IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING DESIGNS UPON METAL PLATES
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jules Antoine Desmurs, of 40, Southampton Buildings,.
"
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING DESIGNS UPON METAL PLATES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jules Antoine Desmurs at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st February 1879.
JULES ANTOINE DESMURS, of 40, Southampton Buildings, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING DESIGNS
UPON METAL PLATES."
My Invention relates to methods of producing ornamental or other designs in
more or less relief upon plates or sheets of iron or other metal, which plates may be
used flat or may be made up into boxes, canisters, dishes, or other articles.
One method in which such designs may be produced upon the surface of metal
plates or sheets consists in producing the required ornamental or other designs upon
the surface of lithographic stones, or zinc, or other plates in the usual well under-
stood way, and inking such designs with a greasy ink or other ink capable of
resisting the action of acid, and then transferring such design to the surface of the
metal plate which is to be ornamented by means of a lithographic or other printing
press in the usual way.
The back of the plate thus prepared is then covered with a varnish or other
material capable of resisting the action of acid, and the plate is plunged into a vessel
containing a suitable acid sufficiently diluted with water, by which the parts of the
face of the plate which are not protected by the greasy ink (transferred to it in the
printing press, as above described) are attached and dissolved. When this action
has proceeded sufficiently far, the plates are removed from the bath and the greasy
ink being removed the parts of the design which were protected by it are visible in
relief above those which have been eaten away.
This method is, however, not sufficiently quick where a large number of metal
plates are to be decorated.
In order to render the process quicker and more effective and economical, I make
Dries Ba

page_text: use of the electricity which is generated by the action of diluted acid, such as sul-
phuric, hydrochloric, or nitric acid, or a sufficiently energetic organic acid such as
acetic acid, upon metal plates, hydrogen gas being liberated and a salt corresponding
to the metal and acid used being formed.
In such cases the metal plate becomes charged with negative and the diluted acid
with positive electricity, or vice versa, according to the materials used.
The electricity may bo collected by arranging parallel with the metal plate
operated upon a plate of platinum or of carbon; and when an electrical circuit is
completed, metal is absolutely transferred through the conducting solution from the
positive pole of the galvanic battery thus formed to the negative pole, and if the
current be sufficiently intense and a long enough time is allowed, the plate forming
the positive pole will be entirely dissolved and transferred, this process being used
in the ordinary methods of electro-plating.
In order to inake use of the electricity produced as described for the purpose of
decorating metal plates, I transfer the design to the surface of the plate by means of
a lithographic or other printing press, as already described, in greasy inks, or inks
capable of resisting the action of acid at ordinary temperatures, the back of the plate
being covered with a resisting varnish or covering.
The metal sheets or plates thus prepared are then immersed into a vessel of wood
or other suitable material, preferably covered with gutta percha or other insulating
material, and having within it a smaller vessel, the sides and bottom of which are
pierced with holes, the space between the two vessels being filled with fragments of
gas coke.
In the inner vessel I place the sheets of metal which are to be decorated arranged
parallel with one another but at a short distance apart, and put into metallic con-
nection with each other by means of a metal guide or frame which surrounds and
supports them, and to which a metal conducting wire can be connected.
The vessels being filled with diluted acid of the proper strength and character,
the action of the latter upon the plates is slow, as in the arrangement first described,
but in any convenient position I arrange a second compound vessel formed and
arranged in a way similar to that already described, and in which a number of
metal plates are also arranged upon which designs have been prepared in the same
way as upon those in the first vessel. The metal connecting wire from the plates
in the first vessel is connected with a plate embedded in the gas coke in the space
between the two second vessels, and a second wire connects the gas coke in the first
with the metal plates in the second vessel, an electrical circuit being thus completed,
and the electricity from the first so increases the action in the second vessel that
the plates in the latter may be finished whilst those in the former have been
scarcely effected. The metal plates may then be changed from one vessel to the
other, or the poles to which the wires are connected may be changed in order to
complete the second set of plates.
The solution in the two vessels should be of a different nature, that in the second
vessel being simply a conducting solution or made so that the metal becomes a
positive electrode, in the way well understood.
Instead of making use of the electricity produced as above described for the pur-
pose of forming designs upon metal plates, I sometimes use for the same purpose
electricity produced from galvanic batteries or piles, or from magneto-electric
machines or other sources. Instead of two, three or more vessels properly cemented
together may be used.
The metal sheet or plate prepared with designs in the way described may be after-
wards tinned, or may be electro-plated in the usual way with copper, nickel, silver, or
other metal. Or they may be prepared and operated upon in the novel way described,
after having been tinned, and the parts upon which the design has been etched or
dissolved away may be electro plated with copper or other little oxidizuble metal,
before the protecting ink is removed. Or the design in the ink may be allowed to
remain,

page_text: Where sheets of iron are plunged into baths of diluted sulphuric acid or hydro-
chloric acid, for the purpose of cleaning them, I sometimes collect and utilize the
electricity so produced for the purposes herein before described, or other purposes.
In my novel process of decorating plates as above described, the plate froin which
the metal is removed by electrical action is that which is to be made use of, instead
of the reverse, as in ordinary electro plating.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Jules Antoine Desmurs in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st August 1879.
JULES ANTOINE DESMURS, of 40, Southampton Buildings, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING DESIGNS
UPON METAL PLATES,"
My Invention relates to methods of producing designs in more or less relief upon
plates or sheets of iron or other metal, which plates may be used flat or may be
made up into boxes, canisters, dishes, or other articles.
Such designs may be produced upon the surface of metal plates or sheets by first
producing them upon the surface of lithographic stones, or zinc, or other plates, in
the usual well understood way, and inking such designs with an ink capable of
resisting the action of acid, and then transferring the design to the surface of the
metal plate which is to be ornamented by means of a lithographic or other
printing press in the usual way.
The back of the plate thus prepared is then covered with a varnish capable of
resisting the action of acid, and the plate is plunged into a vessel containing a suit-
able acid sufficiently diluted with water by which the parts of the face of the plate
which are not protected by the greasy ink are attacked and dissolved. When this
action has proceeded sufficiently far, the plates are removed from the bath and the
ink being removed the parts of the design which were protected by it are visible
in relief above those which have been eaten away.
This method is, however, not sufficiently quick where a large number of metal
plates are to be decorated, and my present improvements render the process quicker,
and more effective and economical.
I make use of the electricity which is generated by the action of diluted acid, such
as sulphuric, hydrochloric, or nitric acid, or a sufficiently energetic organic acid,
such as acetic acids, upon metal plates, hydrogen gas being liberated and a salt
corresponding to the metal and acid used being formed.
In such cases the metal plate becomes charged with negative, and the diluted
acid with positive electricity, or vice versa, according to the materials used. The
electricity may be collected by arranging parallel with the metal plate operated upon
a plate of platinum or of carbon; and when an electric circuit is completed, metal
is absolutely transferred through the conducting solution from the positive pole of
the galvanic battery thus formed to the negative pole, and if the current be suffi-

page_text: ciently intense and a long enough time is allowed, the plate forming the positive
polo will be entirely dissolved and transferred, this process being used in the
ordinary method of electro-plating.
In order to make use of the electricity produced as described for the purpose of
decorating metal plates, I transfer the design to the surface of the plate by means
of a lithographic or other printing press, as already described, in inks capable of
resisting the action of acid at ordinary temperatures, the back of the plate being
covered with a resisting varnish or covering.
The metal sheets or plates thus prepared are then immersed into a vessel of wood
or other suitable material, preferably covered with gutta percha or other insulating
material, and having within it a smaller vessel, the sides and bottom of which are
pierced with holes, the space between the two vessels being filled with fragments of
gas coke.
In the inner vessel 1 place the sheets of metal which are to be decorated, arranged
parallel with one another, but at a short distance apart, and put into metallic con-
nection with each other by means of a metal guide or frame which surrounds and.
supports them, and to which a metal conducting wire can be connected.
The vessels being filled with diluted acid of the proper strength and character,
the action of the latter upon the plates is slow, as in the arrangement first described,
but in any convenient position I arrange a second compound vessel formed and
arranged in a way similar to that already described, and in which a number of
metal plates are also arranged upon which designs have been prepared in the same
way as upon those in the first vessel.
The metal connecting wire from the plates in the first vessel is connected with a
plate embedded in the gas coke in the space between the two second vessels, and a
second wire connects the gas coke in the first with the metal plates in the second
vessel, an electrical circuit being thus completed, and the electricity from the first
so increases the action in the second vessel that the plates in the latter may be
finished whilst those in the former have been scarcely effected.
The metal plates may then be changed from one vessel to the other, or the poles
to which the wires connected may be changed in order to complete the second set
of plates.
The solution in the two vessels should be of a different nature, that in the second
vessel being simply a conducting solution, or made so that the metal becomes a
positive electrode, in the way well understood.
Instead of making use of the electricity produced as above described for the pur-
pose of forming designs upon metal plates, I sometimes use for the same purpose
electricity produced from galvanic batteries or piles, or from magneto electric
machines or other sources.
Instead of two, three or more vessels properly connected together may be used.
The metal sheets or plates prepared with designs in the way described may be
afterwards tinned, or may be electro plated in the usual way with copper, nickel,
silver, or other metal. Or they may be prepared and operated upon in the novel
way described. After having been tinned, and the parts upon which the design
has been etched or dissolved away may be electro plated with copper or other little
oxidizable metal before the protecting ink is removed. Or the design in the ink
may be allowed to remain.
Where sheets of iron are plunged into baths of diluted sulphuric acid or hydro-
chloric acid for the purpose of cleaning them, I sometimes collect and utilize the
electricity so produced, for the purposes hereinbefore described or other purposes.
In my novel process of decorating plates as above described, the plate from which
the metal is removed by electrical action is that which is to be made use of instead
of the reverse as in ordinary electro plating.
The accompanying Drawing is in illustration of my Invention, the apparatus
being shewn in vertical section.
a is the inner vessel, having perforations b, b, b, through its sides; c is the outer
vessel, fragments of gas coke being packed between the two vessels, as shown.. The
5
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page_text: •
inner vessel a is filled with diluted acid, as described, and in it are arranged the
plates d, d, d, &c., which are to be treated, and which are all in metallic connection
with the wire e. In the gas coke is embedded the plate which is connected to the
wire g. A second compound vessel is arranged having also a series of plates
h, h, h, &c., and the end of the wire e is connected with the plate i embedded in gas
coke in the second outer vessel, whilst the end of the wire g is connected with the
plates h, h, h, &c.
Having now described my Invention and the manner in which it is to be per-
formed, I claim,-The combination of two or more compound vessels for the
purpose of ornamenting metallic plates by dissolving away parts of their surface,
substantially as and for the purpose described, and shewn in the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jules Antoine Desmurs, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy nine.
J. A. DESMURS. (L.S.)