IMPROVED METALIC ETCHING FOR PRODUCING DESIGNS IN RELIEF AND IN TWO COLOURS
Year: 1885

page_text: in Two Colours.
I ALFRED PIPER, 258 Coleman Street, Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton, Etcher
and Manufacturer of Electro Plated Wares do hereby declare the nature of my
invention for IMPROVED METALIC ETCHING FOR PRODUCING DESIGNS IN RELIEF
AND IN TWO COLOURS to be as follows:-
An effect is produced by one simple process instead of three expensive ones as
heretofore. The article under treatment is coated or Plated by the ordinary mode
of Electro plating with Gold, Silver, Nickel, Brass, Copper &c upon the surface of
which deposit the required design is painted with an acid-ressisting substance and
those parts not required to be ornamented are protected with the same substance.
The article is then immerged in an acid which eats away the coating or Plating
from the unprotected parts, at the same time producing a frosted or dead surface
upon the naked metal upon those parts unprotected. The Chloride deposited by
the acid, is removed by simply dipping in Aqua Fortis The acid resisting substance
is then removed by washing in a spirit or in oil which leaves the design standing
in relief and of the colour of the metal with which it was coated or plated, upon a
frosted or dead ground of the colour of the base metal.
Thus. If the article be copper plated with silver the design would be white upon
a dead copper ground.
Or the effect may be reversed (that is the design be sunk and of the colour of
the base Metal) by protecting the bulk of the article with the acid-resisting
substance and leaving the design exposed to the action of the acid and proceeding
as before.
Thus. If the article be copper plated with silver the design would be a dead
copper colour upon a white ground.
སྐ་
1 100°

page_text: Improved Metallic Etching for Producing Designs in Relief and
in Two Colours.
I, ALFRED PIPER, formerly of 258 Coleman Street, Whitmore Reans, Wolver.
hampton in the County of Stafford, but now of 9 Parliament Street, Bilston in the
said County, etcher and manufacturer of electro-plated wares, 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,
reference being had to the accompanying drawing and the letters of reference
marked thereon (that is to say):-
The object of this invention is to produce designs in two differently coloured
metals, part of the design appearing in the base metal, that is the metal forming
the structure of the ornamented article, or of the ornamented part thereof, and the
other part appearing in relief in a metal plated onto such base metal.
An article to be ornamented according to this invention, or the part to be so
ornamented of such article, is formed of brass, silver or other metal convenient for
the purpose, and the surface to be ornamented is electro-plated with gold, nickel,
or other metal convenient for the purpose, that is to say, any convenient metal
may be used for the base, and any convenient differently coloured metal for the
electro-plating.
The part of the design which is to appear in relief in the colour of the coating
or electro-plated metal, is painted on to the surface of such metal with an acid-
resisting substance, such as asphaltum varnish, and the surface to be ornamented
is then immersed in or treated with an acid solution capable of eating away the
coating or plated metal from the unprotected parts. Such unprotected parts,
consequently, appear as a frosted or dead surface of the colour of the base metal.
Any chloride, or other salt or substance, deposited by the acid solution, is
removed by simply dipping in aquâ fortis.
The acid-resisting substance is then removed by washing in a spirit or oil, and
the part of the design formerly covered by such acid-resisting substance then
appears in relief and in the colour of the coating or plated metal.
The illustration accompanying this specification represents a round metal tray
or salver. Supposing the tray to be formed of brass, electro-plated with nickel :-
the margin a a and intersecting triangles b b may be painted on in an acid-
resisting substance, and then the whole surface be treated with the acid solution.
After the acid-resisting substance has been removed, the parts lettered a and b
will appear as nickel surfaces in relief, on a frosted, or dead, ground of brass.
The reverse effect may be produced, if desired, by protecting only the parts
not lettered against the action of the acid solution, in which case such parts will
appear as surfaces of nickel in relief upon frosted, or dead, surfaces of brass,
lettered a b.
I make, of course, no claim to etching metals by an acid solution, nor to
stopping off or protecting the parts not required to be acted upon during the

page_text: etching process, as these operations have been practised long prior to the date of
my invention.
The term "base," as applied to a metal, is used throughout this specification,
not as implying a common or cheap metal, but simply as meaning the lower or
under metal forming the structure of the article which is, or is to be, ornamented,
or of the part which is, or is to be, ornamented of the article.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
Producing ornamented metallic surfaces, by first electro-plating a metallic base
with a metal of a different colour, and then eating away, by means of an acid
solution, parts of the surface of the plated metal so as to exposes surfaces of the
base metal, substantially as herein described and shewn, and for the purpose set
forth.
Dated this c
12 1
בד.
STEPHEN WATKINS,
Wolverhampton,
Agent for the Applicant.