IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING COPPER FROM ORES AND COMPOUNDS.
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp, both of
Jarrow-on-Tyne, in the County of Durham, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING COPPER FROM ORES AND COMPOUNDS.
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Gibb and
Charles Gelstharp at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 25th March 1870.
We, THOMAS G.
nd CHARLES GELSTHARP, both of Jarrow-on-Tyne,
in the County of D nam, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING COPPER FROM ORES AND COM-
POUNDS," to be as follows:-
In the process which is well known and much practised ores con-
taining copper and sulphur are calciued with common salt, and the
chloride of copper thus formed extracted by lixiviation with water and
hydrochloric acid, or the acid solutions obtained in condensing by means
of water the gases arising from the mixture of orc and salt under
calcination, as above mentioned. The solutions so obtained are digested
on iron in order to precipitate the copper contained therein.

page_text: In the improved process which forms the subject of the present
Invention sulphide of sodium instead of iron is used to precipitate
copper from solutions obtained as above mentioned, and the residual
solutions, which contain common salt and sulphate of soda, are then
evaporated so as to separate those salts. The common salt is returned
to the calcining furnaces to be mixed with fresh ore for calcination, and
the sulphate of soda is mixed with coal or coke, and heated in a furnace
for the production of sulphide of sodium, which is used to decompose
a further quantity of chlorido of copper in solution, thus reproducing
common salt, which latter is separated from the solution and used in
calcination, as before mentioned. Common salt is thus constantly
reproduced by decomposing chloride of copper and sulphide of sodium
formed by reducing sulphate of soda produced with chloride of copper in
calcination.
Chlorides other than chloride of sodium may be used in calcination,
and in such cases the corresponding sulphides are obtained instead of
sulphide of sodium, and in precipitation of the copper by these sulphides
the same chloride is produced as that employed in the calcination.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp in the Great 2
Seal Patent Office on the 24th September 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
GIBB and CHARLES GELSTHARP, both of Jarrow-on-Tre, in the County_
of Durham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters 2
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto us, the said Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp, Her special
licence that we, the said Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp, our 3
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp, our 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

page_text: 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 EXTRACTING COPPER FROM ORES
AND COMPOUNDS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, 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 immediatly after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Thomas Gibb and Charles
Gelstharp, do hereby declare the nature of our 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 :—
In the process which is well known and much practised ores con-
taining copper and sulphur are calcined with common salt, and the
chloride of copper thus formed extracted by lixiviation with water and
hydrochloric acid, or the acid solutions obtained in condensing by means
of water the gases arising from the mixture of orc and salt under
calcination, as above mentioned. The solutions so obtained are digested
on iron in order to precipitate the copper contained therein.
In the improved processes which form the subject of our present
Invention sulphide of sodium instead of iron is used to precipitate
copper from solutions obtained as above mentioned, and the residual
solutions, which contain common salt and sulphate of soda, are then
evaporated so as separate those salts. The common salt is returned
to the calcining faces to be mixed with fresh ore for calcination, and
the sulphate of soda is mixed with coal or coke, and heated in a furnace
for the production of sulphide of sodium, which is used to decompose a
further quantity of chloride of copper in solution, thus reproducing
common salt, which latter is separated from the solution, and used in
calcination, as before mentioned. Common salt is thus constantly re-
produced by decomposing chloride of copper and sulphide of sodium
formed by reducing sulphate of soda produced with chloride of copper in
calcination.
Chlorides other than chloride of sodium may be used in calcination,
and in such cases the corresponding sulphides are obtained instead of

page_text: sulphide of sodium, and in precipitation of the copper by these sulphides
the same chloride is produced as that employed in the calcination.
Having thus declared and ascertained the nature of our said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we would
observe in conclusion that what we consider novel and original, and
therefore claim as constituting the Invention secured to us by the said
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent are, the processes for ex-
tracting copper from ores and compounds, substantially as herein-before
set forth and described, or any mere modifications thereof.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp, 1
have hereunto set our hands and scals, this Twenty-third day of
September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and corante