IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN SALTS AND OXIDES OF METALS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Edward Dering, of Lockleys, in the
County of Hertford, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN SALTS AND OXIDES OF METALS,"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Edward
Dering at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 28th March 1853.
J, GEORGE EDWARD DERING, of Lockleys, in the County of Hertford,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN SALTS AND OXIDES OF METALS" to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists of employing the partially saturated metallic
liquids resulting from the working of galvanic batteries for the manu-
facture of salts of the metals by evaporation, and obtaining the salts in
a crystallized or dry form, and also in causing such metallic liquids to
be saturated, or nearly so, or acted on by the addition of the same

page_text: metals, or of other metals or matters, or in causing the partially or
wholly saturated solutions of salts, or crystallized or dry salts obtained
from galvanic batteries, to be acted on by other matters, either with or
without the aid of heat; and also in obtaining from galvanic batteries
saturated solutions, or nearly so, of metallic salts, by drawing off or
regulating the flow from the batteries of that portion of the fluid which
has become saturated, or nearly so, with the metal in course of being
dissolved.
In producing oxides of metals, the metallic salts orproducts obtained
directly or indirectly from galvanic batteries, being brought to a crys-
tallized or dry form, are then subjected to heat, and thus may oxides
be obtained; or the oxides are obtained by the action of caustic
alkalies or ammonia upon the metallic products obtained from galvanic
batteries.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters l'atent,
filed by the said George Edward Dering, in the Great Scal Patent
Office, on the 28th September 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
GEORGE EDWARD DERING, of Lockleys, in the County of Hertford, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and graut unto me, the said George Edward Dering, Her special
licence that I, the said George Edward Dering, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George Edward
Dering, my oxecutors, 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

page_text: " IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN SALTS AND OXIDES OF
METALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George
Edward Dering, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 nextand immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Edward Dering, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
This Invention consists of employing the partiallysaturated metallic
liquids resulting from the working of galvanic batteries for the manu-
facture of salts of the metals by evaporation, and obtaining the salts in
a crystallized or dry form, and also in causing such metallic liquids to
be saturated, or nearly so, or acted on by the addition of the same
metals, or of other metals or matters, or in causing the partially or
wholly saturated solutions of salts, or crystallized or dry salts obtained
from galvanic batteries, to be acted on by other matters, either with or
without the aid of heat; and also obtaining from galvanic batteries
saturated solutions, or nearly so. of metallic salts, by drawing off or
regulating the flow from the batteries ofthat portion of the fluid which
has become saturated, or nearly so, with the metal in course of being
dissolved. In producing oxides of metals, the metallic salts or pro-
ducts obtained directly or indirectly from galvanic batteries, being
brought to a crystallized or dry form, and then subjected to heat, and
thus may oxides be obtained; or the oxides are obtained by the action
of caustic alkalis or ammonia upon the metallic products obtained from
galvanic batteries.
Having thus stated the general nature of my Invention, I will pro-
ceed to describe more particularly the means which I employ for
carrying out the same. My improvements in preparing salts of metals
consist in certain methods of treating solutions, which necessarily result
from the working of different kinds of galvanic batteries, and which

page_text: have generally been considered as refuse and thrown away. One mode
of treatment which I find very successful is to evaporate so much of
the liquid as to cause the salt to crystallize or assume a solid consistency.
This is a process well understood, and I am aware that it has been pro-
posed so to treat the solutions from exhausted batteries; but it has not
to my knowledge been proposed with reference to batteries, the action
of which has been stopped prior to the liquid becoming saturated with
the metal in course of combination with it, which is the plan that I prefer.
I also find that this treatment may be advantageously applied to the
solutions derived from the construction known as percolating batteries;
and I believe this also to be new. The salts brought by the process of
evaporation toasolid condition are suited in this form to various useful
applications, but particularly for the purpose of transport, andthey may
be redissolved for use in state of solution. In cases in which the
working of the galvanic battery has been stopped before the exciting
liquid has become saturated with the metal in course of combination
with it,a plan which I find effectual for producing a saturated solution,
or one as nearly so as may be desired, is to add to the solution a greater
or less quantity of the same metal, which, by combining with the acid,
will produce the desired effect. But in some cases I find it advisable
to employ for this purpose different metals, or other materials not
metals that are capable of combining with the acid to form salts or
other compounds, and thus neutralize it. The method of carrying out
this part
of my Invention which I prefer is, to employ the scraps of
e'ectrically positive metals, which accumulate when batterics are worked
upon a large scale; and in some cases (especially that of the metal zinc
amalgamated with mercury), in order to increase the tendency of the
metal to combine with the liquid, I find it advisable to associate it with
some negative element in the solution (which may be a metal, or other
material, such as charcoal or graphite,) which by galvanic influence
causes the positive metal to be dissolved. Another method which I
have found effectual for obtaining saturated solutions, or nearly so, of
the metals employed, as the positive elementin galvanic batteries,con-
sists in drawing off, at intervals, from the lower part of the vessel

page_text: containing the exciting liquid and plates, a portion of the solution, and
replacing it by fresh supplies of the exciting liquid. The lower part of
the liquid is in general found to be nearly saturated with the metal in
course of being dissolved, whilst that above remains in its original con-
dition, or nearly so, because, when combined with the metal, the liquid
is heavier and sinks by its own specific gravity. In the carrying out of
this principle with galvanic batteries I prefer that the vessels containing
the solutions should extend some depth below the lower edge of the
plates, in order that the portion of the liquid which has become impreg-
nated with the positive metal may not come into contact with the
plates. For drawing off the solution, as described, I either construct
apertures which can be opened or closed at pleasure in the lower part
of the vessels containing the liquid, or I employ syphons upon similar
principles. I apply the same principle to batteries in which porous
divisions separate the negative from the positive plates, by removing the
solution from the division in which the positive metal is as soon as
it has become saturated with the metal, or nearly so, and before any
considerable quantity of the solution of the metal has passed through
to the liquid in contact with the negative element. I also apply the
same principle to the class of batteries known as percolating batteries
by applying stop-cocks, or other means of regulating the flow of the
solution from the battery, in order to ensure its having arrived at the
desired degree of saturation before passing out; and I apply similar
means of regulating the supply of fresh exciting liquid.
Another method of carrying out this part of my Invention consists
in employing certain liquids to excite batteries which have a porous
division between the positive and negative elements. For this purpose
I place some suitable acid in contact with the negative element, either
pure or diluted, according to the nature of the material of which the
plate is composed; and in contact with the positive element I place
either a very weak acid solution, or a solution of some suitable salt
or pure water. So soon as the liquid in contact with the positive
element has become impregnated with the metal, it may be removed
and fresh liquid substituted. This arrangement of battery, in addition

page_text: to the facilities afforded for obtaining solutions of the positive metal,
possesses the advantage of combining considerable power with very
great constancy of action, the negative element being excited by a
strong acid solution, and the positive by a solution which has little or
no action upon it, except when the circuit is complete. For exciting
the negative elements of certain kinds of batteries, especially those
known as Professor Grove's battery, and the Maynooth battery, a solu-
tion which I have discovered to possess considerable advantages consists
of a mixture of sulphuric acid and nitrate of soda. The nitrate of
soda forms a cheap substitute for the nitric acid ordinarily employed,
and the action of batteries thus worked being very energetic, the salts
of the positive metals used may be readily obtained in considerable
quantity. In batteries having only one exciting liquid I employ
porous divisions between the positive and negative elements, in order
to keep apart the solution formed of the positive metal. And this
arrangement also possesses the advantage of increased constancy of
action.
Many of the neutral solutions of metals, or nearly so, formed by
these different means, are applicable to purposes for which the solu-
tions immediately derived from the batteries would be quite unfit; but
they still require, in some cases, to be either reduced in strength by
the addition of water, or to be increased in strength by evaporating a
portion of the liquid, and in some cases to have their qualities altered
by the admixture of ingredients suited to improve their efficacy for the
particular purpose to which it is intended to apply them. Or the salts
may be reduced, by the process of evaporation, to a solid consistency,
and applied to useful purposes in this condition, or redissolved for
use.
But my improvements in preparing salts of metals are not confined
to those salts which immediately result from the working of galvanic
batteries. For I find that certain useful salts not contained in these solu-
tions may be produced by the addition of proper chemical agents to
them, either in the condition in which they are produced, or after being
subjected to some after-treatment. I am aware that it has been pro-

page_text: pose:l to derive useful products by the addition of chemical agents to
results produced in the working of galvanic batteries. I do not,
therefore, consider that there is any novelty in this principle. But what
I believe to be new and useful is, the production of certain salts by
processes which I will proceed to describe. The carbonate of zinc is a
salt which I find it very advantageous to produce from the refuse solu-
tions containing the metal. To effect this, I add to the solution either
carbonate of potash or carbonate of soda in state of solution, or other-
wise, and the carbonate of zinc is precipitated with a portion of hydrate,
leaving solutions of soda or of potash, which also may be applied to
useful purposes. Or other suitable carbonates may be employed to pro
duce this result. The carbonate of zinc is itself a valuable product.
The oxide of zinc, which has of late come into extensive use as a pig-
ment, may be derived from it by the simple process of heating it to
redness; and the metal itself may be derived by the usual process of
treating the ore of zinc known as calamine. I am aware that it has
before been proposed to derive carbonate of zinc from exhausted
batteries solutions; I do not, therefore, consider that there is any novelty
in obtaining this result, except by the processes which I have described.
Sulphuret of zinc I derive by heating, in a closed crucible, with char-
coal, the sulphate of that metal produced as I have described, or by
treating the refuse results under consideration with sulphuretted
hydrogen,or with sulphuret of ammonium. Sulphuret of zinc is precipi-
tated, leaving solutions of ammonia or of acid, which may be applied
to useful purposes. Oxide of zinc may be derived from the sulphuret
by roasting it in the air to remove the sulphur, and the metal itself
may be derived by the usual process of treating the ore of zinc known
as blende. Sulphuret of lead I derive from the solutions of that metal
by processes similar to those for obtaining the sulphuret of zinc, and
the metal itself may be drived from the sulphuret by the usual process
of treating the mineral known as galena. Carbonate of lead I derive
by adding carbonate of soda to the solutions. The salts of tin and of
iron, which are capable of being precipitated, I derive from the refuse
solutions containing these metals by methods which will be readily
understood from the foregoing descriptions.

page_text: My improvements in preparing oxides of metals are partly comprised
in the description which I have given ofthe precipitation of salts of zinc
from the refuse solutions of that metal.
Another method which I have found effectual in the case of zinc,
lead, tin, or iron is to add either ammonia or caustic alkalis to the
refuse solutions, either in the condition in which they come from the
battery, or after being subjected to some after-treatment. In each case
the oxide is thrown down in the form of a hydrate, leaving solutions
which may be applied to various useful purposes.
From the foregoing descriptions it will be understood that the salts
and oxides of metals manufactured according to my Inventiou are
derived from solutions which necessarily result from the working of
different kinds of galvanic batteries, and which have generally been
considered as refuse, and thrown away. And since the batteries from
which they are derived may all the time be employed in producing
motive power, light, heat, or chemical action (such as electro-plating
or gilding), or other valuable effects, as is well understood, it is obvious
that the materials may be obtained at a much cheaper rate from these
refusematters than by the ordinary process of manufacture. And the
working of galvanic batteries will become highly remunerative, as sup-
plying various valuable matters for which there is a constant largo
demand, in addition to the ordinary supply of electrical fluid which may
beemployed to produce motive power for land or water locomotion, or
stationary use, or any such purposes as steam power is now applied to,
or other effects such as those above mentioned. And even should the
matters be produced in greater quantity than there is a demand for,
the original metals may be reproduced from them in the manner
described,and employed again for the production of electrical power, or
other purposes.
I wish it to be understood that my Invention is not confined to
the details of the processes which I have described, but comprises
different modifications of them, so long as the general principles are
retained.
And what I claim as my Invention is the manufacture, upon the
principles described, of the salts and oxides which I have named

page_text: from the solutions and matters resulting from the working of galvanic
batteries.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Edward Dering, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of
September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-three.
GEORGE E. DERING. (L.S.)
Witness, THOMAS G. ROACH,
Donegall Pass,
Belfast.