US514958A - Composition for silver-plating - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

eEoEeE W. oDEL-L, OF BUTTE, MONTANA.

COMPOSITION FOR SILVER-PLATING.

$PECIEIGATION forming'part of Letters Patent No. 514,958, dated February 20, 1894.

l Application filed June 19, 1893. serial No. f.'= 78,059. (Specimena) To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. ODELL, of

Butte, in the county of Silver Bowand State of Montana, have invented certain new and use ful Improvements in Silver-Plating Compositions; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to Which it pertains to make and use the same.

The main object of my invention is to provide for plating metals, a substitute for silver, which does not require for its application, expensive apparatus or machinery, or skilled labor.

It consists of the alloy or composition hereinafter particularly described and defined in the claims.

To produce twenty-five pounds, for example, of my improved alloy or plating mixture, I take twenty-two pounds of mercuryor quicksilver, two and one-half pounds of paraffine, eight ounces of sodium, one-half ounce of lead and one-half ounce of zinc, or tin and place the same together in a porcelain or other suitable non-metallic vessel, in which they are melted and then boiled for about thirty minutes. After beingboiled a sufficient time, the molten mass is allowed to cool and is preferably cut into blocks of convenient shape and size, which are placed until required for use, in glass or earthen jars. Like proportions of the above mentioned ingredients are used for making larger or smaller quantities of the alloy or composition. I do not wish however, to limit myself to the exact proportions stated,

inasmuch as they may be varied within the spirit and intended scope of my invention. The alloy or composition thus produced may .be melted and flowed over the surfaces of other metals to be plated, or, the articles to be plated may be dipped into a molten bath of the plating mixture, by unskilled labor. No expensive apparatus or machinery or skilled labor is required as in electro plating processes. Plating done with my alloy or composition is superior to and less expensive than silver plating done by the electro deposition of the silver; Copper plates silvered with my composition are cheaper and better than the silvered plates heretofore made by other processes for the amalgamation of gold and silver obtained in amalgamating mills.

I claim- 1. A silver plating alloy or composition, composed mainly of quicksilver, and paraffine, and of relatively small quantities of sodium, lead and zinc or tin, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. A silver plating alloy or composition, composed of quicksilver, paraffine, sodium, lead and zinc, or tin in approximately the quantities specified, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I affix my signature in'presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE W. ODELL.

Witnesses:

CHARLES M. GoLMAN, PATRICK MEANY.