IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING IRON AND OTHER METALS WITH METALLIC SUBSTANCES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Hamilton, of Rochdale, in the County of
Lancaster, Tin Plate Worker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
COATING IRON AND OTHER METALS WITH METALLIC SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 8th September 1857, and dated the 10th March 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James. Hamilton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th
March 1857.
I, JAMES HAMILTON, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, Tin Plate
Worker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE
MENTS. IN COATING. IRON AND OTHER METALS WITH METALLIC SUBSTANCES," to be as
follows:-
My Invention consists, firstly, in coating iron or other metals with lead, or
with compounds of lead and other metals, in which compounds the lead is two-
thirds or more of the whole in quantity; and, secondly, in the use of that
article known commercially as tea lead, for the above purposes. Various
methods may
be adopted for accomplishing the first part of my Invention; but,
supposing a coating of lead to be desired, the article may be first tinned' in
the usual manner and subsequently dipped into a bath of lead, or the iron
may be simply cleaned and dipped into a bath of lead and tin, lead and
mercury, or other compounds, as aforesaid. In using "tea lead" as a coating,
the article may be. simply cleaned, and dipped into a bath thereof, or other
methods may be adopted.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Hamilton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 10th
September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
HAMILTON, of Rochdale, in the County of Lancaster, Tin Plate Worker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Hamilton, Her especial license that I, the said James Hamilton,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Jamies
Hamilton, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING
IRON AND OTHER METALS WITH METALLIC SUBSTANCES," upon the condition,
amongst others, that I, the said James Hamilton, 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 James Hamilton, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):-
My Invention consists, firstly, in coating iron or other metals with lead, or
with compounds of lead and other metals, in which compounds the lead is two-
thirds of the whole or more in quantity, and also in the use of that article
known commercially as tea lead, for the above purposes. Supposing a coating
of lead only upon a sheet of iron to be desired, according to the first part of my
Invention I first tin or galvanize the same by any of the ordinary methods,
and subsequently dip the tinned sheet into a bath of molten lead. Upon this
bath I use a floating stratum of tallow, through which, therefore, the sheet
passes before it arrives in contact with the lead; and in order to prevent the
said tallow from igniting, by contact with the sides of the vessel used as the

page_text: bath, I construct the upper part thereof of fire brick or clay, below the level
of which the greasy substance is not allowed to pass. In using compounds
for the coating material, various proportions may be adopted, but I have found
one part of mercury to eight of lead, or one part of tin to eight of lead, to
answer; but the lead may be increased to two-thirds of the whole, or thereabout,
as before stated. In order to use these compounds, the sheet of iron or other
article is first cleaned by the ordinary "pickle," and is then coated with some
usual flux, as muriate of zinc, or with one part of powdered salammoniac and
two parts of resin, after which it is passed into a bath of the molten metal and
out through a layer of silicious sand or carbonaceous substance of similar
mechanical properties, the treatment being similar to that known as galvanizing.
"
According to the next part of my Invention, I clean the sheet of metal
or other article by the usual pickle, and then coat it with muriate of zinc,
powdered salammoniac, and resin, or other known flux; it is then ready
for the bath composed of molten metal, such as is commercially known as
China or tea lead, and through which it is passed after the manner of
galvanizing," being drawn out through silicious sand, or carbonaceous matter
of similar mechanical properties. A coating of lead will thus be effected
without a previous application of any other metal, and this operation may be
repeated as often as desired; or a coating of ordinary pig or other lead may be
added by passing the article into a bath of the same, after the said manner of
galvanizing.
I have above described certain particulars and methods of carrying out my
Invention, but I desire it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the
details thereof; that which I claim, as secured to me under the above in part
recited Letters Patent, being,-
Firstly, the coating of iron and other metals with lead, previously coated
with tin or zinc, or compounds thereof,
Secondly, coating iron or other metals with compounds in which lead is
two-thirds of the whole, or in greater quantity.
Thirdly, coating iron and other metals with that substance known in com-
merce as China or tea lead.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Hamilton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
JAMES BAMILTON. (L.B.)