IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT AND SMELTING OF CERTAIN ARGENTIFEROUS OR SILVER ORES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Astley Paston Price, of Margate, in the County of
Kent, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT
AND SMELTING OF CERTAIN ARGENTIFEROUS OR SILVER ORES."
Sealed the 18th June 1858, and dated the 16th April 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Astley Paston Price at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th April 1858.
I, ASTLEY PASTON PRICE, of Margate, in the County of Kent, Chemist, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
TREATMENT AND SHELTING OF CERTAIN ARGENTIFEROUS OR SILVER ORES," to be as
follows:-
My improvements consist in combining or mixing certain argentiferous or
silver ores when in a state of division with bituminous or coking coal, or with
carbonaceous matter combined with bituminous coal or other bituminous
matter, such as pitch, tar, or bitumen, or any mixture or mixtures thereof,
and subjecting the same to the action of heat, either in a suitable distillatory
apparatus or in any suitable coking oven or apparatus.
My improvements further consist in the combining or the admixture of
suitable fluxes, with or without the addition of certain sulphuretted or non-
sulphuretted compounds or materials, with such before mentioned argentiferous
or silver ores when in a state of division, together with bituminous coal or

page_text: carbonaceous matter combined with bituminous coal or other bituminous
matter, or with pitch, tar, or bitumen, and the subjecting of the same to the
action of heat as aforesaid, either in a suitable distillatory apparatus, or in any
suitable coking oven or coking apparatus, as aforesaid.
My improvements further consist in the employment and treatment, after
a carbonizing or coking process, of either or both of the combinations described
in the first two heads of this Invention, in a. blast, cupola, or other suitable
furnace, for the purpose of smelting the same, and extracting the silver and
other valuable metals therein contained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Astley Paston Price in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th October 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ASTLEY
PASTON PRICE, of Margate, in the County of Kent, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Astley Paston Price, Her special license that I, the said Astley Paston
Price, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Astley Paston Price, my executors, administrators, or 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 TREATMENT AND SMELTING OF CERTAIN ARGENTIFEROUS OR SILVER ORES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Astley Paston Price, 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 immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Astley Paston Price, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-

page_text: My improvements have for their object, first, the preparation and treatment
of certain argentiferous or silver ores, such, for example, as those ores known
as silver ores which occur in commerce in a finely divided state, such extreme
state of division being the result of crushing, grinding, or other mechanical
disintegration, or otherwise. The object of submitting such ores to the
treatment herein-after described is to render their employment in a cupola,
blast, or other similar furnace more advantageous and convenient, such fine
state of division in which they occur preventing them from being at present
generally reduced or smelted by that or similar methods.
My improvements consist in combining or mixing the above-mentioned
argentiferous or silver ores, when in a state of division, with bituminous or
coking coal, or with carbonaceous matter combined with bituminous coal or
other bituminous matter, such as pitch, tar, or bitumen, or with any mixtures
thereof, and in subjecting the same to the action of heat, or to a coking or to
a distillatory process, either in any suitable coking oven or apparatus, so as to
form a coke or a coked material.
My improvements further consist in the combining and mixing such before-
mentioned silver ores in a state of division with fluxes suitable or necessary
to effect the fluxing of the silver ore, and also either with or without such fluxes
with sulphurets of copper, or iron, or lead, or sulphuretted material, when the
object be to obtain the metals or some of them contained in the ore in a state
of regulus, or with oxides or carbonates of lead, which, if necessary, may be
mixed with or may be employed without such suitable fluxes or the sul-
phuretted materials, as before mentioned, and with the bituminous coal or
other materials necessary as aforesaid to form a coke or coked material, such
mixture or mixtures being then subjected to a coking process.
The method I prefer when the bituminous and other before mentioned
substances are not in a fluid state is to mix and incorporate the same in a
state of division, and after thoroughly mixing the silver ores, or the silver
ores and suitable fluxes, or the silver ores and any of the before mentioned
ingredients or adjuncts, also in a state of division, with bituminous coal, or
with carbonaceous matters and other bituminous matters, as aforesaid, is to
submit the same either to a heating, distilling, or coking process in retorts,
or in other ordinary coking ovens, or in any distillatory, heating, or coking
apparatus, in order that a coke or coked material may be obtained. The
proportions which I find in practice to answer are one part by bulk of silver
ore, or silver ore with fluxes and other ingredients before mentioned, in a
state of division, and two parts in bulk of bituminous or coking coal; or, if
carbonaceous matter and bituminous coal, or bituminous or tarry or pitchy

page_text: matter be employed, then the proportions may be varied so as together to
form, when submitted to a heating, coking, or distillatory process, a coke or
a coked material. I do not confine myself to any proportions or quantities of
the bituminous or other matters, ores, fluxes, or adjuncts, my Invention
consisting in so mixing the several ores, matters, and ingredients before-men-
tioned as to form a coke or consolidated coked mass of sufficient resistance
to be capable of employment for the smelting or reduction of silver ores,
as aforesaid, in a cupola, blast, or in any suitable smelting or reducing
furnace.
My improvements further consist in the employment and treatment of the
result of the admixture of silver ores with the before mentioned bituminous
or carbonaceous and bituminous materials, or with suitable fluxes, or with
sulphuretted or non-sulphuretted materials and fluxes, when coked as aforesaid,
either alone or in conjunction with other fuel, or adjuncts or admixtures in a
blast, cupola, or other smelting or reducing furnace, in order to obtain there-
from the silver or other valuable metals contained in the aforesaid silver ores
and mixtures, either in the state of regulus or sulphurets in combination with
sulphurets of iron, copper, or lead, or as metallic silver in combination with
lead, as is well understood.
In witness whereof, I, the said Astley Paston Price, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
ASTLEY PASTON PRICE. (L.S.)