Improvements relating to the Treatment of Nickel and Cobalt.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Nev., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 1st Aug., 1889-Accepted, 7th Sept., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by PIERRE MANHES, of 1, Rue Childebert, Lyon, in
the Republic of France, Engineer and Metallurgist.]
Improvements relating to the Treatment of Nickel and Cobalt.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
By the treatment of ores in the converter I produce crude nickel and cobalt in the
proportion of about 97 or 98 per cent., and consequently these products, in order to
satisfy the requirements of the industry must undergo a refining treatment which
brings them to a state which if not absolutely pure is at least comparatively
pure.
The other processes of treating these same ores also often produce crude metals
which likewise require to be refined in order to adapt them for the uses for which
they are designed.
Heretofore wet processes, which are invariably long expensive and difficult, have
been almost exclusively employed for refining nickel and cobalt.
The process which forms the subject of this invention is a dry process which
assimilates as it were, the metallurgy of nickel and cobalt to that of other metals.
The following is a description of the operation, the details of which as a whole
constitute the improved process.
ง
On leaving the converter, or the apparatus in which it has been produced the
crude nickel or cobalt is cast in the form of plates, bars or shot. In practice
however I prefer to adopt the form of thin plates of from 10 to 15 millimetres in
thickness, and I will therefore speak of plates in the following description. These
plates are piled upon the sole of a furnace heated by oxidizing flames, or in any
other apparatus capable of heating the metal to a red heat in an oxidizing medium,
and they are thus maintained at a temperature corresponding to a red heat for a
longer or shorter time according to the degree of purity of the metal, the said time
varies from six to ten hours, the oxidation can however be hastened and its duration
can therefore be diminished by projecting upon the plates of nickel or cobalt a
little saltpetre.
Under the action of air the metal is oxidized at the surface without melting, and
when this oxidation is deemed sufficient, which can be very readily seen after a
little experience, the plates are removed from the furnace and allowed to cool; they
are then covered with a more or less thick crust of oxide.
The oxidized plates, as has been explained, are melted either in crucibles or in a
reverberatory furnace or in any other melting apparatus, with the addition of an
alkaline flux, such as potash, soda, borax, or the like, but sodium salts are preferable.
During the melting the oxide on the surface of the plates reacts upon the mass of
the metal, by acting upon the materials which are more oxidable than nickel. The
last traces of sulphur are eliminated in the state of sulphurous acid, and the iron is
transformed into the state of oxide; it is then that the alkaline flux acts and dissolves
the oxide of iron, whilst it scarcely acts at all upon the oxide of nickel or cobalt.
The result of the melting is therefore a comparatively pure nickel or cobalt which is
perfectly suitable for any industrial uses, and a scoria which has absorbed all the
oxides of iron produced, but contains only traces of nickel or cobalt.
I may observe that for the oxidation and melting two apparatus can be dispensed
with by employing a reverberatory furnace upon the sole of which the crude metal
is first roasted as above described, then melted in the same furnace by simply raising
the temperature sufficiently.

page_text: The foregoing description appears to be sufficient to render the reactions understood
upon which the method which forms the subject of this invention is based, and the
application of which to the metallurgy of nickel and cobalt constitutes a new
industrial process.
I wish it understood that I reserve the right to make such modifications in this
process as experience may suggest without departing from the nature of the said
invention.
Dated this 29th day of November 1888
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.
'
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to the Treatment of Nickel and Cobalt.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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 :-
By the treatment of ores in the converter I produce crude nickel and cobalt in the
proportion of about 97 or 98 per cent. and consequently these products, in order to
satisfy the requirements of the industry, must undergo a refining treatment which
brings them to a state which if not absolutely pure is at least comparatively
pure.
The other processes of treating these same ores also often produce crude metals
which likewise require to be refined in order to adapt them for the uses for which
they are designed.
Heretofore wet processes which are invariably long, expensive and difficult have
been almost exclusively employed for refining nickel and cobalt.
The process which forms the subject of this invention is a dry process which
assimilates, as it were, the metallurgy of nickel and cobalt to that of other metals.
The following is a description of the operation, the details of which as a whole,
constitute the improved process.
On leaving the converter or the apparatus in which it has been produced the crude
nickel or cobalt is cast in the form of plates, bars or shot. In practice however I
prefer to adopt the form of thin plates of from 10 to 15 millimetres in thickness and I
will therefore speak of plates in the following description. These plates are piled upon
the sole of a furnace heated by oxidizing flames, or in any other apparatus
capable of heating the metal to a red heat in an oxidizing medium, and they are thus
maintained at a temperature corresponding to a red heat for a longer or shorter time
according to the degrees of purity of the metal the said time varies from six to ten
hours; the oxidation can however be hastened and its duration can therefore be
diminished by projecting upon the plates of nickel or cobalt a little saltpetre.
Under the action of air the metal is oxidized at the surface without melting, and
when this oxidation is deemed sufficient, which can be very readily seen after a little
experience, the plates are removed from the furnace and allowed to cool; they are
then covered with a more or less thick crust of oxide.
The oxidized plates as has been explained, are melted either in crucibles or in a
reverberatory furnace or in any other melting apparatus, with the addition of an
alkaline flux, such as potash, soda, borax, or the like, but sodium salts are preferable.
During the melting the oxide on the surface of the plates reacts upon the mass of
the metal by acting upon the materials which are more oxidable than nickel. The
last traces of sulphur are eliminated in the state of sulphurous acid, and the iron is
transformed into the state of oxide; it is then that the alkaline flux acts and dissolves
the oxide of iron whilst it scarcely acts at all upon the oxide of nickel or cobalt.
The result of the melting is therefore a comparatively pure nickel or cobalt which is
perfectly suitable for any industrial uses, and a scoria which has absorbed all the oxide
of iron produced, but contains only traces of nickel or cobalt.

page_text: I may observe that for the oxidation and melting, two apparatus can be dispensed
with by employing a reverberatory furnace upon the sole of which the crude metal is
first roasted as above described, then melted in the same furnace by simply raising
the temperature sufficiently.
The foregoing description appears to be sufficient to render the reactions understood
upon which the method which forms the subject of this invention is based and the
application of which to the metallurgy of nickel and cobalt constitutes a new
industrial process.
I wish it understood that I reserve the right to make such modifications in this
process as experience may suggest without departing from the nature of the said
invention.
-
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is :-
First The treatment of nickel and cobalt by means of a process based upon the
superficial oxidation of bars of crude metal in order to subsequently cause the oxide
thus produced to react during the melting upon the materials which are more
oxidizable-than nickel and cobalt and thus effect the complete purification of these
metals.
Second-The employment, in the operation of melting of any alkaline flux but
principally sodium salts, for the purpose of dissolving and retaining the metallic
oxides produced except those of nickel and cobalt upon which they will scarcely act.
Dated this 1st day of August 1889
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.