IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLURGY, ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO THE PRODUCTION OF TYPE AND ORNA- MENTAL FORMS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Perkins, of Kennington, in the County of
Surrey, Architectural Modeller, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
METALLURGY, ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO THE PRODUCTION OF TYPE AND ORNA-
MENTAL FORMS."
Sealed the 12th September 1854, and dated the 20th March 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Perkins at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th
March 1854.
I, JOSEPH PERKINS, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLURGY, ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO THE PRODUCTION OF
TYPE AND ORNAMENTAL FORMS," to be as follows:-
Instead of the present mode of taking electrotype casts in gutta percha,
wax, or other plastic material, I purpose to throw on to the mould, prepared in
suitable material, gold, silver, or copper, or other metal, as the case may be.
Having thus obtained a thin coating of metal over the whole of the object on
which a deposit is required, and without waiting for such an amount of metal
as would enable me to release the object from the mould in a perfect manner,
I fill the pattern with hot metal while yet in the gutta percha, or using for this
purpose alloys, varying according to the nature of the object or ornamental

page_text: pattern to be produced. When perfectly cold it is taken from the mould or
matrix; and when open work of any description is moulded, the proper side is
freed from roughness by planing or filing, as the case may be, and from
those projecting, where it is not desirable that the metal deposited by galvanic
action should remain.
In some cases I purpose, after the work has been thus produced, to melt out
the alloy which has been used to strengthen and uphold the work upon the
tinned surface thereof.
I can apply this process to produce a silver-faced type or stereotype, or I
can make silver-faced type by simply depositing silver on the type by the
ordinary means.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Perkins in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
20th September 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPHI
PERKINS, of Kennington, in the County of Surrey, Architectural Modeller,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors. give and grant unto me,
the said Joseph Perkins, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph Perkins,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Joseph Perkins, my 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
METALLURGY, ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO THE PRODUCTION OF TYPE AND ORNAMENTAL
FORMS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Perkins,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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
Seal Patent Office within six. calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Perkins, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-

page_text: formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The nature of the said Invention, as heretofore described in the Provisional
Specification, is hereby further and particularly described and ascertained, as
also in what manner the same is to be performed, as required by the aforesaid
condition of the said Letters Patent, as follows:-
This Invention has relation to improvements in metallurgy, especially
applicable to the production of type and ornamental forms, by casting or
forming the same from given originals in the following manner:-I take a
type or other object, original or pattern, having parts of its surface in relief,
from which object it is desired to produce the cast or copy in metal; and I
then, in the ordinary' manner (as well-understood by practical men); make
a mould from such surface in gutta percha, or any of the plastic substances
suitable for such purposes; which being done, and the mould being released
from the object, the surface of such mould is treated in the ordinary way, that
is, by brushing it over with plumbago or other conducting medium, and attach-
ing it to the wire which forms the negative pole of a galvanic battery, and then
placing such mould in the trough containing the solution, whereby the copper
or other metal in the trough becomes deposited over the surface of the mould,
and gives an efficient representation of its surface. Thus far I proceed accord-
ing to common usage; but when I have obtained a complete though thin
deposit on the surface of the mould, instead of still pursuing the ordinary
routine, and increasing the deposit of this metal till of sufficient strength or
thickness to allow the cast to be released from the mould, I now proceed
according to my Invention, and fill the back of the mould up with some
metallic alloy, such as an alloy of tin, lead, and antimony, or tin and lead, or
tin and antimony, or lead and antimony, or the combinations thereof, for which
purpose the raw surface of the back of the electrotype cast must first be wetted
with a saturated solution of zinc in hydro-chloric acid, or any other equivalent
solution, when I run in the above-mentioned alloy in the ordinary manner;
and when a sufficient quantity of this alloy has been run in to afford a plate
of sufficient strength or thickness the cast is completed, and may then be
detached from the mould; but should any of the gutta percha mould cling to
the cast, any of the ordinary solvents may be applied to clear it off; in some
cases when the cast is too heavy the alloy can be run out again.
KL
It may be here remarked, that if this method of producing ornamental forms
be adopted with regard to things which require to be made' in parts and then
connected together, that in such cases the parts may be connected together by
heating the alloy, which then acts as solder, and solders the parts together.

page_text: Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, as required by the proviso in the said Letters
Patent contained, I declare that what I claim is, the improvements in electro-
metallurgy, herein-before set forth, whereby I am enabled to produce type and
ornamental forms from an original or pattern, by taking a mould thereof, and
depositing the required metal on the surface thereof, as ordinarily practised by
electro-metallurgists; and when the surface has been so covered, running in
other metal at the back, so as to strengthen or thicken the cast thus obtained,
so far as to enable the cast to be withdrawn from the mould; which process
has other advantages, as described; it being understood that I do not claim
the use of the electro-galvanic process for the purpose of electro-metallurgy
when the running in of metal or metallic alloy, as set forth, is not adopted.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Perkins, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this 19th day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
JOSEPH PERKINS. (L.S.)
Signed and sealed in my presence,
F. W. CAMPIN,
Patent Office; 156, Strand.