Inventions and Discoveries Abroad: Aluminum Bronze Pens. Aluminum Bronze Powders and Leaf. Brown Aniline Color.

Scientific American 22, 28.11.1863

Aluminum Bronze Pens. - R. Pinkney, of London - a manufacturer of metallic pens - has applied for a patent for pens made of aluminum and copper alloys, as a substitute for those made of steel and gold. He states that an alloy composed of 95 per cent aluminum is of a fine gold color; and another composed of 7½ per cent of copper is of a beautiful green color. Aluminum bronze is very ductile, and is suitable for undergoing the rolling and hammering operations through which steel and gold pass in the making of pens.

Aluminum Bronze Powders and Leaf. -- A patent has been taken out by J. Erwood, of London, for manufacturing powders of aluminum bronze to take the place of common bronze and Dutch metal leaf, to be applied to paper-hangings, gildings, &c. Aluminum bronze is composed of 90 parts copper and 10 of aluminum, and is of a beautiful yellow color. It is rolled, annealed and beaten until it becomes as thin as foil of lead, in which condition it can be used for common gilding. To reduce it to powder the foil is stamped and ground in the same manner that common bronze powders are reduced from tin and brass. The foil od leaf and the powders are applied to ornament paper-hangings by pressing and dusting them upon varnished surfaces.

Brown Aniline Color. - Red, purple, blue and green aniline colors, with all the pale shades dyed on goods, with limited quantities of such substances have been produced, but no good brown colors had been obtained. A patent has been taken out for manufacturing such colors by R. T. Monteith, of St. Malo, France, and R. Monteith, of Manchester, England. They take what is called aniline red (a substance now well known in commerce) mix it with a dry salt of aniline and submit the mixture to a temperature of 390° Fah., in close vessel for about six hours. The product thus obtained is of a brown color and part of it soluble in boiling water, and another part only soluble in alcohol. The brown coloring matter thus made is suitable for dyeing wool and silk in a bath of hot water.

G. De Laire, of Paris, France, has also obtained a patent for producing an aniline brown color, by submitting aniline violet, red or blue, mixed with the hydrochlorate of aniline to heat, in a close vessel for several hours. The two patents are almost similar in character.

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