IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PLATE AND THREAD FOR GOLD AND SILVER LACE AND BULLION
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Abraham Gerard Brade, of Paris, and 133, Salisbury
Square, London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF PLATE AND THREAD FOR GOLD AND SILVER LACE AND BULLION."-A
communication.
Sealed the 20th April 1855, and dated the 23rd October 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Abraham Gerard Brade
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd October 1854.
I, ABRAHAM GERARD BRADE, of Paris, and 133, Salisbury Square, London,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF PLATE AND THREAD FOR GOLD AND SILVER LACE AND
BULLION" to be as follows:-
These improvements relate to the manufacture of plate or flattened wire
employed in gold and silver lace and bullion, and also to the manufacture of
gold and silver thread; they are applicable to silver as well as to copper or
any other wire employed in the manufacture of gold and silver lace. The
first part of the Invention, relating to plate, consist in methods for gilding,
silvering, or covering with any other suitable precious metal one side or surface
of the plate, and leaving the opposite surface uncovered, or covering one side

page_text: or surface with a thin layer of the precious metal, whereas the other surface
receives a thicker layer. The first part I effect either by putting over one side
or surface of the plate a reserving substance; thus, by passing the plate through
a suitable solution of the precious metal, this latter adheres firmly only to the
surface requiring to be covered; or, by applying that surface of the plate which
is not to receive a metallic coating by the solution firmly against the smooth
surface of a suitable solid body, in such manner, that by immersing the whole
into a metallic solution, this latter may only come in contact with the outer
surface of the plate, and not with.that applied against the solid body. By either
method, or combining them, the plate may have one of its surfaces covered
with one precious metal, and the opposite with another, or receive two or more
coatings of different metals; or the plate may be coated with a thin layer of
precious metal by the common wire-drawing process, and afterwards have one
surface receive a further coating by my process.
The second part of the Invention consists in applying the thus obtained
plate to the manufacture of thread used in the manufacture of gold and silver
lace, which thread consists of a silk or other suitable core, round which my
plate is to be wound by any of the gold thread manufacturing processes.
Another improvement in the manufacture of the said thread consists in forming
the same with a plate covered on both sides with a thin layer of precious metal,
and afterwards passing this thread through a solution of precious metal, and
in this manner depositing on the outer side of the thread one or more coatings
of the precious metal. By this method the plate of the thread will consequently
offer a thin coating of the precious metal on that surface of the plate which
is laying against the core, or what may be termed the inside of the thread;
whereas a thicker coating will be on the outer side, which is that coming into
sight and exposed to wear and tear. The metallic coating by means of
solutions may be obtained by any suitable immersing or galvanic process.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Abraham Gerard Brade in the Great Seal Patent Office on 3
the 23rd April 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ABRAHAM
GERARD BRADE, of Paris, and 133, Salisbury Square, London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of October, in the year of our Lord 3
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,

page_text: did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Abraham Gerard Brade, Her special licence that I, the said Abraham
Gerard Brade, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Abraham Gerard Brade, 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF PLATE AND THREAD FOR GOLD AND
SILVER LACE AND BULLION," a communication, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Abraham Gerard Brade, 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 Abraham Gerard Brade, 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:-
These improvements are a communication from Ambroise Auguste Masson,
of Paris, and form an addition to his Patent, dated the Eleventh January, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, for improvements in the manufacture of
thread or wire to be used for making gold or silver lace. The present improve-
ments relate to silver as well as copper or any other suitable wire plate or.
thread for manufacturing gold and silver lace and bullion, and not only to
gilding or silvering, but also to coating, with any other precious metal or metals.
In Masson's Patent, of the Eleventh of January, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-four, his mode of gilding or silvering silver or copper wire or thread,
by causing them to pass through suitable metallic solutions, with or without
the aid of a galvanic current, and a machine for performing this gilding or.
silvering, are described. One of the present improvements consists in applying
Masson's, mode and machine to the gilding, silvering, or covering with any
other suitable precious metal, of silver, copper, or any other suitable metallic
plate, which is a name given by gold lace manufacturers to flattened wire.
Another part of the improvements consists in gilding, silvering, or covering
with any other suitable precious metal one side or surface of the plate, and
leaving the opposite surface uncovered, or giving a thin coating of precious
metal to one surface of such plate, and. a' thicker or several coatings to the
L

page_text: opposite surface of the same, which coatings may be of one or of different
metals. This part of the Invention is performed by drawing, according to
Masson's aforesaid mode, the plate through a suitable metallic solution with
or without the aid of a galvanic current, having previously applied over that
surface of the plate which is not to be acted upon by the metallic solution any
suitable reserving or resist varnish, or other suitable coating which is not
attacked by the metallic solution, and which may be afterwards removed from
the plate by any suitable solvent; or instead of having one surface of the plate
covered with such a resist coating, this surface may be applied against the
surface of any suitable smooth body partly immersed in the metallic solution,
such, for instance, as a roller or cylinder of glass, china, vulcanized india-rubber,
gutta percha, or any other suitable material, in such manner that the surface
of the plate applied against the roller is prevented from coming in contact with
the metallic solution, and this latter is consequently permitted to act only on
the opposite or free surface of the plate. In performing this part it is prefer-
able to employ a horizontal revolving roller, part of the diameter of which is
kept immersed in the metallic solution, and having the plate applied against
that part of the surface of the roller which is immersed in the solution, by
which means the plate may travel through the bath, having one surface
prevented from contact with the solution, whereas a metallic coating is con-
tinuously depositing on the free surface of the same. The plate coated in this
manner may be used by itself for weaving, or any other suitable purposes, or
be employed for manufacturing gold or silver thread, by enrolling the same
round a silk or other core.
Another part of the improvements relates to the manufacture of bullion,
which may be manufactured at once with the plate gilded or silvered according
to the above-described modes; or which, being made by plate gilded or silvered
on one side only, may afterwards be drawn or immersed in a suitable metallic
solution with or without the aid of a galvanic current, and in this mode receive
a further coating on both surfaces.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, what is claimed consists of,--
First, the mode of gilding, silvering, or coating with any other precious
metal or metals plate obtained from silver, copper, or any other suitable
metallic wire, causing the said plate to be drawn through a suitable metallic
solution, with or without the aid of a galvanic current.
Second, the modes described for gilding, silvering, or coating with any other
precious metal or metals of one side of such plate, leaving the other side free;

page_text: or covering one side with a thin coating of precious metal and the other side
with a thicker coating or coatings; and the employing of such plate to gold
lace manufacturing, and other purposes.
Third, the mode of covering with a coating or coatings of precious metal or
metals, by immersion in a suitable metallic solution or solutions, of bullion
manufactured from plate, coated with precious metal on one side only, or plate
having a thin coating upon one side and a thicker coating on the other.
In witness whereof, I, the said Abraham Gerard Brade, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
GEO. WHITE.
A. G. BRADE. (L.S.)