NEW PROCESS FOR THE EXTRACTING A MINERAL SULPHUR FROM PYRITES, COPPER, AND LEAD ORES, SEPARATING ITS ACID, AND REN- DERING IT USEFULL FOR EVERY MEDICINAL PURPOSE
Year: 1778

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-first day of December, in the nineteenth year of His
reign, did give and grant unto me, Matthew Sanderson, of Masbrough, in the
Parish of Rotherbam and County of York, Chymist and Refiner, His especial
licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, that I, the said Matthew
Sanderson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of us,
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might use,
exercise, and vend my "NEW PROCESS FOR THE EXTRACTING A MINERAL
SULPHUR FROM PYRITES, COPPER, AND LEAD ORES, SEPARATING ITS ACID, AND REN-
DERING IT USEFULL FOR EVERY MEDICINAL PURPOSE," within that part of the
Kingdom of Great Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, my executors, admors,
and assigns, or any of us, should in our discretions seem meet; in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said Matthew Sanderson,
should not particularly describe and ascertain 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, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within four calendar months. next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the same Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly
cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the said Letters Patent more
at large doth appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Matthew Sanderson, in pursuance of and
compliance with the said proviso; and the purport and true meaning of the
said Letters Patent, and of His Majesty's said most gracious intentions, do by
this Instrument in writing under my hand and seal duly executed, declare that
my said New Process for the Extracting a Mineral Sulphur from Pyrites,
Copper, and Lead Ores, separating its Acid, and rendering it Usefull for every
Medicinal Purpose, is performed by the means of eliquation, sublimation, and
condensation, as follows:-
By forming a quadrangular pile of sulphurous pyrites, copper, or lead ores upon
a bed of fuell placed upon air pipes, leaving one or more channels from the upper
part of the pile downward, covering the whole surface of the pile with small pyrites
or ores united with an antiphlogistic matter, to prevent as much as possible
the exhalation of the sulphurious fumes, as well as to concentrate the heat,
being then ignited, the sulphur is to be obtained by eliquation, proper reci-
pients being formed as well in the pile as on the ground for the collection
thereof; or by raising an oblong, quadrangular, circular, or arched building,
furnace, or kiln, of stone or brick or any other antiphogistic matter communi-
cating to a large recipient by pipes or funnels from some part thereof, the sul-
phurous pyrities, copper, or lead ores being placed therein stratified with wood
or other fuel, covering over the surface with small pyrites or ores, cavity or
'cavities being first formed under several parts of the pile of the said pyrites or
ores, in order to admit of a free current of air, to excite the deflagration with
more rapidity, the sulphurous fumes arising and subliming from the surface of
the covered pyrites or ores is collected by condensation into the recipient or
recipients for that purpose. But as there are numerous kinds of pyrites, sul-
phureous ores, earths, and minerals, within that part of the Kingdom of Great
Britain called England, and the Dominion of Wales, of different qualities,
respecting their component substances, their fusion and inflammability, and the
quantity of sulphur inherent in them, which consequently require different
modes of treatment according to their diversity, in order to extract or obtain
from them the sulphur they contain, therefore the various operations of
torrefaction, eliquation, distillation, condensation, and sublimation must be
pursued by a proper apparatus of furnaces, kilns, vessels, and utensils, adapted
to the different processes agreeable to the nature of the pyrites or ores which
the sulphur is to be extracted from; the acid of sulphur, commonly called the
acid or oil of vitriol, is to be seperated from the sulphur or decomposed in
large capacious vessels composed of a substance or substances capable of its
resistance by the means of ignition, attraction, condensation, evaporation, and
distillation. The crude sulphur, as above obtained, is refined and seperated

page_text: om all earthly, heterogeneous and pernicious matters, and rendered usefull
the various arts, manufactories and medicine, by the means of ablution,
cication, eliquation, or distillation, and lastly, by sublimation.
In witness whereof, I, the said Matthew Sanderson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of February, in the nineteenth year of
the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of God
of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, and
so forth, and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and
seventy-nine.
MATTHEW (L.S.) SANDERSON.
Signed and sealed (being first duly
stampt) in the presence of us,
THOMAS MENDHAM,
Of the Petty Bag Office.
JOSEPH LOVE,
Of the same place.
AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the same Ninth day of February, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Matthew Sanderson came before our
said Lord the King in His 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 stampt according to
the tenor of the Statute made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King
and Queen William and Mary of England, and so forth.