IMPROVEMENTS IN BRASSING AND BRONZING THE SURFACES OF STEEL, IRON, ZINC, LEAD, AND TIN
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DE LA SALZEDE, of Paris, in the Kingdom of France, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirtieth day of Sep-
tember, One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the eleventh year of '
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Charles de la Salzede, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial
license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Charles de
la Salzede, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Charles de la Salzede, my exors, adññors, 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 BRASSING AND BRONZING THE SURFACES OF STEEL,
IRON, ZINC, LEAD, AND TIN;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Charles de la Salzède, shall cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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

page_text: 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
Charles de la Salzede, do hereby declare that the nature. of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being
had to the Drawing bereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in the manner of coating with brass or bronze the
surface of cast iron, iron, steel, zinc, lead, and tin, and that such means con-
sist of the following processes:-When it is intended to brass the surfaces of
any metal, I prepare the bath in the following manner :-I take for every five
thousand parts in weight of distilled water the following matters; sub-carbonate
of potash six hundred and ten parts in weight, chloride of copper twenty-five
parts in weight, sulphate of zinc forty-eight parts in weight, azotate of ammonia
three hundred and five parts in weight, cyanide of potassium twelve parts in
weight, making together one thousand parts. This last ingredient (the cyanide
of potassium) is dissolved in a separate vessel in a small portion (about one hun-
dred and twenty parts in weight) of cold distilled water; into the rest of the water,
that is to say, into the four thousand eight hundred and eighty parts in weight
remaining of the five thousand, I introduce at the same time the subcarbonate
of potash, the chloride of copper, and the sulphate of zinc, the dissolving of
which I facilitate by increasing the temperature of the water from one hun-
dred and forty-four to one hundred and seventy-two degrees of Fahrenheit,
and when it is perfectly dissolved and cooled, the azotate of ammonia is to be
added to it. After being shaken a long time the mixture is left to stand at
least twenty-four hours, then decantered with a syphon; then the solution of
the cyanide of potassium is to be added, which solution should be limpid, and
the bath thus prepared kept for about five hours under the action of a battery
with a rapid current (like that of Bunsen, of Groves, of .Daniel), and by
means of a mean temperature of seventy-seven degrees Fahrenheit, yields a
deposit of yellow copper or brass of a very fine colour and perfect solidity on
to the article in the vessel to be coated. The process may be performed in
vessels of porcelain, china, glass, wood lined with bitumen (that of seyssel is
the best), or any isolating resinous mastic, or indeed even in simple wooden
vessels; the most convenient shape is the rectangular, as shewn by the
Drawing hereto annexed, of the apparatus of which the description is as
follows:-
A, B, C, D, is a rectangular case or vessel, the size of which
may be varied

page_text: ;
according to need. E, F, is a plate of brass or yellow copper, named elec-
trode, placed vertically in the bath and communicating by a wire II with the
copper pole of the pile. 1 and 2 is a brass wire rod communicating by means
of a metallic wire I with the zinc pole of the pile. G is the article to be.
coppered, suspended by a metallic fastening to the rod 1, 2, and immersed in
the solution in the vessels. The electrode F, F, should be of yellow copper
or brass, and its surface occupy nearly the whole side A, B, of the rectangular
vessel opposite the side C, D, in front of which are suspended the articles
intended to be coated with copper (or brass or bronze), as the case may be
but if instead of brass the articles should be required to be coated with bronze,
I employ twenty-five parts in weight of chloride of tin instead of the forty-
eight parts of sulphate of zinc, and increase the quantity of chloride of copper
from twenty-five parts to forty-eight, and the electrode of brass will have to
be replaced by an electrode of bronze, and in every other respect the process
is the same as above described. The following mixture may be also advan-
tageously employed as a bath for brassing articles :-Distilled water, five
thousand parts in weight; subcarbonate of potash, five hundred parts in
weight; chloride of copper, fifteen parts in weight; sulphate of zinc, thirty-
five parts in weight; cyanide of potassium, fifty parts in weight, making
together five thousand six hundred parts; these salts are dissolved cold and
together in distilled water; then the bath, after being sufficiently stirred up
with a wooden spatula, is left to stand for from twenty-four hours to forty-
cight hours; the bath subjected cold to the voltaic action (from twenty-five
to thirty degrees Fahrenheit) during the same time and in the same manner
as the preceding, yields a very good brass. When it becomes impoverished
by use, there must be readded to this bath the metallic salt which has been
soonest absorbed, and which is deficient, either copper or zinc. This latter bath,
less expensive than the former, requires an electric force rather more con-
siderable, but in all cases such force must be invariably as much proportioned
to the capacity of the bath as to the size and mass of the article to be coated
with yellow copper. This second brassing process may be also used in bronz-
ing, by substituting about ten parts in weight of chloride of tin for the thirty-
five parts of sulphate of zinc, and by replacing the electrode of brass by
another one in bronze. It is important to remark, that in either of the
processes before described, that instead of of the sulphate of zinc or chloride
of tin, any neutral salts and zinc or tin acids may be employed, according to
whether the article is to be covered with brass or bronze principally, salts
with many bases, and they may be either neutral salts or acids, so long as
the bath is sufficiently rich in potash, that there may be no action upon the

page_text: blue paper of turnsol. I would also remark, that the proportions of the salts.
of copper, or of tin or zinc, may be varied according to the shade of color
required for the article to be covered. Although I have described these
processes only for coating or covering steel, iron, zinc, lead, and tin, they may
be applied with equal benefit to the surfaces of other metal, such as alloys of
metals, or when alloyed' with bismuth and antimony..
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles de la Salzede, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
CHARLES (L.S.) DE LA SALZEDE.
Taken and acknowledged by Charles
de la Salzede (party hereto), at
Paris, in the Kingdom of France,
this Eleventh day of February, 1848,