NEW PROCESS FOR EXTRACTING FROM LEAD GLITTER, OR BLUE STONE, AND IRON ORES, ALLUM, SULPHUB, WHITE AND GREEN VITRIALS, AND FROM COPPER ORES BLUE VITROIL REPINING AND SEPERATING THEIR METALIC CONTENTS BY A BLAST FURNACE, AND RENDERING THEIR REFUSE USEFUL IN PAINTING AND OTHER PUR- POSES
Year: 1780

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 Fifth day of February, in the twentieth year of His
reign, did give and grant unto me, MATHEW SANDERSON, of Masborough, in
the Parish of Rotherham, in the County of York, Chemist and Refiner, His
especial licence, full power and authority, that I, the said Matthew Sanderson,
my exors, adiñors, 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 EXTRACTING FROM LEAD GLITTER, OR BLUE STONE, AND IRON ORES,
ALLUM, SULPHUB, WHITE AND GREEN VITRIALS, AND FROM COPPER ORES BLUE
VITROIL REPINING AND SEPERATING THEIR METALIC CONTENTS BY A BLAST
FURNACE, AND RENDERING THEIR REFUSE USEFUL IN PAINTING AND OTHER PUR-
POSES," within that part of the Kingdom of Great Britain called England, the
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed; in which said recited
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,

page_text: 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 calender 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 same Letters Patent
more at large doth appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Mathew 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 most gracious intention, do by this
Instrument in writing, under my hand and seal, declare that my said New
Process for Extracting from Lead Glitter, or Blue Stone, and Iron Ores, Allum,
Sulphur, White and Green Vitroil, and from Copper Ores Blue Vitroil;
Refining and Seperating their Mettallice Contents by a Blast Furnace, and
Rendering their Refuse useful in Painting and other Purposes, is performed
by dressing and cleansing the sulphureous ores and minerals from all other
adhering substances. The sulphur is then obtained by means of a furnace or
oven of brick or stone, and of such a construction as to admit of the flame
from the fuel employed to pass quite round it, with pipes or flues somewhat
elevated, and binding down to an horizontal recipient or condensor, termi-
nating with a small fuel or chimney, with pipes or conols in a sloping direction
from the sides. The furnace thus constructed is charged with the lead glitter
or blue stone, iron ores, or other sulphureous mineral or fossil bodies, and
when closed fire is then applied below, and such a degree of heat observed as
to bring the minerals contained therein nearly to an ignited state. The process
in then conducted by sublimation alone, from all ores and minerals whatsoever,
whose combination with sulphur is but weak or small in quantity. The sul-
phureous steam or fume arising in this process is conveyed through the
bending pipe or tube into the horizantal recipient or condenser, and there
formed; but as there are found various ores, mineral and fossil bodies so
replete with sulphur as to seperate on the smallest applications of heat, in
such case the process is not confined to sublimation alone, but combined with
that of liquation and distillation, placing vessells of water under the sloping
pipes or canalls for the reception of the sulphur. Or otherwise the sulphur
may be procured by means of combustion in covered or auched kilns of a
conical form, with flues, pipes, canals, conductors, and condensers adapted
thereto, having a door or opening on one side for charging the kiln with the
ores and fuell employed, and on one or more doors or openings at the bottom
for a discharge of the ores when sufficiently burnt. The lead glitter or blue

page_text: stone must in this case be mixed with other ores and minerals, holding much
less of the sulphurious matter, in order to render it more fit for its reduction
in its future opperations, charging the kiln alternately with ore and fuel. The
sulphur here obtained will be found in the precipient in a sublimed state.
The ustulated ores are then lixiviated in several waters, purified by settling,
from thence conveyed into leaden boilers, and the various vitroils obtained by
evaporation and crystalization. The blue vitroil, commonly known by the
name of Roman vitroil, originates from the union of the sulphureous or
vitroilie acid with copper in the dephlogistication of the ore of that metal, and
is obtainable by the means above mentioned. Decomposed or calcened blend
being added to the residue of the above liquor, and macerated or boiled there-
with till a perfect solution of the metallic part of the blend is effected, a while
or zinc vitroil is produced. The same is obtained from the disulphurated lead
glitter or blue stone, there being a great quantity of blend intermixed there-
with, greatest part of which is not only calcined during the dflagration of the
ore, but so combined with the sulphureous acid and as to render it fit for the
production of its vitroil. Calcined blend being comented with a phlogistic
matter, the semi-metalic matter called zinc is obtained, which being combined
by fusion or in its decomposed state by cementation with granulated or pre-
cipitated copper, a beautiful brass or compound metal, approaching to the
colour of gold, is produced. From desulphurated ferrugenous ores, and other
substances of that nature, vitroil of iron, known by the name of green vitroil
or copperas, is formed, and there are similar solutions of this kind neglected
and thrown away as useless, which required no other process to prepare such
vitroil from than the evaporation and crystization of them. The remains of
the vitroilic liquor being combined with an argilacious earth, and the union of
an alcaline lixivium, allum is formed. Copper ore abounding with iron, when
decomposed, cleansed, and washed, deposits a red or purplish firrugenous sub-
the same happens in iron ores, which, being calcined, produce a kind
of vitroilic colcother, which, by the addition of talky and other calcined earthy
matters, rendered impalpable by grinding and washing, produces a bright and
butiful substance, of duration and use in ship and house painting. The water
employed in the ablution of copper ores conveys along with it some particles
of that metal in its dissolved state. Absorbent or calcarieus earths, and other
similar substances being added, precitate the disolved copper, which by a
careful conducted process, produces beautiful pigments, blue or green, much
valued in the finer paintings, staining of paper, &c. Clear iron being
immerged in the above solution, copper, nearly pure, is obtained, which being
collected, washed, and cleansed, and solutions made therewith in the vegatable
stance;

page_text: or mixral acids, the productions are blue or Roman vitroil, verditer, verdi-
grease, and other valuable pigments. After the precipitation of copper from
its salvant by the medium of iron, the water, after exposure to the air, lets
fall a yellow powder, known by the name of oker, which, being cleansed and
washed, is an useful colour in painting. The same precipitated copper, as well
as iron, by solution, calcination, and fusion, with suitable fluxes and vitressent
additions, produces the most beautiful blue, greey, red, and other coloured
enamels and pastes for the use of jewellers, enamellers, glassmen, painters,
and other artists. The operation of smelting the lead glitter or blue stone,
and reduces the various metalic matters into one uniform mass, is performed
by a forceable blast or compression of air through large bellows, cylinders of
iron or copper worked by a water wheel, stream engine, or other force, so
as to promote a quick and thin fusion of the separable scoria whilst in contract
with the fuel employed in large and suitable furnace adapted thereto, with a
receptacle in the front wall to obtain the zinc, which this ore greatly abounds
with, and which would otherwise be lost and dissipated in fumes. Previous
to the smelting, the ore and other matters employed therewith must be fine,
broken down very small by the means of stamps, adapted to work by the
water wheel or other force, employed. A mixture of several substances is
necessary to unite with the lead glitter or blue stone, to render it the more
fusible. These substances may be chosen holding metalic matters of various
kinds, but chielly those whose basis is lead, holding silver; such are the
metallic clays, okery substances, poor lead, and sometimes copper ores, slaggs,
or refuse of lead, or any other such like substance holding some portions of
those metals. Being properly mixed, and the furnace of a due degree of heat,
an equal bulk of the above mixture with the fuel employed away be added
alternately whilst the fusion continues. The fuel may be either wood, peat,
chair'd peat, charcoal, or char'd pit coal, agreeable to the production of the
country where the work is erected. The metalic matter obtained, consisting of
lead, copper, silver, and iron, is cast from this furnace into large lumps, blocks,
or pigs, and is then placed on a furnace of such construction that wood, fuel,
peat, or other inflamable matters being ignited and intermixed therewith, and
producing such a degree of that as to run the lead and silver from the blocks
or piggs, leaving them hollow, porous, and spongy; or may be performed by
running the blocks or piggs perfectly flued in a reverberatory or smelting
furnace, letting it off into a propper bed or reservoir, from whence it is taped,
and there parted, and the operation repeated as occasion requires. The metalic
part left being chiefly copper and iron, is removed to another furnace, and
after seperation of the iron reduces to good and perfect copper.
The parcel

page_text: f lead enriched with silver is committed to the test in order to seperate the
ilver therein contained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Mathew Sanderson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of May, in the twentieth 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 eighty.
Inrolled the Twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty.