MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER AND NICKEL
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Tooke Straker at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 15th May 1879.
TOOKE STRAKER, of Birkenhead, in the County of Chester, Engineer.
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER AND NICKEL."
" IMPROVE-
My Invention relates to novel treatment of ores and materials containing copper
and nickel, or either of them, whereby a larger percentage of these metals is obtained
at less cost and in less time than has been possible hitherto.
The ores or materials are first smelted or reduced in a cupola or blast furnace, an
air blast and fluxes being used either at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere
or at a high temperature, so as to obtain a product containing a relatively high
percentage of copper or nickel.
After treatment in the said cupola or blast furnace the regulus is transferred or
allowed to run direct into a furnace which I call a concentrator furnace.
Said concentrator furnace consists of a rectangular or nearly rectangular furnace,
usually for economy in working placed on a lower level than the cupola or blast
furnace. In or about the crown there is an opening or chimney to allow the gases
to escape.
At the sides usually opposite to each other, and set at an angle, air
tuyeres are fitted in such manner that the air blast is directed on to and amongst
the material on the hearth. The distance or depth of the hearth from the nose of
the tuyeres is from 8 to 20 inches, the distance being greatest when the air pressure
is highest.
By means of the said air blast or said blast, aided if desired by oxygen bearing
materials such as black oxide of copper, nitrate of soda, or equivalent substance,
which upon being heated will readily yield oxygen, the impurities contained in the
regulus are oxidized or volatilized out, the principal impurities being sulphur, iron,
and arsenic. With the object of forming a fusible slag of these oxides there is
placed in the said furnace previous to the commencement, or during the operation,
silica or material containing silica in the necessary and well known proportions, to
unite with the oxidized metals and in quantities varying with the quantity of
materials to be treated. From time to time the slag formed is run off, thus exposing
the remaining regulus to the more intimate action of the oxidizing flame; or if it be
found more convenient in practice the regulus slag are allowed to remain in the
furnace until the operation is completed.

page_text: Instead of having the carbon or like material in contact with the metal to be
concentrated, coke or other heating agent, only in sufficient quantity to raise the
materials to a high temperature at the early part of the operation, is used, and after-
wards the metal and other substances are maintained in a liquid state by the heat
given off by the oxidation of the sulphur and iron aided, if desired, by waste gases
from blast furnaces or by other heating gases, the said gases, if blast furnace gases,
having been previously purified say in a water tower.
In some cases heating gases may be provided by passing a current of air through,
amongst, and in contact with incandescent coke contained in a retort or tower
placed preferably close to the concentrator furnace.
The copper or nickel after the treatment above outlined is refined in any usual
way.