AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GOLD LEAF
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Lane, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GOLD LEAF."
Sealed the 15th January 1856, and dated the 3rd August 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Lane at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd August 1855.
I, JOSEPH LANE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GOLD LEAF" to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the manufacture of gold leaf in the following
manner (that is to say):-Instead of taking an ingot of gold alloyed with
silver or other metal and rolling and beating the same into leaf, as commonly
practised, I take an ingot of gold alloyed with silver or other metal or metals,
and upon the two opposite faces of the said ingot of alloyed gold I attach
ingots of pure or virgin gold, or gold only so far alloyed as may be necessary to
give it the required colour, the three ingots being heated so that by incipient
fusion they may be made into one mass. The process of making the compound
ingot exactly resembles that whereby silver is plated upon copper, and which
process is commonly called "sweating." The compound ingot is rolled and

page_text: beaten in the ordinary manner. Gold leaf made according to my Invention is
more casily manipulated and gives a more uniform surface than the ordinary
gold leaf.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Lane in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th January 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
LANE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Joseph Lane, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph Lane, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph
Lane, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT OR
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GOLD LEAP," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Joseph Lane, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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 Lane, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
forined, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:
My Invention consists in the manufacture of gold leaf in the manner berein-
after particularly described-Instead of taking an ingot of gold alloyed with
silver, copper, or other metal or metals, and rolling and beating the same into
leaf, as is commonly practised, I proceed as follows:-I take an ingot of gold,
or gold alloyed with silver or other metal, the proportion of the metals being
such that the gold in the said ingot is purer and more malleable than the gold

page_text: generally rolled and beaten into leaf. To the opposite faces of the said ingot
of pure or alloyed gold, I attach ingots of gold so far alloyed as may be
necessary to give it the required color, or where the color requires it I use pure
gold for the outer ingots. When I use alloyed gold for the outer ingots I
prefer to make the alloy with copper, or some other metal which will produce
an alloy less malleable than the metal or alloy of which the middle ingot is
composed. The three ingots are heated to incipient fusion, whereby they are
made into one mass. The process of making the componnd ingot exactly
resembles that whereby silver is plated upon copper, and which process is
commonly called "sweating." The compound ingot is rolled and beaten into
leaf in the ordinary manner. In gold leaf made in the ordinary manner, that
is to say, of one uniform alloy, the color of the leaf is frequently different in
different parts, but in gold leaf made according to my Invention the color of
the said leaf is uniform over its whole surface. By making the interior of the
ingot of pure or nearly pure gold, and placing the colored or more alloyed
gold on either side of the same, I obtain a base for the leaf which is highly
malleable, and which on being rolled and beaten carries with it uniformly the
outer or colored portions.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described, as the same may be varied
withont departing from the nature of my said Invention; but I claim as my
Invention the improvement or improvements herein described in the manu-
facture of gold leaf, that is to say, making gold leaf from ingots in which
the metals the gold is alloyed with are not uniformly distributed through the
same, but so disposed that the interior of the said ingot shall be purer and
more malleable than the outer surfaces of the same, excepting where for the
sake of the color I use pure gold for the exterior.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Lane, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirtieth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
JOSEPH LANE. (L.S.)
Witness,
E. C. COLE.