IMPROVEMENTS IN CALCINING AND SMELTING COPPER ORES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Spence, of Newton Heath, in the County of
Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, and John Berger Spence, of the
same Place, Manufacturing Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN CALCINING AND SMELTING COPPER ORES."
Sealed the 6th December 1864, and dated the 11th June 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Spence and John
Berger Spence at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 11th June 1864.
We, PETER SPENCE, of Newton Heath, in the County of Lancaster, Manu-
facturing Chemist, and JOHN BERGER SPENCE, of the same Place, Manufacturing
Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN CALCINING AND SMELTING COPPER ORES," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in applying the heat used in smelting copper ores to
the purpose of calcining such materials, and in transferring the calcined ones
direct to the smelting furnace. To accomplish these objects we place the two
furnaces in connection with each other and cause a suitable flue to convey the
heat used in smelting to the material to be calcined, and when this operation
is complete and the smelted ore is removed, we rake the calcined, ore direct
on to the bed of the smelting furnace. The calcining furnace we at present
prefer to use is of that construction for which Letters Patent were granted to
Peter Spence, bearing date July 3rd, 1861, No. 1695.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Spence and John Berger Spence in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 10th December 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, PETER
SPENCE, of Newton Heath, in the County of Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist,
and JOHN BERGER SPENCE, of the same Place, Manufacturing Chemist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Peter Spence and John Berger Spence, Her special license that
we, the said Peter Spence and John Berger Spence, our executors,,adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Peter Spence and John
Berger Spence, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CALCINING AND SMELTING COPPER ORES," upon the condition, amongst others,
that we, the said Peter Spence and John Berger Spence, by an instrument
in writing under our hands and seals (or under the hand and seal of one of
us) 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 John Berger Spence, do hereby declare
the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (and accompanying Drawings), that is to say:-
Our Invention consists in applying the heat used in smelting copper ores to
the purpose of calcining those materials, and in transferring the calcined ores
direct to the smelting furnace. To accomplish these objects we place the two
furnaces in connexion with each other, and cause a suitable flue to convey the
waste heat from smelting to the material to be calcined, and when this opera-
tion is complete and the smelted ore is removed, we rake the calcined ore
direct on to the bed of the smelting furnace.

page_text: In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 represents the arrangement in longi-
tudinal section, and Fig. 2 is a plan view.
The calcining furnace A, B, is of that construction for which Letters Patent
were granted to Peter Spence, bearing date July Third One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-one, No. 1695, consisting of a chamber a, having a bed b,
beneath which is the heating chamber c. The smelting furnance, of the usual
construction, is at C, D, from the interior of which a flue d passes and enters
the heating chamber of the calcining furnace at e. At f is a shute leading from
the bed of the calcining furnace to the upper parts of the smelting furnace, to
which it is capable being opened when desired, or closed by a sliding door g.
Suppose the smelting furnace to be in operation as usual, the heat arising
therefrom passess along the flue d into the chamber c, and there imparts the
heat to be bed necessary for calcining the ores which are placed thereon,
after which it passes down the flue h to the chimney. The ores to be calcined
are placed in successive charges through the end door i, and are gradually
moved towards the other end k, as fully described in the Specification of the
Patent of Peter Spence before referred to. When the calcining is complete
sufficient charges will have been accumulated at the end k to constitute a
charge for the smelting furnace. The door g is then opened and the calcined
ore is raked on to the shute f, from whence it falls into the smelting furnace
C, D. Fresh charges being regularly placed in the calcining furnace at i the
process goes on as before.
In the Drawing we have shewn the flue l, used in the former Patent of
Peter Spence above mentioned, for conveying the liberated sulphurous acid gas
to the vitriol chamber. Although we have, in describing our Invention, shewn
the calcining furnace of that construction patented by Peter Spence as afore-
said, we do not confine ourselves thereto, as other arrangements in which
the heat passes under the ore may be employed; that which we claim as
secured to us under the above in part recited Letters Patent being,-
Firstly, employing heat of the smelting furnace to calcine copper ores.
Secondly, transferring calcined ores direct to the smelting furnace.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Berger Spence, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Ninth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
J. BERGER SPENCE. (L.B.)