A NEW PRINCIPLE APPLIED IN THE ROASTING AND REFINING OF COPPER
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
BROWN, of Whiterock, near Swansea, in the County of Glamorgan, Copper
Smelter, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-second day of June, in the third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Edward Brown, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Edward Brown, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Edward Brown, my exors, adñors, 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, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW PRINCIPLE APPLIED IN THE
ROASTING AND REFINING OF COPPER;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso that I, the said Edward Brown, should cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Brown, do hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and the
mauner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement (that is to say):-
According to the ordinary practice of smelting copper ores, commonly
termed copper pyrites or yellow copper ores, there are required several pro-
cesses to separate the copper from the impurities with which it is combined
in the mineral state, and those processes are usually thus termed :-First,
calcining the ore; second, smelting the calcined ore; third, calcining the
coarse metal; fourth, smelting the calcined metal; fifth, roasting the metal;
sixth, and lastly, refining and toughening the copper. The process of "roasting
the metal" is thus performed:-The metal produced in the fourth process, as
already mentioned, is put into a reverberatory furnace, where it is kept in a
state of heat under the fusing point for twelve or twenty-four hours, as may be
required, by which means the contaminating metals are oxidised. This
process is repeated two or three times, as may be necessary, till the
metal is brought into the state of blistered copper, and it is then passed to
the refining furnace. In the last roasting process the copper becomes
oxidised, which oxide is reduced in the ordinary way of smelting copper
ore by admixture with the metal in a coarse state. But by my "new
principle" it is thus performed:-The coarse or blistered copper, being in a
state of fusion in the furnace, is covered by the oxide (commonly termed the
slag or scoria) made in the process of roasting the metal. I combine with the
scoria or slag a flux composed of equal parts of quick lime and anthracite coal
or other coal (not contaminated by sulphur), or a mixture of lime and wood
charcoal, in the proportions named, finely powdered, and throw it into the
furnace on the surface of the metal, and mix the flux with the scoria or slag,
using for that purpose an iron rable till the scoria or slag, which was pre-
viously of a red colour, is changed into a frothy black mass. It is then
removed off the surface of the metal by skimming, and the metal tapped into
the sand bed. This scoria is further reduced by mixing with metal in a coarse
state. The quantity of flux required is from half to one bushel for each
charge of metal, using more or less till the scoria becomes of black color,
in which state the oxide of copper has been nearly wholly reduced. The
blistered copper is put into the refining furnace, and further roasted and
melted until it becomes pure, (that is to say), until the impurities with
which the copper was combined are separated, and the copper in a fit state to
undergo the toughening process. The slag or scoria made in this further
roasting and melting is reduced by mixing the flux already described as being

page_text: used in the roasting furnace, the quantity being similar to that already men-
tioned. The toughening process is ordinarily thus performed:-The surface
of the melted copper in the refining surface is covered with wood, charcoal,
and a pole placed in the metal, which is continued until the toughening is
completed, which is known to the person superintending the refining process
by the examination of the copper by assay. In the application of my new
principle" in the process of refining copper it is thus performed :-The metal
being prepared for the toughening process, as already described, I cover
the surface thereof with a mixture of equal parts of lime finely sifted, and
wood charcoal grossly or finely pulverized, or lime and wood sawdust, or lime
and anthracite coal grossly powdered, the quantity required being about three
Winchester bushels at the commencement of polling, and adding more when
necessary to keep the surface of the metal from exposure to the air passing
through the furnace. The polling, as already described, is then proceeded
with, and by the application of my "new principle," which I have now
described, the remaining portion of sulphur and other impurities which are
inseparable from the copper by the ordinary method used in refining, are
effectually removed, and the metal becomes highly ductile and malliable.
The said proportions of lime and other matters or substances are such as I
have hitherto employed with best effect. But such propositions may probably
be successfully varied according to circumstances and the nature of the ores
to be smelted, and which must necessarily be left to the judgment and
discretion of the smelter.
Having thus described my "new principle" in "the roasting and refining"
of copper, and the manner of carrying the same into effect, I would have it
understood that I claim as "my Invention" the application or use of any
portion of lime in combination with any other matters or substances what-
soever in "roasting" or in "refining" copper ores, and which I have herein-
before described as the fifth and sixth or the last processes in smelting.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Brown, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
Signed, sealed, and delivered (being first
duly stamped), in the presence of us,
EDWARD BROWN. (L.S.)
Jo. HN BEVAN,
DD ROBINSON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1839, the aforesaid Edward Brown 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 the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.