AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF COATING IRON BOLTS, BARS, SHEETS, SPIKES, NAILS, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF IRON WITH METALLIC ALLOYS, FOR THE PREVENTION OF RUSTING OR OXYDATION
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts
mau, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF COATING
IRON BOLTS, BARS, SHEETS, SPIKES, NAILS, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF IRON
WITH METALLIC ALLOYS, FOR THE PREVENTION OF RUSTING OR OXYDATION."-
A communication from Joseph Poleux, of New York.
Sealed the 28th April 1857, and dated the 26th November 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th November 1856.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE PROCESS OF COATING
IRON BOLTS, BARS, SHEETS, SPIKES, NAILS, AND OTHER ARTICLES OF IRON WITH
METALLIC ALLOYS, FOR THE PREVENTION OF RUSTING OR OXYDATION," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in preparing iron to receive the coating by immersing
it in concentrated mineral acids. As soon as the articles to be cleansed are
mmersed in the acid, one, two, or more small pieces of spelter are dropped
among them, or the spelter is passed into the acid with the articles. The acid

page_text: acts at once and rapidly on the spelter, holds in solution what it dissolves, and
precipitates a film of it on the minutest portions of the iron surfaces the
instant the acid has cleansed them, and this film protects such portions from any
further action of the acid while remaining in it. Without the spelter undiluted
acid could not be used without great waste and injury to small or thin articles
placed in it. The articles are next taken out, and without being washed,
dried, or undergoing any other treatment whatever, are passed immediately,
though slowly, into the bath of melted alloy that forms the coating.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton, in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 26th May 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County.
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of November, in the year of our.
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 IN THE PROCESS OF COATING IRON BOLTS, BARS,
SHEETS, SPIKES, NAILS, AND OTHER. ARTICLES OF IRON. WITH METALLIC ALLOYS, FOR
THE PREVENTION OF RUSTING OR OXIDATION," being a communication from Joseph:
Poleux, of New York, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said.
Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby.
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is.

page_text: to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say):-
:
This Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
consists in preparing iron to receive a metallic coating by immersing it in
concentrated mineral acids, as herein-after described.
The articles to be coated are prepared by cleansing them in acid, but, instead
of using the acid in a diluted state, as is the common practice for such
purposes, it is to be used as received from the manufacturer; by so doing the
operation of cleansing the iron is much shortened. When the action of
the acid has been continued sufficiently long it is instantly arrested, as will be
presently explained, and therefore the least possible quantity is consumed.
The Inventor employs muriatic acid in preference to nitric or sulphuric acid.
As soon as the articles to be cleansed are immersed in the acid, one, two,
or more small pieces of spelter are dropped among them, or the spelter
is passed into the acid with the articles. A pound of spelter would be sufficient
for half a ton or more of spikes or bolts. The acid acts at once and rapidly on
the spelter, holds in solution what it dissolves, and precipitate sa film of it on
the minutest portions of the iron surfaces the instant the acid has cleansed
them, and this film protects such portions from any further action of the
acid while remaining in it. Without the spelter undiluted acid could not be
used without great waste and injury, to small or thin articles placed in it.
1.
Articles when not unusually rusty or scaly are cleansed in a minute,
or even less, while a longer or shorter time is required according to the
condition of the surfaces and the strength of the acid. The articles are next
taken out, and without being washed, dried, or undergoing any other treatment
whatever, are passed immediately, though slowly, into the bath of melted alloy
that forms the coating; the only precaution required being to immerse them
gradually, that the metal may not splutter or fly about, which it would do
if their wet or moistened surfaces were plunged suddenly into it.
It will be found that the union of the coating with the surfaces is not only
more readily formed, but it is more perfect, when the articles are thus passed
immediately from the acid into the bath, than when they are dried and exposed
to the action of the air.
The alloys forming the coating may be constituted differently, according
to the use to which the coated articles are to be put, some being composed of
tin with very limited portions of its ordinary alloys, in which there is no
novelty; but there are purposes where a larger proportion of lead than has
ever been used affords a better protection than tin alone as sheathing for ships
and covering for roofs; and as lead, from its comparative low price, materially
1

page_text: reduces the cost of the coating, it becomes desirable to introduce it in as large
a proportion as possible for the protection of iron. The following proportions
give the alloys now in use by the Inventor, viz-of one hundred parts, fifteen
are of tin, seventy-five of lead, five of copper, and five of regulus of antimony;
or tin, fifteen per cent. and lead, eighty-five per cent.
In these mixtures the proportion of lead it will be seen is much larger than
has ever been used by current processes for coating iron. It is found that the
union of the tin and lead is more complete with the admixture of antimony,
and that without the antimony the copper appears to be but mechanically
mixed with the lead. This alloy leaves a coating on iron almost as white as
tin alone, the copper and antimony neutralizing the blue color of the lead.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "An improvement
in the process of coating iron bolts, bars, sheets, spikes, nails, and other
articles of iron with metallic alloys, for the prevention of rusting or oxyda-
tion," as communicated to me from abroad, I wish it to be understood that
under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim the employment of
muriatic, nitric, or sulphuric acid, of the ordinary degrees of concentration in
commerce (viz, muriatic of eighteen degrees of Beaumé; nitric, thirty-eight
degrees Beaumé; and sulphuric, sixty-six degrees Beaumé, or thereabouts,)
without dilution, combined with the introduction of spelter into the cleansing
acid, in the proportion and manner and for the purposes specified, and the
passing the cleansed articles directly into the metallic bath without any inter-
mediate treatment whatever.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)