IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE AND MEANS FOR EXTRACTING, RECOVERING, OR COLLECTING COPPER FROM WATER CONTAINING THE SAME IN SOLUTION, AND IN APPARATUS. THEREFOR
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Walter Arkle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th June 1869.
I, THOMAS WALTER ARKLE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MODE AND MEANS FOR EXTRACTING, RECOVERING, OR COLLECTING COPPER FROM
WATER CONTAINING THE SAME IN SOLUTION, AND IN APPARATUS. THEREFOR," to be
as follows (that is to say) :-
This Invention consists in an improved means of extracting, collecting,
or recovering copper from water containing the same in solution, such as
the water discharged from copper mines, and which by this discovery it
is believed can be accomplished and in a superior manner without the
use of iron, as now commonly practised, and is well understood.
To carry out this Invention fragments of pottery stone or pottery clay
are used, and superceeding the use of iron, and the apparatus used in
extracting the copper in solution by the aid of iron, known as "handings
or settling pits," or their present mechanical equivalent, may be con-
siderably modified and occupy much less ground surface.

page_text: This Invention can be carried out as follows:- Take pottery stone or
pottery clay in as dry a state as can be conveniently got, then break it
up into fragments, then dry it thoroughly by exposure to the atmospheric
air or heated air, or by placing the same in an oven or reverberatory
furnace, or a potter's or other kiln, and where practicable bake the
fragments to the condition of the potters' unglazed biscuit ware, which is
the state preferred, having been found the most effectual for the carrying
out the object in view. Having prepared the pottery stone or pottery
clay as described, allow the same when baked to cool; then deposit it in
long troughs divided into a number of chambers by means of a series of
transverse diaphragms, the first of which does not extend quite to the
bottom of the trough, so as to leave a passage for the water below its
lower edge, and the upper edge being sufficiently high to prevent the
water passing over it, and the second diaphragm has its upper edge a
little below the outer edges of the longitudinal sides of the trough or
spout, and extends down to the bottom thereof, so that no water escapes
below its lower edge, but will pass over its upper edge, and so on
throughout the whole of the set of diaphragms. The fragment of pottery
clay or potters' stone (which it is preferred should previously be burnt)
are deposited in the several chambers of the trough or spout, then the
supply of water being conveyed to the first chamber passes to the bottom
thereof under the lower edge of the first diaphragm into the second
chamber, where it passes over the upper edge of the second diaphragm
into the third chamber, and so on throughout the whole set. The
fragments of pottery stone or pottery clay are allowed to remain in the
chambers of the trough for such a time as judgment shall suggest
(which will vary considerably according to the quantity of copper
contained in solution in the supply water, and several other local circum-
stances), after which on examining the fragments the copper will be
found deposited thereon in a metallic state.