A NEW ALLOY OR COMPOUND METAL APPLICABLE TO THE SHEATHING OF SHIPS, AND VARIOUS OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
REVERE, of New York, in the United States of America, now residing in the
Parish of Saint James, Westminster, Doctor in Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth; by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of
January, in the tenth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Revere, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said John Revere, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Revere, my executors, adminis-
trators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
tinie and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should' and'
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of His Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, mý Invention of "A NEW ALLOY OR COMPOUND
METAL APPLICABLE TO THE SHEATHING OF SHIPS, AND VARIOUS OTHER USEFUL
PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said John Revére, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and' ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to

page_text: be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of. Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same (reference being thereunto had) will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Revere, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner, in which the same is to be performed, is fully described and
ascertained as follows, that is to say:
.
My said Invention or discovery of a New Alloy or Metallic Compound
Applicable to the Sheathing of Ships and other Useful Purposes; consists of
zinc and copper combined in the following proportions, videlicit,-zinc
ninety-five parts, copper five parts, by weight. To form a complete.union of
these two metals in the above-named proportions, so that an alloy suited to
the above-named useful purposes may be formed; I find the following a
convenient method:-Having weighed out the two above-named metals in
the above-named proportions, I proceed to melt them in separate vessels.
As soon as the copper is in a state of fusion, I add to it a portion of the melted
zinc. To prevent the combustion of the zinc, which is apt to occur when
exposed to the temperature of melted copper, I immediately throw into the
crucible or other vessel which contains, the copper and zinc thus mixed some
flux, as powdered charcoal, or common.salt; and as my object in doing so is
to exclude the air from the metals, I.add a sufficient. quantity to cover the
surface of the melted metals. After thus combining a considerable quantity
of the zinc and copper in the vessel in which the copper was originally fused,
I then pour the alloy thus formed into the vessel containing the remainder of
the melted zinc, and, in order to prevent the combustion of the zinc, I add, as
before, some flux, as powdered charcoal or common salt, as the combustion
of the zinc, which might otherwise take place, might essentially alter the
relative proportions of the two above-named metals. The copper and zinc
thus compounded in the above-named proportions being in a state of fusion, I
then, by stirring, cause them intimately to mingle and combine. The alloy
thus formed may then be cast into ingots, to be rolled into sheets or formed
into nails, or into any other things suitable to the useful purposes for which-it
is intended that the metallic alloy shall be employed. The above I find a
very convenient mode of combining these metals, but any other may be
employed. It is not necessary that the metals should be exactly in the
above-named proportions, for any other proportion not exceeding, on the one
hand, ninety-one of..zinc to nine of copper, or, on the other, ninety-eight of
zine to two of copper, will produce a useful effect, but the above-named

page_text: proportions of about ninety-five of zinc to five of copper will be found in
practice the most suitable; for it is to be observed, that as the proportion of
copper to zinc exceeds five per centum, the alloy becomes more brittle and
more difficult to work, and as it falls short of five per centum of copper the
power of the alloy to resist corrosion is diminished.
Finally, I claim in the above Specification to have discovered, that when
zinc has, as above described, a small quantity of copper combined with it, its
liability to corrode is materially diminished, and that the compound metal
thus formed may advantageously be employed for sheathing ships and other
various useful purposes.