A New or Improved Process for Making Metallic Sulphates in Solution.
Year: 1889

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by LuCIUS O'BRIEN, of Sydney, in the Colony of New
South Wales, Gentleman.]
A New or Improved Process for Making Metallic Sulphates in
Solution.
HENRY EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 6 Bream's Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The principle of this invention consists in the injection of Sulphurous Acid,
under pressure, into a vat or vessel containing water and the minerals or ores to be
sulphated.
It is already well known that water will absorb sulphurous acid gas at ordinary
atmospheric pressure, and that metallic sulphates may be formed by adding to the
water the minerals or ores to be sulphated; but the capacity of water for absorbing
sulphurous acid gas decreases with increase of temperature, and at the boiling
point the steam arising from the water repels the gas, and the operation is thereby
defeated.
Now, the hoiling temperature is essential to the rapid formation of sulphates made
by injecting sulphurous acid, and it is therefore necessary to force the sulphurous acid
under high pressure underneath or into the midst of the water and materials to be
sulphated, and this is accomplished preferably thus:-
A charge of sulphur or other material containing sulphur is placed in a combustion
cylinder capable of sustaining a high pressure, preferably an iron cylinder is used, and
fitted with a man hole and man hole door, and smaller opening large enough to admit
of the sulphur or other material being passed into it by a funnel, and capable of being
easily closed by means of a screw plug. At one end of the cylinder is fitted a pipe
through which atmospheric air, for the combustion of the sulphur, is pumped under
pressure from a suitable air compressor. Any convenient modification of pyrites
burners, as used in sulphuric acid manufacture, may also be employed for this purpose,
and the fumes may be injected as herein described, or by means of any other con-
venient form of injector.
When the sulphur or other material containing sulphur in the combustion cylinder
or burner has been ignited, the man hole and plug openings. being closed, atmospheric
air is pumped into the cylinder from a suitable air compressor, to keep up the combus-
tion of the sulphur, and the resulting gases, consisting chiefly of sulphurous acid,
nitrogen, and free oxygen, are driven under pressure out of the cylinder, and through
an outlet pipe into the bottoms of the vats containing the water and the metals,
minerals, or ores to be sulphated. In the bottom of each of these vats is fastened
securely an elongated box, or pipe, of earthenware or leail, and into this box the
sulphurous and other gases are forced, and there mixed with steam admitted by a pipe
from a steam boiler.
The above mentioned box is provided at its bottom, on each side, with long, narrow
slits or openings. and through these slits the mixed steam and gases issue, and cause
violent agitation in the water and amongst the other materials in the vats; and when,
as is generally the case, these materials consist of minerals or ores in fine division, the
result of such agitation is that the solid particles are kept in suspension in the water
by the combined effect of the steam and the sulphurous and other gases, and the
sulphurous gases are thus arrested and absorbed. If, now, the water be kept boiling,
and a sufficient quantity of ore or mineral be present, there will be no waste of the
sulphurous gas.
The vats may be hung at or under their centres upon trunnions or turning points,
so that they may be moved, and their bottoms set in an inclined plane during the

page_text: process of boiling, by which means the materials in the vats are moved, kept in
agitation, and so exposed to the direct action of the sulphurous gas.
It may be advantageous, to mix with the other gases a proper proportion of nitrous
fumes, as in the manufacture of sulphuric acid; or any other convenient oxygen
yielding substance, such, for instance as manganese binoxide may be used with the
minerals or ores being treated. The nitrous fumes may be produced by generating
them in a separate vessel under pressure, and conveying them by a pipe into the
earthenware box above described, and so mixing them with the other gases.
By the above described process, the sulphates of iron, nickel, cobalt, manganese,
and other metals, may be readily formed in solution, and the solutions thus obtained
may then be treated by known methods, and converted into the forms suitable for
commerce.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The use of sulphurous acid under pressure for the purpose of forming metallic
sulphates in solution.
2. The use of sulphurous acid under pressure, in combination with nitrous oxide,
oxygen, and other substances yielding oxygen, for the purpose of forming metallic
sulphates in solution.
Dated this 14th day at Man 1000
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.