IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR MANU- FACTURING TIN AND TERNE PLATES
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Joseph Madge and John Jones Jenkins,
both of Swansea, in the County of Glamorgan, Tin-plate Manu-
facturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR MANU-
FACTURING TIN AND TERNE PLATES."
Sealed the 3rd October 1871, and dated the 11th April 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Joseph Madgo
and Jolin Jones Jenkins at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 11th April 1871.
WC, HENRY JOSEPH MADGE and JOHN JONES JENKINS, both of
Swansea, in the County of Glamorgan, Tin-plate Manufacturers, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "ÍMPROVED APPARATUS
FOR MANUFACTURING TIN AND TERNE PLATES," to lie as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to facilitate and reduce the cost of
the operation of tinning black plates to produce tin or terne plates: "
Instead of dipping the plates by hand, as usual; or passing them through

page_text: the bath of molten metal by means of rollers for the purpose of taking
off the superfluous metal as now practised, we propose to submit the
plates to the bath by means of a rotating carrier, which will present
the plates edgewise to the molten metal and carry them through the
bath, and bring them out at the opposite end thereof in a position
suitable for draining.
In carrying our Invention into effect we prefer to employ a large
wheel, somewhat resembling the framing of a paddle wheel, which wheel
we mount vertically in a segment-shaped bath provided with heating
flues underneath. The frame of this wheel will carry guides for
receiving the black plates and holding them in such a position that
as the wheel rotates they will be carried edgewise through the molten
metal. A slow rotary motion is to be given to this wheel by suitable
gearing, and to prevent oxydation of the metal we propose to fill up
the centre of the wheel. Or we may, instead of using a wheel, employ
a ring frame and fit the bath with a concentric segment-shaped corc
or filling piece, which will reduce the holding capacity of the bath,
leaving only a sufficient space in the bath for the ring to rotate freely
in the molten metal contained therein. Or we may use a square
orificed tubular bath curved in the form of a segment of a circle. In
these cases the ring frame having no axle or central support will bear
upon fixed guides or rollers, and its weight being in great part sustained
by the molten metal little power will be required to effect the rotation
of the ring frame with its load of plates. The bath may be supplied
with metal through a central feed opening in the filling core or cover
of the bath or through openings at the opposite ends of the bath.
We propose to use this machine both for finishing tin and terne
plates previously tinned, and for completing the tinning and finishing
in one operation, and the fluxes used will be varied accordingly.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Joseph Madge and John Jones Jenkins
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th October 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, HENRY
JOSEPH MADGE and JOHN JONES JENKINS, both of Swansea, in the
County of Glamorgan, Tin-plate Manufacturers, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of April, in the year of
Our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Henry Joseph Madge and John Jones
Jenkins, Her special licence that we, the said Henry Joseph Madge
and John Jones Jenkins, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Henry Joseph Madge and John Jones
Jenkins, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any timo
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
"IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING TIN AND TERNE PLATES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Henry Joseph Madge and
John Jones Jenkins, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Henry Joseph Madge and John
Jones Jenkins, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being
had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say):
The object of this Invention is to facilitate and reduce the cost of
the operation of tinning black plates to produce tin or terne plates.
Instead of dipping the plates by hand as usual or passing them through
the bath of molten metal by means of rollers for the purpose of taking
off the superfluous metal as now practised, we propose to submit the
plates to the bath by means of a rotating carrier, which will present
the plates edgewise to the molten metal and carry them through the
bath, and bring them out at the opposite end thereof in a position
suitable for draining.
In the accompanying Drawing we have shewn an arrangement of

page_text: Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of the apparatus for sub-
mitting plates to a bath of molten metal according to our Invention;
Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same taken in the line. 1, 2, of
Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a plan view of the vessel intonded to receive the
molten metal.
A, A, is a large wheel or ring somewhat resembling the framing of
a paddle wheel, but without either arms or boss. This wheel is mounted
vertically in a segment-shaped vessel B set in a heating chamber or
fluc of brickwork C and intended to receive the molten metal with
which the plates are to be coated, as shewn at Fig. 1. The frame of
the wheel A we fit with guides a, a, for receiving the plates b, b, and
holding them in such a position that as the wheel rotates they will be
carried edgewise through the molten metal. The guides consist of
notched bars, which may be secured to the sides of the wheel by means
of dovetailed grooves formed to receive them, or they may be fixed
in position by bolts or nuts or otherwise. The wheel A is supported
in the vessel B upon antifriction rollers or bearings &, an annular
flange d being provided at each side of the wheel to bear upon the
rollers. These rollers are carried by stud pins made fast to the sides
of the vessel B, or they may be mounted in segment-shaped bars secured
to the vessel above the level of the molten metal. In order to present
as small a surface as possible of the molten metal to the action of the
air we prefer to fit the vessel B with a cover as at B', which takes a curve
corresponding to the inner periphery of the wheel, and thus with the
Tessel encloses the lower half of the wheel within a segmental channel,
or the vessel with its cover may be cast in one piece, and the whech
composed of segments which will allow of its being built up. in position.
By adopting this peculiar construction of vessel its holding capacity
is reduced to a minimum, a sufficient space only being left in the bath
for the wheel to rotate freely. In the cover B¹ two feed holes e, c, arc
cast for feeding the bath. This arrangement is adopted when the
apparatus is intended to be used for both tinning and finishing plates,,
but the apparatus for finishing plates already tinned should be provided
with an overflow gutter to run off any excess of metal thereby supplied.
In order to give a slow rotary motion to the wheel we provide it with
a ring of teeth, as shewn at f, and by means of a worm 7 keyed to a
vertical shaft and so situate that the worm shall be below the level
of the molten metal (and thereby prevent the cooling of th metal on

page_text: its surface) we transmit motion to the wheel from any prime mover.
The speed of this wheel will (supposing the diameter of the wheel to
be, say, six feet) be about four or five rotations per minute, and its
weight being in great part sustained by the molten metal little power
will be required to drive it with its load of plates.
We propose to use this construction of apparatus as above intimated
both for finishing tin and terne. plates previously tinned and for com-
pleting the tinning and finishing in one operation, the fluxes being of
course varied accordingly, as is well understood.
The bath of metal is composed as usual, or in any desired manner,
and a suitable flux is applied to the surface of the bath at the entrance
end of the vessel B. The plates are fed to the wheel while the same
is in motion by sliding them endwise into their notched supports, and
they are similarly withdrawn when tinned or finished as they make
their exit from the bath.
It should be remarked that to effect the tinning and finishing of the
terne plates at one operation and preferably to finish plates that have
been already tinned the plates will enter the bath of molten metal by
first passing through a flux of suitable kind, but as it is desirable that
the plates when leaving the bath should not come in contact with the
flux, but should riso directly out of clean metal, we have found it
necessary to separate the entrance from the exit end of the bath, and
thus confine the flux and oxydated metal to the entrance end of the
vessel.
We may further remark that we do not confine ourselves to the
details of construction above described, as the form of the vessel for
containing the molten metal may be indefinitely varied, and so also
may the construction of the rotary frame for carrying the plates through
the bath without departing from the nature of our Invention.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "Improved
Apparatus for Manufacturing Tin and Terne Plates," and explained
the manner of carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be
understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent we
claim,―
First. Submitting iron and steel plates to a bath of molten metal
by passing them edgewise through the same by the means and for the
purpose above described.

page_text: Secondly. In combination with a rotating carrier a vessel for con-
taining the molten metal and effecting the division in the bath in the
manner and for the purpose above described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Henry Joseph Madge and John
Jones Jenkins, have hereunto set our hands and scals, the [
Ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-one.
HENRY J. MADGE. (L.S.)
JNO. J. JENKINS.
(L.S.)