AN IMPROVED METHOD OF REDUCING ORES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Hastings Collette, of No. 57, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF REDUCING ORES."-A communication.
Sealed the 7th April 1854, and dated the 3rd February 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Hastings Collette
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd February 1854.
I, CHARLES HASTINGS COLLETTE, of No. 57, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentlemen, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF REDUCING ORES" to be as follows:-
The agency which I employ for the reduction of ores is the application or
use of gasses, such as hydrogen, carbonic oxide, and carburetted hydrogen.
The ore to be reduced is placed in the retort, either roasted or unroasted, with
steam and coke, and with or without lime. The retort must then be hermeti-
cally closed, and heated to a red heat. The shape and size of the retort might
be variously modified. The gasses are introduced into the retort, and are
made to pass through the ore to be reduced. The gascious products from the
reduction escape from the retort by an aperture contrived for the purpose.
The reduced ore thus obtained can be, according to its nature, subjected to
the process of mechanical preperation, refined, or remelted.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Hastings Collette in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st August 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
HASTINGS COLLETTE, of No. 57, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middle-
sex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of February, 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 graut unto me,
the said Charles Hastings Collette, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Hastings Collette, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Charles Hastings Collette, 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 Invention for "AN
IMPROVED METHOD OF REDUCING ORES," (communicated to me by a foreigner
residing abroad,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles
Hastings Collette, 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 J, the said Charles Hastings Collette, 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, that is to say
I take the ore which is to be reduced, either in an unroasted state or after
it has been roasted, with or without steam and mixed with coke, and with or
without lime, and introduce it into a retort of any convenient shape, and which
can be hermetically closed, and be heated to redness.
The retort is furnished with an opening connected with a suitable reservoir
for generating or holding the gas or gases to be used, and with another
opening to permit the gaseous products to leave it.
The retort is then heated to redness, and the reducing gas or gases, such
as hydrogen, carbonic oxide, or carburetted hydrogen, having been prepared,

page_text: are introduced into the retort, and made to pass through the contents, and the
gaseous products allowed to leave the retort.
When the operation has continued for a length of time sufficient for the
reduction of the ore, the reduced products may be removed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Hastings Collette, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
C. H. COLLETTE. (L.S.)