THE APPLICATION OF CERTAIN WHITE METALS, PLATED, TO CERTAIN MANUFACTURES TO WHICH IT HAS NOT HITHERTO BEEN APPLIED
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANTHONY
THEOPHILUS MERRY, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Metal Dealer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Eighth day of March, in the sixth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Anthony Theophilus Merry, His especial licence, that I, the said
Anthony Theophilus Merry, my exors, admors, or assigns, or such others
as I, the said Anthony Theophilus Merry, my exors, admors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the tenn 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 "THE APPLICATION OF CERTAIN WHITE
METALS, PLATED, TO CERTAIN MANUFACTURES TO WHICH IT HAS NOT HITHERTO BEEN
APPLIED;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Anthony Theophilus Merry, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Authony Theophilus Merry, do hereby declare the nature of my said Inven-
tion to consist in the application of German silver, and similar alloys of nichel
plated with fine silver, to the manufacture of what are commonly called plated
goods. And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Anthony
Theophilus Merry, do hereby describe the mode of plating such alloys with
fine silver, as aforesaid, which may then be manufactured into plated articles
of various kinds in the usual mode adopted for ordinary plated goods.
In order to plate the aforesaid alloys with fine silver I melt, say, twenty or
thirty pounds weight of the softest and best German silver I can find in
a casting pot, throwing in a handfull of charcoal broken into small pieces,
and this metal, when melted, I run into ingots of about one inch thick, threo
inches wide, and eight or nine inches long, or any other size I may want, more
or less; I then saw or cut off the end, or get and plane or file the surface flat
and clean; I then fine file, scrape, or otherwise smooth the surface to be plated,
taking care that every part intended to be plated is clean, and free from
oxidation or discoloration; I then take fine silver or an alloy of silver a quarter
pennyweight copper to the ounce of silver, more or less, and roll it to the
proper size or thickness I may want; I then scrape or otherwise clean the
silver on one side quite clean and bright; I then cut the rolled silver to one
twentieth of an inch, or thereabouts, less than the metal to be plated, and
placed the scraped or clean side upon the bright or filed metal; I then put the
metal with the silver so placed on an anvil, or any other solid foundation, and
place a thick piece of iron or steel with a flat face upon the silver, strike it
with a sledge hammer or stamp hammer until I find the silver quite flat and
bedded to the metal, that is, by striking it until the surface of the metal
and silver touch all over; I then take a piece of flat copper or other metal
cut the size of the silver, and about one sixteenth of an inch thick; I then
get some whitening, mix it into a paste, with water, and with a brush or
other means spread it over one side of the plate, and when dry I put the
whitened side of this plate upon the silver, bind all three together with five or
six bands of about seventeen iron wire, twisting each band tight; I then take
a little burned borax, ground into a paste with water, and apply it lightly
round the edge of the silver, then place the metal flat in the fire of a common
plating stove, heated with coke, until you see the silver flush round the edge,
then with great care remove it from the fire, and hold it out of the fire until
the silver is set, minding at the same time to keep the metal when removed
from the fire as flat as possible; I then pass it through rollers, giving it the
first time a great pinch, and after this roll it in the usual way of plated metals

page_text: to the width and thickness required for the article to be manufactured with it,
whatever that article may be."
Now whereas I claim as my Invention the application of German silver
(and such other similar alloys of metal as will exhibit a white and silvery
appearance when the plate of silver is either wholly or in part worn off), plated
with fine silver, to the manufacture of all such goods as are usually known
by the name of plated goods; and such my Invention being, to the best of
my knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used within that part
of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, His said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I
do verily believe this my said Specification doth comply in all respects fully
and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to
maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Anthony Theophilus Merry, bave hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-civ
ANTHONY THEOPHILUS (L.S.) MERRY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1836, the aforesaid Anthony Theophilus Merry
came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.