IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING GOLD AND OTHER METALS FROM MINERALS AND EARTHY SUBSTANCES
Year: 1852

page_text: NEEDHAM SCROPE SHRAPNEL, of Gosport, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of
October, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth year of
Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Henry Needham Scrope Shrapnel, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Henry Needham Scrope Shrapnel, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Henry Needham Scrope Shrapnel, my exors, adiñors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING GOLD AND OTHER METALS FROM
MINERALS AND EARTHY SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso that I, the said Henry Needham Scrope Shrapnel, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part

page_text: recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Needham Serope Shrapnel, do hereby declare that the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
that is to say:-
My improvements in extracting gold and other metals from the minerals
and earthy substances with which they are combined consists of a new mode
of pulverizing or reducing metallic ores into fine division, by discharging them
from a gun or cannon or other suitable chamber against a strong resisting
surface. And in order that my Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
gun
Having charged the gun or cannon with gunpowder or other explosive
compound, I introduce as much of the metallic ore or other substance to be
pulverised as the strength of the gun will resist, and retain it therein by
wadding or other suitable material. I then place the mouth of the within
an opening into a room or chamber, at the opposite end of which there is a
strong plate of iron or other resisting surface, which I prefer to be slightly
concave; and if a short gun or cannon be employed, it is desirable to have a
tube so placed within the chamber as to conduct or direct the materials when
discharged against the resisting surface. Having discharged the contents of
the gun into the chamber, the mineral substances will be reduced to powder,
and the metal may be extracted or separated therefrom by any of the ordinary
methods employed for obtaining metals from their respective ores, such pro-
cesses forming no part of my present improvements, my Invention simply
consisting in the means herein described of breaking or pulverizing mineral
substances, so as the more readily to extract or separate the metals from the
earthy substances with which they are combined; and I would remark, that
although I have described the use of gunpowder or other explosive compounds,
I do not intend to confine myself thereto, as steam or other means may be
resorted to for discharging and imparting great velocity to mineral substances,
in order to extract or separate their metals without departing from my
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Needham Scrope Shrapnel, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
H. N. S. SHRAPNEL. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of April, in
the year of our Lord 1853, the aforesaid Henry Needham Scrope Shrapnel
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-third day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.