AN IMPROVED MEANS FOR THE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF LEAD SURFACES EXPOSED TO THE ACTION OF WATER, AND FOR THE PROTECTION OF SUCH SURFACES FROM DECOMPOSITION BY ATMOSPHERIC ACTION
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Fédor de Wyldé, of Great College Street, Camden
Town, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
MEANS FOR THE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF LEAD SURFACES EXPOSED TO
THE ACTION OF WATER, AND FOR THE PROTECTION OF SUCH SURFACES FROM
DECOMPOSITION BY ATMOSPHERIC ACTION."-A communication from abroad
by Professor Dr. Henry Schwarz, of Breslau, in the Kingdom of Prussia.
Sealed the 12th December 1863, and dated the 17th June 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Fédor de Wyldé at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th June 1863.
I, FEDOR DE WYLDE, of Great College Street, Camden Town, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED MEANS FOR THE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF LEAD SURFACES EXPOSED
TO THE ACTION OF WATER, AND FOR THE PROTECTION OF SUCH SURFACES PROM
DECOMPOSITION BY ATMOSPHERIC ACTION," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in rendering lead surfaces insoluble in water by
transforming the metallic lead into a sulphuret of that metal, thus preserving.
from corrosion pipes and cisterns exposed to the action of water and roofs or
other surfaces exposed to the alternate action of water and atmospheric air, and
also preserving water, in contact with such surfaces, from contamination. For
the purposes of my Invention I take a solution of any metal in combination

page_text: with sulphur soluble in water, that is to say, the soluble sulphides or sulphurets
(especially those which have an excess of sulphur) such as the sulphides of
ammonium, potassium, sodium, lithium, barium, strontium, magnesium, calcium,
(or the hyposulphites of these bases and other metals, as aluminium, zinc, iron,).
liver of sulphur or the reduced sulphates may also be used.
By preference I
take a solution of caustic potash or soda, and boil with an excess of sulphur
so long as any sulphur is dissolved.
The manner in which I apply my Invention is as follows:-I take a solution
containing from two to five per cent. of a solid sulphuret and having heated
this solution in a boiler or other vessel to one hundred degrees centi-
grade, or 212° of Fahrenheit, I immerse therein the articles to be operated
upon.
When the interior of pipes is to be treated, the solution is made to
circulate through them by means of a pump as shewn at A, Fig. 1, which may
be placed in the boiler B containing the solution. The solution being pumped
into one end of the pipe or pipes C, and having passed through them is allowed
to flow from the other end D into the vessel or boiler B, from which it was
drawn the circulation of the solution through the pipes is thus kept up until
the operation is complete. Other means may be adopted to cause the solution
to circulate through the pipes. An apparatus for such purpose is also shewn
at Fig. 2 in the accompanying Drawings. It consists of two portable boilers
and furnaces, A and B, attached to the ends of an oscillating beam C, which
is supported upon a standard D. The one boiler B being elevated, the solution
contained therein is allowed to pass. by means of the tap E, and a piece of
vulcanised india-rubber hose F through the lead pipes, and by a similar piece
of vulcanised india-rubber hose G and tap H into the boiler A at the lower end
of the beam, and when the solution has passed into the lower boiler, the beam
being reversed, this boiler takes the higher position, and the solution again
circulates through the pipes returning to the boiler B, which will then be on
the lower level in a similar manner to that before described. The reversal of
the relative positions of the two boilers may be effected as often as may be
found necessary for the sufficient circulation of the solution through the lead
pipes. Any number of lengths may be operated upon at one time by uniting
them with a tube of vulcanised india-rubber. The solution may be applied to
cisterns or other lead surfaces by brushing or similar suitable means. The
solution so applied transforms the metallic surface of the lead into a sulphuret
or sulphide of lead, and any soluble product remaining may easily be removed
by rinsing the pipes or other articles with hot water, which may be provided
in a boiler such as shewn at Fig. 3.
Lastly, where required, I make use of a current of air, or other suitable

page_text: means for drying the surfaces that have been thus operated upon. If in sol-
dering or joining any such surfaces injury is done to the coating of sulphuret
or sulphide of lead, I apply a weak solution of sulphide of potassium. The
effect produced by my process is easily explained; lead glance, or sulphuret of
lead, is one of the most insoluble preparations known of that metal, and one
not subject to deterioration, oxidation does but change it into an equally
insoluble oxysulphuret. The most convincing proof of the perfectness of my
Invention exists in the well established fact that the water found in mines of
galena, lead glance, or sulphuret of lead, is not contaminated with any of the
soluble salts of that metal.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Fédor de Wyldé in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th December 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FEDOR DE
WYLDE, of Great College Street, Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Fedor de Wylde, Her special licence that I, the said Fedor de
Wylde, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Fédor de Wyldé, 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 IMPROVED
MEANS FOR THE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF LEAD SURFACES EXPOSED TO THE
ACTION OF WATER, AND FOR THE PROTECTION OF SUCH SURFACES FROM DECOMPOSITION
BY ATMOSPHERIC ACTION," a communication to me from abroad by Professor
Dr. Henry Schwarz, of Breslau, in the Kingdom of Prussia, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Fédor de Wylde, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or

page_text: one of their bands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 Fédor de Wylde, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement.
and accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in rendering lead surfaces insoluble in water. by
transforming the metallic lead into a sulphuret of that metal, thus preserving
from corrosion pipes and cisterns exposed to the action of water, and roofs or
other surfaces exposed to the alternate action of water and atmospheric air, and
also preserving water in contact with such surfaces from contamination.
For the purposes of my Invention I take a solution of any metal, in combi-
nation with sulphur, soluble in water, that is to say, the soluble sulphides or
sulphurets (especially those which have an excess of sulphur) such as the
sulphides of ammonium, potassium, sodium, lithium, barium, strontium,
magnesium, calcium, or the hyposulphites. of these bases and other metals,
as aluminium, zinc, iron, liver of sulphur, or the reduced sulphates, may also
be used. By preference I take a solution of caustic potash or soda, and
boil with an excess of sulphur so long as any sulphur is dissolved.
The manner in which I apply my Invention is as follows:-I take a'solu-
tion containing from two to five per cent. of a solid sulphuret, and having
heated this solution in a boiler or other vessel, to one hundred degrees centi-
grade, or 212° of Fabrenheit, I immerse therein the articles to be operated
upon. When the interior of pipes is to be treated the solution is made to
circulate through them by means of a pump, as shewn at A, Fig. 1, which
may be placed in the boiler B, containing the solution. The solution being
pumped into one end of the pipe or pipes C, and having passed through them
is allowed to flow from the other end D into the vessel or boiler B, from
which it was drawn. The circulation of the solution through the pipes is
thus kept up until the operation is completed. Other means may be adopted
to cause the solution to circulate through the pipes.
An apparatus for such purpose is also shewn at Fig. 2 in the accompanying
Drawings. It consists of two portable boilers and furnaces, A and B,
attached to the ends of an oscillating beam C, which is supported upon a
standard D. The one boiler B being elevated, the solution contained therein
is allowed to pass (by means of the tap E, and a piece of vulcanised india.

page_text: rubber hose F) through the lead pipes, and by a similar piece of vulcanised
india-rubber bose G, and tap H, into the boiler A, at the lower end of the
beam, and when the solution has passed into the lower boiler, the beam being
reversed, this boiler takes the higher position, and the solution again circulates
through the pipes returning to the boiler B, which will then be on the lower
level in a similar manner to that before described. The reversal of the rela-
tive positions of the two boilers may be effected as often as may be found
necessary for the sufficient circulation of the solution through the lead pipes.
Any number of lengths may be operated upon at one time by uniting them
with a tube of vulcanised india-rubber. The solution may be applied to
cisterns or other lead surfaces, by brushing or similar suitable means.
solution so applied transforms the metallic surface of the lead into a sulphuret
or sulphide of lead, and any soluble product remaining may easily be removed
by rinsing the pipes or other articles with hot water, which may be provided
in a boiler, such as shewn at Fig. 3. Lastly, where required, I make use of
a current of air, or other suitable means, for drying the surfaces that have
been thus operated upon. If in soldering or joining any such surfaces injury
is done to the coating of sulphuret or sulphide of lead, I apply a weak solution
of sulphide of potassium.
The
The effect produced by my process is easily explained, lead glance or sul-
phuret of lead is one of the most insoluble preparations known of that metal,
and one not subject to deterioration. Oxydation does but change it into an
equally insoluble oxysulphuret.
The most convincing proof of the perfectness of my Invention exists in the
well established fact that the water found in mines of galena, lead glance,
or sulphuret of lead is not contaminated with any of the soluble salts of that
metal
Witness,
FÉDOR DE WYLDE. (L.S.)
RICHARD SILVESTER.