The Jersey City news., 1903-10-03
ESSEX MANS
!. INVENTION
New Copper Ore Reducing
Process Developed and
Patented.
Or. 0. ,, DAWsoN's DISCOVERY
It May Rsvolutionizs the In
dustry Now It Has Been
Applied.
DR.. o. B. DAMSON'S DISCOVERY

Applied.
Someting of a revolution II the copper
industry of this world is likely to be
caused in the near future by the introduc-
ton of a new ore-reducing process. dis
covered, developed and patented by an
Essex county man. who has been en-
gagged for nearly eight years in expert
menting upon new lines, says the Newark
Sunday Call. The discoverer of the
method and inventor Of the necessary ap-
paratus is DR.. Oliver 8. Dawson, of Cald-
WELL The doctor is a well-known chem
ist and metallurgist. He was born in
Dover, Del. and graduated from The Uni
versity of Pennsylvania, going from there
to the Bellevue Medical College, in New
York, and from 1870 to 1880 being occu-
pied as professor of chemistry and met
allurgical in the Cooper Union.
About eight years ago dentist of his
acquaintance spoke to him about the ad-
yantages which would accrue to the pro-
fession if soft spongy gold could be
made 50 that it would pack weld with
out the usual hammering to make it fill
the cavities in decayed teeth. Or. Daw-
son at once began experimenting upon a
principle which he had theoretically fig
ured out. With flask in which he gem
Grated hydrogen gas from zinc and sui
phuric acid, glass tube running up from
the flask and connecting with a horizontal
glass tube in which he placed gold chlor-
ide, he resolved the chloride into soft
and spongy mass with the heat Of spir-
it lamp and was enabled to watch the
process of reduction through the tube.
The success of the deduction in pure hy-
drogen gas set him thinking about the
possibilities Of carrying on the process
upon larger scale and he made simple
retort of a, piece of two-inch iron pipe
eight inches in length, and succeeded in
reducing silver, iron and copper from the
ores in an atmosphere of ordinary illum-
mating gas with only heat generated
by kitchen range. This was an en-
couraging step and ne proceeded to make
still larger retort of the same kind and
was convinced that he had struck some
thing new. Continuing his experiments,
he constructed reducing furnace at
Caldwell with capacity Of handling four
or five tons of ore in day. This ma
chine was recently removed from Cald-
well to New York, about eight months
ago, and placed in the doctors laboratory
in the sixth floor Of a building on West
Broadway.
On the extreme right of the picture is
a furnace of fire clay, in which the final
reduction Of the ore is made. This is
the supplementary reducing chamber and
it is not as large as an ordinary pot
stove. The black object with the belted
pulley attached is the preliminary reduc
ing chamber, and at the top of the slant
inO nina ar+ar;nr +ba s;5n oe Il &; ~
hopper, into which the crushed ore is fed
The tall black and white cylinder occupy
ing the next position to the left is a 81
retort, which is charged with coke, Goa
this charge live stcair is iiije..rd f:ac
the boiler at the left If il ani hydror
gas is generated. much in the same M
ner as it is in the big illuninating
plants at present. In the centre Of
preliminary reducing furnace. which
not much larger than the peanut rnasto
such as are seen on The streets, Is
revolving cylinder containing d perfe:
ttSN plpc tHi ouSu WHlcI alul1st Iti1
hydrogen is introduced into rhe crusl,u
ore which is fed into the hopper in ii.
natural state without Hux and wi,bcu.
preliminary roasting, it is heated TO e
considerable degree in passing down The
slanting feed pipe before entering the
revolving reducing chamber, where It Is
subjected to heat which brings ii al
most to the point Of incandescence. Of
about 1000 degrees, the heat being mp
Piled to the cylinder externally. While
the ore Is thus being. heated IN the re-
ducing chamber in the presence Of the
poducts Of combustion arising from the
externally applied heat, which products
intermingle with the ore. the hydrogen
gas, almost pure is introduced for the
purpose Of combining with the sulphur,
the oxygen, and other metalloids present