IMPROVE- MENTS IN BLASTING ROCKS AND OTHER MINERAL SUBSTANCES FOR MINING AND OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN SUCH WORKS
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
JOSEPH CONRAD MARIE Baron DE LIEBHABER, of Paris, in the Kingdom of
France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of March, in the eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, 1er heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Joseph Conrad Marie Baron De Liebhaber, my exors, adñiors,
and assigns, Ier especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Joseph Conrad Marie Baron De Liebhaber, my
exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Joseph
Conrad Marie Baron De Liebhaber, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in
the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her
said Majesty's Colonics and Plantations abroad, the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN BLASTING ROCKS AND OTHER MINERAL SUBSTANCES FOR MINING AND OTHER
PURPOSES, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN SUCH WORKS," partly communicated
and partly invented by myself; in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said William Joseph Conrad Maric Baron De Liebhaber, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High

page_text: Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and inmediately 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
William Joseph Conrad Marie Baron De Liebhaber, do hereby declare that
the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, are fully described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to
the figures and letters marked thereon (that is to say):--
In blasting rocks and mineral substances for mining and other purposes it
has been the practice to make cylindrical holes, penetrating to a greater or less
extent, and to cause such holes to be filled with powder, by which means the
extent of the material removed at one operation has been very limited; and
although, in some cases, where it has been wished to remove large masses of
rock, the cavities for the powder have been made larger at the interior than the
passage leading thereto, the passages have been required to be large enough
for a man to get in to work out the interior or chamber for the powder. And
it is well known that heretofore there has been no means of working so as to
produce a large inner chamber, with a small passage leading thereto. Now,
the object of the Invention is to form cavities or chambers for receiving the
powder, by causing the substance of the rock or mineral (at the end of a
suitably small passage) to be dissolved by solvents, and thus to facilitate the
removal of such substance to any required extent, by which the expence of
excavating is much reduced, and also a greater effect is produced by a given
quantity of powder used in blasting rocks or minerals, and I employ apparatus,
arranged as hereafter described, for facilitating the introduction of the solvents,
and for removing the matters from the cavities. And in order that the Inven-
tion may be fully understood and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to
describe the means employed by me. The holes in the rocks are made by
instruments, as heretofore used for that purpose, to the depth required; and it
is preferable that such holes should be inclined downwards, or as nearly so as
practicable, tho that is not absolutely necessary when blasting according to
this Invention. The holes being thus made, the inner ends are then to be
enlarged by means of suitable solvents, which will act upon some of the com-
ponent parts of the rocks, and reduce them to a state of solution, or nearly so.
The decomposing and dissolving liquids are removed either by a syphon suitable
for the diameter of the hole or passage into the enlarged chamber, or they may
be drawn out by a pump. And as rocks, more or less calcareous, will be the
most generally blasted by the aid of the Invention, I will for the most part
confine my description thereto, making such observations in respect to other

page_text: matters as will enable the workmen to vary the means according to the nature
of the other materials to be acted on. The solvent I prefer to use for acting
on calcareous matter is muriatic acid diluted with water; and it will readily be
understood by persons acquainted with the effect of such acid being brought to
act on calcareous as well as other matters, that the same will be dissolved, and
much gas will be evolved. The consequence, therefore, of introducing it into a
hole will be, that the lower or inner end of the hole will be enlarged, and that
this enlarging will go on as long as fresh quantities of acid are supplied, and
by so applying the acid as to prevent its coming to act on any other part of the
passage or hole except at the inner end thereof, the passage may be retained
of the original size; and in order to effect this, the apparatus which I will now
passage or hole except at the inner end thereof, the passage may be retained
of the original size; and in order to effect this, the apparatus which I will now
proceed to describe is used.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 of the Drawing represents the section of portion of a rock in which a
hole has been made, and which has been already enlarged to some extent at
its inner end by means of a solvent. a is the hole made in the ordinary
manner; is a tube passing through the tube c; the tube b is bent at b¹ in order
to prevent the gas evolved passing through it; the tubes b and c enter a vessel
containing muriatic acid of commerce diluted with about a third part of its
weight of water. The tubes b and c having been introduced into the hole a,
the space around the inner end of the tube is to be filled up with clay or other
suitable material, so as to prevent the acid or the froth produced coming into the
passage leading to the cavity d, by which means the enlargement will be only
at the cavity d. By this arrangement of apparatus the effect will be that,
as the acid flows through the tube b, the gas evolved will produce a froth,
and the same will flow away by the tube c into the vessel e, and the gas will
pass off, and this process is to be continued till the desired enlargement of the
cavity has been obtained, when it is to be washed out with water, and the
cavity dried by tow or other absorbent matter, when it will be ready to receive
the powder, which is to be introduced into the cavity, and the passage leading
thereto filled with sand or other suitable material. In some cases the greater
part of the tube c may be done away with, and in which case only the
upper part of the tube e will be used, as shewn at Figure 2; but instead
thereof I coat or line the interior of the hole with varnish or other substance
that is not acted upon by the acid, and I have found by practice that the
most suitable coating is what is known as marine glue, when the part of the
hole to be coated is sufficiently dry. It sometimes happens that the acid will
pass away through the fissures, either at the commencement or during the
operation. This will be ascertained by the diminution of the volume; then

page_text: water, holding plaster in suspension, is to be forced in, when the plaster will
deposit itself in those parts, and the acid will no longer act on those parts, nor
will it pass through. When operating with the Invention underground, it will
be requisite that the frothy acid gas should not be allowed to escape into the
air, but to pass into a close vessel in connection with another vessel containing
lime water or other materials capable of neutralizing the carbonic and muriatic
vapours. I would remark that although the apparatus above explained has
been found very useful in carrying out the other part of the Invention, yet the
use of such apparatus is not absolutely necessary, as with care the acid, diluted
in about three times its bulk of water, may be introduced into the cavity by the
use of a simple tube, and the passage to the cavity may be protected from being
too much enlarged by the acid by frequently agitating the acid at the end of
the hole, so that the heavier part of it be prevented falling down. It will be
evident, that when it is desired to blast matters which would not be acted
on by muriatic acid, then another solvent suitable to the particular matter is to
be resorted to, and used in the same manner as herein described, taking care
that whatever be the solvent employed, the apparatus for introducing the same is
to be made of a material not injuriously acted on by such solvent.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the best means I am
acquainted with for performing the same, I would have it understood that I do
not confine myself to the exact particulars herein described, so long as the
peculiar character of the Invention herein described be retained.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Joseph Conrad Marie Baron
De Liebhaber, have hereunto set my hand and scal, this Twelfth day
of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
year of our Lord 1845, the aforesaid William Joseph Conrad Baron De Liebhaber
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.