IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND OTHER METALS, AND IN THE SMELTING OR EXTRACTING OF SUCH METALS FROM THEIR ORES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Stone, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF IRON AND OTHER METALS, AND IN THE SMELTING OR EXTRACTING OF SUCH
METALS FROM THEIR ORES."
Sealed the 11th December 1874, and dated the 1st October 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Stone at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st October 1874.
I, ROBERT STONE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND OTHER METALS, AND IN THE SMELTING OR Ex-
TRACTING OF SUCH METALS FROM THEIR ORES," to be as follows:
This Invention has for its object the more perfect extraction of metals,
such as iron, copper, and other metals, from their ores, and at a less cost
and consumption of fuel, and producing purer metals than is at present
the case with the processes now in use.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Stone in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 23rd March 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
STONE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Robert Stone, Her special licence that
I, the said Robert Stone, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Robert Stone, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter 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 MANUFACTURE
OF IRON AND OTHER METALS, AND IN THE SMELTING OR EXTRACTING OF SUCH METALS
FROM THEIR ORES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Robert Stone, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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.
.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Stone, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :—
This Invention has for its object the more perfect extraction of metals,
such as iron, copper, and other metals, from their ores by an improved
method and at a less cost and with less consumption of fuel, and the pro-
duction of purer metals than by the methods now in use.
The method by which this Invention is carried out into practical effect
consists in grinding, or pulverizing, or using in small particles ores to be

page_text: 4.
smelted, and incorporating and mixing them in due proportions with
ground or disintegrated peat in a dry or partially dry state. The whole
is then mixed and amalgamated into a mass with petroleum spirit and
tar. The compound thus obtained is compressed into briquettes or
blocks by any suitable machinery, and these briquettes or blocks being
an amalgam of ore, peat, petroleum spirit, and tar are burnt in any
description of blast furnace, or if required in cupolas, with any of the
usual fluxes cither incorporated with the other materials or used
separate.
The objects which I have in view in this Invention are to bring the
particles of ore to be smelted into more intimate contact with the fuel,
and by acting upon them in small particles the more easily to effect
their separation from the matter in which they are contained, thus
diminishing the consumption of the fuel to a very important extent;
and by the employment of peat as fuel greatly to improve the quality
of the metal so extracted. This result is ensured by the known absence
of sulphur or other deleterious matter from this description of fuel.
The spirit of petroleum is used to stimulate the combustion of the
peat, to intensify the heat obtained from it, and to ensure the more
perfect combustion, not only of the particles of the fuel itself, but pro-
bably also of much matter other than metallic that is contained in the
ores.
The tar is employed chiefly to fix and retain the spirit of petroleum,
and also to assist in binding the particles together.
The foregoing is the process which I prefer to use for the purpose
of my Invention, but other spirit and inflammable oils, liquids, and
materials, such as petroleum oil, tar oils, methylated or other spirits,
rosin, pitch, coal, coke, coal dust, charcoal, sawdust, chalk, lime, sand,
silicates, or other suitable material, may be substituted to attain similar
ends under the same process.
The before-going being the nature, object, and purposes of this my
Invention, what I claim as my Invention and secured to me by Letters
Patent as aforesaid is,―
First. Incorporating pulverized ores in due proportions with ground
or disintegrated peat, and mixing the same with petroleum spirit and
tar, and then compressing the whole into briquettes or blocks, sub-
stantially in the manner and for the purposes stated in this Specification.

page_text: Second. The admixture of petroleum, petroleum spirit, or any other
inflammable liquid or substance of an exciting and stimulating nature
with ores when pulverized and mixed with disentegrated or ground peat,
and formed into blocks.
Third. Incorporating pulverized ore with any substance, such as coal
dust, charcoal, sawdust, or other combustible, and mixing the same with
inflammable liquids and forming the same into blocks, for the purposes
described in the before-going Specification.
Fourth. Incorporating any of the usual fluxes, such as limestone,
oxide of iron, chloride of sodium, borax, soda ash, or any other suitable
materials, with pulverized ores and ground or disentegrated peat, and
mixed with inflammable liquid and formed into blocks, in the manner
and for the purpose described in the before-going Specification.
Fifth. The process herein-before described as especially applicable for
separating gold from gold ore with or without any of the foregoing
fluxes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Stone, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.