IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING ZINC
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Russell, of Bonnyfield, in the County of
Stirling, North Britain, and William Ross Hutton, of Stirling, in
the same County, Zinc Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IM-
Sealed the 13th September 1872, and dated the 15th March 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Russell and."
William Ross Hutton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 15th March 1872.
We, JAMES RUSSELL, of Bonnyfield, in the County of Stirling, North
Britain, and WILLIAM ROSS HUTTON, of Stirling, in the same County,
Zinc Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING ZINC," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object the obtaining of zinc from its ores
by improved processes, which are not only more economical, but also
yield a purer metal than those heretofore in use.
.Hitherto in obtaining zinc from calamine, which is a carbonate of

page_text: zinc, or from zinc blende, which is a sulphide, it has been the practice
to first calcine the ore so as to form zinc oxide, and to reduce the oxide
by a subsequent process.
In treating calamine by the present Invention, however, the pre-
liminary calcining process is entirely omitted, and the calamine is
reduced to the metallic state at one operation by heating with coke or
other suitable carbonaceous substance. The proportion of coke required
is about the same as that used-for reducing the oxide, whilst a purer
metal is obtained.
In treating zinc blende, it is first heated or calcined in furnaces of the
kind used for burning sulphur or pyrites, and the sulphurous acid driven
off is led to apparatus for converting it into sulphuric acid in the usual
way, so as to utilise the sulphur. The sulphurous acid is, however, led
through sufficiently elongated flues or passages, or through chambers,
wherein any zinc oxide carried off by it may be deposited. The zinc
oxide obtained by this calcining process is afterwards reduced in the
ordinary way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Russell and William Ross Hutton in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th September 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
RUSSELL, of Bonnyfield, in the County of Stirling, North Britain, and
WILLIAM ROSS HUTTON, of Stirling, in the same County, Zinc Manu-
facturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said James Russell and William Ross Hutton, Her
special licence that we, the said James Russell and William Ross Hutton,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
James Russell and William Ross Hutton, our 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,

page_text: 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 OBTAINING ZINC,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said James Russell
and William Ross Hutton, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our, 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 we, the said James Russell and William Ross
Hutton, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement in writing, that is to
say:
Our said Invention has for its object the obtaining of zinc from its
ores by improved processes, which are not only more económical, but also
yield a purer metal than those heretofore in use.
Hitherto in obtaining zine from calamine, which is a carbonate of
zinc, or from zinc blende, which is a sulphide, it has been the practice
to first calcine the ore so as to form zinc oxide, and to reduce the oxide
by a subsequent process.
In treating calamine by the present Invention, however, the pre-
liminary calcining process is entirely omitted, and the calamine is
reduced to the metallic state at one operation by heating with coke or
other suitable carbonaceous substance. The proportion of coke required
is about the same as that used for reducing the oxide, whilst a purer
metal is obtained. The reduction may be effected in furnaces of the
kind in use for reducing the oxide.
In treating zinc blende, it is first heated or calcined in furnaces of the
kind used for burning sulphur or pyrites, and the sulphurous acid driven
off is led to apparatus for converting it into sulphuric acid in the usual
way, so as to utilise the sulphur. The sulphurous acid is, however, led
through sufficiently elongated flues or passages, or through chambers,
wherein any zinc oxide carried off by it may be deposited. The zinc
oxide obtained by this calcining process is afterwards reduced in the
ordinary way.

page_text: Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, we have to state that what we believe to be
novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to us by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The obtaining of zinc by direct reduction with the aid of car-
bonaceous matter from calamine, and without previous calcination, as
herein-before.described.
2. The obtaining of zinc from blende by first heating or calcining it
in furnaces arranged to utilise the sulphur, and then reducing in the
ordinary way the oxide so obtained, elongated flues, passages, or chambers
being provided in connection with the calcining furnaces for the
deposition of zinc oxide carried off by the sulphurous acid, as herein-
before described.
I
In witness whereof, I, the said William Ross Hutton, on behalf of
the said James Russell and myself, have hereunto set my hand ]
and seal, this Thirteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
WILLIAM R. HUTTON. (L.S.)