Transcript of the report mentioned above of Dobbs' Albion patent:
April 1805 p250 of "The Monthly Magazine or British Register"
"NEW PATENTS LATELY ENROLLED
MR. THOMAS DOBBS'S (KING'S NORTON), for the Manufacture of a new Metal, which he denominates Albion Metal.
THIS metal is intended by the patentee to supersede the use of lead in cisterns, cider-vats, and all other vessels where it is supposed to be detrimental to the health. It is compounded of lead and tin; that is to say, it is lead lined with tin, so that the tin may be always on that side which is exposed to the action of the fluids. The Albion metal is thus made: a bar of lead, or any of its alloys, is to be placed against a bar of tin, of equal or unequal thickness, and the two metals thus situated are to be passed through the rollers of a rolling machine, by the action of which they will so unite and cohere, as to be capable of being manufactured into any forms. If it be necessary to line the lead on both sides, then the plate or bar of lead is to be placed between two plates or bars of tin, and then passed through the rolling press. Mr. Dobbs recommends as useful, if not necessary, that both the lead and the iron rollers should be made pretty hot before the operation is performed."
There is also detailed information about his time at Lifford Mill from the late 1760s in Demidowicz G, Price S: Kings Norton - A History; Phillmore &Co Ltd, 2009 pp 98-100/105/138-9. He converted the mill from grinding grain to rolling metal. There are details of his use of a roatary steam engine from Boulton & Watt to enable the main wheel of his water mill to function at low water levels, his later development on the site of the "Aqua Fortis Works" making nitric and sulphuric acids and his sale of land at a high price to the Worcester and Stratford Canal Company as well as the construction of Lifford Mill reservoir (needed to maintain his water supply when the canal was built).
