IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF CERTAIN METALLIC SUBSTANCES, AND THE APPLICATION THEREOF TO THE SHEATH- ING OF SHIPS AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MATTHEW
UZIELLI, of Clifton Street, Finsbury Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster the Sixth day of July, in the first year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said Matthew Uzielli, His especial licence that I,
the said Matthew Uzielli, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Matthew Uzielli, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION
OF CERTAIN METALLIC SUBSTANCES, AND THE APPLICATION THEREOF TO THE SHEATH-
ING OF SHIPS AND OTHER PURPOSES," Communicated to me by a certain foreigner
residing abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said Matthew Uzielli, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Matthew Uzielli, do hereby describe the manner in which the said Invention
is to be performed, by the following description thereof (that is to say):-

page_text: The Invention consists in giving ductility and malleability (for the purpose of
making it into sheets) to an alloy composed of copper and tin solely, or which
is so far free from the admixture of zinc or lead as to be harder and less
liable to oxidation than pure copper or common sheet brass, and which alloy
is brittle when first cast, and before it is subjected to the process herein-after
described, but is thereby made into malleable and ductile sheets, which from
their being less liable to oxidation than pure copper are therefore more appli-
cable to the sheathing of ships for covering roofs of buildings, making spouts
and gutters, and other purposes where sheets are required which will not be
liable to much oxidation. This alloy I would recommend to consist of copper
and tin only, for although an admixture of zinc or lead in small proportions,
which will not be sufficient to make an alloy laminable into thin sheets by
any process hitherto used, say one or two per cent., will not very materially
increase its liability to oxidation, while it renders it a little less brittle, and
therefore more easily manufactured, still every little addition will increase its
liability to oxidation, and therefore is better avoided; the proportions which I
have found best adapted for the purposes before mentioned are one hundred
of copper, with five to seven of tin. A less quantity of tin than about five
per cent. makes an alloy which is too liable to oxidation, and is little prefer-
able to pure copper, and a greater quantity than about nine per cent. makes,
an alloy so hard and brittle, and requires so much care and labour to make
into malleable sheets, as to become too expensive an article for sale. This
alloy is manufactured into malleable and ductile sheets in the following.
manner: Having melted the copper in a reverberatory or any other furnace
adapted to the purpose, or in crucibles, the tin is added, as also the zinc or
lead, if the alloy is to contain any, and then the metals are to be mixed and
well incorporated together by stirring, whilst in the state of perfect fusion.
The melted-mixture or alloy is then to be well heated, and a sufficient quan-
tity is to be poured into moulds formed between two strong tables of smooth
granite or other suitable substance, so as to obtain a flat plate of from to
of an inch in thickness, according to the ultimate thickness of the sheets
repaired. The thickness, length, and breadth of the plates may be varied
according to circumstances, by the thickness and position of metal rules which
are to be interposed between the tables of granite to keep them apart, and
to leave the space which forms, the mould for the melted metal: The-plates
thus cast may be cut into smaller pieces, according to the size of the sheets
ultimately required, or the original size of the plates may be adapted-thereto,
taking care in either case to allow twenty to twenty-five per cent. for waste in
the manufacture. It is better that each plate should contain a sufficient

page_text: quantity of metal to form two or four sheets, so as to be doubled up and
rolled in a subsequent stage of the process.
Great
These plates are placed in an annealing furnace, or in any other furnace
adapted to the purpose, where they are very gradually heated for two
or three hours until the plates are raised to a dull red heat, when the
alloy contains from five to seven per cent. of tin, but if it contains more
tin the beat must be lower, and applied more gradually, and if it contains
less tin the reverse. The plates are then allowed to cool very gradually,
which will take about an hour, and when perfectly cold are passed three
or four times through the rollers of a suitable rolling mill, which are set so as
to effect but a very slight reduction of the thickness of the plates. The
rollers should be so adjusted during the first cold rolling after the first anneal-
ing, that when the alloy contains the proportions before recommended of five
to seven per cent. of tin, passing these three or four times between the rollers,
should not lengthen plates of the thickness before mentioned more than about
half an inch in two feet length, but if the alloy contains more tin they must
not be lengthened so much, and if it contains less tin the reverse.
care must be taken that in this, and subsequent rollings, the plates be rolled
always in the same direction. The plates must then be again annealed,
taking the same precautions in heating and cooling very slowly, and to the
same degree as before, and again rolled in a cold state with the same precau-
tions as to the pressure of the rollers, and in rolling the plates in the same
direction as before the annealing and rolling are repeated with the same
precautions, and to the same extent until the texture of the alloy is changed,
as may be known by the fracture being found close and fine grained instead
of crystalline, and with facets as it was when first cast; with the pro-
portions before recommended, the close and fine grained texture generally
takes place after twelve or fifteen successive operations of annealing and
cold rolling. After the texture of the alloy becomes thus changed, it may be
heated more rapidly and to a higher temperature, and when cold rolled, so as
to lengthen plates which when first cast were of two feet length six or seven
inches after each annealing. The plates or sheets, as they may be now called,
may then be bent up and rolled double in the usual manner of rolling brass
sheets, but continuing always the precaution of rolling in the same direction.
After sufficient rolling, the sheets may, if necessary, be doubled again, according
to the thickness and size of the sheets required, and when sufficiently rolled
the sheets are to be trimmed and cut to the required dimensions as usual in
rolling brass or copper, the precautions particularly to be observed are casting

page_text: the alloy in thin plates, heating and cooling them very gradually, and rolling
them cold very gently at first in the. said.direction.
Now, I declare I do not claim as part of the Invention the making of
sheets of an alloy, which is commonly called brass, and which has heretofore
by repeated annealings and cold rollings, in a method somewhat similar to my
own, been made.unto malleable and ductile sheets, but which alloy commonly
called brass is composed of copper. with a large proportion of zinc, or of
copper with a large proportion of zinc and a certain proportion of tin or other
metals, but is more liable to oxidation than fine copper, and therefore not so
fit for the purposes before mentioned; but I do only claim giving malleability
and ductility for the purpose of making it into sheets-to an alloy which is less
liable to oxidation than fine copper" or brass, and which heretofore:from-its
brittle nature. has: not: beeñ-manufactured into sheets.
In witness whereof, I, the said Matthew Uzielli, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.
MATTHEW (L.S.) UZIELLI.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifth day of January, in the
year of our Lord-1881, the aforesaid Matthew Uzielli came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afōre-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was also stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Sixth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.