IM- PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN TINNING OR COATING SHEETS OF
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Morewood, of Llanelly, and John Henry
Rogers, of Llangennech Park, near Llanelly, both in the County of
Carmarthen, Tin Plate Manufacturers, for the Invention of “IM-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN TINNING OR COATING SHEETS OF
".
Sealed the 28th August 1874, and dated the 23rd March 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edmund Morewood and
John Henry Rogers at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 23rd March 1874.
We, EDMUND MOREWOOD, of Llanelly, and JOHN HENRY ROGERS, of
Llangennech Park, near Llanelly, both in the County of Carmarthen,
Tin Plate Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN TINNING OR COATING
SHEETS OF IRON OR OTHER METAL," to be as follows:-
When sheets or plates of metal travel through melted coating.metal
or flux in the process of coating it is desirable that the side or end of
the plate which enters first should also leave the coating metal or flux

page_text: first. Hitherto this has been generally accomplished by causing such
plates to travel between rollers which are geared and driven by tooth
wheels. There is much wear and repair attending this mode of working,
and a great deal of space in the tinning bath which is not filled by the
machinery would be vacant were it not filled with coating metal or
grease; and it is desirable to have as little grease or metal in a heated
state as possible in the process of coating. Therefore in order to avoid
these disadvantages we use a large revolving drum, and we arrange
spikes or arms upon its surface. This drum is placed in a bath so
rounded as to leave no more space than is desirable between the outer
part of the drum and the inside of the bath, but space is left for guides
between which the plates travel through the greater part of the bath and
under the flux or melted metal, and the arms of the drum are so
arranged with relation to the guides that when the drum revolves and a
plate is passed into the bath the lower side of the plate rests upon one of
these arms, which then forms as it were the floor of a revolving chamber
or space, and the succeeding arm forms the top of such chamber or
space, and then the upper or other side of the same arm forms the floor
for the next plate, and as the drum revolves the arms carry the plates
with them between the guides, and continue to do so until such plates
are raised out of the coating metal or flux through metal coated rollers.
Or the plates may be raised and withdrawn from the bath by a
workman.
We arrange one or more pairs of coating rollers above the drum on
the side at which the plates are passed into the bath of flux or coating
metal, and the plates introduced into the bath pass from these rollers
into a space between the guides, which forms a road for the plate under
the flux or coating metal to the exit side of the bath.
On the exit side of the bath and above the drum we also place one
or more pairs of rollers between which the plates are raised and with-
drawn.
Sometimes we use rollers revolving against the lower part of the
drum to act both as coaters and as carriers of the plates instead of the
arms.
In the space above the drum we displace a large quantity of flux by a
hollow box which we make of iron, and by raising or lowering it we alter
1 f
donisa

page_text: In order to have a continuous flow of coating metal or flux between
and upon the rollers which we use for the purpose of coating we use a
pump working in connection with an engine, by which we can keep up
a continuous supply of coating metal either from a reservoir in the bath
or elsewhere, and thus make immediate use of that which drips from the
rollers. Revolving or travelling buckets may be used for this purpose of
conveying metal to the rollers.
Other means may be adopted for raising the coating metal from the
bottom of the bath to feed the coating rollers. We also give a supply
of a better quality to the exit rollers from a small reservoir by means of
a gutter or pipe. We place nip pieces in rings or grooves circling round
the rollers at each end of the rollers, to prevent the coating metal
flowing out so readily from between the rollers as it would do were there
no barriers to hinder it. In this way we make a trough or channel of
metal upon or between the pair of rollers. On the entrance side of the
bath we arrange machinery connected with the drum, so that if the
workman passes a plate down out of its proper time it will be detained
until a proper time.
In some cases we employ a flux box of considerable capacity, sufficient
to hold a series of plates, which we cause to be delivered in succession to
the rollers, so that the plates may dwell a considerable time in the flux
box.
Sometimes we place a trough shaped like a narrow flux box over the
opening between the pair of coating rollers through which the plate
enters, and into this narrow flux box melted coating metal is pumped or
otherwise supplied. The opening at the bottom of this box is placed
just above the nip between the rollers, and is made as narrow as con-
sistently can be with allowing the plate to pass through it into the nip
of the entrance rollers. By thus passing through the melted metal
contained in this box the plates are better prepared for entering between
the rollers to obtain their coating. We place a similar box above and
between other pairs of coating rollers.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edmund Morewood and John Henry Rogers in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 23rd September 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDMUND
MOREWOOD, of Llanelly, and JoHN HENRY ROGERS, of Llangennech
Park, near Llanelly, both in the County of Carmarthen, Tin Plate
Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-seventh
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Edmund Morewood and John Henry Rogers,
Her special license that we, the said Edmund Morewood and John
Henry Rogers, our exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said Edmund Morewood and John Henry Rogers, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
TO BE USED IN TINNING OR COATING Sheets of IRON OR OTHER METAL," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Edmund Morewood and
John Henry Rogers, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand and
scal of one of us or them, 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 I, the said Edmund Morewood, on behalf of
myself and the said John Henry Rogers, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
When sheets or plates of metal travel through melted coating metal
21
11
1
11
11
L ..

page_text: the plate which enters first should also leave the coating metal or flux
first. Hitherto this has been generally accomplished by causing such
plates to travel between rollers, which are geared and driven by tooth
wheels. There is much wear and repair attending this mode of working,
and a great deal of space in the tinning bath, which is not filled by the
machinery, would be vacant were it not filled with coating metal or
grease. And it is desirable to have as little grease or metal in a heated
state as possible in the process of coating, therefore in order to avoid
these disadvantages we use a large revolving drum, and we arrange
spikes or arms upon its surface. This drum is placed in a bath so
rounded as to leave no more space than is desirable between the outer
part of the drum and the inside of the bath. But space is left for
guides, between which the plates travel through the greater part of the
bath, and under the flux or melted metal. And the arms of the drum
are so arranged with relation to the guides that when the drum revolves,
and a plate is passed into the bath, the lower side of the plate rests
upon one of these arms, which then forms it as were the floor of a
revolving chamber or space, and the succeeding arm forms the top of
such chamber or space; and then the upper or other side of the same
arm forms the floor for the next plate. And as the drum revolves the
arms carry the plates with them between the guides, and continue to do
so until such plates are raised out of the coating metal or flux through
metal-coated rollers. Or the plates may be raised and withdrawn from
the bath by a workman.
We arrange one or more pairs of coating rollers above the drum on
the side at which the plates are passed into a bath of flux or coating
metal; and the plates introduced into the bath pass from these rollers
into a space between the guides, which forms a road for the plate under
the flux or coating metal to the exit side of the bath.
On the exit side of the bath, and above the drum, we also place one
or more pairs of rollers, between which the plates are raised and with-
drawn.

page_text: hollow box, which we make of iron, and by raising or lowering it wo
alter the level of the flux whenever we desire.
In order to have a continuous flow of coating metal or flux between
and upon the rollers, which we use for the purpose of coating, we use a
pump working in connection with an engine, by which we can keep up
a continuous supply of coating metal either from a reservoir in the bath
or elsewhere, and thus make immediate use of that which drips from
the rollers. Revolving or travelling buckets may be used for this
purpose of conveying metal to the rollers.
Other means may be adopted for raising the coating metal from the
bottom of the bath to feed the coating rollers. We also give a supply
of a better quality to the exit rollers from a small reservoir by means of
a gutter or pipe. We place nip pieces in rings or grooves circling round
the rollers at each end of the rollers to prevent the coating metal flowing
out so readily from between the rollers, as it would do were there no
barriers to hinder it. In this way we maintain a trough or channel of
metal upon or between the pair of rollers. On the entrance side of the
bath we arrange machinery connected with the drum, so that if the
workman passes a plate down out of its proper time it will be detained
until a proper time.
In some cases we employ a flux box of considerable capacity sufficient
to hold a series of plates, so that the plates may dwell a considerable
time in the flux box.
Sometimes we place a trough shaped like a narrow flux box over the
opening between the pair of coating rollers through which the plate
enters; and into this narrow flux box melted coating metal is pumped,
or otherwise supplied. The opening at the bottom of this box is placed
just above the nip between the rollers, and is made as narrow as con-
sistently can be with allowing the plate to pass through it into the nip
of the entrance rollers. By thus passing through the melted metal con-
tained in this box the plates are better prepared for entering between
the rollers to obtain their coating. We place a similar box above and
between other pairs of coating rollers.
In order that our Invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect we will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto

page_text: Figure 1 is a section of a coating pot filled for the most part with hot
grease flux, but containing also some melted coating metal at the lower
part. The plate is placed in the flux box A and at the right moment
the finger H acted upon by a catch and suitable levers as shewn allows
the plate to fall into the nip of the coated rollers B, B, below which
there is an iron receiver C, C, which collects the coating metal as it drops
from the rollers B, B, and brings it into contact with the plate as it
passes downwards. The rollers B, B, are supplied with melted coating
metal by the pump and gutter J. After the plate leaves the lower
rollers B, B, it falls on to pegs K fixed in the drum E, and is carried
round between the drum E and the guides D, D, until it enters the nip
of the rollers F, F, through which it makes its exit. The rollers F, F,
are supplied with coating metal of good quality from the tank G. Tho
supply to the tank G may be by means of a pump. Any metal which
falls from the rollers F, F, is taken up by the pump J and supplied to
the rollers B. Thus the rollers F, F, always receive the fresh metal, and
after being used upon them the metal passes to the rollers B, B, or the
supplies may be kept entirely distinct, that to the rollers F being of the
better quality. In practice we make the surface speed of the rollers B, B,
the same as that of the drum and the surface speed of rollers F, F, about
15 per cent. faster than that of drum. We make the distance between
the pegs K about 6 inches greater than the width of the plates to be
placed between them, thus for plates 20 ins. × 14 ins., the plates being
placed widthways, we make the distance inside measure 20 inches
between the pegs, we make the drum of wrought or cast iron and fill it
with bricks, sand, or plaster of Paris. A few small perforations for the
escape of air or steam are made in the drum.
means.
The Drawing Figure 2 shews a vertical section of a somewhat
different arrangement. Here the plate passes through the flux box A
into the nip of the rollers B, B. These are fed with coating metal from
gutters C, C, which are supplied by a pump or by other convenient
Buckets carried between two endless chains may be used for
raising and conveying the coating metal, as is shown at Figure 3. The
rollers B also revolve in troughs D, D, which contain melted coating
metal, and are replenished by the metal supplied to the rolls. The plate
then passes on by guides E, E, between rollers F, F, and the drum G,

page_text: thence through the guides H, H, into the nip of the rollers J, J, which
also revolve in trouglis of melted coating metal L, L, and from between
the upper pair of rollers J, J, the plate makes its exit from this coating
bath. The troughs L, L, of the upper pair of rollers J, J, are supplied
with melted coating metal of a better quality from a small tank K. At
the ends of the rollers B, B, and J, J, there are nip pieces B³, B², which
ride in grooves in the rollers, and hinder the coating metal from running
out at the ends of the rollers as fast as it would do otherwise.
The drum and rollers are all driven by wheels gearing into each other, so
that they have the same surface speed, with the exception of the exit
rollers J, J, which in practice travel about 15 per cent. faster. The
hollow box M displaces a large amount of grease or flux, so that by
raising or lowering it the level of the grease is readily altered. Or the
finishing pairs of rollers may be omitted, and the plates may be with-
drawn by a workman as they rise up.
We would remark that Drawings similar to Figures 1 and 2 are shewn
in a Specification filed by us on the 24th day of March last to a former
Patent granted to us, No. 3125, in the year 1873, they there illustrate
the points of Invention to which our said former Patent relates. With
apparatus arranged as above described, and shown in Figures 1 and 2,
the rotation of the drum tends to equalize the temperature from top to
bottom of the bath, but it is advantageous to maintain a considerable
difference of temperature between the top and bottom, the temperature
at the top being such that the grease does not rapidly deteriorate, whilst
at the bottom it is high enough to cause the coating metal to take very
freely upon
the plate. For these reasons it is preferable that the drum
which is filled with non-conducting matter should be stationary, and thus
form a shelter for the upper grease from the licat of the coating metal,
whilst the moving frame carries the plates around it. Figures 4, 5, 6,
and 7 shew such an arrangement.
Figure 4 is a longitudinal section; Figure 5 is a plan partly in section;
Figures 6 and 7 are transverse sections. a is the pot; it is heated by a
furnace beneath; b is a stationary drum within it and occupying the
greater part of its capacity. The drum bis filled with bricks or other
slow conducting material. The drum thus filled with slow conducting
material keeps most of the heat at the bottom of the pot whilst the
upper part is comparatively cool. The drum is supported upon an
axle about which the skeleton frame c is able to revolve. The frame

page_text: has two toothed rings c¹, c¹, and the pinions D', D', on the shaft D gear
with and drive them. The skeleton frame is provided with pins c², c²,
for carrying the plates forward; d, d, are guides fixed within the pot to
guide the plates in their passage through; e, e, is an exit flux box
containing two pairs of coated rollers f, f, and g, g; the rollers of each
pair are held in contact by spring levers. The open lower end of the
flux box e dips into coating metal in the pot a, and is thus sealed, and it
is filled with grease or flux suitable for finishing the plates before they
emerge from the coating pot or vessel. The flux covers the rollers f, f,
but stands below the level of the rollers g, g. The upper coated
rollers g, g, revolve in troughs h, h, containing melted coating metal,
and they have flux on the back suitable for keeping them clean and
in good working order. Or the troughs h, k, may be filled with clean
grease.
On the entrance side of the pot a is flux, it is supported upon the
coating metal in the lower part of the pot, and its surface is within a
few inches of the top of the drum b. There is thus a long narrow
channel of grease on the entrance side of the pot, which at the top where
it is in contact with the air is kept cool under the shelter of the drum ;
but in descending this channel the temperature gradually increases until
it reaches the best tinning point at the bottom of the channel where the
grease rests in contact with the molten coating metal. The drum also
admits but of a narrow surface of molten metal, being in contact with
the grease, and so also deterioration of the grease is very much lessened.
A hollow vessel i indicated in blue lines, and like that shewn at M,
Figure 2, but suitably shaped is arranged in this part of the pot to
reduce the bulk of the grease required to be in use and to adjust the level.
It also assists in regulating the surface temperature of the flux on the
entrance side, and reduces the tendency to spurt up on the introduction
of wet plates as spurting takes place to a much greater extent when the
grease is hot at the surface than when it is comparatively cool. When
the amount of grease on the entrance side is in this way reduced as
much as possible it becomes, convenient and easy to draw it off every
evening, and to start with suitably freshened or purified grease in the
morning. Such vessel also assists in regulating the temperaturo of
the surface grease on the entrance side by cither putting water or wet
sand therein or leaving it empty.as may be most desirable. But we
prefer to leave it empty, thus allowing the iron of which it is made to

page_text: radiate the heat drawn from the grease. The plate is placed upon the
upper part of the skeleton frame c between the pins c³, c³, which are
slightly above the surface of the grease. As the skeleton frame revolves
the arms carry the plate forward into and through the grease, and it will
be seen that the flux space in which the grease is contained is of such
extent that several plates can be travelling through it at one time, so
that time is given for the grease to act and for the plate to become
thoroughly heated before it reaches the coating metal. From and
through this grease the plate travels into the melted coating metal,
through which it is still carried by the pins c², c², until it reaches the
guide d by which it is turned into the exit flux box e, up and through
which it passes into the lower coated rollers f,f, and thence into upper.
coated rollers g, g.
When we use rollers as carrying instruments for passing the plates
through the flux box of large capacity we place the upper pair so close
to the surface of the flux as to hinder or prevent the spurting of the hot
flux on the introduction of the wet or damp plates. The lower rollers
as carriers deliver the plates into the coating metal with much more
regularity than if dropped from the upper pair through a long channel.
of flux. The rollers f, f, and g, g, travel at a surface speed about fifteen
per cent. faster than that of the surface of the skeleton frame.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention and the
manner of performing the same, we would have it understood that we
claim,―
1st. The arrangement of a drum within the coating pot in such
manner as to fill up the middle of the pot, leaving for the passage of the
plates a long narrow channel of comparatively small capacity between
the surface of the drum and the bottom of the pot, such drum being
capable of being rotated to carry the plates forward from the entrance
to the exit side of the pot, substantially as described.
2nd. The arrangement of coated rollers around the said drum, working
in contact with it and aiding in carrying the plates forward, sub-
stantially as described.
3rd. The arrangement of the drum so that it remains stationary within
the coating pot, whilst the plates are carried beneath it by a skeleton a
frame, substantially, as described.

page_text: 4th. The arrangement and use of a drum in combination with a
coating pot in such manner as to provide a long narrow channel for the
passage of the plates and to shelter the grease in the upper part of the
pot from the cat below, and to reduce as far as may be the area of
the surface of molten coating metal in contact with the grease, sub-
stantially as described in respect to Figures 4, 5, 6, and 7.
5th. The arrangement in a coating pot of a flux box or space with
carrying apparatus capable of taking forward the plates in a continuous
series through it, and so that two or even more of the plates held by the
carrying apparatus may be travelling through the flux box or space
simultaneously, substantially as described in respect to Figures 4, 5, 6,
and 7. .
6th. The arrangement of a vessel such as is shewn at i in Figures 4,
5, 6, and 7, so as to be partially immersed in the flux on the cntrance
side of the pot, such vessel serving to reduce the amount and the extent
of the exposed surface of heated flux, substantially as described.
7th. The arrangement for coating or aiding in coating metal plates by
causing them to pass through a narrow channel through which a stream
of coating metal is caused to flow, and so into the nip of a pair of coated
rollers, substantially as described in respect to Figure 1.
8th. The arrangement for coating or aiding in coating metal plates by
causing them to pass between coated rollers to which melted coating
metal is supplied, and upon which it is retained by nip pieces or stops
preventing it from flowing off at the ends of the rollers, substantially as
described in respect to Figure 2.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Morewood, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four