IMPROVE MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER FROM COPPER ORE
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Balleny Elkington, of Newall Street, Bir-
mingham, in the County of Warwick, for the Invention of "IMPROVE
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER FROM COPPER ORE."
Sealed the 27th April 1866, and dated the 3rd November 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Balleny Elkington
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd November 1865.
I, JAMES BALLENY ELKINGTON, of Newall Street, Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER FROM COPPER ORE," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
copper from copper ore. For these purposes the ores containing copper are
to be treated in the ordinary manner by heat till they are brought to a
regulus pimple or blister metal or other state, previous to the ordinary
refining process by heat, by which the best select copper is obtained; and in
place of continuing the ordinary process of refining by heat the products
before mentioned are, according to the present Invention, refined by electric or
magnetic currents, by employing such metal products to be used as positive

page_text: plates in a solution, by which the copper in these plates will be dissolved and
deposited as pure copper on the surfaces in connection with the negative
poles employed, whilst the other metals previously combined with the copper
in the unrefined plates at the positive poles will be precipitated in forms or
combinations depending on the solvent employed in the solutions.
In carrying out this Invention a series or succession of vats are used,
and the electric or magnetic currents pass in succession through the series.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Balleny Elkington in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd May 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
BALLENY ELKINGTON, of Newhall Street, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Balleny Elkington, Her special licence that I, the said James
Balleny Elkington, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said James Balleny Elkington, myexecutors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER FROM COPPER ORE," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the James Balleny Elkington,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Balleny Elkington, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-

page_text: This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
copper from copper ore. For these purposes the ores containing copper are
to be treated in the ordinary manner by heat till they are brought to a regulus
pimple or blister metal or other state,previous to the ordinaryrefining process
by heat, by which the marketable and best select copper is obtained, and in
place of continuing the ordinary process of refining by heat, the products
before mentioned are, according to the present Invention, refined by electric
or magnetic currents by employing such metal products as positive plates
in a solution by which the copper in these plates will be dissolved and
deposited as pure copper on the surfaces in connection with the negative
poles employed, whilst the other metals previously combined with the
copper in the unrefined plates at the positive poles will be precipitated.
I prefer to proceed as follows:-I treat the copper ore so as to obtain blister
or pimple copper by the ordinary smelting operations, and I cast such impure
copper as it comes from the furnace into plates, say eighteen inches square.
and three-quarters of an inch thick, and with lugs projecting from their
corners at one end. These plates I place in troughs each sufficiently long to
take two plates end to end, and I place three such rows of plates, or in all
six positive plates in each trough, a space of say six inches being left between
the rows. The lugs on the plates rest on the ends of the trough and on a
cross bar fixed midway of its length, which parts have strips of copper fixed
on them, which strips are all in metallic connection the one with the other.
Equidistant between and also beyond the rows of positive plates I arrange
rows of negative plates, four rows in all; these plates are made of pure
copper rolled thin, say to nd of an inch in thickness, otherwise the plates are
about the size of the copper cakes required for the market, twelve inches by
six inches is convenient, there may be four such plates in each row or sixteen
in each trough. The negative plates are each cut with a projecting tongue,
and by this they are fixed to a frame made of copper rods, the tongue of each
plate is lapped around the frame, and the plate is thus connected and held.
The frame has arms at its four corners which rest on the sides of the trough on
which are copper strips, insulated from the strips at the ends of the trough.
In this manner I make up a series of, say, twenty-five troughs, and I put the
negative plates of one trough in metallic connection with the positive plates
of the next, and so on throughout the series. Care should be taken that at
each point of metallic connection clean surfaces are brought in contact. The
troughs are charged with a nearly saturated solution of crystals of sulphate
of copper, the positive plates at one end of the series and the negative plates
at the other. I connect with the positive and negative poles of an apparatus

page_text: generating a current of electricity. I employ a magneto electric machine,
such as is commonly used in electro-plating for a series of troughs such as
that above described; it should be of a size such as would be used in electro-
p'ating, with a silver plate or electrode exposing, say, twenty square feet of
surface, or, say a machine having 50 permanent magnets weighing 28 lbs.
each and fully magnetized, the other parts of the machine being in proportion.
The exact amount of power of the magneto-electric machine is, however, not
very important so long as it is sufficient to bring the copper down as rapidly
as is commercially desirable, should there be an excess of power (of which a
workman acquainted with electro-plating will be able readily to judge) it is
necessary only to add more troughs to the series. The positive plates are
continued at work until they are so corroded that pieces are liable to become
detached from them, they are then changed for new plates and the old ones
are re-cast. The negative plates may conveniently be kept in until they are
three-quarters of an inch to an inch thick. The sulphate of copper solutions
are kept at work until they become so charged with sulphate of iron that
their further use is inconvenient, they are then changed and the copper
recovered from the old bath by processes which are well understood. There
are other solutions which may be used in place of sulphate of copper, but
not so far as I am aware so conveniently. The residue which accumulates at
the bottom of the troughs is removed from time to time, it frequently contains
a considerable per-centage of silver, some gold, and also tin and antimony,
it therefore has a considerable market value, and may be sold to the refiners.
In place of working with positive plates of blister or pimple, copper plates
of more impure copper from earlier stages of the smelting process may be
taken, this, however, will cause a considerable increase in the amount of
copper in the residue; when blister copper is worked, very little of the
copper goes into the residue.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Balleny Elkington, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
JAMES BALLENY ELKINGTON. (L.S.)