IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALS AND ALLOYS OF METAL, AND IN THE TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATTERS WITH VARIOUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALEXANDER
PARKES and HENRY PARKES, of Birmingham, send greeting.
year
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eleventh day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in the twelfth of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Alexander Parkes and Henry Parkes, our exors, adiňors, and
assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
we, the said Alexander Parkes and Henry Parkes, our exors, admors, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Alexander Parkes and Henry Parkes,
our exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the Islands of
Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, our Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF METALS AND ALLOYS OF METAL, AND IN THE TREATMENT OF
METALLIC MATTERS WITH VARIOUS SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso, that we, the said Alexander Parkes and Henry
Parkes, or one of us, should cause a particular description of the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an

page_text: instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the band and seal
of one of us, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Alexander Parkes and Henry Parkes, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
that is to say:-
Our improvements consist, first, in the calcination of the carbonates or
oxidized compounds of copper by roasting them either alone in a calcining
furnace, as is commonly used for the calcination of the sulphuret ores of
copper, or in roasting them in combination with an acid or alkaline substance,
or their salts, or with sulphuret of iron, or other compound of sulphur,
excepting sulphuret of copper, to expel certain impurities, and to facilitate the
after process of smelting or reducing the copper. We prefer to have the
compounds of copper ground or otherwise reduced to a state of fine division
before we operate upon them in either of these ways; some impurities may be
expelled by calcining them without any other ingredients, but when the
inipurity is arsenic or antimony, we prefer to use muriate of aminónia.in
about the proportion of the arsenic or antimony found by analysis in the coni-
pound; or we use chloride of barium, or of calcium, or some other chloride, in
the proportion of one to one and a half parts to the arsenic or antimony found
in the compound, and we prefer, before removing them from the furnace, to
encrease the heat towards the end of the process, so as to fuse the matters, but
not sufficiently so as to reduce the copper into a metallic state.
We place
the compounds of copper in the calcining furnace and add these purifying
'agents (mixed with their own weight of carbonaceous matter) from time to
time, occasionally rubbling the whole during the operation, which we continue
from three to five hours, at the expiration of which time we generally remove
it to the melting furnace, and reduce the metal by one of the processes here-
after described, but if upon the analysis before directed there existed a large
proportion of impurity, we draw off such calcined or fused products into water,
to assist in removing the same.
Secondly, when we have to obtain copper from the carbonate or oxidized
compound of that metal containing not more than ten to fifteen per cent. of
metal, we first convert such compound into a sulphuret, in order to separate
the eartby matters more readily from the regulus produced in this operation.

page_text: For this purpose we employ sulphur alone, or the sulphuret of lead, of zinc, or
of iron, or other compound of sulphur, excepting that of copper. If we
employ sulphur alone, we use about one-fourth thereof to the quantity of
copper contained in the compound; or if we use a compound of sulphur, we
use such compounds in those quantities which will afford the equivalent of
sulphur to convert the copper into a sulphuret.
The reverberatory furnace in common use will answer for this purpose, but
we prefer to employ a blast furnace, constructed as those usually employed for
smelting iron, but of smaller dimensions, by which means the process is much
sooner accomplished, and the sulphuret product we afterwards operate upon in
the usual way to obtain the metal, or by preference by the methods directed
to be used in the Patent granted to Alexander Parkes, in April, One thousand
eight hundred and forty-eight, for reducing the sulphuret compounds of
copper.
When we have to obtain copper from the carbonates and oxidized com-
pounds containing twenty per cent. and upwards of metal, we fuse therewith
sulphur, or a sulphur compound, in such proportions that the sulphur added
will be sufficient to deoxodize the copper compound, and enable the metal
to separate, (and we add thereto a flux, in case the compounds in this or in
the poorer ores be difficult of fusion,) and fuse the whole in a reverberatory
furnace during five or six hours, occasionally skimming off the slag, by which
time we have generally found the operation completed.
To such oxidized compound of copper containing twenty per cent. and
upwards of copper, we add one-fifth part, by weight, of sulphur to the metal
in the compound, or such quantity of sulphuret or sulphate as will yield that
proportion of sulphur; the sulphur compounds we prefer to use are the
sulphurets of copper, of iron, or of lead, of zinc, or the sulphates of these
metals, but in using the sulphates, we add about an equal quantity of iron
therewith. If more sulphur be added than is equivalent to the deoxidation of
the compounds of copper, a portion of the metal will remain combined with
the sulphur as a sulphuret, and will require to be treated as such, or it may
be employed with a subsequent charge; and again, if less of the sulphur bo
employed than is equivalent, the whole of the metal contained in the carbonate
or oxidized compound will not be decomposed, but remain in the slag, and
which should be avoided.
In carrying out, this part of our Invention we prefer, in order to expedite
the process, to force currents of steam, or of air, or of some other vapor or
gaseous matter upon the surface of the melted mass, employing any con-
venient apparatus for this purpose. The effect of introducing steam either

page_text: alone or together with air or other vapor or gaseous matter, is to enable us
to collect the sulphur driven off during such processes, and we would prefer
to introduce the steam towards the flue end of the furnace, the currents of air
or other vapor being forced upon the surface of the melted mass.
We would observe, that we are aware that steam has before been recom-
mended to be used in the flues connected with furnaces for copper smelting,
in order to obtain draft, and to condense the sulphurous vapor, and to collect
it afterwards as sulphuric or sulphurous acid; but our Invention in intro-
ducing steam when smelting copper ores consists in bringing it in contact
with the sulphurous acid vapors in a highly heated state, and for which
purpose we introduce it either upon the surface of the mass in fusion in the
furnace itself, or to meet the vapor while passing the flue bridge, or before it
has lost any considerable portion of the heat acquired in the furnace. Under
these conditions sulphuretted hydrogen gas is formed, which decomposes the
sulphurous vapors liberating the sulphur, the greater portion of which is
readily collected in its passage to the outer chimney."
Another part of our Invention is, when operating upon carbonates or oxides
of lead, we add one part of sulphuret of lead to two parts of the carbonates or
oxides, and fuse them together in a reverberatory furnace, and thereby obtain
the metal from both compounds. If the ores contain much earthy matter, we
add lime or some suitable flux, together with a carbonaceous matter.
Another part of our Invention, when operating upon the carbonates or
oxidized compounds of copper, consists in using the steorates, and oleates, and
gums or resins and fatty matters, as the agents to reduce the metal from
such compounds. We employ these substances in the proportion of ten to
fifteen per cent. of one of them, to the copper contained in the compound,
(and in case the compounds are difficult of fusion, we employ some flux to
assist their fusibility,) and we melt them in a reverbatory furnace for about
five hours, as before directed.
The stearates and oleates we prefer are those of lime, baryta, or soda, and
we have found the gums and resins and fatty matters generally to succeed;
we can, therefore, only recommend those that are found to be cheapest in the
locality.
Another part of our Invention, when operating upon the carbonates or
oxidized compounds of copper, consist in the use of metallic iron alone or in
combination with an acid or alkali, or with their compounds. In case the
compounds of copper are difficult of fusion, we add an ordinary flux, but, by
preference, from two to three hundredweight of the sulphates and chloride
copper, of iron, or of lime to each ton of the copper compound, and when
of
-

page_text: the compounds are in a melted state in a reverberatory or blast furnace we
introduce metallic iron in the proportion of three to five hundredweight to
every ton of the compound of copper containing about thirty per cent. of
metal.
Another part of our Invention consists in operating upon the carbonates
and oxidized compounds of copper and the carbonates and oxidized com-
pounds of zinc at the same time. In order to obtain an alloy of these two
metals, we prefer to take one hundred parts of the copper compound to
seventy-five parts of the zinc compound containing the same per-centage of
metal, and we fuse them together in a suitable vessel, by preference a closed
one, using ten per cent. of flux to the compounds being operated upon, and
we fuse them together during about five hours, or until the two metals are
reduced. The proportion of zinc and copper may be varied according to the
quality of alloy required; but some allowance must be made in the zinc, a
portion of which will be volatilized in the process.
The flux we prefer is composed of two parts by weight of some one of the
chloride salts hereafter named, with one part by weight of coal or other
carbonaceous matter, videlicet, the chlorides of barium, of sodium, of calcium,
of magnesium, or of strontium. We can also produce an alloy of copper and
zinc, when operating upon the carbonates and oxidized compounds of copper,
by adding metallic zinc in the proportion. required in place of the oxidized
compound of zinc before described, in all other respects the process being the
sanie as that last explained.
Our improvements in the manufacture of alloys of metals consist in com-
bining phosphorous with copper, with zinc, with tin, with lead, or with an alloy
of these metals, one with another, or with other metal.
To obtain such alloys, we fuse the metal or alloys in the ordinary manner,
and then introduce the phosphorous by degrees. It will be evident, in carrying
out this part of our Invention, that a great variety of alloys may be found with
the above metals, all of which may partake in some degree of the advantages
we have discovered, and. which consist either in giving greater fluidity to
the metals when in a fused state, or increased compactness and solidity when
cold, and by increasing their power of resisting oxidation.
We will confine ourselves to the enumeration of some of the alloys we have
found to produce the most advantageous results, and state the applications to
which we consider the said alloys are important for manufacturing purposes:-
For sheathing vessels, for printing rollers, for boilers, for boiler tubes, for
ornaments and figures, and for other purposes where strength and durability
are important, we recommend one of the following:-

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eleventh day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid Alexander Parkes and Henry Parkes
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
Enrolled the Eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.