AN IMPROVED METHOD OF OBTAINING ALUMINIUM AND MAGNESIUM
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Tony Petitjean, of Hatton Garden, in the County of
Middlesex, Chemist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF
OBTAINING ALUMINIUM AND MAGNESIUM,"
Sealed the 2nd March 1858, and dated the 4th September 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Tony Petitjean at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
September 1857.
I, TONY PETITJEAN, of Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OF OBTAINING ALUMINIUM AND MAGNESIUM," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in transforming so much of the aluminium and
magnesium as is present in the substances with which they are found naturally
combined into one or more sulphurets; I then drive off the sulphur there-
from by the aid of carbon or hydrocarbon, or of a suitable metal or metals
mixed therewith, and exposed in a crucible to a high temperature, after which
the aluminium or magnesium in a metallic state will be deposited in the
crucible.
5
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Tony Petitjean in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
4th March 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, TONY
PETITJEAN, of Hatton Garden, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, send
greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Tony Petitjean, Her special licence that I, the said Tony Petitjean,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Tony
Petitjean, my executors, 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OF OBTAINING ALUMINIUM AND MAGNESIUM," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Tony Petitjean, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 Tony Petitjean, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in transforming so much of the aluminium and
magnesium as is present in the substances with which they are found
naturally combined into one or more sulphurets; I then remove the sulphur
therefrom by the aid of carbon, or a hydrocarbon, or of a suitable metal or
metals mixed therewith, and exposed in a crucible to a high temperature,
after which the aluminium or magnesium in a metallic state will be deposited
in the crucible.
In carrying my Invention into effect I proceed as follows:-Alumina or
magnesia or other suitable matter is placed in a tube or chamber, and heated
to a red heat, and sulphuret of carbon in the form of vapour is then passed
into or through it. To obtain this vapour I do not employ the liquid
sulphuret of carbon of commerce, but I employ the ordinary apparatus used
for producing the said sulphuret, and instead of condensing the vapour thus
obtained, pass it directly into or through the tube or chamber containing the
lieated alumina or magnesia. I stir the mass from time to time, in order to
facilitate the combination, which is completed when all the metal of the
alumina or magnesia is converted into a liquid or melted sulphuret. Or, in

page_text: place of producing a sulphuret as before described, a double sulphuret may
be formed by melting alumina or magnesia or other suitable matter in a
crucible lined with carbon, the said alumina or magnesia being previously
mixed with a little tar or turpentine or some other carburet, then highly
heated, then mixed with a powder formed of carbonate of soda, or potash and
sulphur, and finally submitted to a violent heat for some time.
The sulphuret or double sulphuret being produced as before decribed, is
ground and put into a crucible in the form of a pipe or tube, and I then pass
through the bottom of the crucible a current of carburetted hydrogen; or I
pass through a pipe into the crucible at the bottom some solid or liquid hydro-
carbon, which separates aluminium or magnesium from combination with
sulphur; or I obtain the aluminium or magnesium from the sulphuret or the
double sulphuret by mixing either of them, as the case may be, with powdered
metal, such, for instance, as iron, and then melting the mixture; or I obtain
the aluminium or magnesiun from the sulphuret or the double sulphuret, by
passing metallic vapours into the crucible in the same way and under the
same circumstances as I before stated in the case of the hydrocarbon. I do
not limit myself to the use of any form or description of apparatus in carrying
my Invention into effect.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the method of
obtaining aluminium and magnesium by transforming so much of them as is
present in the substances with which they are found naturally combined, into
a sulphuret or sulphurets, and then removing the sulphur therefrom by the
aid of carbon, hydrocarbons, metals, or metallic vapours, as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Tony Petitjean, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of March, One thousand eight hundred
T. PETITJEAN. (L.S.)