A Process of Reducing Slag and Recovering Metal therefrom.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Dec., 1886
Complete Left, 28th Sept., 1887
Complete Accepted, 13th Dec., 1887
A Process of Reducing Slag and Recovering Metal therefrom.
I, KARL WILHELM ERNST MARUHN of Ruhrart in the Kingdom of Prussia
German Empire, Works Manager do hereby declare the nature of this Invention to
be as follows:-
The process of breaking up large lumps of slag or cinder by mechanical means is
attended with considerable difficulty owing to the hardness of the materials operated
on.
The hammers stamps or other machinery employed are liable to wear away
rapidly and considerable outlay is necessary to maintain them in working order.
The object of my Invention is to granulate the slag by subjecting it to a treatment
hereinafter described so that it can be ground or pulverised without any further
preparation and at the same time to recover the metal that it contains.
According to my Invention the slag while in a fluid condition is caused to flow in a
thin jet or stream which is acted on by a current of air steam or vapour of such
strength as to convert the slag and the metal mixed therewith into separate grains or
granules which are blown away or carried forward with the said current. Owing to
the difference in the specific gravities the granules composed of slag are blown farther
than the metallic granules which are thus separated from the slag and may be received
in a separate compartment or receptacle. The slag granules thus obtained are of such
a size as to admit of their being treated directly in a suitable pulverising or grinding
apparatus without further preparation or reduction.
Dated this 29th day of December 1886.
J. HENRY JOHNSON,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for Karl Wilhelm Ernst Maruhn.

page_text: I, KARL WILHELM ERNST MARUHN, of Ruhrart, in the Kingdom of Prussia,
German Empire, Works manager 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 :-
The mechanical reduction of slag as heretofore practiced, especially in the
manufacture of fertilisers from phosphoric slag obtained by the Thomas process,
requires a number of different machines, and these are subject to a very considerable
wear and frequent breakages from the great hardness of the raw material and the
particles of steel or other metal contained therein.
The object of my invention is to avoid these inconveniences, and to prepare the slag
for its final reduction to powder at a far less cost, by means of a new process by
which the slag is granulated and at the same time tho particles of metal aro separated
out therefrom.
For this purpose the liquid slag obtained from the furnace or converter, is exposed
in a thin jet or stream to the action of a current of air or steam as in making slag-
wool. Preferably the slag is first transferred to a trolly or box and then allowed to
run out therefrom through a small orifice. By the operation of the said current
when suitably regulated (the same must ordinarily be weaker than that required for
slag-wool) the slag is divided into drops, quickly solidifying into grains or granules,
which are carried along a certain distance by the current. Simultaneously the metallic
particles are likewise granulated and driven forward by the current; but, as their
specific gravity is greater than that of the slag, they are not projected as far as the
slag-granules and drop sooner to the ground than the latter. A separation of the
granulated metallic portions from the granules of slag is thus brought about. By
arranging a division-wall between the places where the metal and the slag are
deposited, this separation may be comploted. The granulated slag obtained and at
the same time purified from metal by this process, may, without any further treatment,
be ground to powder on common millstones.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:
The process of reducing slag and at the same time separating from it the metal it
contains, consisting in exposing liquid slag in a thin stream or jet to the action of a
current of air or steam having such force that the slag and the metal are granulated,
and in simultaneously producing a separation of the slag and the metal by means of the
current, which carries the granules of slag to a greater distance than the granules of
metal, substantially as and for the purpose described.
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