A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS FOR OBTAINING ALUMINIUM
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS FOR OBTAINING ALUMINIUM."-
A communication from Messieurs Rousseau, Frères, and Paul Morin, of
Paris.
Sealed the 2nd January 1857, and dated the 31st July 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st July 1856.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS FOR OBTAINING ALUMINIUM,"
to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to so far modify the process of and apparatus
for obtaining aluminium from the substances in which it is contained, that the
operation of reduction may acquire an essentially practical character, so that it
may be conveniently and easily carried on. According to the present methods,
the process is carried on in close vessels made of fire-clay; marine salt is also
mixed with the simple or double chlorides from which the aluminium is reduced.
In the improved process, the reduction of the metal is effected in vessels or

page_text: chambers of considerable capacity, and made of cast or wrought iron in the
form of retorts or boilers, or the reduction may be effected in chambers con-
structed of bricks or fire-clay, heated internally or from the side, as in rever-
beratory furnaces. The use of the marine salt usually employed is dispensed
with, or nearly so, and a suitable quantity of fluoride of calcium is employed.
By this means a regular and more abundant yield of the metal, is obtained.
The proportions of ingredients which have been found to answer the purpose
satisfactorily when the double chlorides 'are employed are as follows:—
Double chloride of aluminium and sodium, one hundred parts,
Fluoride of calcium
Sodium
fifty parts,
twenty parts.
These proportions may, however, be varied, and yet produce beneficial results.
The mixture is placed in the reverberatory furnace, which must be previously
heated, and when the reduction is completed, the aluminium, mixed with the
flux and scoria, will be found at the bottom or sole of the furnace, from which
it may be drawn off and separated from these impurities.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 31st January 1857. .
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Edward Newton, Her special license that I, the said William Edward
Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "A NEW
OR IMPROVED PROCESS FOR OBTAINING ALUMINIUM," being a communication from
Messieurs Rousseau,. Freres, and Paul Morin, of Paris, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Newton, by an instrument

page_text: 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Edward Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say): =
It has hitherto been the practice to effect the reduction of aluminium from
its different compounds (single or double chlorides or fluorides) in closed
vessels, and in published descriptions on this subject it has been usual to
mention the employment of crucibles enclosed in tubes or retorts of fire-clay,
coated with alumina. As the employment of these apparatus is attended
with disadvantages, the Inventors have, in the first place, substituted for such
apparatus vessels made of cast or wrought iron, of varying form but generally
approaching that of crucibles, pots, or seggars, in which vessels the reaction is
effected in the same manner as in vessels of clay.
The Inventors of the present improvements have also succeeded in effecting
the reduction in chambers made of brickwork or fire-clay, which may be either
heated in the same manner as a reverberatory furnace or by the transmission
of heat through the sides. The apparatus employed by preference, however,
is a reverberatory furnace, the bed of which, having a portion of it inclined; is
arranged in a suitable manner for facilitating the collection of the metal as it
is produced; but the furnaces ordinarily employed for the manufacture of soda
may be used for this
purpose. F
Another improvement consists in modifying the composition of the mixture
of matters for effecting the reaction in such a manner as to ensure successful
operation, even when operating upon small quantities of materials or with
vessels of small capacity, such as clay retorts or other closed vessels. This is
effected by wholly, or to a great extent, dispensing with the marine salt, which
is usually added either to the simple chloride of aluminium, the double chloride
of aluminium and sodium, or to the fluoride of aluminium and sodium (cryolite),
and in simply adding a suitable proportion of fluoride of calcium. The use of
marine salt has been hitherto considered necessary for the successful per-
formance of the reduction, and indispensable as a flux for causing the metal to
unite; in operating with the double chloride of aluminium and of sodium, it
had been pointed out, and always employed in the proportion of fifty per cent,
to the double chloride. It has been found by experience that by diminishing

page_text: this proportion better results are obtained, and that by dispensing with the
marine salt altogether the largest quantity of metal is obtained.
The following is the mode of operating according to this improvement when
it is required to effect the reduction of the double chloride :-
Take of the double chloride of aluminium
and of sodium
Fluoride of calcium
Sodium
-
100 parts,
50 parts,
20 parts.
(These proportions may, however, be somewhat varied, according to circum-
stances.) These substances having been mixed together, are introduced upon
the bed of the furnace, previously heated to redness. The fire bars having
been well fed with fuel, the furnace is closed. The reaction will then take
place, and by agitating the materials, all the aluminium will be collected in a
mass at the inclined part of the bed, and may be run off therefrom. By first
pouring off the whitest and most fluid portion of the scoriæ, composed chiefly
of the marine salt which has been produced by the reaction, the fluoride of
aluminium (which is also an accessory product of the reaction) may also be
extracted therefrom. The appearance of the scoriæ remaining is very peculiar
after cooling; it is slightly tinged with a color approaching a yellowish grey.
This scoria does not contain the finely divided aluminium powder which is met
with when the reaction is produced with marine salt, it only contains sometimes
globules of aluminium in sufficient quantity to enable it to be collected by
pulverizing and washing the mass. When, on the contrary, marine salt is
employed, the mass of scoriæ is of a decided deep grey color; this color arises
from the aluminium powder mixed with the mass, in which are found only
microscopic globules, which are at first difficult to collect and unite by
melting.
Having now described the nature of this Invention of "A New or Im-
proved Process for Obtaining Aluminium," which has been communicated to
ine by my foreign correspondents, I would observe, that by means of the above
described improvements in the process, the production of aluminium has.now
been reduced to an essentially practical and commercial form; and in reference
to the several peculiarities of the process, I desire it to be understood that
under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim,―
Firstly, the employment (for the purpose of effecting the reaction) of vessels
of wrought or cast iron of large capacity in the form of crucibles or seggars.
Secondly, the employment (for obtaining the reaction) of chambers of brick
or fire-clay heated in the interior or at the sides, such as in reverberatory or
other furnaces.

page_text: Thirdly, I claim the process herein-before described, or any mere modi-
fication thereof whereby the use of marine salt (chloride of sodium), which has
hitherto been added to the aluminiferous matters for the reduction of aluminium,
may be dispensed with, or nearly so, by which means a constant and more
abundant yield of aluminium may be obtained, together with facility for col-
lecting the metal.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Thirty-first day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.S.)