IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING OR COVERING CERTAIN METALS WITH OTHER METALS AND METALLIC ALLOYS, AND FOR ORNAMENTING THE SURFACES OF VARIOUS METALLIC ARTICLES
Year: 1845

page_text: PARKES, of Birmingham, Artist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Ninth day of October, in the ninth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alexander Parkes, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Alexander Parkes, my
exors, adññors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Parkes,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no,
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING OR COVERING CERTAIN METALS WITH OTHER METALS
AND METALLIC ALLOYS, AND FOR ORNAMENTING THE SURFACES OF VARIOUS METALLIC
ARTICLES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the
said Alexander Parkes, shall 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 Her said 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
Alexander Parkes, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and.
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My improvements in embellishing metals consist,―
First, in the production of a gold design upon a silver or other metal sur-
face; this I effect by pencilling by hand or by printing from plates or rolls upon
paper the required design in any suitable stopping varnish or colour; this I
place on or in the article to be embellished, and gently press or rub the same,
and allow it to dry for an hour or so, when the gold design may be given to the
article by any known electro process of gilding, but preferring the cyanides of
gold for my purpose.
After the design is gilt the stopping-out varnish or
colour is removed by turpentine or alkalies or acids, and the design may be
left dead, or it may be burnished as required.
Second, in the production of a silver design upon a gold or other metal sur-
face; and I proceed to effect this in the same way as for a gold design, only
using silver solutions instead of gold, preferring the cyanides.
My third improvement is in producing a black or bronze design or ground
upon a gold, silver, or other metal surface; I proceed in the same way as for.
gold or silver, excepting that I use in place of the gold or silver solutions, a solu-
tion composed of the following substances:-Muriate of ammonia, one pound;-
sulphate of copper, one pound; distilled vinegar, two gallons. The article is
placed in the solution either cold or hot for a short time, when it will be found.
of the required black or bronze colour; and the stopping or colour may be
removed by turpentine, &c.
Under this head of my Invention I claim the means herein described of.
embellishing metals.
:
My improvements in coating, &c. metals are comprised under the two
following heads :-
First, in coating iron with the following metals and alloys of metal, .viz*,
with zinc, copper, lead, tin, and with copper and zinc in alloy, copper, nickel,'
and zinc in alloy, copper, silver, nickel, and zinc in alloy, copper and tiu
in alloy, copper, zinc, and tin in alloy, copper, lead, and zinc in alloy, and.
antimony in alloy with tin, zinc, or lead, or either of them.
Secondly, in coating copper and alloys of copper with lead, zinc, and tin.
In using any of the above metals or alloys of metals for coating iron or
copper, and its alloys, I employ them in a fused state, and a large body of the.
substances herein-after directed to be used for fluxes also in a fused state, and
floating upon the surface of the metals; and I use vessels or furnaces of clay, iron,
or fire brick as reservoirs for the metal and flux, according to the nature of the
articles to be coated, and the fusing point of the metal employed for the coating.
:

page_text: I employ the following salts as fluxes, after having driven off the water of
crystallization by previously roasting or fusing them, and which I effect by
keeping the same for a length of time in an iron or earth vessel until they
become perfectly liquid; they are then poured into iron vessels to cool, and put
aside for use, videlicet:-The chlorides of the earths and metals; the fluorides
of the earths and metals; the borates of the earths and metals; the barites of
the earths and metals; the cyanides of the earths and metals; the phosphates
of the earths and metals: I have found that these substances may be employed
advantageously in a variety of combination one with another for coating with
the several metals or alloys before described, and which will become manifest
to the operator after some experience. But in order that my Invention may be
carried out with success, I will herein-after give the prepartions and propor-
tions which I have found to answer perfectly for each metal and alloy of metal
described under the first and second heads of this my Invention.
I would observe, that in all cases it is requisite to have the surfaces of the
metal to be coated perfectly clean; the various methods to effect which are well
known; but in order to prevent the surfaces becoming again oxidized after the
cleaning and previous to the operation of coating, I keep them immersed in a
solution of some neutral chloride of an earth or metal, by preference the chlo-
rides of lime or zinc, in the proportion of one pound of either of them dissolved
in one gallon of water. And in order that the coating of metal should remain
smooth and uniform upon the iron or copper, I plunge it immediately upon
withdrawing it from the bath of molten metal into a saturated solution of
chloride of lime or chloride of zinc, or other suitable neutral salt and this
part of my Invention is more particularly necessary where the article coated is
of considerable size or weight..
The time that the articles should remain immersed in the bath of metal will
.depend upon their weight and size; I prefer to pass them gently through the
body of flux, moving them therein, by which means the surface is better pre-
pared for receiving the metal, and the necessary heat acquired to effect the
perfect union of the two; and in withdrawing them from the molten metal,
.I again agitate them while bringing them through the flux, in order to prevent
any superabundance of the metal adhering to the surface.
Flux No. 1. Fifty pounds fused chloride of lime, forty pounds fused chlo-
5 ride of sodium, forty pounds fused borate of sodium.
Flux No. 2.
Fifty pounds chloride of copper, fifty pounds phosphate of zinc.
.Flux No. 3. Fifty pounds chloride of zinc, fifty pounds phosphate of zinc,
ten pounds borate of soda.
For coating iron with copper.--To every one hundred pounds weight of

page_text: copper I use one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty pounds of the
flux No. 1.
For coating iron with zinc.-To every one hundred pounds of zinc, I use one
hundred pounds of phosphate of zinc; or in place of the phosphate of zinc I
use one hundred pounds of the compound flux No. 1.
For coating iron. with lead.-To every one hundred pounds of lead, I use
one hundred and ten pounds of the flux No. 3.
For coating iron with tin, I use to every one hundred pounds of tin one
hundred pounds of the flux No. 3.
:
For coating iron with copper and zinc in alloy (brass), I take to every one
hundred pounds of brass, composed of two parts copper to one part of zinc, one
hundred pounds. of the flux No. 1 or 2.
For coating iron with copper, nickel, and zinc in alloy, I take one hundred
and eighty pounds of the metals first alloyed, and composed of eighty parts
copper, seventy pounds zinc, and thirty pounds nickel, and one hundred and
eighty pounds of the flux No. 1.
For coating iron with copper, silver, nickel, and zinc in alloy, I take one
hundred pounds of the metal previously alloyed, and composed of fifteen
pounds copper, fifty pounds silver, twenty pounds nickel, fifteen pounds zinc,
and one hundred pounds of the flux No. 1.
For coating iron with copper and tin in alloy.-To. every one, hundred
pounds of the metals, composed of eighty pounds copper to twenty pounds of
tin, I take one hundred pounds of flux No. 1.
For coating iron with copper, zinc, and tin in alloy. To every one hundred
pounds of metal, composed of sixty-three pounds copper, twenty-five pounds
zinc, and twelve pounds tin, I use one hundred pounds of the flux No. 1..
For coating iron, with copper, lead, and zinc in alloy, I take one hundred
pounds of metal (composed of sixty-three pounds copper, twelve pounds lead,
and twenty-five pounds zinc), and one hundred pounds of the flux No. 1.
For coating iron with antimony in alloy with tin, zinc, or lead, I take one
hundred pounds of the alloyed metals, composed of twenty pounds of antimony
with, eighty pounds of either of the other three metals, and one hundred pounds
of flux, composed of eighty pounds chloride of. zinc, and twenty pounds borate.
of sodium.
Second, for coating copper and copper and its alloys with lead, zinc, or tin,
I employ the same proportion of either of the metals. required, with.the same
fluxes as directed for coating iron with other metals in this.my Specification.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention in respect to coating
petals, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I would have it

page_text: understood, that I do not claim the coating of iron or other metal by dipping
the same into melted metal, nor do I confine myself to the details or quantities
of the metals and fluxes herein given, as they may be varied. But what I
claim is,―
First, the coating of iron with copper alloyed with nickel, when the same
are used in a melted state and with a suitable flux. And I also claim the
coating of iron with silver alloyed with copper, when in a melted state and
with a suitable flux. I also claim the use of antimony in alloy with other
metals when used as a coating metal in a fused state with a suitable flux; and
it should be stated that the other matters mentioned as fluxes, are to be used
in the same manner as those the use of which has been described.
Secondly, I claim the use of chloride of lime, chloride of sodium, chloride of
copper, and borate of soda as fluxes to be used on melted metals or alloys of
metals when coating iron with such melted metals or alloys thereof, and when
coating copper and its alloys with other metals except silver.
Thirdly, I claim the causing of chlorides, fluorides, borates, barites, cyanides,
and phosphates of the earths to a process of fluxing, for the purpose of driving
off the water of crystallization before using them as fluxes on melted metal.
And fourthly, I claim the plunging of the coated articles into a solution of
neutral salt, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Parkes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord One