A CERTAIN ALLOY OR ALLOYS OF METALS
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, SAMUEL
PARKER, of Argyle Street, Saint James, in the County of Middlesex, Bronze
and Iron Founder, and WILLIAM FRANCIS HAMILTON, of Nelson Street, Long
Lane, Bermondsey, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twelfth day of November, One thousand eight hundred
and twenty-five, in the sixth year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said Samuel Parker and William
Francis Hamilton, His especial licence that we, the said Samuel Parker and
William Francis Hamilton, our exors, adiñiors, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said Samuel Parker and William Francis Hamilton, our exccutors,
adiñiors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "A CERTAIN ALLOY OR
ALLOYS OF METALS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging us, the said Samuel Parker and William Francis Hamilton, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal
of one of us, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be inrolled in our High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: 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, we, the said
Samuel Parker and William Francis Hamilton, do hereby declare the nature
of our said Invention to consist in mixing zinc and copper together in such
proportions and in such a manner or manners as will produce an alloy or alloys
which, when carefully manufactured in the usual way or ways practised by work-
men experienced in the management of compound metals of this nature, will
resemble in appearance the richest or-molu or the finest alloys of gold and
copper, and possess qualities which belong to no other proportions of the same
metals. And in further compliance with the said proviso, we the said Samuel
Parker and William Francis Hamilton, do hereby describe the manner in
our said Invention is performed, by the following description thereof (that is
to say):
We fuse any given quantity of copper at the lowest temperature at which it
will fuse, and immediately add, while the copper is in a state of fusion, an equal
quantity of zinc, which mixture we stir till the metals combine; and as soon
as possible after such combination has taken place, and after having ascer-
tained by a test, trial, or sample taken from the mass of the compound metal
in fusion, what further quantity of zinc may be likely to produce the compound
metal required, we add in small portions and by degrees such further quantity
of zinc as is necessary, and until every trace of a yellow color shall have
disappeared; and the moment such change of appearance has taken place
we pour the mixture out of the melting vessel into a mould, so as to form an
ingot. If care be taken to combine the metals at the lowest temperature at
which they will completely and perfectly unite, and to form the ingot the
moment such combination takes place, no considerable loss of zinc by volatiliza-
tion or otherwise takes place; but unless this care be taken the zinc becomes
diminished, as is the case in what is called spelter solder, to make which
copper & zinc are fused together, but in a manner so different from that
herein-after described, in consequence of the usual intensity of heat in the
furnaces commonly employed for such purposes, that much of the zinc volati-
lizes; and if the ingots so formed from such mixtures be analysed, they will
be found to contain a less proportion of zinc than copper, and in consequence
form a very different alloy from any of those which we claim as our In-
vention.
Now whereas in the various combinations of zinc and copper in different

page_text: proportions, very peculiar properties and appearances do arise, and as it is ne-
cessary for us as clearly as possible to define and distinguish our said alloy
or alloys of metal, denominated by us "Mosaic Gold," we do hereby further
declare that, according to the best of our belief, a compound of equal parts of
copper and zinc, made in the ordinary way and with the usual waste of zinc
by occidation, evaporation, or calcination, will produce, when poured into a
mould, an ingot of which the fracture will be yellowish or brassy, or what is
commonly known to workmen as hard solder, brass solder, or spelter solder,
and that from the addition of from one to five per cent. of zinc, all other cir-
cumstances being the same, a change of colour in the said fracture takes
place in the following order; that is to say, that the brassiness or yellowness,
somewhat in appearance like grain gold, gradually disappears, and gives placo
to a very peculiar color, partly reddish-yellow and partly purplish or lilac,
and continuing to add a still further small portion of zinc every trace of yellow
vanishes, and the purple appearance of the fracture approaches to whitishness.
Now whereas the construction of certain proportions only of zinc and copper
will form the alloys to which we claim an exclusive right and privilege, so it
becomes necessary for us to define the limits of those proportions in the most
exact manner; and therefore we do hereby declare that our alloy or alloys aro
formed of a mixture or mixtures of from fifty-two to fifty-five parts in the
hundred of zinc, with a due proportion of copper, to form one hundred parts
of alloy, and that such mixtures will produce results possessing the following
appearances:-The fracture of the ingots when broken will vary from a
reddish-fawn or pale salmon color to a pale purple or lilac, and from thence
to whiteness, according to the encreased quantity of zinc employed; and we do
conceive that such nicety in the proportion of the two metals, and the bene-
ficial results thereof, the consequences of long practices in metallurgy, have not
hitherto been observed or obtained in the ordinary methods of working these
metals, and consequently we hereby claim as our Invention, and the object of
our said Patent, the sole manufacture of these alloys, formed according to the
above proportions, and the consequent advantages to be derived from the sale
thereof.
In witness whereof, we, the said Samuel Parker and William Francis
Hamilton, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twelfth day of
May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
twants civ
SAMUEL (L.S.) PARKER.
WIL. F.
(L.S.) HAMILTON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1826, the aforesaid Samuel Parker and William Francis
Hamilton came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and ac-
knowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statuto made for that
purpose.
Inrolled the Twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and twenty-six.