Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Sept., 1887
Complete Left, 22nd Oct., 1887
Complete Accepted, 8th Nov., 1887
I, ARTHUR JOHN SHANNON of 55 Wood Lane Shepherd's Bush in the County of
Middlesex, Metallurgist do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My invention has for its object the obtaining of Antimony, firstly, from oxidised
ores; secondly, from sulphide ores not suitable for the ordinary liquation process,
that is to say, ores which owing to the fineness of the grain of the contained sulphide,
or to the admixture of the sulphide with native oxide, do not yield sufficient regulus
of Antimony to render such treatment advisable; thirdly, from furnace slags or
refuse products such as have been in the past and are at present produced when treating
ores by the liquation or other process.
I treat all or any of the above mentioned ores or products by one and the same
process, namely, by calcining them in a furnace of the cupola or other suitable type,
furnished with an air blast introduced by tuyeres. The details of the furnace are
shewn in the accompanying figure, wherein
A, represents the body of the furnace; B, floor of furnace; c, c, the tuyeres; d, d,
doors for withdrawing charge after calcination; e, e, firebrick lining; f,f, outer brick-
work shell; G, sliding firebrick damper; H, suspended hopper fitted with a sliding
bottom; K is a downward shaft, or "down-comer," (leading to settling flues) by
which furnace gases and volatilised products of the calcination leave the furnace.
This construction is that which I have found to answer best in practice, but any
suitable furnace arrangement which will effect the objects of my invention may be
adopted.
The obtaining of metallic antimony from the before mentioned ores, divides itself
into two operations; firstly, the calcination of the Antimony bearing substances in the
above mentioned furnace and the collection of the sublimed or volatilised oxide result-
ing therefrom in a suitable arrangement of flues or condensers; secondly the treatment
of the sublimed oxide with reducing materials upon the bed of an ordinary reverberatory
furnace.
I proceed in these operations as follows:-The calcining furnace having been

page_text: heated with a preliminary charge of fuel, air being injected through tuyeres, the
doors d, d, are firmly secured and the antimony bearing materials mixed with a suitable
proportion of fuel are charged into the furnace at intervals of a few hours until it is
sufficiently full, the damper being withdrawn for the admission of the charges and
then immediately replaced.
The
After the lapse of a certain period it will be found that nearly the whole of the
antimony contained in the ore has been volatilised and passed by means of the down-
comer into the flues or condensers where it is collected in the form of oxide.
furnace doors d d are then removed, the cinder, now practically free from antimony, is
raked out, and a fresh operation may be proceeded with.
Any convenient system of flues or condensers for the deposition of the oxide of
antimony may be adopted.
The second portion of the process relates to the treatment of the oxide so produced.
The oxide of antimony is mixed with a suitable proportion of coal dust or other
reducing agent, and the mixture is charged upon the bed of a reverberatory furnace ;
when the whole of the oxide has been reduced to the metallic state the melted metal is
drawn off, and the reverberatory hearth may be recharged.
Having now fully described my invention and the methods by which the operations
are performed 1 declare that what I claim is
Firstly; the separation of antimony in oxidised ores, in sulphide ores not suitable
for liquation, and in all refuse products containing antimony, from the earthy, siliceous,
or other extraneous matters with which it is mixed or combined, by means of calcina-
tion with forced air blast; and the collection of the antimony in the form of oxide in
suitable flues or condensers.
Secondly; the treatment of the oxide thus produced with a reducing agent upon
the bed of a reverberatory furnace.
Dated this First day of September 1887.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Extraction of Antimony from its Ores.
I, ARTHUR JOHN SHANNON of 55 Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush in the County of
Middlesex, Metallurgist, 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 :-
My invention has for its object the obtaining of antimony, firstly, from oxidised
ores, secondly, from sulphide ores not suitable for the ordinary liquation process, that
is to say, ores which owing to the fineness of the grain of the contained sulphide or to
the admixture of the sulphide with native oxide do not yield sufficient regulus of
antimony to render such treatment advisable, thirdly, from furnace slags or refuse
products such as have been in the past and are at present produced when treating ores
by the liquation or other process.
I treat all or any of the above mentioned ores or products by one and the same
process, namely by calcining them in a furnace of the cupola or other suitable type
furnished with an air blast introduced by tuyeres. The details of the furnace are
shown in the drawing filed with my provisional specification and which is a vertical
section. A represents the body of the furnace, 6 floor of furnace, c c the tuyeres, d d
doors for withdrawing charge after_calcination, e e firebrick lining, ff outer brickwork
shell, G sliding firebrick damper, H suspended hopper fitted with a sliding bottom.
K is a downward shaft, or "downcomer" (leading to settling flues) by which furnace
gases and volatilised products of the calcination leave the furnace. This construction
is that which I have found to answer best in practice, but any suitable furnace
arrangement which will effect the objects of my invention may be adopted.
The obtaining of metallic antimony from the before mentioned ores, divides itself
into two operations, firstly, the calcination of the antimony yielding substances in a
furnace such as above mentioned and the collection of the sublimed or volatilised oxide
resulting therefrom in a suitable arrangement of flues or condensers, secondly, the
treatment of the sublimed oxide with reducing materials upon the bed of an ordinary
reverberatory furnace.
I proceed in these operations as follows :-
The calcining furnace having been heated with a preliminary charge of fuel, air
being injected through tuyeres, the doors d d are firmly secured and the antimony
yielding materials mixed with a suitable proportion of fuel are fed into the furnace at
intervals of a few hours until it is sufficiently full, the damper being withdrawn for
the admission of the charges and then immediately replaced. After the lapse of a
certain period it will be found that nearly the whole of the antimony contained in the
ore has been volatilised and has passed by means of the downcomer into the flues or con-
densers where it is collected in the form of oxide. The furnace doors d d are then
removed the cinder now practically free from antimony is raked out and a fresh
operation may be proceeded with. Any convenient system of flues or condensers for
the deposition of the oxide of antimony may be adopted.

page_text: It is desirable to point out here the great importance of a powerful blast. In my
experiments I tried to work this process with a natural draft by making openings in
the walls of the cupola for the admission of air: this however entirely failed owing
apparently in part to the too limited supply of oxygen obtainable in this manner and
in part to the lack of the mechanical action of a powerful current of air. I then tried
a moderate strength of blast with a No. 1 Roots' blower but this also failed as did
likewise a more powerful blower. Last of all I used a No. 5 Roots' blower which
with a cupola of about 9 feet diameter by 20 feet high, produced a blast of 18" to 20"
upon the water guage and an entirely satisfactory result.
From this it appears that a blast of considerable strength is indispensable, but I do
not wish to be understood as confining myself to the proportions of blast and capacity
of cupola given above as these merely serve as an illustration and indicate one set of
apparatus from which I obtained the desired results. Persons skilled in this class of
operation will readily see that the force of the blast would vary with the proportions
of the cupola and its charge, the capacity or length of the downcomer, the density of
the charge and so forth.
Since filing my provisional specification I have discovered that experiments upon
rich antimony sulphur ores were made many years ago in a furnace; but owing to
the lack of the strong air blast (which is a most important feature in my process) the
methods formerly indicated are useless for dealing with the poor sulphur ores, the
oxidised ores, and low class antimony ores in general, for dealing with which my
process is specially devised.
The second portion of the process relates to the treatment of the oxide as produced.
The oxide of antimony is mixed with a suitable proportion of coal dust or other
reducing agent and the mixture is charged upon the bed of a reverberatory furnace ;
when the whole of the oxide has been reduced to the metallic state the melted metal
is drawn off and the reverberatory hearth may be recharged.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
The method of obtaining antimony by separating the antimony contained in a
oxidised ores in sulphide ores not suitable for liquation and in refuse products from
the earthy silicious or other extraneous matters with which it is mixed or combined by
calcination with forced air blast and collecting the antimony in the form of oxide in
suitable flues or condensers substantially as described.
Dated this 21st day of October 1887.