IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT AND SMELTING OF CERTAIN ARGENTIFEROUS OR SILVER ORES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Astley Paston Price, of Margate, in the County of
Kent, Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT
AND SMELTING OF CERTAIN ARGENTIFEROUS OR SILVER ORES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Astley Paston Price at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd May 1858.
I, ASTLEY PASTON PRICE, of Margate, in the County of Kent, Chemist, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
TREATMENT AND SMELTING OF CERTAIN ARGENTIFEROUS OR SILVER ORES," to be as
follows, that is to say:-
My Improvements consist in the mixing of certain argentiferous or silver
ores when in a state of division, either with or without the application of heat,
with bituminous coal, or with coal or carbonaceous matter and bituminous
coal, or with coal or carbonaceous matter and pitch, tar, asphalte, or bitumen,
or with pitch, tar, asphalte, or bitumen, or other bituminous material, such
materials when not in a fluid state being by preference employed in a state of
division, and subjecting such mixtures to pressure for the purpose of binding
and solidifying the same, such pressure being applied with or without the
previous application of heat; the said materials after pressure may be subjected

page_text: to a heating, distillatory, or coking process, either in a suitable distillatory
apparatus, or in any suitable coking oven or apparatus.
My improvements further consist in the admixture of suitable fluxes with
the before mentioned materials, or any of them together, with or without the
addition of certain sulphuretted or non-sulphuretted compounds or materials,
and subjecting the same to the modes of treatment above described, or to
either of such modes.
My improvements further consist in the employment of all such pressed,
and pressed and coked, or carbonized materials, either combined with suitable
fluxes as before mentioned, or in conjunction with suitable fluxes, and with or
without certain sulphuretted or non-sulphuretted compounds or materials in
the manufacture of silver, either in a cupola, blast, or other suitable furnace.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Astley Paston Price in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ASTLEY
PASTON PRICE, of Margate, in the County of Kent, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of ller reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Astley Paston Price, IIer special license that I, the said Astley Paston Price,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Astley
Paston Price, my exccutors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thercafter during
the term therein expressed, 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 THE
TREATMENT AND SMELTING OF CERTAIN ARGENTIFEROUS OR SILVER ORES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Astley Paston Price, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Astley Paston Price, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:-
My improvements consist in the preparation and treatment of certain
argentiferous or silver ores, such as those ores which are known as silver ores,
and which occur in commerce in a finely divided condition, being the result of
crushing, grinding, or other mechanical process of disintegration. The object
in submitting such finely divided silver ores to the preparation and treatment
as bérein-after mentioned, is to render their employment in a blast, cupola, or
other similar or suitable smelting furnace more convenient and advantageous
than when they are employed in the finely divided condition in which they are
met with in commerce.
In order to effect the objects before enumerated, I combine, mix, or
incorporate, with or without the application of heat, such before-mentioned
silver ores, when in a fine state of division, with bituminous coal, or with coal
or carbonaceous matter and bituminous coal, or with coal or carbonaccous
matters and pitch, tar, asphalte, or bitumen, or other bituminous matter, or
with pitch, tar, asphalte, or bitumen, or other bituminous matter or mixtures
thereof, such materials when not in a fluid state being by preference employed
in a state of division, and subject such mixtures to pressure or compression by
means of and in any suitable apparatus, as is well understood and employed in
the preparation and consolidation of fuel.
In order that the materials or any of the mixtures herein-before mentioned
may be consolidated and solidified, such operation of compression being
performed either with or without the previous application of heat to the.
materials and nuixtures to be compressed, or with the employment of heat
during such operation of compressing or solidifying, the said materials and
mixtures after having been subjected to pressure or to compression, may be
subjected to a heating, distillatory, or coking process in any suitable heating,
distilling, or coking apparatus, in order that a coked or a partially coked
material may be obtained, or the pressed and solidified materials may be
employed direct, for the purposes herein-after mentioned.
My improvements further consist in the admixture of suitable fluxes
together, with or without the addition of certain sulphuretted or non-
sulphuretted materials, such as sulphuretted or non-sulphuretted ores, or
compounds of iron, copper, or lead, or other suitable sulphuretted material,
with the before-mentioned silver ores, together with the before-mentioned

page_text: carbonaceous or bituminous, tarry, or pitchy materials, in manner as aforesaid,
which, after having been subjected to pressure or compression, either with
or without the previous application of heat, or with the employment of heat
during such compressing operations, may be subjected as before mentioned to
a heating, coking, or distillatory process, in order that a coked, or a partially
coked material may be obtained; or the consolidated and pressed materials
may be employed direct, for the purposes herein-after mentioned.
The proportions in which the materials may be mixed vary considerably
with the nature of the carbonaceous and bituminous or binding character of
the adjuncts employed; the admixtures and proportions of the carbonaceous,
bituminous, pitchy, and other binding materials to be mixed with the silver
ores being such, that after having been mixed and incorporated either with or
without the application of heat, by preference with such application, and after
having been submitted to pressure, the consolidated mass shall be in such a
state as to permit of its being directly employed for the
purposes herein-after
mentioned, or shall be of sufficient solidity and consistency to admit of its
being submitted to a coking, heating, or distillatory operation or process, and
that such resulting coked or partially coked material shall possess sufficient
solidity or consistency to be advantageously employed for the purposes herein-
after mentioned.
My improvements further consist in the employment, if necessary, with tho
addition of fuel, of all such pressed, or pressed and coked, or partially coked
or carbonized materials, either combined with suitable fluxes, and with suit-
able sulphuretted or non-sulphuretted materials, as before mentioned, or in
conjunction with suitable fluxes, either with or without certain before-
mentioned suitable sulphuretted or non-sulphuretted compounds or materials
for the reduction of the before mentioned silver ores, in the manufacture of
silver in a cupola, blast, or other suitable furnace.
In witness whereof, I, the said Astley Paston Price, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this. Twentieth day of November, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-eight.
ASTLEY PASTON PRICE. (L.S.)
ASTLEY PASTON PRICE. (L.S.)