IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
JOSEPH FRANCOIS DUCLOS, of Clyne Wood Metallurgical Works, near Swansea,
in the County of Glamorgan, Engineer, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Mer
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eleventh day of November, in the fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edward Joseph Francois Duclos, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Edward Joseph Francois Duclos, my exors,
adñiors; and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Joseph Francois
Duclos, my exors, adñňors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that I, the said Edward Joseph Francois Duclos, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar 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 large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Joseph Francois Duclos, do hereby declare that the nature of my

page_text: Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, referenco
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thercon (that is to say) :-
My improvements consist in calcining all sulphurous ores of copper,
technically called sulphurets, and other artificial products of the same nature,
in large kilns, as may be seen by Drawing (1) hereunto annexed, whereby a
large proportion of the coal and labor required in the ordinary treatment
are economized, and the sulphurous acid gas and sulphuric acid formed in the
operation irretriveably lost in the ordinary method, are made applicable to the
manufacture of sulphur or sulphuric acid.
Secondly, when the ores have been sufficiently calcined to treat them for
the reduction of metallic oxides that they may contain, in a blast furnace similar
to those used in the manufacture of iron, with addition of chambers of
condensation and feeding apparatus, as may be seen by Drawings (2) hercunto
any volatile
annexed, such additions being calculated to insure the collecting of
produce that the ores treated may contain. The earthy matters associated
with the ores are fluxed by a proper addition of lime or other substances, as
the chemical composition of the ores to be treated may require.
Thirdly, the mixture of metallic copper with cast iron thus obtained in the
preceding operation is then submitted to fusion and liquidation in a common
iron-founder's cupola, modified to insure the liquidation of the two metals, as
may be seen in the Drawings (No. 8) hereunto annexed.
Fourthly, the black copper from which the cast iron has been separated
by difference of gravity, is then submitted to the refining process, as in the
usual method, in the refiner attached to the furnace of liquidation.
DESCRIPTION OF THE TREATMENT.
The ores of copper, when ground to the size of one fourth or one third of
an inch, are mixed in the following proportions with quick lime, that is to
say
Two and a half hundredweights of quick lime or thereabouts for every
ton of copper ore; the quick lime is slacked thin, and mixed with the ore in
the same manner and consistence as common mortar; it is then laid on heated
floors between two inches and two and a half inches thick, and cut as soon as
spread in parallelograms of the same size as common bricks are generally made;
the floors are then kept hot for twenty-four hours, when it will be found that the
mixture has acquired sufficient solidity to remove the rough bricks so produced
to the kiln, where the calcination is to be effected; the doo, through which tho
bricks have been piled being closed and luted, a fire is 'andled on the grate of

page_text: the kiln furnace until the mass become of a dark red heat; the ash pit door, to
which air slides are fixed, is closed hermetically, as well as the fire door, and
the admission of the fresh air is thus controlled to keep the mass of orc
burning to the same temperature, which is also better effected by the regu-
lation of the draught of the escaping products of the combustion, by means of
dampers placed on the eduction flues. It is found in practice, when the first
combustion is over, that it is advantageous to light another fire at a rather
increased temperature, and thus more completely obtain the expulsion of the
sulphur contained in the ore, by the repetition of the above-described treat-
ment. The ores of copper, in lumps not exceeding two inches square, may be
calcined in prismatic kilns with double grates, with the same arrangement of
the kiln described necessary for the regulation of the draft, and when suffi-
ciently calcined may be taken at once to the blast furnace. The ore, thus
calcined, is charged with sufficient quantity of coal or coke or charcoal, in such
proportion as the calorific power of the fuel and refractibility of the ores will
best allow, and which is best ascertained by practice, and also a proper quantity
of lime or other flux is to be added, as the chemical composition of the ore will
require. The charge is put into the furnace in such a manner so as to avoid
the escape of any volatile product other than through the chamber of con-
densation. The working of the furnace is the same as that followed in the
working of iron ore, taking care to work with with a highly heated blast and
with closed breast, endeavoring to obtain a slag highly charged with lime, by
which means the reduction of the metallic oxides is more completely insured,
and their carburation, as far as iron is concerned, more certainly obtained.
The mixture of cast iron and copper thus obtained is tapped out as common
cast iron, in the most advantageous shape for the refusion, and the operation is
thus conducted with great economy of labor and combustible matter, without
any interruption. The pigs of mixed metals thus obtained are melted in
a cupola (Figure 3), and the melted metals are, by a disposition which keep
them at a high state of temperature, allowed to separate by difference of
gravity, the copper precipitating under the cast iron, both of which are tapped
at various levels; the cast iron thus containing one half or one quarter per
cent. of copper, and the copper from twenty to twenty-five per cent. of iron,
which is allowed to run out of the cupola in an air furnace, where it is kept at
a high temperature, further to allow the more complete separation of the metallic
copper from the cast iron, and the proportion of that metal left mixed with
the copper is further separated by means of the usual mode followed in
the refining of black copper in the furnace where it has been tapped out of the
euvola

page_text: I claim the mode of calcining the ores and fusing them in a blast furnace,
as herein described. And also, I claim the mode of separating the metals
obtained in the treatment of the blast furnace by liquidation, as above
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Joseph Francois Duclos, have 5
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-two.
EDOWARD (L.s.) J. F. DUCLOS.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
within-named Edward Joseph Francois
Duclos, de Boussois, in the presence
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the eventh
year of our Lord 1842, the aforesaid Edward Joseph Francois Duclos came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her 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 stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.