Improvements in the Manufacture of Copper Wire or Strip.
Year: 1898

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Copper Wire or Strip.
SHERARD OSBORN COWTER-COLES, of Grosvenor Mansions, Victoria Street,
Westminster, S.W., Electro-Metallurgist, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to an improved method and process for the manufacture
of copper wire and strip. The apparatus I employ consists of a mandril which can
be made of brass or other suitable material, and upon this I wrap or fasten or fix
a spiral cord, lace or tape, and deposit copper to the desired thickness, in the
spaces between the cord or lace: when the copper has attained the desired thickness
the copper is unwound from the mandril with or without the cord. To ensure
the strip readily leaving the mandril, the mandril is coated with a thin film of
wax dissolved in a suitable solvent. The cylinder is caused to rotate in a vertical
position at a high rate of speed, some 2,000 revolutions per minute. This mandril
forms the cathode in an electrolytic cell, the anode consisting of copper matte, or
insoluble anodes when it is desired to deposit the copper direct from a copper
leaching solution.
Dated his 16th day of December 1898
Improvements in the Manufacture of Copper Wire or Strip.
I, SHERARD OSBORN COWPER-COLES, of Grosvenor Mansions, Victoria Street, in
the City of Westminster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My invention relates to an improved method of, and process for, the manufacture
of copper wire, or strip. According to my invention I employ a mandrel which
can be made of brass, or other suitable material, and upon this I wrap, fasten, or
fix, a spiral cord, lace, or tape, and I deposit copper, to the desired thickness, in
the spaces between the cord, lace, or tape. When the copper has attained the
desired thickness the copper wire, or strip, thus formed, is unwound from the
mandrel with, or without, the cord, lace, or tape. To ensure the wire, or strip,
readily leaving the mandrel, the mandrel is coated with a suitable material such
as a thin film of wax dissolved in a suitable solvent. The cylinder is caused to
rotate in a vertical position at a high rate of speed preferably not less than a
circumferential speed of about one thousand feet per minute. The said mandrel

page_text: forms the cathode in an electrolytic cell. The anode may consist of copper matte,
or insoluble anodes may be used when it is desired to deposit the copper direct
from a copper leaching solution.
The apparatus which may be used may be of any suitable description which will
allow of the necessary high speed of rotation being given to the cathode, but I
prefer to employ apparatus such as is described in the specification of my applica-
tion for Letters Patent No. 21974 of the 19th October A.D). 1898.
The cord, lace, or tape, which can be used to wrap round the mandrel, as afore-
said, may be of any suitable material (or be covered with a material), which will
not allow the copper to be deposited thereon. For example I may use as the said
wrapping india rubber in the cross sectional form that is known as catapult
rubber.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:-
The manufacture of copper wire, or strip, by depositing copper in the spaces
formed by wrapping, or fastening, spiral cord, lace, or tape, around a mandrel
forming a cathode in the depositing cell, the said mandrel, or cathode, being rotated
at a high speed during such deposition, substantially as herein before described.
Dated this 21st day of August 1899.
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.