CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MELTING AND IN TREATING THE ORES AND METALS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Pierre Jean Felix Mouchel, Manufacturer, in the
City of Paris, in the French Empire, for the Invention of "CERTAIN
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Pierre Jean Felix Mouchel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd April 1854.
<:
I, PIERRE JEAN FELIX MOUCHEL, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MELTING AND IN TREATING THE ORES
AND METALS" to be as follows:-
I introduce the metallic ore in a powdered state and mixed with the proper
fluxes into a furnace which is fed by a blast of air, into which the coal or other
combustible or fuel is introduced also in the state of powder; a very intimate
mixture of the air and fuel with the ore is thus obtained, and the metal is
reduced and melted by the intensity of the heat produced. A calcining chamber
is constructed in connection with the furnace, and receives the flames or waste
heat from it. In this chamber is placed a carriage, carrying a number of
boxes containing the ore. When the calcination is complete, the carriage is
drawn out, and another similarly loaded carriage introduced. A turning plat-
form or other suitable contrivance may be employed, for removing the first
carriage and bringing up the second or fresh carriage to the calcining chamber.
The calcined ore is reduced to powder either before or after the calcination,
and is treated as above mentioned.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Pierre Jean Félix Mouchel in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 7th October 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PIERRE
JEAN FÉLIX MOUCHEL, Manufacturer, in the City of Paris, in the French
Empire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Pierre Jean Félix Mouchel, Her special licence that I, the said Pierre
Jean Félix Mouchel, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Pierre Jean Félix Mouchel, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MELTING AND IN TREATING THE ORES AND
METALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Pierre Jean
Félix Mouchel, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in
the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Pierre Jean Félix Mouchel, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Drawing,
and to the figures and letters-marked-thereon, that is to say
The Invention consists, firstly, in bringing together simultaneously in a
suitably constructed furnace three different agents or substances, that is to say,
air, powdered coal, or other carbonaceous powder, and a metallic ore previously
calcined and pulverised, so as to effect an immediate or instantaneous reduction
and fusion of the metal.
And, secondly, in combining with the aforesaid furnace a furnace for
calining, combining, annealing, or cementing metals or ores, and adapted for
calcining the ores which are to be subsequently pulverised and reduced in
the first-mentioned furnace.

page_text: The smelting furnace is provided with one or more apertures, at which the
air is blown in, together with the coal dust or other powdered combustible.
Another aperture or apertures is or are provided for the introduction of the
powdered ore. By bringing the matters together in this finely divided state,
the effect of a powerful blowpipe is obtained, and the heat is
very
intense.
The metallic ore which is to be pulverised before introducing it into the
smelting furnace is previously calcined or roasted in the calcination furnace,
which is heated by the smelting furnace with which it is connected. I prefer
to construct the smelting furnace with its top of a form somewhat approaching
to that of a hemisphere.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing is a longitudinal section of the
calcination furnace A, and of the sinelting furnace B, which, being built close
together, form one complete apparatus or furnace. In Figure 1 is also shewn
an elevation of a sort of double crane or revolving platform T for charging and
5 discharging the calcination furnace.
Figure 2 is a horizontal section of the calcination furnace A and smelting
furnace B. Figure 3 is a view of the end of the calcination furnace A, which
is next to the crane T; one half is shewn in elevation and the other in section.
Figure 4 is a side elevation of the smelting furnace B, and a portion of the
O calcination furnace A. The same letters refer to similar parts in each
Figure.
The furnaces are constructed of fire brick. The smelting furnace B is of a
quadrangular form at its base E, and is surmounted by a hemispherical or
curved top C. A vertical passage D is made in the top of the furnace. for the
introduction of the powdered ore, which falls down the side E' of the furnace
on to the inclined plane F. The powdered ore is previously mixed with the
proper flaxes before introducing it into the furnace. The inclined plane F is a
strong piece of hard fire stone, inclined at an angle of forty-five degrees, or at
a greater or lesser angle, and placed opposite' to the tuyere G, at which is
injected the mixture of air and powdered combustible. Thus the metallic
ore falls from the orifice D upon the upper part of the inclined plane F,
and descending this inclined plane it meets with the blast of air and pow-
dered combustible from the tuyere G. It is thus that the intimate mixture
of all the molecules of these different substances, taking place in the heated
5 furnace, produces the effect of an intensely hot blowpipe in reducing and
melting the metal or ore.
A portion of the side of the furnace marked W in Figure 4 is capable of
being pulled down or removed, without disturbing the rest of the furnace, when

page_text: access to the interior is required for repairing it or replacing the inclined stone
F. At the bottom is a low wall or dam.stone H; which has an aperture at I
for the overflow of the slag or cinder; and another aperture J, from which the
melted metal is, tapped-from time to time and allowed.to flow out..
The calcination furnace A is of a rectangular form, and is provided with a
strong frame of cast iron K at one end;, it is covered by an arch or. casing, L,
separated from it by a small space, so as to allow of expansion and contraction.
The entrance of the furnace is closed by a door M, which is made of an iron
frame filled with bricks, and sliding up and down between the sides of the
frame K, and guided by two strong transverse bars N, N; cast with the
frame K.
--> 22
A windlass O is employed for raising this door.. There are five passages or
flues communicating with the interior of this furnace; two of these are
oblique passages; which conduct the flames of the smelting furnace.B into the
furnace A, where they heat the ore contained in a series of boxes V, V, V,
placed on a carriage U, which runs upon the-rails Z... Spaces are left between
the boxes to allow the flames to circulate round them before, escaping, at the
flues R, R, R; these flues R, R, R, communicate with two lateral flues Q;Q;
which unite in a chimney at S, of sufficient dimensions to produce a good
draught.
The charging and discharging of the furnace A is effected by the double
revolving platform T, which receives a freshly loaded carriage on one side, and
one which is just withdrawn from the furnace on the other side. By, turning
the platform half round, the carriages are made to change places, and the freshly
loaded carriage is pushed into the furnace. When the operation is completed,
the carriage of calcined ore is drawn out of the furnace by means of a.chain X
and windlass Y, and, by turning the platform, another carriage loaded with fresh
ore is brought to the furnace. The ore may be merely roasted or calcined in
this furnace, or it may be reduced to the metallic state by cementation with
carbon or other reducing agents before introducing it into the furnace B.
The blast or current of air may be produced by any of the well-known
means.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise details and materials herein-before mentioned, as the
same may be varied; but what I claim is,-
Firstly, the mode or modes, herein-before described, of melting and treating
ores and metals by introducing a powdered metallic ore, mixed or not with a

page_text: flux or fluxes, into a beated furnace, together with a blast or current of air and
a powdered combustible, in manner herein-before described.
Secondly, the constructing a furnace with suitable apertures for the intro-
duction of the powdered ore, and the air and powdered combustible, and with
an inclined plane or surface on which the different substances meet, in manner
herein-before described, and also the combination of this furnace with a calci-
nation furnace, constructed and arranged in manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pierre Jean Félix Mouchel, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of September, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
PRE JN FX MOUCHEL. (L.S.)
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD,
Ing" Civil,
Rue Filles du Calvaire, No. 6, .
à Paris.