A Dictionary of Arts (supplement): Enamelling of Cast Iron and other Hollow Ware for Saucepans, &c.

(A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines; containing A Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice)
Recent improvements in
Arts, Manufactures, and Mines:
Being A supplement to his Dictionary
by Andrew Ure, M. D.,
F.R.S. N.G.S. M.A.S. LOND.; M. ACAD. N.S. PHILAD.; S. PH. SOC.N. GERM. HANOV.; MUHL. ETC., ETC.

Illustrated with one hundred and ninety engravings.

New York: D. Appleton & Company, 200 Broadway.  Philadelphia: George S. Appleton, 148 Chestnut St.
MDCCCXLVII
1847
ENAMELLING of Cast Iron and other Hollow Ware for Saucepans, &c. In December, 1799, a patent was obtained for this process by Dr. Samuel Sandy Hickling. His specification is subdivided into two parts: -
1. The coating or lining of iron vessels, &c. by fusion with a vitrifiable mixture, composed of 6 parts of calcined flints, 2 parts of composition or Cornish stone, 9 parts of litharge, 6 parts of borax, 1 part of argillaceous earth, 1 part of nitre, 6 parts of calx of tin, and 1 part of purified potash. Or, 2dly,
 8 parts of calcined flints, 8 red lead, 6 borax, 5 calx of tin, and 1 of nitre. Or, 3dly,
 12 of potter's composition, 8 borax, 10 white lead, 2 nitre, 1 white marble calcined, ½ argillaceous earth, 2 purified potash, and 5 of calx of tin. Or, 4thly,
4 parts calcined flint, 1 potter's composition, 2 nitre, 8 borax, 1 white marble calcined, ½ argillaceous earth, and 2 calx of tin.

Whichever of the above compositions is taken, must be finely powdered, mixed, fused; the vitreous mass is to be ground when cold, sifted, and levigated with water. It is then made into a pap with water or gum water. This pap is smeared or brushed over the interior of the vessel, dried, and fused with a proper heat in a muffle.

Calcined bones are also proposed as an ingredient of the flux.

The fusibility of the vitreous compounds is to vary according to the heat to be applied to the vessel, by using various proportions of the siliceous and fluxing materials. Colours may be given, and also gilding.

The second part or process in his specification describes certain alloys of iron and nickel, which he casts into vessels, and lines or coats them with copper precipitated from its saline solutions. It also describes a mode of giving the precipitated copper a brassy surface by acting upon it with an amalgam of zinc with the aid of heat.

A factory of such enamelled hollow wares was carried on for some time, but it was given up for want of due encouragement.

A patent was granted to Thomas and Charles Clarke on the 25th of May, 1839, for a method of enamelling or coating the internal surfaces of iron pots and saucepans, in such a way as shall prevent the enamel from cracking or splitting off from the effects of fire. This specification prescribes the vessel to be first cleaned by exposing it to the action of dilute sulphuric acid (sensibly sour to the taste) for three or four hours, then boiling the vessel in pure water for a short time, and next applying the composition. This consists of 100 lbs. of calcined ground flints; 50 lbs. of borax calcined, and finely ground with the above. That mixture is to be fused and gradually cooled.

40 lbs. weight of the above product is to be taken with 5 lbs. weight of potter's clay; to be ground together in water until the mixture forms a pasty consistenced mass, which will leave or form a coat on the inner surface of the vessel about one-sixth of an inch thick. When this coat is set, by placing the vessel in a warm room, the second composition is to be applied. This consists of 1 25 lbs. of white glass (without lead), 25 lbs. of borax, 20 lbs. of soda (crystals), all pulverized together and vitrified by fusion, then ground, cooled in water, and dried. To 45 lbs. of that mixture, 1 lb. of soda is to be added, the whole mixed together in hot water, and when dry pounded; then sifted finely and evenly over the internal surface of the vessel previously covered with the first coating or composition, whilst this is still moist. This is the glazing. The vessel thus prepared is to be put into a stove, and dried at the temperature 212°F. It is then heated in a kiln or muffle like that used for glazing china. The kiln being brought to its full heat, the vessel is placed first at its mouth to heat it gradually, and then put into the interior for fusion of the glaze. In practice it has been found advantageous also to dust the glaze powder over the fused glaze, and apply a second fluxing heat in the oven. The enamel, by this double application, becomes much smoother and sounder.

Messrs Kenrick of West Bromwich having produced in their factory and sent into the market some excellent specimens of enamelled saucepans of cast iron, were sued by Messrs. Clarke for an invasion of their patent rights; but after a long litigation iu Chancery the patentees were nonsuited in the Court of Exchequer. The previous process of cleansing with dilute sulphuric acid appeared by the evidence on the trial to have been given up by the patentees, and it was also shown by their own principal scientific witness that a good enamelled iron saucepan could be made by Hickling's specification. In fact, the formulæ by which a good enamel may be compounded are almost innumerable; so that a patent for such a purpose seems to be untenable, or at least most easily evaded. I have exposed the finely enamelled saucepans of Messrs. Kenrick to very severe trials, having fused even chloride of calcium in them, and have found them to stand the fire very perfectly without chipping or cracking. I consider such a manufacture to be one of the greatest improvements recently introduced into domestic economy; such vessels being remarkably clean salubrious, and adapted to the most delicate culinary operations of boiling, stewing, making of jellies, preserves, &c. They are also admirably fitted for preparing pharmaceutical decoctions, and ordinary extracts.

The enamel of the said saucepans is quite free from lead, in consequence of glass which enters into its composition being quite free from that metal. In of the saucepans which were at first sent into the market by Messrs. Clarke, their was found on analysis by several chemists to contain a notable proportion of oxide of lead. In consequence of the quantity of borax and soda in the glaze, this oxide was so acted upon by acids that sugar of lead was formed by digesting vinegar in them with gentle heat. The presence of this noxious metal formed, in my opinion, a ground for contesting the patent, being in direct violation of the terms of the specification. Messrs. Kenrick's wares have been always free from this deleterious metal. Messrs. Clarke, I understand, have for some time been careful to reject from their enamel-composition all glass which contains lead; and they now manufacture also wholesome enamelled ware. Thus the public have profited in a most important point by the aforesaid litigation.

Enamelled iron saucepans had been many years ago imported from Germany, and sold in London. I had occasion to analyse their enamel, and found to my surprise that it contains abundance of litharge or oxide of lead. The Prussian government has issued an edict prohibiting the use of lead in the enamelling of saucepans, which are so extensively manufactured in Peiz, Gleiwitz, &c. Probably the German ware sent to England was fabricated for exportation, with an enamel made to flux easily by a dose of litharge. The composition of the said enamel is nearly the same with that which I found upon some of the earlier saucepans of Messrs. Clarke. Had their patent been sustained, the important legal question would have arisen, whether it gave the patentees the power of preventing dealers from continuing to sell what they had been habitually doing for a great many years.

A suitable oven or muffle for lining or coating metals with enamel may have the following dimensions: -

The outside, 8 feet square, with 14-inch walls; the interior muffle, 4 feet square at bottom, rising 6 inches at the sides, and then arched over; the crown may be 18 inches high from the floor; the muffle should be built of fire-brick; 2½ inches thick. Another arch is turned over the first one, which second arch is 7 inches wider at the bottom, and 4 inches higher at the top. A 9-inch wall under the bottom of the muffle at its centre divides the fire-places into two, of 16 inches width each, and 3 feet 3 inches long. The flame of the fire plays between the two arches and up through a 3-inch flue in front, and issues from the top of the arch through three holes, about 4 inches square. These open into a flue, 10 x 9 inches, which runs into the chimney.

The materials for the enamel body (ground flint, potter's clay, and borax) are first mixed together and then put into a reverberatory furnace, 6 feet 6 inches long, by 3 feet 4 wide, and 12 inches high. The flame from an 18-inch fireplace passes over the hearth. The materials are spread over the floor of the oven, about 6 inches thick, and ignited or fritted for four or five hours, until they begin to heave and work like yeast, when another coating is put on the top, also 6 inches thick, and fired again, and so on the whole day. If it be fired too much it becomes hard and too refractory to work in the muffles. The glaze is worked in an oven similar to the above. It may be composed of about one half borax and one half of Cornish stone in a yellowish powder procured from the potteries. This is fritted for 10 hours and then fused into a glass which is ground up for the glaze.