IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELTING COPPER ORES
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
NAPIER, of Shacklewell, in the County of Middlesex, Operative Chemist, send
greeting
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twentieth day of
July, One thousand eight hundred and forty-six, in the tenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Hei heirs and successors, give and grant unto
ine, the said James Napier, my exors, adññions, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James
Napier, my exors, adñññois, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Napier, my exois, adñiois, or assigns, should at any time agice with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and law fully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all
Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and also in the Islands of
Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Saih, and Man, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SMELTING COPPER ORES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said James Napier, shall cause a particular description of
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in waiting under my hand and seal, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's IIigh Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at laige appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Napier, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say.—
The object of my Invention is to facilitate the smelting of copper ores, and
it consists in the application of iron with alkaline substances to the smelting
such ores, and the decomposing and disintegrating by means of water the
products obtained by such application. When I operate upon ores containing
less than twenty per cent. of copper, and more sulphur than two parts by
weight to four parts by weight of copper, I commence by treating them in the
same manner as is usually practised by smelters, videlicit, by fust calcining
them for about twelve hours in an ordinary calcining furnace, and then
removing them to a melting furnace, known by smelteis as an ore fui nace, for
the purpose of fusing them, adding, if necessary, the usual fluxes When well
fused I shim off the slag, and run out the residue, either into sand moulds or
into water, forming at this point what is technically known as "coarse metal"
When I operate upon orces containing less than twenty per cent of-copper.
and a smaller proportion of sulphur than two parts 'by weight to four parts by
weight of copper, I mix with them other ones containing sulphur in large
proportions so as to make the average proportion of sulphur in the whole
reach two parts by weight to four parts by weight of copper, and proceed to-
calcine and fuse, as before stated When the oies, by themselves, or by
mixture as aforesaid with other ones, contain a greater proportion of sulphur
than one part by weight to four parts by weight of copper, and also more than
twenty per cent of copper, I onut both the 'calcining and fusing processes
before described, and commence by treating such ores as hereafter duected for
treating "coarse metal." I shall designate the product in the two first cases
and the one in the last case as "coaise metal." To every ton weight of this
I add fifty-six pounds of soda ash (containing about fifty per cent. of alkali),
and fifty-six pounds of slaked lime, and transfer the whole to a fusing, or what
is termed by smelters a metal furnace, and fuse the mass When the whole is in
a state of fusion I skim off any slag which may have formed, and then add
one hundredweight of scrap iron to every ton of the "course metal," and I
disperse the iron over the surface of the melted mass as equally as possible,
and I close the door of the furnace until the whole is melted. I then stir the
whole well and rapidly with a rabble, and immediately tap the' furnace aud

page_text: run the mass into sand moulds
inch
As soon as the mass is sufficiently set to be
removed I put it into a shallow pit containing water enough to cover the
whole, and allow it to remain therein from two to three hours, by which time
the mass will have become partially decomposed and disintegrated. I then
run off the excess of water, remove the mass, and allow it to remain in a heap
in the moist state, until the whole becomes reduced into a fine powder, which
I have generally found to take about twenty-four hours. I then wash this
powder by any convenient means. I have succeeded well by using a large box
having a double perforated bottom of wood Between the perforated boards
is placed a metallic gauze wire of from twenty-five to thirty-five meshes to the
I place this box in what is known by smelters as a tapping pit of
water, having first provided a vent from the pit below the level of the bottom
of the box. Over the aperture of this vent is a metallic gauze of from sixty
to seventy meshes to the inch. I then introduce a quantity of the powder to
be washed into the box, and having stopped the vent 1 pour water in until the
box is full. I then open the vent, and allow the water to run off
I repeat
this process twice I now remove the powder to an ordinary caleining
furnace, and I apply heat very moderately at first, increasing it gradually for
twenty hours, so as that at the end of this time it should reach a bright yellow
heat This yellow heat I continue for six hours longeı, taking care to stop
short of such a heat as would cake or fuse the powder, and I keep the powder
regularly stirred at intervals during the whole time. I now remove the
powder from the caluining furnace to a fusing or "metal furnace," taking the
piccaution to sprinkle it with water when drawn from the calcining furnace, as
is usually practised, and to every ton weight of this powder I add in the fusing
furnace about one hundredweight of anthracite coal, also in powder, and ten
pounds of sand, adding, if I find it difficult to fuse, lime or fluor spar as a flux.
When the whole is well fused I skim off the slag, tap the furnace into sand.
The product thus iun out I have generally found to be fit for the refining
fui nace, and I subsequently refine it in the usual manner, but if, as in
practice will sometimes happen, a small portion of the product should be
regulus, this regulus, which is rich in copper, I roast and afterwards refine.
The slag, skimmed off as above, contains copper, and may be employed as
usual with changes in the one furnace as a flux
I have thus described as accurately as I am able the method I prefer to
carry out my improvements in smelting copper oies, but I wish it to be
understood that I do not confine myself to the details thereof, as the propor-
tions of the ingredients, the mode in which and the stage at which the iron
and alkaline substances are added, and the duration of the processes, may be

page_text: varied
I have found potash and its carbonates to produce a similar effect to
soda and its carbonates, but the former is more costly But what I claim is,
the application of iron with alkaline substances to the smelting of copper ores,
and the decomposing and disintegrating by means of water the product
obtained by such application
In witness whereof, I, the said James Napier, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.