast from a buckle that is flattened in a straight line.
The bottoms of the blanks ought also to be freed from any lumps of metal
flushed in the casting, and carefully fitted to the stocks. These circumstances
are peculiarly necessary to my design of preserving the white edges and
bottoms, as the buckles thereby require fewer blows under the stamp, and,
consequently, the inside metal is less liable to be spread out; and this last
effect is also greatly lessened by giving the buckles at first a gentle blow with
a stamp hammer, and afterwards repeating it with the usual force until a
compleat impression is obtained. When buckles have bridges in the middle
of the rim they may be plated with a thick coat of tin on the edges in a stock,
with a low rim round the impression, by reducing the blanks narrower than
the full breadth of the buckle, and allowing a proper quantity of solder to
make up the deficiency. When the bridges are on the outside of the buckle

page_text: the rim on the stock should be of a corresponding height with its edges; and
I sometimes have the silver large enough to fit the bridges by which the
tin is drawn up or attracted above its level to join the silver and blank
together, or otherwise I press down the buckle with a square piece of hot
copper or iron, which has a wooden handle, and which forces up the tin, and
spreads it of a more equal thickness. Lines or other marks should be made
on the outer rim of the stocks near the corners, as guides for the right position
of these narrow blanks within the silver.
Process No. 6. I take iron wire, about twelve or fourteen inches long, and of
the thickness of a common quill, which I double close in the middle, and sharpen
that part, and fix it-in a file handle; I then split and hammer the ends to
make a burr, and after bending them downwards an inch of their length open
them asunder about three inches from each other, and thus make a handle
for the bottom stock. I sink a buckle about half its thickness into a flask or
bed of sand, its top being uppermost, and make a cavity in the sand in the
center of the buckle, and with a small trowel cut or scrape it away half an
inch deep close to the outer edges of the buckle, taking due care to make that
and other surface of the sand smooth and even. I then fix the iron frame
and pour on the melted tin. After smoothing and claying the stock as usual,
I replace it within the iron frame with the buckle inclosed, and fix a small
thickness of sand on the stock within the inner edges of the buckle, except in
the center opposite the cavity above mentioned, and cast upon it a bottom
stock; and before the tin congeals immerge the forked points of the before
mentioned iron handle in it, and hold them there till the metal sets or becomes
fixed. The blanks must be both narrower and thinner than the original bucke,
and their bottoms clayed after being tinned. Both stocks being heated I plate by
filling, and as quick as possible place on the bottom stock, and strike it some
gentle blows with a hammer, and thus procure buckles of an equal thickness,
and with the blanks placed in a right direction. The tin is also forced up the
edges, and in part into the recess prepared to receive it between the two
stocks. This recess and the claying of the bottoms are essential points, together
with the proper measure of solder.
Process No. 7. I stamp two patterns from the same die, one of which I clay
all over, and press it half its thickness into sand, with its face uppermost, to make
the plating stock, in which I make two plug holes half an inch deep; I then file
off the bridges of the pattern, and likewise thin it a little all round the bottom,
and replacing it in the plating stock cast the bottom stock. At one end of
this last I make a half-round spout hole about an inch wide and half an inch
deep on the outside, but gradually less as it approaches nearer to the:

page_text: impression, where it must end in a small thin gett or inlet. From the middle
of this spout to the corners of the impression, at the opposite end of the stock,
I cut a half-round channel or gutter about half an inch wide on the surface,
keeping all the way about a quarter of an inch withoutside of the impression,
into which I cut several smaller channels or inlets communicating from the
main channel. The other pattern I stretch as much longer as is known to be
equal to the contraction in casting from it into pinchbeck, and then reduce it
narrower all round, and file the top plain. From this pattern all the blanks
are to be cast, one of which I lay within the bottom impression, and with a
sharp-pointed tool mark out its outside dimensions, round which I then cut a
groove suitable to the edges of the blank but a little deeper. Both stocks
being prepared and moderately hot, I lay in the silver and join them together,
the plating stock being undermost, and, raising the spout end in an oblique
direction, pour in the melted metal. The sprays (or metal formed in the
channels leading to the buckle) are now to be cut off, and the lined or tinned
silver replaced into the plating stock still kept hot; and small shreds of
glaziers' solder dipt in rosin or Venice turpentine put into the groove which is
to receive the hot tinned blank, and which will melt the solder, and thus
become united to the silver. The buckles must then be boiled in an alkaline
ley, and when made clean are to be stamped, as before mentioned. I also
stamp the blanks into the silver without previously soldering them together,
and stamp the silvers alone with a bottom die, having a groove to receive the
edges, and afterwards solder in the blanks, either pierced or solid. I also
stamp the silver in a flat bottom die or fuller, and solder on a full-size blank
previously coated with tin or silver. This process I also use to give chased
buckles a strong coat of white metal on the edges. I line the silver with a
composition of ten pounds of tin, one pound of regulus of antimony, and three
ounces of brass, or any other mixture will do which casts well, and will bear
stamping. Instead of glaziers' solder I also use a mixture of equal parts of
lead and tin, and sometimes by making the blanks very hot join them without
any addition. Sublimate or sal ammoniac may also be substituted for rosin or
Venice turpentine.
No. 8. Having described the methods which I find best adapted for plating
buckles for stamping with white edges and bottoms, I shall now mention two
of my methods for stamping them. In the first method I make use of flat
dies, and sink the top impression very deep into the die, so as to have a rim
round it of the thickness of a buckle, and slanting a little outwards. The
bottom die is made as usual with only two cavities sunk in it to receive the
bridges, and the blanks are always to be narrowed towards the bottom, and

page_text: edged with a coat of tin. By this means I also make buckles with plated edges.
In the other method I reverse the situation of the two dies (which are like-
wise made flat) placing the impression of the bottom of the buckle upon the
anvil, and the other or top die to be carried up by the hammer. I engrave the
impression so deep on the bottom as to inclose within it the whole shape and
thickness of the metal blank, which I stamp about the heat of boiling water
with a fuller or flat die, which has no impression on it. The fraze and all
the metal above the impression of the bottom die is then filed off, so that
after being tinned it shall again fit into the bottom die, and be entirely
inclosed within it. I then plate, as by Process No. 1, and re-stamp it under
the top die, which, in giving its impression, spreads out the silver and
tin solder only, which is readily frazed off without disturbing the coat of tin
upon the metal or iron blank, which last must, in the first place, be stampt
quite hot, as already mentioned. This process may also be performed, but
not so readily, with two dies of this description, but placed in the usual
situation in the stamp.
No. 9. In other cases I give the impressions to the silver plates before they
are soldered to the buckle as follows:-I take a rolling press or pair of rollers
fixt in a frame, such as is used for printing copper plates, for rolling metals, or
for copying letters, the rolls of which are of wood or metal, and of three or
four inches or any other convenient diameter. On the upper roll, at three or
more inches distant from one another, I fix very fast two rims or hoops, whose
edges are cut into teeth or pins, or I form or fix these teeth or pins in two
rims formed out of the substance of the roll. I also prepare a flat board about
two feet long, three quarters of an inch thick, and of a suitable width to the
length of the rolls, between which it must be made to pass easily backwards.
and forwards. In the middle of this board I make a recess to receive the
captain, which must always be cast into a stock of suitable dimensions. In
order to press the rolls together with the necessary force, I employ springs (like
Mr. Watts' copying press springs, or of other convenient forms) to act upon
the brasses in which the axis of one or both the rollers turn, and I apply screws
to tighten up or increase the action of these springs; or in place of the
springs I employ weights, acting either directly on the axis, or having their
energy increased by a lever or steelyard. I face the upper roll or cylinder
between the rims with two or three folds of brown paper faced with smooth
pasteboard, and by turning the rolls draw the captain under it backwards and
forwards, and regulate the pressure by the screws until the impression is made
perfect; and the pasteboard or other facing is fastened and taken up round the
roll. I then case the pressure a small matter, and in like manner draw through

page_text: answer.
the sliver, which is cut into pieces of a proper size, and laid upon the captain.
The teeth of the upper roll, besides carrying up the facing, make impres-
sions on the board and tin stock as they pass along, and act as cogs to draw
the captain backwards and forwards to the same point. When I have not
an equal bearing on all parts of the buckle, I mend the impression by a bit of
white paper a little wet, put on the defective place, and sometimes face the
pasteboard with soft glove leather, and after that with white paper. I also
use for facing sheet lead, buff and soal leather, but find the pasteboard answer
the purpose best, though other soft elastic substances not here mentioned will
In other cases I have an impression of the buckle engraved upon
the upper roll, and I put sheet lead with the silver upon it in the recess made
for the captain, and by that means obtain the desired impressions; and when I
want impressions beut, I fix a bent buckle upon a tin stock of the same curve
as the upper roll in which a proper recess is made to receive it, and I fasten it
by two screws passing through the stock into the roll, or by cement, or otherwise.
That end of the silver which is to pass the first under the rolls in making
these bent impressions must be fastened by a hook or two small spikes to the
stock, and be taken off again when the roll is in the same position as when
the silver was fixed on. The impressions thus made are carefully heated
until they are plated, and are stiffened on the outside with a coat of clay mixt
with sugar and water, and when laid into the plating stock are pressed down
in a buckle or captain stock, which method I also recommend for every
operation of plating.. Instead of a rolling press, these impressions may be
taken by a mangle, such as is used for linen, either by its weight or by re-
gulating the pressure by weights or steelyards, or by one roller moving in
a frame like the garden roller or castor, or any cylindric, spherical, or
spheroidal body pressed forcibly against and passing over or along the silver
when laid upon the captain. It is advantageous in all these operations to
regulate the movement by teeth and cogs, and also to have the captain and
forcer in a fixed situation, so as always to meet each other at the same point,
the one in a straight and the other in a circular form.
Process No. 10.-I line, edge, plate, and cover with silver or gold, and other-
wise, buckles and buttons, and certain other articles, as herein described, by
the use and application of tin or alloyed tin, in the following manner, namely:
The blanks for buckles intended to be afterwards plated on the tops with
rolled silver, or other rolled metal, by any of the foregoing processes, are
left a little rough on the edges and bottoms, or are completely finished previous
to their being tinned and plated, and if necessary are boiled in sope or other
alkaline ley, and scoured with sand and water to free them from any oil or

page_text: earthy particles which may adhere. If the surface of their tin coat be then
found too smooth, they are rubbed with a fine file, freestone, sand paper,
scratch brush, or other rough, sharp, or gritty substance. The silver or other
leaf metal is spread smoothly on a leather cushion stuffed with wool, and in
as many folds or layers as is thought right; and when cut into strips of proper
sizes, it is put with tongs or nippers on the buckle with the left hand, and a
burnisher is applied lightly backwards and forwards with the right to fix it on
and make it stick. It is then burnished again with a steel or stone
burnisher with sufficient force to fix it firmly down and give the desired polish.
This process is improved by tinning with a mixture of eight parts of tin and
one part of copper, which retains, though wiped off whilst hot, a degree of
roughness well adapted to receive and firmly retain a greater thickness of
silver, and also gives the inclosed metal a thicker and more durable coat of
white metal than tin by itself, or can be done conveniently or at any moderate
expence when leaf silver alone is used. In this way I cover or plate buckles
all over the surface with silver or other leaf metal, upon a coat of tin pre-
viously laid on or fixed to them, and likewise the edges and bottoms of
buckles plated on the top with rolled silver or other metal, and covered else-
where with tin or alloyed tin. When buckles plated on the tops with tin
solder have been finished without any tin on the edges and bottoms, I cover
their edges and bottoms with leaf silver or other leaf metal, and also with thin
rolled tin, or tin so little alloyed as not to injure its flexibility by roughening
the surface, as above described, and afterwards in like manner cover this last-
mentioned coat of tin with leaf silver, and likewise the edges and bottoms of
buckles previously plated on the tops with rolled metal, and made of any
composition of tin. I also cover the silver tops of buckles plated with tin
solder either in the whole or in part, with leaf gold or other leaf metal, and in
any suitable form, by previously roughening the surface and fixing it down by
pressure of a chasing punch or other applicable instrument, or the friction of
a burnisher, observing that in all cases a clean surface of metal is absolutely
essential.
The several foregoing operations mentioned in this process are performed
without heat, which is unnecessary, and must never be applied in that degree
which melts tin or tin solder, where the article to be thus covered has been in
part plated by means of tin or any other solder fusible in the same or a less
degree of heat. In other cases where the articles to be covered are only
coated with tin and have no silver on any part of their surface, I sometimes
heat them to that degree which gives the tin a frosty whiteness, capable of
being moved by wiping, but not in a perfect fluid state. I then press on the

page_text: silver with cotton or some other soft substance, or the burnisher, or otherwise,
and burnish it smooth as before mentioned, I apply either or both these
matters to cover with silver buckles, spurs, spoons, and table forks
previously covered or coated with tin or alloyed tin, and also buttons
of certain descriptions, as herein-after more fully mentioned.
The use
and application of these methods may also prove highly advantageous in a
great variety of other articles made of iron, copper, brass, tin plate,
and pewter, particularly where tin or tin solder is an ingredient, and where
the form is unsuitable for plating with melted tin, or any other fluid solder ;
but no others besides those I have mentioned appertain to my particular
branch of manufacture, and therefore do not come within my intention.
No. 11. Buckles plated on iron or other metals I cover at the edges
and bottoms with leaf metal, or thin rolled tin or silver, by a varnish
composed of either rosin or gum mastic dissolved in spirits of turpentine, and
mixt up
with paint to thicken it, or any other proper varnish. This is laid on
smoothly, and when sticky to the touch the leaf metal is put on with cotton or
other soft substance, and the rolled metal gently burnished on. They must
afterwards be dried with a gentle heat. Buckles plated on copper, or any
mixture thereof, I cover at the edges and bottoms by either of the three
following processes :-The buckle, being heated, is anointed with a solution of
corrosive sublimate, then thrown into water and wiped gently dry; or I dissolve
in quicksilver either silver or tin, or tin and bismuth, and mix the amalgama
with its own weight of cream of tartar, which I moisten when used with very
weak aqua fortis and rub on with cork or leather; or I melt together six or
eight parts of tin and one part of bismuth, or any other quick-flowing
mixture of tin, lead, or bismuth, and keep it in fusion at such a heat as will
not melt tin. The buckles being coated on the top with clay are anointed
elsewhere with sublimate or sal ammoniac, and moved about in the solder till
they cohere, and afterwards are kept hot and rubbed with hurds, or some
other soft body, to smooth the surface. I also coat the outer edges with
tin or the foregoing solder by the use of a hot soldering iron such as
is used by plumbers, and made of copper. This, being put upon the solder
mixed with rosin, takes up and leads it along the edges; and I also coat the
outer edges with silver lined with about its own weight of tin and rolled thin
and cut into strips; I anoint this with sublimate or sal ammoniac, and heat it
till the tin is in fusion, and then place upon it the buckle likewise heated
and anointed.
No. 12. I make coat, breast, and vest buttons of sheet iron, and cover them
with tin silver and cold or otherwise as follows:The iron being rolled of

page_text: a proper thickness, is freed from scales either at a grinding mill, or being red
hot it is bent backwards and forwards and hammered. The button blanks of
the desired sizes are then cut out at a common piercing press, and when not
made of ground iron are put into a weak pickle of mineral or other acid to
clean them from any remaining scale, and then they are shook dry in a box or
bag, with sawdust or sand. They are then stamped red hot in a die, which may
either be engraved with any particular device, or if intended for plain buttons
must give them a convex impression on one side. The fraze or selvedge, if
any, is then cut off at the piercing press, and the bur or rag left thereby on
the lower edges. taken off, and the edges rounded with a file held against them
whilst the button is turning round in a lathe called an edging lathe. The
shanks or eyes are then either soldered on the bottom with brass solder, or
screwed or rivitted in. When brazed they are plunged whilst hot into water,
or lime water, and are again put into the acid menstrium, as before mentioned,
and are kept either in lime water, or perfectly dry, till tinned, which is performed
as follows:-I use an iron pot like a common barrel, with a square bunghole
or aperture on the side with a cover over it, going upon a hinge fastened 'down
with a hook and staple. On the two other sides, and facing each other, are
fixed two axis's of iron, which being supported by a frame on each side of an
open fireplace, the barrel is turned round endways by means of two handles
fixed at the ends of the axis's. The buttons being put in the barrel, it is
turned round on the fire till the whole are sufficiently heated to melt the tin or
tin mixture, which is generally the best London pewter, and which is then
added in the proportion of about half an ounce, and the eighth of that weight
or thereabouts of pounded sal ammoniac to the pound of iron; wadding then
being put under the cover, it is closed down, and the pot is again shaken or
turned a few minutes over the fire, then removed to anotber frame and turned
backwards and forwards with a quick broken motion for some time. The same
quantity of tin and sal ammoniac as before is then added, and the operation
again repeated. When they are thought to be sufficiently covered they are
examined, and are emptied by a few at a time over an angular board into
water. This whole operation is performed in about a quarter of an hour from
the first time of putting in the tin. They are then dried in a bag with saw-
dust. The wrought or fancy buttons are either polished at a polishing lathe,
or burnished quite dry in a lathe with a burnisher made of bloodstone or steel;
and are also covered in parts. with leaf metal, as hereafter and formerly
mentioned. Sometimes the plain buttons are also finished in the same manner
without being stamped, but are generally struck a second time between two
dies made a little warm, and finely polished. The top die is carried up
by the hammer of the stamp, and the bottom die is split in two equal halves

page_text: across the center where a recess is made to receive the shanks, which for this
purposes should always be made of a corresponding size. These two bottom
dies are narrowed off or lessened obliquely towards the bottom to fit into a bolster
or larger die made to receive them within it, and which is kept fast by the four
screws of the stamp. The buttons when thus stamped are burnished or polished
as before mentioned and are either finished in that state, or afterwards
ornamented by chasing or otherwise. When I want to cover the tops with
leaf silver, the Dutch bronze, or mock gold leaf, or other leaf metal, I do it
by Process No. 10, either hot or cold, but the method there mentioned of
applying heat is most applicable to silver; and when I want to inlay them
with metals of different colours, I do it either roughening over the whole
surface and forcing down one metal by pressure or blow of a chasing punch in
the desired form, and then fixing on the other metal by a burnisher, as before
mentioned; or, I strike the under work one or more blows with a chasing
punch with sand paper or emery paper under it, and lastly press down the
metal into the recess thus made, or by sinking the bits in by a blow of a
stamp, or by any other methods which will answer the same effect; I also cover
them with the thin sheet brass called assidue or tinsel, or thin rolled copper,
or alloyed or mixed copper, or previously gilt or plated with silver, by the
following means:-The aforesaid coverings are cut large enough, that when
stamped they shall receive and fit the iron bottoms, and also have a narrow
border or selvedge to inclose the edge of the latter, and which button
or blank, when so applied, may be made of thinner iron. These metal
tops or coverings are coated on the outside with clay, or other earth or
substance, and anointed within with corrosive sublimate or sal ammoniac,
and in that situation are lined with tin, as has been already mentioned.
They are then put upon a hot plate or stove, with a small shread of glaziers'
solder, or a mixture of equal parts of tin and lead, or any other quick-
flowing solder. The tinned buttons are also made hot until the tin upon
them becomes fluid, then a piece of writing paper or some other material is
placed on the top, and the bottom put upon that and pressed lightly. The
paper is then immediately withdrawn from between, and the bottom gently
pressed into the top. Sometimes the solder is dipt into oil, or turpentine oil
mixed with rosin, but the application of paper or some other substance is
essentially necessary to make a compleat junction. These buttons may be
either re-stampt or otherwise finished for sale. I likewise make buttons cut
out of tinned iron in the sheet, commonly called sheet tin, but thicker, and
when I cut out the blanks make use of a punch flat on the face, with its edges
taken off obliquely, by which means a coat of tin is carried down to the bottom
of the button. The shanks must also be tinned, and then soldered on with

page_text: tin solder. I also use rolled steel, but neither of these last-mentioned
materials are so generally applicable as sheet iron, untinned and treated as
above mentioned, No. 13. I make buttons for the coat, waistcoat, or vest, of
pig iron, commonly called cast metal, and cover them with silver and gold, or
otherwise by the use and application of tiu, as follows:-The buttons are cast
in the mode generally practised for making the buttons commonly called best
white metal buttons, either with or without wrought-iron shanks. They are
then put into a box or vessel of iron, and mixed in layers or strata with
pounded dust of wood or pit coal, each charred, and when covered over close
with clay, they are then placed in a coal or coak fire, which is regulated so as
to give them the greatest degree of heat they can bear without melting or
changing form, and continued in that state for six or more hours, when they
are suffered to cool gradually as the fire goes down. To give them a smooth
surface, I either put them into an acid menstruum, or shake them in a barrel
mixt with sand, or turn or rub off the scale. I then tin them as before
mentioned, but sometimes use, instead of common tin or pewter, pure grain
tin. They are then polished, burnished, or covered with leaf silver or other
leaf metal, as has been mentioned in the foregoing process, which last process
I do both on these and iron buttons with or without the intervention of tin,
and are also covered with rolled copper, as therein described, but with this
exception, that the cast metal does not, without it is extremely well annealed,
sustain the blow of a stamp, nor yield to the pressure of a chasing punch, or
any other alteration of form. They are, therefore, generally either cast of the
pattern they are wanted to be, or are made plain with the tops more or less
convex, and, if need be, are engine turned or engraved. When the buttons
I
have shanks of cast metal, the hole must be drilled at a lathe or by hand.
have mixt cast metal with cast steel, in the proportion of an ounce of the
latter to the pound, and also with several smaller proportions of copper, tin,
regulus of antimony and lead, but without deriving any perceptible advantage
>thereby.
In the foregoing account of the different operations in plating buckles
with silver, it seems impossible to enumerate every means by which the
saine can be accomplished; but I have selected and pointed out those
means which I find best and most generally applicable, an expert work-
man may, in particular instances and with different patterns, find advan-
tage in applying the methods to one process which are described for the
purpose of another. Thus, the lining the silver with tin, and using a plate of
copper instead of a plating stock, mentioned in Process No. 4, may also be
useful for No. 1; and he may use a muffle instead of the plating stove, or
B

page_text: may find it convenient to swage his silver upon a loose; buckle instead of a
swageing stock; and to plate on sand, bone ashes, or some other substance
which easily receives an impression... I have, also mentioned tin stocks only,
but lead may be substituted for. tin, and brass, copper, iron, or any other stocks
may be used at discretion, and also in different forms to those I have described,
but which may produce the same effects; and the same processes by which
I plate.buckles with silver are also adapted for plating or covering, them with
gold, or silver and gold joined together, or copper or alloyed' copper, either gilt
or plated, 'the same being previously rolled into a thin ribbon or fillet. JL. And
the same operations as are done by the stamp may also be done by a large
fly press, and in.a great degree by rolling.
..I have now, fulfilled the terms, as prescribed to. me in. His Majesty's most
gracious Letters Patent, by giving the most perfect Specification of my
Invention's that my abilities permit; but as my Specification has been necessarily
long and diffuse, it is proper to sum up in few words the most material points
thereof. Be it remembered, therefore, that the principal points I claim as
new, and of my invention, are as follows:
... First, the methods I have invented' or applied of giving and preserving a
durable covering of tin, silver, or gold, on the edges and bottoms of buckles of
iron, copper, or any of.the baser metals plated with silver or gold by means of
tin solder, by which the present objections to buckles of that description.are
obviated, viz-1st, the want of durability of all buckles plated on any com-
position of tin; 2dly, that such as were plated on iron became unmerchant-
able from rusting; and, 3dly, that those plated on any mixture of copper or
brass. were almost in.total disuse in the home trade from their edges being
seen.
1.
t
Secondly, the methods I have invented or applied to cover or inlay buckles
of the above descriptions with silver and gold, or otherwise, in any suitable
form or devise, and also to plate. spoons, spurs, and table forks, with a durable
coat of tin and silver, and which will prove highly advantageous to many other
different articles, which I do not propose to manufacture, and which; I leave to
the public..
Thirdly, the methods I have invented or applied to give compleat im-
pressions by means of a roller or rolling press to the plates of silver and gold
previous to their being fixed on the buckle, by which the present expensive
apparatus used for stamping them afterwards is in great measure rendered
unnecessary.
Fourthly, the methods I have invented or applied for covering, with tin,
silver, gold, or other metal, buttons made of iron and cast iron, by which a new

page_text: nanufacture or trade is produced, which hath not hitherto been practised or
arried on in this country.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Alston, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and eighty-five.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1785, the aforesaid James Alston came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according
to the tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.