Thought Orchid members might like to hear that we’ve just added the
full text of Littledale’s 1934 hard soldering patent to the JPM
on-line library.
IMPROVEMENTS IN HARD SOLDERING MIXTURES AND HARD SOLDERING PROCESSES
Now freely available in .pdf format at
http://www.jpm-international.com/pdf/littledale.pdf
This is a transcript of the full text of Henry Littledale’s famous
1934 UK Patent for new soldering processes that include a method of
producing fine joints in gold and silver that many consider may be
identical to that used in antiquity for the production of some
granulation work. As will be seen, the Patent covers a far wider
range of potential soldering mixtures than just the copper salts
usually referred to. It is noteworthy that Littledale also mentions
soldering silver, platinum and base metals. His use of antimony
trioxide to solder in silver is interesting as is his use of a zinc
hydrate soldering mixture. Could this latter be compared with
Pliny’s reference to using ‘cadmea’ (usually considered to be a zinc
compound) for soldering copper alloys?
Jack
Dr Jack Ogden
International Jewellery & Precious Metal Network
email: info@jpm-international.com
web: http://www.jpm-international.com