A METHOD FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SULPHURIC ACID FROM COPPER ORE, COPPER REGULUS, AND SULPHURET OF ZINC
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
KEYS, of Sutton, in the Parish of Prescot, in the County of Lancaster, Copper
Smelter, and WILLIAM THOMPSON CLOUGH, of Eccleston, in the Parish of
Prescot aforesaid, Alkali Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS we did by petition represent unto Her most Gracious Majesty
Queen Victoria that we had invented "A METHOD FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF
SULPHURIC ACID FROM COPPER ORE, COPPER REGULUS, AND SULPHURET OF ZINC,"
and Her said Majesty, being willing to encourage all useful inventions, did
issue Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Thirty-first day of August, in the second year of Her
reign, whereby Her said Majesty did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said John Keys and William Thompson Clough,
Her especial licence that we, the said John Keys and William Thompson
Clough, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John
Keys and William Thompson Clough, our exors, adñiors, and 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 and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, our said Invention; in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso, obliging us, the said John Keys and William Thompson Clough,
by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and
seal of one of us, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of our said

page_text: Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said 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
John Keys and William Thompson Clough, do hereby declare that the nature
of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
described and ascertained in manner following (that is to say):-
We do hereby declare our Invention to consist in producing sulphuric acid
from the substance or substances known by the name or names of sulphuret of
copper, copper ore, or copper pyrites, also sulphuret of copper obtained in the
process of smelting copper ores, known to the copper smelters by the name of
regulus of copper, and also from the substance called sulphuret of zinc, or
commonly known to the miners by the name of black jack.
We take any quantity of the above substance or substances and heat the
same to redness in an iron vessel or plate, or by any of the methods at present
used by those manufacturers who produce sulphuric acid from the sulphuret of
iron or iron pyrites by combustion, and convey the gas generated therefrom
into a chamber or chambers of lead, similar in every respect to those at present
in common use amongst the makers of sulphuric acid, and also convey such
quantity of nitrous gas, together with the gas aforesaid as shall be found from
time to time sufficient for the due conversion of sulphurous into sulphuric acid,
in the said chamber or chambers.
We do claim as our Invention the use of sulphuret of copper, copper 'ore,
or copper pyrites, also copper regulus, and sulphuret of zinc, or black jack, for
the manufacture or production of sulphuric acid from all or either of the
above substance or substances by combustion, in the manner aforesaid, such
Inventions being, to the best of our knowledge and belief, entirely new, and
never before used within that part of Great Britain called England, and the
Dominion of Wales.
In witness whereof, we, the 'said John Keys and William Thompson
Clough, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Fourth day of
February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
thinning

page_text: year of our Lord 1839, the aforesaid William Thompson Clough 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 BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of February,
in the year of our Lord 1839, the aforesaid John Keys came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, 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.
year or our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.