Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 18th July, 1887
Complete Left, 20th Mar., 1888
Complete Accepted, 18th July, 1888
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON F.C.S. M.I.M.E. of the Agency for Foreign Patent
Solicitors 6, Lord Street, Liverpool and 6, Bank Street, Manchester both in the
County of Lancaster and 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows :-
The discovery which forms the object of the present application has for its object
the industrial preparation of certain metals, which are little or not at all volatile,
aluminium, silicium, magnesium, calcium, etcetera, and of their alloys.
The description, which follows, relates to aluminium, and its alloys, and is not
restricted to that metal, but is taken here as an example for the exposition of the
employed method.
It is based on the following principle.
If sulphur, (carbon) and alumina or salts of the same with a non metallic acid,
(sels, non metallique) of alumina be intimately mixed, a sulphide of carbon will tend
to form as soon as the temperature of red heat is reached, and then transform itself
into vapours. These vapours being in contact with an intimate mixture of carbon
and alumina, reduce the latter substance into sulphide of alumina. If then, the
temperature is raised to that of white heat, the sulphuret of aluminium is reduced
again by the carbon in excess to aluminium in a pulverulent state, and bisulphide
of carbon.
To obtain the above mentioned intimate mixture in the following manner; (it
could be obtained in a good many other ways without affecting the principle of the
method) about litre of petroleum, spirit of turpentine, tar, or any other hydro-
carbon is put in together with about 1500 grammes of alumina or salt of alumina,
previously reduced to a fine powder, and the mixture is then stirred till it forms a

page_text: paste that kneads well. On this paste is poured 500 grammes of commercial-sulphuric
acid, which is stirred again in order to obtain a more or less -dark thoroughly
homogeneous tint.
This done, the whole is thrown into a crucible heated to a red heat so that the
hydrocarbon will be decomposed.
The substances are allowed to cool down, the intimate mixture of sulphur, coal and
alumina is reduced to powder, and into it is introduced half of its weight of filings of
a metal, zinc, copper, iron or lead. The whole is placed in a crucible, which is closed
carefully, etcetera, and is kept at the temperature of white heat, during two or three
hours; then it is allowed to cool again.
The crucible once cold, is opened; it contains a more or less dark powder, and
grains of a more or less rich alloy. These grains are sorted approximately according
to their richness, and melted again together. The powder is used in the next
operation which is again gone through as it has been explained in the foregoing.
Instead of operating in a crucible, a cupola smelting furnace or a low blast furnace
may be used. These results are more important, but the working of the operation
remains the same.

page_text: I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON F.C.S. M.I.M:E. of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6 Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6 Bank Street, Manchester, both in
the County of Lancaster, and 323 High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
The discovery which forms the object of the present application. has for its object
the industrial preparation of certain metals, which are little or not at all volatile,
aluminium, silicium, magnesium, calcium, etcetera, and of their alloys.
The description, which follows, relates to aluminium, and its alloys, and is not
restricted to that metal, but is taken here as an example for the exposition of the
employed method.
It based on the following principle:
If sulphur, (carbon) and alumina or a suitable salt of alumina be intimately mixed,
together a sulphide of carbon will tend to form as soon as the temperature of red
heat is reached, and then transform itself into vapours.
These vapours being in contact with an intimate mixture of carbon and alumina,
reduce the latter substance into sulphide of alumina. If then, the temperature is
raised to that of white heat, the sulphuret of aluminium is reduced again by the
carbon in excess to aluminium in a pulverulent state, and bisulphide of carbon.
To obtain the above mentioned intimate mixture in the following manner: (it could
be obtained in a good many other ways without affecting the principle of the method)
about litre of petroleum, spirit of turpentine, tar, or any other hydrocarbon is put
in together with about 1500 grammes of alumina or salt of alumina, previously
reduced to a fine powder, and the mixture is then stirred till it forms a paste
that kneads well. On this paste is poured 500 grammes of commercial sulphuric.
acid, which is stirred again in order to obtain a more or less dark thoroughly
homogeneous tint.
This done, the whole is thrown into a crucible heated to a red heat so that the
hydrocarbon will be decomposed.
The substances are allowed to cool down, the intimate mixture of sulphur, coal and
alumina is reduced to powder, and into it is introduced half of its weight of filings
of a metal, zinc, copper, iron, or lead. The whole is placed in a crucible, which is
closed carefully, and is kept at the temperature of white heat, during two or three
hours, then it is allowed to cool again.

page_text: 2ND. PREPARATION OF THE FLUX.
Lixiviated-ashes, the residue of the manufacture of commercial carbonate of soda
are mixed with tar, compressed and dried so as to form solid bricks.
3RD. CHARGING THE CUPOLA AND THE WORKING THEREOF.
The bricks of ore and those of the flux being prepared, and the cupola already
heated to a white heat, ten parts of coke are thrown into the cupola, then ten parts of
artificial ore, and lastly five parts of flux. The charging is repeated in proportion as
the substances come down. When the blast has caused the temperature to be raised
to the melting point, the metal is drawn off, and run into moulds.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The preparation of alloys of non-volatile or difficultly volatile metals, having a
strong affinity for oxygen, such as aluminium, silicon, magnesium, or calcium, by
forming a powder composed of the oxide of such metal (or a salt, which when heated
will decompose into a volatile acid, and an oxide of such metal), sulphur, and carbon,
and adding to it filings or powder of the alloying metal, and heating the same to a
white heat out of contact with air for some hours.
2. The process of forming alloys of aluminium, silicon, magnesium, calcium, or
other alkaline earth metal, substantially as described.
3. In conjunction with the above, enriching the alloy by adding it instead of the
filings of the commoner metal in a succeeding operation of the same process.
Doted this 19th day of March 1888
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.