AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING CERTAIN. FORMS OR ARTICLES OF IRON, STEEL, OR ZINC
Year: 1860

page_text: Sealed the 7th December 1860, and dated the 17th October 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said. Daniel Augustus Leyshon
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th October 1860.
1, DANIEL AUGUSTUS LEYSHON, of Brockmoor, Brierley Hill, in the County
of Stafford, Tinman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING CERTAIN. FORMS OR ARTICLES
OF IRON, STEEL, OR ZINC," to be as follows, that is to say:
My Invention consists in coating plates, bars, wire, or other forms or
articles of iron, steel, or zine with lead in place of the ordinary tinning or
galvanizing. The article to be operated upon (if of iron or steel) is first
placed (if necessary) in a bath containing spirits of salts for the purpose of
cleansing, it is then removed to a bath containing sal-ammoniac in solution,
from which it is removed to grids or grates in an oven or stove for drying:
.

page_text: after which it is taken to a bath with a partition down the middle, but not
reaching to the bottom. This divided bath contains molten lead, with a small
portion of zinc (say about half an ounce of zinc to three hundredweights of
Head). The lead on one side of the partition is covered with sand, and on the
other a lump of sal-ammoniac is allowed, to float on the surface of the lead to
attract the dross. Into this last-named division of the bath the article to be
coated is plunged. The utility of the small portion of zinc with the lead is.
that it imparts a much brighter surface to the coated article than could be
obtained with lead alone.
In coating zinc articles the first bath of spirits of salts and the drying
operation would be omitted, the rest of the process being the same.
pursuance Of
UT
by the said Daniel Augustus Leyshon in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th April 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, DANIEL
AUGUSTUS LEYSHON, of Brockmoor, Brierley Hill, in the County of Stafford,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Daniel Augustus Leyshon, Her special license that I, the said Daniel
Augustus Leyshon, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such, others
as 1, the said Daniel Augustus Leyshon, 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 OR IMPROVEMENTS IN COATING CERTAIN FORMS
OR ARTICLES OF IRON, STEEL, OR ZINC," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Daniel Augustus Leyshon, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Daniel Augustus Leyshon, 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 of certain improvements in coating plates, bars, wire,
or other forms or articles of iron, steel, or zinc with lead in place of the
ordinary tinning or galvanizing. The article to be operated upon when of
iron or steel is first placed (if necessary) in a bath containing muriatic acid
It is then removed to a bath containing
for the purpose of cleansing.
sal-ammoniac in solution; from which it is removed to grids or grates in an
oven or stove for drying; after which it is taken to a bath with a partition
down a portion of its depth. This divided bath contains molten lead, with a
small portion of zinc. The lead on one side of the partition is covered with
sand, and on the other a lump of sal-ammoniac is allowed to float on the surface
of the lead to attract the dross. Into this last-named division of the bath the
article to be coated is plunged, and passing under the division is drawn out
through the sand.
In coating zinc articles the first bath of muriatic acid and the drying
operation would be omitted, the rest of the process being the same.
I will now proceed to describe the process more in detail, and firstly, with
reference to the manufacture of what are generally termed terne plates, I
take the sheet of iron or steel as it comes from the rolling mill, and immerse
it in a bath of dilute muriatic acid, then remove it to a furnace for the
purpose of scaling the surfaces; the sheet is then cold rolled for the purpose
of improving the surfaces, after which it is annealed, then pickled, and after-
wards dressed to remove all impurities and inequalities of surface. It is now
a second time immersed in a bath of dilute muriatic acid, by which the sheet
is cleansed; it is then to be washed with water. Thus far the process is pre-
cisely analogous to that employed in galvanizing or timming sheets of iron or
steel; and in proceeding to cover my sheets with lead, place the sheet in a
bath of sal-ammoniac in solution, instead of as in the galvanizing process
merely covering the tinning bath with sal-ammoniac. I therefore employ a
separate bath of dissolved sal-ammoniac, into which my sheets are to be dipped;
and this process is equally applicable to the coating of articles by the tinning
or galvanizing processes, or by the modes at present used for coating with lead.
From this bath the sheet is taken to an oven or stove and laid upon a grid to
be dried. My next bath is that containing the lead in a molten state. This
bath is divided at the top only, and on one side of the partition the lead is

page_text: covered with sand; on the other side a lump of sal-ammoniác is allowed to float
on the surface to attract the dross. The lead in this bath should be as pure
as possible up to this stage of the process; and having my bath in this con-
dition proceed in one of the following modes to render it capable of
depositing a bright and even coating upon the sheet of iron or steel. Onc
plan is by throwing into the lead bath a very small proportion of pure zinc, so
little as half an ounce of zinc to three hundredweights of lead, producing an
excellent effect; but in order to melt the zinc in the lead bath I am obliged
to raise the temperature of the lead to a point, considerably higher than is
beneficial for the subsequent coating of the sheets, and it is therefore
necessary to allow the bath to cool down again before proceeding to immerse the
sheet. For this reason I prefer to employ my process number two, which
consists in dipping a small lump of pure zinc into the bath containing the
solution of sal-ammoniac, and then stirring with this zine the bath of molten
lead, removing the zinc before using the bath, by which obtain a brighter
and better coating than by leaving the zinc in the bath. A zinc rod first
dipped in the sal-ammoniac bath, and afterwards stirred round the lead bath,
will form a ready means of carrying out this part of the operation. This
mode of preparing the lead bath by stirring with zinc, or with a slight
alloy of zinc, may also be employed advantageously with the baths at present
used for coating iron or steel with lead and tin. The sheet perfectly cleansed
is then immersed in the lead bath, entering at the side upon which the
sal-ammoniac,floats, passing under the partition, and leaving at the other
side, being drawn up through the sand when cool. The sheet is wiped over to
remove the sand.
I have hitherto for the sake of brevity described the operation as applied to
sheets of iron or steel; it will be readily understood that other forms, such, for
instance, as bars, plates, wire, or hollow wares can also be operated upon in
the same way, omitting, of course, the cold rolling, the scaling, or any other of
the preliminary processes, which the nature of the article would not admit of,
In coating sheets or other articles of zinc, all the preliminary processes
before described would, of course, be dispensed with. The article would be
immersed in the solution of sal-ammoniac, and taken to the lead bath and
operated upon in the same manner as that described for iron or steel.
Having, thus described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim,-
Firstly, the immersion of sheets, plates, or other articles to be coated in a
bath containing sal-ammoniac in solution, whether such articles are to be sub-

page_text: sequently treated by my process of coating with lead or by the ordinary
tinning, galvanizing, or lead-coating processes, as herein described.
Secondly, I claim the preparation of the bath of molten lead, with a slight.
alloy of pure zinc, or by merely stirring the bath with a piece of pure zinc, as
herein described.
Thirdly, claim the use of a slight alloy of zinc with, or preparing, as above
described, the bath at present in use for coaling with lead and tin in manner
herein more fully set forth and specified.
In witness whereof, I. the said Daniel Augustus Leyshon, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
DANIEL AUGUSTUS LEYSHON. (1..s.)