three plates of copper, with a convex side placed uppermost, about one inch in diameter less than the boxes, and placed about midway between the top and bottom of the said boxes, and at the same time equi-distant from the sides of the boxes, by means of small pins or legs protruding from the sides or edges of the plates, as represented by the red lines in the drawing. The course which the vapours will be compelled to take through this apparatus will be sufficiently evident, and having passed through it, they escape from it and enter the worm at Q; f, is a pipe and a cock from which a stream of water is suffered to flow over the top of the upper box, and thence over the tops of the other boxes as above described, passing from one to the other by the passages K, K, and at last entering the waste pipe m; t, a small pipe fitted with a cock, and leading from the head of still A, for the purpose of occasionally drawing off the vapours that rise into it, and proving the same, but which forms no part of the said invention.

Fig. 2, A, represents the peculiarly-shaped passage through which the spirit is described above to pass after leaving the worm, and which is open to the atmospheric air at a; B represents the passage through which the carbonic acid gas is described as above to escape; b, the end of the worm, c, a vessel of water. The other parts of the herein before described apparatus being incident to other stills, may be made in any way best suited to local conveniences.

In witness whereof, &c.

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VOL. XXXIV.-SECOND SERIES.

C

Speci

Specification of the Patent granted to JOHN TURNER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Button-maker; for certain Improvements in the plating of Copper or Brass, or a Mixture of Copper and Brass, with pure or standard Gold, or Gold mixed with a greater Portion of Alloy, and in the Preparation of the same for rolling into Sheets. Dated December 5, 1817.

To all to whom these presents shall come, &c. Now KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I the said John Turner do hereby declare that the nature of my said invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof; that is to say: I first prepare ingots or pieces of copper or brass, or a mixture of copper and brass, in such convenient lengths and sizes as I may require. I then clean such ingots or pieces from impurity, and make their surfaces as level as may be; I next prepare pieces or plates of pure or standard gold, or gold .nixed with a greater portion of alloy of the same or nearly of the same sizes as the ingots or pieces of metal, and of such strength or thickness as I may require. I then place a piece of pure or standard gold, or gold mixed with a greater portion of alloy, upon an ingot or piece of metal intended to be plated, and hammer and compress them both together, so that they may have their surfaces as nearly equal to each other as possible; I then bind them together either with wire or by any other method, in order to keep them in the same position during the process required to attach and combine them together. I next take silver filings or silver cut into strips, or pieces, or filings, or strips of silver mixed with a portion of alloy,

either of which I mix with borax or any other salt or. substance calculated to assist the fusion of the silver; of this mixture I take a portion, and place it or lay it upon and along the edge of the piece or plate of gold, and next to the ingot of metal, so that the said mixture of silver and borax or other salt may lie and rest upon the edge, or between the edges of the piece or plate of gold and the ingot of metal; having thus prepared the two. bodies or metals of pure or standard gold, or gold mixed with a greater portion of alloy, and copper or brass, or a mixture of copper and brass; I place them upon a fire in a stove or furnace, &c. where they remain until the silver and borax so placed along the edges of the metals melt and become in a state of fusion, and until the adhesion to or combination of the gold with the metal is perfect. I then take the ingot carefully out of the stove or furnace, &c.; by this process the ingot is plated with gold, and prepared ready for rolling into sheets. I mention this as one way of combining and connecting the gold with metal, by placing the ingot in a stove or furnace, &c.; but it may be effected by many other ways where sufficient heat can be applied to the gold and metal to effect the fusion of the silver, and the adhesion of the gold to the copper, &c. I also effect the adhesion of the gold to the copper, &c. without the assistance or the use of any portion of silver mixed with the borax or salt, by merely using other kinds of solder, but the mode I prefer is as aboye stated. I do not in these my improvements of plating copper or brass, or copper and brass mixed with gold, lay claim to any particular new mode or preparation of the copper or brass, or copper and brass mixed, nor do I bind myself to any particular mixture of the said metals as respects proportions, nor to any particular mixture or portions of the gold C 2

and