IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING METALS AND MINERALS IN ORDER TO PRODUCE THEIR OXIDES OR OTHER CHEMICAL OR MECHANICAL COMBINATIONS, AND TO SEPARATE METALS FROM THEIR ORES OR FROM THEIR ALLOYS
Year: 1867

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to Henry Francis Gardner, of Boston, in the United States
of America, now of 4, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, in the County of
Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND
APPARATUS FOR TREATING METALS AND MINERALS IN ORDER TO PRODUCE THEIR
OXIDES OR OTHER CHEMICAL OR MECHANICAL COMBINATIONS, AND TO SEPARATE
METALS FROM THEIR ORES OR FROM THEIR ALLOYS."-A communication
from abroad by Zabdiel Adams Willard, residing at Boston, and William
Gardner Adams, residing at Franklin, both in the State of Massachusetts,
and United States of America.
ealed the 26th May 1868, and dated the 27th November 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Francis Gardner at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th November 1867.
I, HENRY FRANCIS GARDNER, of Boston, in the United States of America,
5 now of 4, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING METALS AND MINERALS IN ORDER TO
PRODUCE THEIR OXIDES, OR OTHER CHEMICAL OR MECHANICAL COMBINATIONS, AND TO
SEPARATE METALS FROM THEIR ORES OR FROM THEIR ALLOYS," a communication to
me from abroad by Zabdiel Adams Willard, residing at Boston, and William

page_text: Gardner Adams, residing at Franklin, both in the State of Massachusetts,
and United States of America, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the means of and appa-
ratus for treating metals and minerals for the purpose of producing various
chemical or mechanical combinations or changes, such as the production of
their oxides, carbonates, or other salts; also for the purpose of separating
metals from their ores, or from their alloys, and of effecting these various
objects by a continuous operation if required.
This mode of operation consists in the first place of melting the metal or
mineral to be treated or acted upon in a suitable crucible, and raising its
temperature to the degree necessary for subsequent operations. From the
bottom of this crucible or melting pot the metal is allowed to flow in one or
more fine jets or streams. Immediately after the stream of melted metal leaves
the orifice of the crucible it encounters a jet or blast of atmospheric air, or
other gas or vapour, which is projected directly across the jet of metal with
considerable force. The effect of this blast is first to subdivide the metal into
a metallic dust of exceeding fineness, and if the metal is of a character that
has its melting point below that of oxidation, and its temperature is but just
above that, the metal will be deposited in the form of an impalpable powder.
In the second place, if the temperature of the melted metal is sufficiently
high to produce a chemical combination with the blast, the metal being in a
state of minute subdivision is instantaneously acted upon chemically by the
blast, and converted into an oxide or a salt according to the nature of the blast
employed. If atmospheric air is injected oxides will generally be produced,
but if the blast is composed of some other gas some other chemical reaction
will be produced corresponding to the chemical character of the blast, or some
other chemical reaction may be thereby prevented. This action of the blast upon
the jet or jets of metal is designed to take place generally within a chamber or
enclosed space which can be maintained at a temperature adapted to the nature
of the operation to be performed, and which also can be charged with such a
gaseous atmosphere independently of the dispersing blast if need be, as will
either facilitate the chemical reactions that are designed to be produced, or
prevent those which might otherwise take place, and would be prejudicial.
Suitable provision is made to permit the escape of the spent gases from the
chamber, and to retain the valuable products of the operation such as are now in
use. If several successive chemical reactions are required to be produced other
jets of the appropriate chemical character may be employed, so arranged as to
operate in succession in substantially the same way as the first one operates.
The elements of the apparatus which will be required to carry on this process are

page_text: a crucible which contains the melted material to be operated upon, and which
is heated by a furnace. At the bottom of the crucible a pipe is applied, having
a small orifice which is closed by a valve operated by a rod or other suitable
means. This pipe projects downwards some distance into the converting
chamber, and close to the outlet of the same the horizontal blast pipe is
arranged, which has an orifice a little larger than that of the pipe from the
crucible, and throws a jet of compressed air or other gas directly across the
jet of metal that flows from the crucible. This blast may be heated if the.
operation requires it before being injected. The chamber may be made of
any form required, and provided with suitable means to permit the escape of
the spent gases and retain the valuable products of the operation. If the
apparatus is employed to make litharge, for example, the crucible would be
filled with melted lead heated to a red beat, and a blast of say 15 to 20
pounds, more or less to the square inch is supplied to the horizontal pipe.
The valve then being opened allows a small stream of hot metal to flow
from the pipe of the crucible, which meeting the blast is dispersed into a fine
metallic mist, and in that subdivided condition instantly combines with the
blast, and completely converts the lead into oxide, leaving the silver if present
in minute metallic buttons. If it be desired to make carbonate of lead the
blast from the pipe would be supplied with carbonic acid gas to a sufficient
degree to carbonize the lead as fast as it is converted into oxide, or the gas
might be introduced into the chamber separately instead. These examples
will serve to explain the general mode of operation, and the nature of the
modifications that would be made to adapt the apparatus to any special use,
such as for the production of chromates, chlorides, sulphites, chlorates, or
nitrates, or other combinations of various metals. The minerals may be intro-
duced to the crucible in a finely powdered condition and sifted, mixed with
pulverized carbon so as to aid the reduction, and then subjected to the blast
in place of filling the crucible with melted metal.
Another form of apparatus for the same purposes consists of a crucible, the
pipe from which passes through the chamber or receptacle containing tho
atmospheric air or other vapour or gas with which the metal is to be operated
upon. The air or gas is then conducted by a pipe or jacket attached to the
lower part of the air or gas chamber, such pipe surrounding the crucible pipe,
and both descending to the converting chamber. At the point of conversion,
or the outlets of the two pipes the air or gas is caused by suitable apertures,
divisions, or oblique surfaces of the air or gas pipe to create a blast pene-
trating from the circular form of the pipe obliquely inwards in all directions,
and through the metallic jets, thereby reducing the metal to an impalpable

page_text: powder. A suitable blast pipe or other means of creating pressure within the
air or gas chamber is to be applied thereto, and such blast of air, vapour, or
gas may be heated as before previously to its injection on the metal, the outlet
of which is regulated as before by a valve. The arrangements and positions
of the crucible outlet pipe, converting chamber, blast pipe, or reservoir of air,
gas, or vapour, may be relatively varied according to circumstances, the principle
of the Invention being in all cases the same. The products of the operation
are to be withdrawn by means of a drawer or sliding apparatus from the
bottom of the converting chamber, or by any suitable appliance for the purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Francis Gardner in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th May 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
FRANCIS GARDNER, of Boston, in the United States of America, now of
4, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Henry Francis Gardner, Her special licence that I, the said
Henry Francis Gardner, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Henry Francis Gardner, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OF AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING
METALS AND MINERALS IN ORDER TO PRODUCE THEIR OXIDES, OR OTHER CHEMICAL
OR MECHANICAL COMBINATIONS, AND TO SEPARATE METALS FROM THEIR ORES OR FROM
THEIR ALLOYS," a communication to me from abroad by Zabdiel Adams
Willard, residing at Boston, and William Gardner Adams, residing at
Franklin, both in the State of Massachusetts, and United States of America,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Francis Gardner,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer-

page_text: tain 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 immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Francis Gardner, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:―
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the means of and
apparatus for treating metals and minerals for the purpose of producing
various chemical or mechanical combinations or changes, such as the pro-
duction of their oxides, carbonates, or other salts; also for the purpose of
separating metals from their ores or from their alloys, and of effecting these
objects by a continuous operation if required.
This mode of operation consists, in the first place, of melting the metal or
mineral to be treated or acted upon in a suitable crucible, and raising its
temperature to the degree necessary for subsequent operations. From the
bottom of this crucible or melting pot the metal is allowed to flow in one or
more fine jets or streams. Immediately after the stream of melted metal leaves
the orifice of the crucible it encounters a jet or blast of atmospheric air, or other
gas or vapour, which is projected directly across the jet of metal with con-
siderable force. The effect of this blast is first to subdivide the metal into a
metallic dust of exceeding fineness, and if the metal is of a character that has
its melting point below that of oxidation and its temperature is but just above
that the metal will be deposited in the form of an impalpable powder.
In the second place, if the temperature of the melted metal is sufficiently
bigh to produce a chemical combination with the blast, the metal being in a
state of minute subdivision, is instantaneously acted upon chemically by the
blast and converted into an oxide or a salt according to the nature of the blast
employed. If atmospheric air is injected oxides will generally be produced,.
but if the blast is composed of some other gas, some other chemical reaction
will be produced corresponding to the chemical character of the blast, or some
other chemical reaction may be thereby prevented. This action of the blast upon
the jet or jets of metal is designed to take place generally within a chamber
or enclosed space which can be maintained at a temperature adapted to the
nature of the operation to be performed, and which also can be charged with
such a gaseous atmosphere independently of the dispersing blast, if need be,
as will either facilitate the chemical reactions that are designed to be pro-
duced, or prevent those which might otherwise take place and would be

page_text: prejudicial. Suitable provision is made to permit the escape of the spent
gases from the chamber, and to retain the valuable products of the operation,
such as are now in use. If several successive chemical reactions are required
to be produced other jets of the appropriate chemical character may be
employed so arranged as to operate in succession, substantially in the same
way as the first one operates. The elements of the apparatus which will be
required to carry on this process are a crucible which contains the melted
material to be operated upon, and which is heated by a furnace. At the
bottom of the crucible a pipe is applied having a small orifice which is closed
by a valve operated by a rod or other suitable means. This pipe projects
downwards some distance into the converting chamber, and close to the outlet
of the same the horizontal blast pipe is arranged, which has an orifice a little
larger than that of the pipe from the crucible, and throws a jet of compressed
air or other gas directly across the jet of metal that flows from the crucible.
This blast may be heated, if the operation requires it, before being injected.
The chambers may be made of any form required, and provided with suitable
means to permit the escape of the spent gases, and retain the valuable
products of the operation. If the apparatus is employed to make litharge, for
example, the crucible would be filled with melted lead heated to a red heat,
and a blast of, say, 15 to 20 pounds, more or less, to the square inch is supplied
to the horizontal pipe; the valve being then opened allows a small stream of
hot metal to flow from the pipe of the crucible, which meeting the blast is
dispersed into a fine metallic dust or mist, and in that subdivided condition
instantly combines with the blast and completely converts the lead into oxide,
If it be desired to
leaving the silver, if present, in minute metallic buttons.
make carbonate of lead, the blast from the pipe would be supplied with
carbonic acid gas to a sufficient degree to carbonize the lead as fast as it is
converted into oxide, or the gas might be introduced into the chamber sepa-
rately instead. These examples will serve to explain the general mode of
operations, and the nature of the modifications that would be made to adapt
the apparatus to any special use, such as for the production of chromates,
chlorides, sulphites, chlorates, or nitrates, or other combinations of various
metals. The minerals may be introduced to the crucible in a finely powdered
condition and sifted, mixed with pulverized carbon so as to aid the reduction,
and then subjected to the blast in place of filling the crucible with melted
metal.
Another form of apparatus for the same purposes consists of a crucible, the
pipe from which passes through a chamber or receptacle containing the atmo-
spheric air or other vapour or gas with which the metal is to be operated

page_text: upon; the air or gas is then conducted by a pipe or jacket attached to the
lower part of the air or gas chamber, such pipe surrounding the crucible pipe
and both descending to the converting chamber; at the point of conversion or
the outlets of the two pipes the air or gas is caused by suitable apertures,
divisions, or oblique surfaces of the air or gas pipe to create a blast penetrating
from the circular form of the pipe obliquely inwards in all directions and
through the metallic jets, thereby reducing the metal to an impalpable powder.
A suitable blast pipe or other means of creating pressure within the air or gas
chamber is to be applied thereto, and such blast of air, vapour, or gas may be
heated, as before, previously to its injection on the metal, the outlet of which
is regulated, as before, by a valve. The arrangements and positions of the
crucible, outlet pipe, converting chamber, blast pipe, or reservoir of air, gas,
or vapour, may be relatively varied according to circumstances, the principle
of the Invention being in all cases the same. The products of the operation
are to be withdrawn by means of a drawer or sliding apparatus from the
bottom of the converting chamber, or by any suitable appliance for the
purpose.
In the annexed Drawings Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal sectional elevation
of the apparatus, and Fig. 2 a transverse section of the same; Fig. 8 is a
longitudinal section of apparatus for effecting the inward oblique blast.
upon;
A is the pot or crucible for containing the melted metal to be operated
it is set in the masonry B, and heated by a fire in the grate C, which
also heats the entire working part of the apparatus; D is the pipe at the
bottom of the crucible, which pipe has a small orifice, say, 3th to both of
an inch in diameter, which is closed by the valve E, operated by the rod F.
G is the converting chamber, and H, the horizontal blast pipe, which has an
orifice a little larger than that of the pipe D. This blast may be heated, if
the operation requires it, before being injected, and its admission is to be
controlled by suitable valves or cocks. It is supplied by a condensing pump
operating in the usual manner, which is itself supplied with atmospheric air,
or a mixture of these, as the case may require. K shews the pipe for a
separate introduction of carbonic acid or other gas to the chamber. If it
were desired simply to subdivide or disperse the metal without oxidizing it,
then the blast from the pipe H should be supplied with such gas that it would
not or could not furnish oxygen to the melted metal, while its mechanical or
dispersing power would be retained. These examples will serve to explain the
general mode of operation, and the nature of the modifications that would be
made to adapt the apparatus to any special use. In the Drawings only one
delivery jet to the crucible in combination with one blast jet is shewn in the

page_text: converting chamber, as this is the simplest form in which the apparatus can
be illustrated, but in practice it is intended to employ a series of delivering
jets and a corresponding series of blast jets in the same chamber, but
co-operating in precisely the same way.
It is obvious that the apparatus may be modified in a great variety of ways,
and that a part of the entire process may be usefully employed in certain
operations without employing the whole of it, as, for instance, in dispersing or
subdividing metals without acting upon them chemically, in which case the
converting chamber might not be required, also the blast of air or gas may be
usefully employed in a converting chamber in operating upon a continuous
regulated stream of heated minerals which had been previously reduced to a
fine powder by other means, with such a gas supplied to the blast jet as would
act chemically upon the minerals in that condition, and other modifications of
the Invention of the same general nature may obviously be made.
In Fig. 8, the arrangement is shewn where the pipe from the crucible
passes through the air or gas chamber, and terminates in a series of oblique
openings penetrating the flow of metal and subdividing it as described. A is
the crucible, and D the pipe for the flow of molten metal; this pipe passes
through the air or gas chamber L and terminates in a series of oblique
openings penetrating the flow of metal, and it is surrounded by the pipe M
having oblique exits, so that the air or gas is blown into and through the
stream of metal, thereby converting the same into oxide, carbonate, or other
compound in the converting chamber G, as before described.
I claim, 1st. The process of dispersing or subdividing melted metals or
minerals into fine particles by means of a blast of highly compressed air or
other gases which impinges upon one or more streams thereof, substantially
as described.
2ndly. The process of converting metals or minerals into other products by
means of a jet or blast of air or gas acting upon one or more streams of said
metals or minerals in a melted state, as described, which jet or blast sub-
divides and disperses the material, and also acts chemically upon the same,
substantially as described.
3rdly. The process of converting metals or minerals into other products by
means of a blast of air or other gas applied thereto, when said metals or
minerals are continuously supplied in regulated quantities to said blast in a
subdivided and highly heated condition, substantially as described.
4thly. The treatment of metals or minerals, by either of the methods before
claimed, in a chamber filled with an atmosphere chemically so composed that
by means of the same in combination with the gas introduced by the dis-

page_text: persing blast the desired chemical reaction may be produced or prevented,
substantially as described.
5thly. An apparatus (for performing some of the operations described)
consisting of a combination of a crucible or reservoir with one
delivering jets, a furnace for heating the same, and one or more blast pipes
corresponding to said jets co-operating, substantially as described.
6thly. An apparatus consisting of the combination last claimed in com-
bination with the converting chamber, substantially as described.
7thly. Combining with the converting chamber, as described, a means for
supplying gas thereto separately from the dispersing blast, substantially as
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Francis Gardner, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
Witness,
ALEX. PRINCE,
Office for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Square,
Charing Cross.
H. F. GARDNER.
(L.8.)