IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING METALLIC SOLUTIONS AND PRECIPITATES."
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp, botli of
Jarrow-on-Tyne, in the County of Durham, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING METALLIC SOLUTIONS AND PRECIPITATES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Gibb and
Charles Gelstharp at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 9th March 1871.
We, THOMAS GIBD and CHARLES GELSTHARP, both of Jarrow-on-Tyne,
in the County of Durham, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING METALLIC SOLUTIONS AND PRECI-
PITATES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in treating metallic solutions containing copper
and other metals by bringing them into contact with sulphuretted
hydrogen to precipitate, first, silver and gold, when those metals or
either of them are or is present, and after separation of the precipitates
of such metals is effected, copper is precipitated by further treatment
of the residual solutions with sulphuretted hydrogen. The sulphide of.

page_text: copper obtained in the latter precipitation is mixed with carbonate of
soda, or caustic soda and coal, or other carbonaceous matter and melted,
when the products will be copper in the metallic state and sulphide
of sodium. The sulphide of sodium is decomposed so as to producc
carbonate of soda or caustic soda and sulphuretted hydrogen, carbonic
acid and steam being, by preference, used for this purpose. The car-
bonic acid may be obtained by burning carbonic oxide produced in the
reduction of sulphide of copper to metallic copper by the method above
described. The carbonate of soda or caustic soda so produced is again
employed to reduce a further quantity of sulphide of copper, and the
sulphuretted hydrogen to precipitate a further quantity of inetallic
solution. The solution of copper, after precipitation, contains free acid,
which is employed, when necessary, in lixiviating orcs to obtain further
quantities of metallic solutions, or concentrated when required by
evaporation, and, if necessary, by condensation of the vapour produced
in the latter stage of the evaporation. If the solutions contain cobalt,
nickel, or other metals not precipitated by sulphuretted hydrogen in
acid solutions, such metals are obtained from the residual solutions, and
when salts of soda or other alkali are also present, they are separated by
evaporation.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp in the Great
Scal Patent Office on the 8th September 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, WC, THOMAS
GIBB and CILARLES GELSTHARP, both of Jarrow-on-Tyne, in the County 2
of Durham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and 3
grant unto us the said Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp, Her special
licence that we, the said Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to 3

page_text: 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 Ircland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING METALLIC
SOLUTIONS AND PRECIPITATES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp, our executors or admi-
nistrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, 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 Scal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Thomas Gibb and Charles Gelstharp
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, that is to say :—
Our said Invention consists in the treatment of metallic solutions
containing copper and other metals by bringing the same into contact
with sulphuretted hydrogen, or with a sulphide capable of being decom-
posed by such solutions. By this treatment silver and gell, when those
metals or cither of them are or is present, are precipitated. After
separation of the precipitates containing such metals, we precipitile
copper by the further treatment of the residual solutions with sul-
phuretted hydrogen. The sulphuretted hydrogen for these purposes is
obtained by the decomposition of alkaline sulphides in such a manner as
to produce sulphuretted hydrogen and caustic or carbonated alkali, and
for which decomposition we prefer to employ carbonic acid and steam.
The sulphide of copper obtained in the final precipitation by sulphuretted
hydrogen we reduce to the metallic state by heating a mixture thereof
with caustic or carbonated alkali and coal or other carbonaceous material,
and the alkaline sulphide obtained in the reduction may be employed
for the production of sulphuretted hydrogen and alkali as before
mentioned, or the alkaline sulphide may be obtained by reducing alkaline
sulphate obtained by the evaporation of residual solutions as herein-after
described. The solutions after precipitation of the copper, contain free
acid which we employ when necessary in lixiviating ores to obtain
further quantities of metallic solutions. When the solutions under
treatment contain cobalt, nickel, or other metals not precipitated by

page_text: sulphuretted hydrogen in acid solutions and alkaline sulphates, we
obtain the various salts in mixture by evaporating the solutions
remaining after precipitation of the copper, and then reduce the
alkaline sulphates contained in the mixed salts to sulphides by well-
known methods. The alkaline sulphides containing the metals also as
sulphides we decompose for the production of caustic or carbonated
alkalies and sulphuretted hydrogen, as before mentioned, and we recover
the metals on dissolving the alkaline salts, or the metals may be obtained
by precipitating the same by means of an alkaline sulphide or an alkali
or alkaline earth, previous to evaporation.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of our said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we would observe
in conclusion that we do not claim the precipitation of copper by means
of sulphuretted hydrogen, or the manufacture of caustic or carhonated
alkalies by the decomposition of alkaline sulphides, but what we
consider novel and original and therefore claim as constituting the
Invention secured to us by the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent arc,
-
Firstly. The separation of silver and gold from solutions containing
the same together with other metals capable of being precipitated by
sulphuretted hydrogen by fractional precipitation by means of sul-
phuretted hydrogen or a sulphide.
And, secondly. The process for separating copper and other metals
from solutions containing the same, and the production of alkali or
alkaline carbonates, substantially as herein-before described and set forth
or any mere modifications thereof.
In witness whereof, we, tho said Thomas Gibb and Charles
Gelstharp, have hereunto set our hands and scals, this Sixth
day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-one.