A METHOD OF FUSING ORES, METALS, AND CALX OF METALS, WHEREBY A CONSIDERABLE SAVING IS MADE IN FUEL AND LABOR
Year: 1792

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
LUCAS, of the Town of Sheffield, in the West Riding of the County of York;
Iron Master, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Thirtieth day of October, in the thirty-third year of His reign, did
give and grant unto me, the said Edward Lucas, my executors, administrators;
and assigns, His special licence that I, the said Edward Lucas, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A METHOD OF FUSING ORES,
METALS, AND CALX OF METALS, WHEREBY A CONSIDERABLE SAVING IS MADE IN
FUEL AND LABOR;" in which said Letters. Patent there is contained a provisé,
obliging me, the said Edward Lucas, under my hand and seal, to cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as by the said
recited Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Lucas, do hereby declare that my said Invention of a method of

page_text: fusing ores, metals, and calx of metals, whereby a considerable saving is made
in fuel and labor, is described in the manner following (that is to say):-
The furnaces to be employed in these operations may be built on the
principle of a steel converting furnace, that is, by applying the heat of the fire
to a fixed pot or pots, by means of flues, or by having the pots so placed as to
be surrounded with the fire. The form and size of the pots and furnace may
be varied, according to the quantity to be fused at one operation. The size and
form of those commonly used for the conversion of steel will be found con-
venient and answer the purpose extremely well, with appertures through the
sides of the furnace to communicate with the lower part of the pots, through
which a small opening must be made to let off the melted matter, which
opening must be stop'd with sand, earth, stone, or clay during the operation;
and by having a communication through the dome and vault of the furnace to
the top of the pots, they may be charged while hot, which will expedite the
operation, observing to close these openings as close and quick as may be after
charging, to prevent the loss of heat. If a more intense heat is wanted, a
blast of air may be conveyed through the fire by means of air cylinders or
bellows, in place of the common draft of air; or those furnaces may be adopted
in which the pot can be surrounded with the fuel, after the manner of a
common air furnace, and the heat increased by the application of a blast of
air, as before mentioned. These furnaces may be constructed of almost any
form or size, and must also have appertures through the sides to communicate
with the lower part of the pot, as in the others, whence the melted matter is
to flow, and must also have a communication through the upper part of the
furnace to the top of the pot, through which the matter to be melted is to be
introduced into the pot; then take the ore or calx intended to be reduced to a
metal, as for smelting; be careful they are well freed from sulphur or arsenick,
which, if left in, would injure the quality of the metal; if the ore is of the
refractory kind, a little of the customary fluxes.used in smelting may be added
the facilitate the fusion; the proportion must be regulated by the quality of the
ore, and can only be attained by a little practice; add about a peck of charcoal
dust (or even less will generally be sufficient) to every hundredweight of ore,
and mix them together; (almost every other substance containing the inflam-
mable principle, term'd by some chymists phlogiston, may be substituted for
charcoal dust, but none will answer the purpose better.) The ingredients may
then be thrown into your pot or pots, before mentioned, and the. fire applied,
till the whole becoming fluid, it must then be tap'd off at the opening left at
the bottom of the pot for that purpose. The pots may then be again filled
with fresh materials, and proceed with the operation as before. For the

page_text: naking of brass, take the ingredients in the same proportions as in the common
nethod, and proceed as with the ores of other metals, as before directed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Lucas, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-two.