IMPROVE- MENTS IN EXTRACTING COPPER FROM ITS ORES AND IN APPARATUS FOR THIS PURPOSE
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Watson Hughes, of 48, Porchester Terrace,
Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN EXTRACTING COPPER FROM ITS ORES AND IN APPARATUS FOR
THIS PURPOSE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Watson Hughes
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th April 1881.
WALTER WATSON HUGHES, of 48, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING COPPER FROM ITS ORES AND IN
APPARATUS FOR THIS PURPOSE."
This Invention has for its object improvements in extracting copper from its
ores and in apparatus for this purpose.
For the purpose of carrying out my improvements I first employ what I call my
first reducing furnace, which may be made in any form, shape, or size.
But I employ one made considerably longer than it is broad, with fire places in
its sides and ends, and I make it with a double bottom of fire bricks made in
grating fashion, and upon which the ore is placed, and I make some of the fires to
pass over the ore, and some of the fires I make to pass underneath the grating
bottom.
I use what I call my second reducing furnace, which I make in every way the
same as an ordinary reverbrating copper ore smelting furnace, in which the ore is
run down or melted in. the usual way.
I use any kind of fuel that best suits my purpose in both of the above furnaces,
and the melted metal runs constantly from one or both of the above furnaces into
what I call my first desulpherating furnace.
I employ as my first desulpherizing furnace an ordinary copper refining furnace,
and I make my second and third desulpherating furnaces also in every way the
same as an ordinary copper refining furnace.
I run the molten metal and slag from either or both my reducing furnaces into
my first desulpherating furnace until it is half full. I then put on a blast and
bring the contents of the furnace up to a high temperature. I then stop the blast

page_text: and drop a charge of 1 to 2 tons of small ores, or ground sulpherate ores, or
other ores, from the hopper through a hole in the roof of the furnace into the hot
metal.
I now use the rabble and thoroughly mix the charge with the molten contents of
the furnace. I again put on the blast and blow until a proper slag is formed, when
it is at once run off or drawn off with the rabble. I again drop into the furnace
from the hopper a quantity of small or ground ore, equal to the bulk of the slag
taken out of it. I again put on the blast and blow until a good slag is formed,
which I either run off or draw off with the rabble.
I now tap off one half of the metal or slag remaining into my second
desulpherating furnace, which is also made the same as a copper refining furnace.
When, if the temperature is not high enough, I turn on the blast for a few
minutes until it is so.
I then drop into it and into the first desulpherating furnace charges of from one
and a half to two tons of small or ground ore as before, after, bringing the metal
to a high temperature in the second furnace. I now thoroughly mix the ore and
metal together with the rabble as before. I-again put the blast on both furnaces
until a good slag is formed, which is either run off or drawn off with the rabble,
when I again drop from the hoppers a charge of small or ground ores into both
furnaces, equal in bulk to the quantity of slag withdrawn or run off from thein. I
again put the blast on until there is a good slag formed, when I again run or draw
it off from both. I now tap both furnaces into my third desulpherating furnace,
which will now be about full.
This third desulpherating furnace is made similar to an ordinary copper refining
furnace.
I again put charges of the same quantity and kinds of ore into the first and
second furnaces, and turn the blast on to both of them until a good slag is formed,
when I run or draw it off from them and drop into them a quantity of ore as
before, equal to the slag that has been run off or withdrawn from them.
This is again thoroughly mixed with the metal in both furnaces. I then put
on the blast again until a good slag is formed, when it is run or drawn off.
I now tap all three desulpherating furnaces into what I call my accumulating
furnace, which is also made the same as an ordinary copper refining furnace.
I again charge all three desulpherating furnaces with small or ground ores as
before, and work them as before until they are ready to be tapped into the
accumulating furnace.
I now tap off the metal and remaining slag from the accumulating furnace into
the refining furnace, which is also made the same as an ordinary copper refining
furnace, and where it is now made into pure copper.
The accumulating furnace is again half filled by tapping the three desulpherating
furnaces into it, and they all three receive the usual charge of ores and the process
proceeds as before..
All the furnaces stand upon different levels, and the metal is run from the one
to the other in a covered channel and enters the wall of the receiving furnace near
the top, and by the force of gravity goes down through a hole in the wall to
where it enters the furnace about the line of tuyers.
The tuyers are so placed in the sides of the furnaces that the blast can be applied
a little upwards or downwards.
The tuyers in one side of the furnace point at an angle towards the slag hole,
those on the other side point at an angle towards the fire place.
These tuyers are so placed in order to give a rotary motion to the contents of
the furnace.
I use steam or air blasts, either together or separately.
I put in the necessary fluxes with every charge of ores, and also any materials
required as fuel for the blast.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Walter Watson Hughes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
27th October 1881.
WALTER WATSON HUGHES, of 48, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County.
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING COPPER FROM ITS ORES AND IN
APPARATUS FOR THIS PURPOSE."
This Invention has for its object improvements in extracting copper from its
ores and in apparatus for this purpose.
employ furnaces like ordinary reverberatory copper ore smelting furnaces,
except that they have deep beds suitable to retain a bath of molten inatter ten
inches or more in depth.
The fires are arranged as usual in such furnaces and they are inaintained during
the operations. These furnaces are of large size, and they are provided with
several twyeres for blowing air amongst the contents of the bath. The twyeres
are inclined and are so set as to produce rapid circulation of the contents of the
bath; they are also adjustable up and down, so that when at work they may be
made to dip more or less into the bath, and may be drawn up to avoid clogging;
before the blast is stopped I employ several furnaces; first, furnaces which I call
desulphurating furnaces," in which the crude ore is melted with suitable flux and
the sulphur to some extent burnt off; second, an accumulating furnace or roaster,
in which the elimination of sulphur is carried further; and, third, a refining
furnace, which may be like the refining furnaces already in use and without
twyeres.
I place the "desulphurating furnaces" at a higher level than the accumulating
furnace or roaster, and the latter at a higher level than the refining furnace, so that
the metal may be run by suitable channels from furnace to furnace.
Of desulphurising furnaces there is a convenient number, and these may be at
different levels or otherwise, as preferred. At the commencement of the operation
I prepare baths of molten material in these furnaces by melting ore in them
together with flux, or the melting may be carried on in one furnace and the fused
materials tapped out into the others. A bath having been prepared in each of the
desulphurating furnace, it is brought to a high temperature by the application of
the blast, and the twyeres are set to dip beneath the surface of the fused metal or
matter. A charge of small ore is then dropt gradually into the bath and mixed in
both by the rotation or circulation caused by the blast, and also by energetic
rabbling or raking, so that the cold material may not fall to the bottom.
A large
furnace will take in this way a charge of one and a half to two tons.
When the
first charge thus put in is thoroughly melted and the bath is again at a full heat,
another charge is added in a similar manner, and so on until the furnace is full,
The slags are drawn off or removed from time to time as they form.
The desulphurating furnaces discharge their contents into the accumulating
furnace or roaster, which is another furnace of the same pattern as the desulphurating
furnaces, but which does not receive ore. Each desulphurating furnace when full
is about half emptied into the accumulator or roaster, and the former are thus
prepared to receive fresh charges of ore whilst the latter is filled with metal of
about 50 per cent. The metal is brought up to a higher standard in the accumu-
lating furnace or roaster by the continued operation of the heat and blast, and
when at about seventy five per cent. it is run out of the accumulating furnace
into the refining furnace and the metal is finished in the usual way.
The blast may be air, or steam and air together or separately.

page_text: Havings described the nature of my said Invention and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim,-
First. My series of desulphurating furnaces for producing copper from ores by a
continuous operation, substantially as described.
Second. Providing the furnaces with inclined twyeres by which blast is forced
into, the molten contents of the furnace, and the same kept in rapid rotation or
circulation.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Watson Hughes, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty sixth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty one.