A Process for the Ornamentation of Metals.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Nov., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 24th Aug., 1889-Accepted, 28th Sept., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
A Process for the Ornamentation of Metals.
JOHN WILLIAM KING 13 St. John's Square Clerkenwell London Electro
Metallurgist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The production of all kinds of ornamentation upon metal surfaces by the use of
photography combined with electro metallurgy in the following way.
A plate or other shaped piece of metal has impressed upon it a photographic image
by any of the processes used in photo mechanical printing and any other coloured
metal is then deposited by electricity upon the surface left bare by the developement
of the photographic image or the image may be etched in the plate by acid or the
electric current and the metal deposited in the parts so etched or the image may be
printed upon the metal in printers or other suitable material by any of the processes
useually employed in photo mechanical printing and several coloured metals may be
combined in one picture or design by using several photographic images in a similar
manner to that employed for lithographic or other printing in colours.
November 26th 1888
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A Process for the Ornamentation of Metals.
JOHN WILLIAM KING 13 St. John's Square Clerkenwell London Electro
Metallurgist do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
The present invention has for its object the production of ornamentation upon
metal surfaces by the use of photography joined with electro mêtallurgy in the
following way.
A plate or other shaped piece of metal has impressed upon it a photographic
image by any of the processes used in photo-mechanical printing and any other
metal is then deposited by electricity upon the surface left bare by the developement
of the photographic image or the image may be etched in the plate by acid or by
making the plate the anode in an electro chemical bath and the other metal deposited
in the parts eaten out by the acid or by the action of the electric current or the image
may be printed upon the metal in printers ink or other suitable material by any of the
processes useually employed in photo mechanical printing and several coloured
metals may be combined in one picture by useing several photographic images in a
similar manner to that employed for lithographic or other printing in colours.
As an illustration of the various ways in which this invention may be carried out
to produce a picture in metal I take a polished copper plate and having covered it
with a coating of bitumen or other material or compound sensitive to light. I expose
it under a photographic negative or transparency and then develope in the useual
way.
The plate is then etched by acid, or by perchloride of iron solution or any other
suitabl medium or by the action of the electric current in a suitable bath-and
another metal say silver is deposited in the etched lines forming a picture inlaid in
silver on a copper ground.
Or the etching may be dispensed with and silver or other metal deposited upon the
surface exposed by the developement of the photographic image to a sufficient
thickness to allow of its being protected by rolling with a roller charged with an

page_text: insulating varnish, the original coating of the plate being first removed gold or other
metal can then be deposited on the surface thus bared and produce a picture in silver
on a gold ground.
Or a plate of silver may be taken and treated as described above and copper or
other metal deposited upon the exposed parts forming a raised image in copper or
the desizn may be etched after developement and copper deposited in the lines thus
eaten into the silver forming an inlaid image in copper on a silver ground.
Theese processes may be conducted in such a manner that the surface of the
picture will stand polishing or lapping so that the surface is uniformly bright-or the
surface of the plate may first be polished and the design deposited in dead or mat
surface metal forming a picture in matt on a polished ground in either the same or a
different coloured metal.
Or the ground can be oxidised or bronzed and the desizn made in the natural
colour of the metal or visa versa-or by using specially prepared negatives or
transparencies several coloured metals may be deposited upon one plate forming a
picture in various colours.
Another way of carrying out this invention is by coating a plate with gelatine
and bichromate of potash or other suitable sensitizing material and printing thereon
an image from a photograph negative or transparency and then developing in cold
water and from the raised picture formed in this way taking a copy in metal by the
electrotype process and coating the surface of the metal plate thus formed with an
insulating varnish by rolling or other mode and depositing another metal in depressions
thus left bare.
Or the gelatine film may be developed with hot water which will wash away the
parts unacted upon by the light and the image thus formed may be copied by the
electrotype process as before described or the process may be carried out by developing
a gelatine picture as above described on a metal plate and etching the unprotected
parts by the sand blast and either filling up the depressions with another metal or
using it as a matrix to furnish copies by the electrotype process to be finished as
before described.
I do not confine myself to the modes of working as above described as there are
other ways of carrying out this process.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
The process of producing designs or pictures upon and in metal by the use of
photography in conjunction with electro deposition substantially as set forth.
Dated this Twenty fourth day of August 1889.