AN IMPROVEMENT IN CERTAIN PARTS OF THE PROCESS OF SMELTING OR OBTAINING METALLIC COPPER FROM COPPER OBE;
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEгп
JONES, of Amlwch, in the County of Anglesea, in North Wales, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His prosent most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-eight, in the ninth year of His reign, give and grant
unto me, the said Joseph Jones, His especial licence that I, the said Joseph
Jones, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as 1,
the said Joseph Jones, my executors, administrators, 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 mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN CERTAIN
PARTS OF THE PROCESS OF SMELTING OR OBTAINING METALLIC COPPER FROM COPPER
OBE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me,
the said Joseph Jones, to 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 His 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 thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Jones, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in the following explanation :-

page_text: The process of smelting or obtaining metallic copper from copper ore when
my improvement is adopted, is as follows:-The copper ore is to be melted in
a melting furnace, and brought in the usual way into the state of what is
called regule or regulus or coarse metal, which substance I believe to contain
sulphurate of copper with sulphurate of iron, but without asserting positively
what its chemical composition may be; the ternis regule or regulus, com-
monly used in Anglesea, and the term, coarse metal, commonly used in South
Wales, are well known to persons conversant with the art of copper smelting.
Then the regule or regulus or coarse metal is mixed and melted with a portion
of copper ore which has not been previously melted, but the copper contained
in that orc must not be in a state of sulphuret; consequently, if the ore mixed
with the regule or regulus or coarse metal be in its native state of a sulphin-
rcous kind, it must be deprived of its sulphur by strong calcination previously
to so mixing and melting it along with the regule or regnlus or coarse metal,
such previous calcination of the sulphurcous ore being effected by the com-
bustion of its own sulphur, in the manner commonly practised in Anglesea, in
what are called kilns. By thus melting the regule or regulus or coarse metal
along with a suitable mixture of copper ore by way of flux, regulated in
manner berein-after mentioned, there will be no necessity for a long calcina-
tion or roasting of the mixture in a furnace previously to melting the same;
and by such mixing and melting the regule or regulus or coarse metal as
aforesaid, a great part of the iron and other impurities contained in the regule
or regulus or coarse metal (as well as in the copper ore mixed therewith by
way of flux) will separate from the melted mixture in the form of a slag, which
is sufficiently fluid when in a melted state to flow out through the furnace tap
hole (or it may be skimmed off from the melted mixture) leaving the product
of the fusion more rich in copper than the same regule or regulus or coarse
metal would have become by undergoing the usual calcination or roasting in
a furnace previous to fusion, without mixing and melting copper ore with the
regule or regulus or coarse metal, as before declared, by way of a flux. The
quantities of regule or regulus, or coarse metal and copper ore used as flux,
to be mixed and melted together as aforesaid, should be regulated in manner
herein-after mentioned, so as to be apportioned to each other according to
their respective qualities, in such manner as will cause as much as possible of
their impurities to flow or be skimmed off in the slag, and leave the product of
their fusion in the state of what is called rich grey regule in Anglesea, and in
South Wales, fine metal, or blue metal, or an intermediate stage between that
state and the state that is called coarse copper. The state to which the
regule or regulus or coarse metal should be converted by melting it along

page_text: with the due admixture of copper ore by way of flux, is that state in which
it approaches as near as possible to purc sulphuret of copper, which is a
compound of about 78 or 80 per cent. by weight of copper, with 22 or 20
per cent. by weight of sulphur. If, for want of suitable ore for flux, or if for
want of a proper adjustment of the doses of ore and regule or regulus or coarse
metal to suit their respective qualities, the product of the first fusion should
not approach sufficiently near to the state of sulphuret of copper, then that
product must be melted again in mixture with more copper ore, until the state
of sulphuret of copper is obtained as near as can be done, when the pro-
duct of the admixture above described is brought by the means aforesaid to a
state of sulphuret of copper, or to a state approaching to sulphuret of copper,
as near as can be done, the metallic copper is obtained by calcining or
roasting in the usual way. When a portion of copper ore (which either from
its own nature, or from previous calcination, is not in a state of sulphuret) is
melted along with the regule or regulus or coarse metal (which I suppose to
consist of sulphuret of copper and sulphuret of iron), the copper contained in
such ore, as soon as it comes to a state of fusion, begins to combine with the
sulphur that is held the iron contained in the regule or regulus or coarse
metal, and the iron so liberated from its combination with the sulphur then
enters with the earthy matters in the slag; also, during this separation of the
iron, a portion of sulphur and such other substances as can be driven off' at a
high temperature, make their escape through the chimney of the furnace. To
give time for the separation of the iron, the melted mixture of regule or
regulus or coarse metal and copper ore should be well stirred, and then allowed
to stand some time in the furnace in a state of fusion before the fluid slag is
drawn or skimmed off from the surface of the melted mixture. The kinds
of copper ore which may be used to mix and melt with the regule or regulus
or coarse metal by way of flux are sulphureous copper ore after it has been
highly calcined by its own combustion, so as to burn away the sulphur and
bring part of the copper contained in the ore into a state of oxide; and it
commonly happens that some parts of the sulphurcous copper ore which
has been calcined by its own combustion in kilns, (as is the custom in
Anglesea,) will be found sufficiently calcined and deprived of its sulphur
for the purpose, or any copper ore which is not in a state of sulphuret may
be used to mix and melt with the regule or regulus or coarse metal, viz,
such as is called red copper ore, or black copper, otherwise called black oxide
of copper, or blue copper, or malachite, or any carbonate of copper, or copper
green, or di-prismatic olivenite, otherwise called lenticular copper, or arseniate
of copper. As to the proportions or quantity of copper ore (not in the state of

page_text: sulphuret) which should be mixed with any given quantity of regule or regulus
or coarse metal in order to act as a flux therewith, so as to bring the product
to the state of sulphuret of copper, or as near thereto as can be done, the same
will depend upon the nature of the ore and the quality of the regule or regulus
or coarse metal. And so of the number of times that the melting of the regule
or regulus or coarse metal in mixture with the copper ore by way of flux must
be repeated, in order to attain as near as can be to the state of sulphuret of
copper. It is well known that the regule or regulus or coarse metal obtained
from the first melting of some sorts of copper ore that is richer in copper than
the regule or regulus or coarse metal obtained from other sorts of ore, that
circumstance depending in a great measure upon the quantities and varieties
of the impurities that the ores contain along with the copper, for instance, the
copper ores of Anglesea (which are principally sulphureous), are by the first
melting brought to a regule or regulus containing forty-five, or fifty, or more
per cent. of copper, whilst the Cornish and other ores smelted in South Wales
are commonly brought to a coarse metal, containing about thirty-three per
cent. of copper. The copper ores which must be mixed and melted with the
regule or regulus or coarse metal by way of a flux will also vary in richness.
The quantities of copper ore not in a state of sulphuret and of the regule or
regulus or coarse metal to be mixed and melted together for the purpose
aforesaid, must be regulated according to the quantity of iron in a state of
sulphuret that may be contained in the regule or regulus or coarse metal, and
the quantity of copper (not in the state of sulphuret) that may be contained in
the ore when they are mixed and melted together. The definite proportions
in which sulphur will combine with copper and iron respectively to form
sulphurets are well known to persons conversant in chemistry. For per-
forming the above process, I employ a reverberatory furnace of the common
size and construction that is used for melting copper ore, say eleven or eleven
and a half feet in length, by seven and a half or eight feet broad at the
broadest part; into this furnace I put one ton weight in a charge of regule or
regulus or coarse metal and copper ore mixed in suitable proportions, regulated
in manner above mentioned; but the charge may be varied in quantity
according to the number of charges that are required to be melted in the
furnace per day, and according to the quantities of the regule or regulus or
coarse metal and ore to be smelted. The number of charges that may be
melted in a furnace per day will of course depend on the state of repairs of
the furnace, but they ought not to exceed five or six charges in twenty-four
hours. After the charge is melted and has been well stirred, it is proper to
leave it in the furnace in a melted state for one quarter of an hour, half an

page_text: hour, or more (if the furnace bottom will bear it without breaking), for the
purpose of expediting the process.
I hereby declare that I claim as my Invention and improvement, those parts
only, and no others, of the process above stated of smelting or obtaining
metallic copper from copper ore which begins at that part of the process of
smelting above described, after copper ore has been brought to a state of
regule or regulus or coarse metal, and go on in manner above stated by me
until that regule or regulus or coarse metal, mixed and melted in manner
aforesaid with copper ore not in a state of sulphuret, has been brought to a
state of sulphuret of copper, or to a state approaching thereto as near as can
be done, in manner aforesaid. I further declare that the object of my
improvement in those parts of the process of smelting or obtaining metallic
copper from copper ore, which I claim as my Invention as aforesaid, is to
facilitate the separation of iron, sulphur, and other matters from copper ore
after the same has been brought by the usual means to the state of regule or
regulus or coarse metal, as well as of the impurities of the ore not in a state of
sulphuret mixed therewith in performing the process above described, such
separation by the process above described, certain parts of which I claim as
my improvement, as aforesaid, may be effected in a given number of furnaces,
being used in less time and at a less expence than could be done by the course
usually adopted with the same number of furnaces.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Jones, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of January, One thousand eight
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.