CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS FROM ORES AND OTHER MATTERS CONTAINING METALS, AND IN THE PREPARATION AND APPLICATION OF SUCH PRODUCTS FOR THE PURPOSES OF BLEACHING, PRINTING, DYING, AND COLOUR MAKING
Year: 1850

page_text: -TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SWINDELLS, of the firm of Swindells and Williams, of Manchester, and Ince,
near Wigan, Manufacturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of November, in the fourteenth year of Her
reign, and in, the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Swindells, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said John Swindells, my exors, aduiors, and assigns,
and such others as I, the said John Swindells, my exors, adñiors, or
assigns, 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 and Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING
PRODUCTS FROM ORES AND OTHER MATTERS CONTAINING METALS, AND IN THE
PREPARATION AND APPLICATION OF SUCH PRODUCTS FOR THE PURPOSES OF BLEACHING,
PRINTING, DYING, AND COLOUR MAKING;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso, that I, the said John Swindells, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date

page_text: 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
John Swindells, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hercto annexed, and the following
explanation thereof, that is to say:-
My said Invention consists, firstly, in obtaining metals, and other products
by an improved method or methods from ores containing copper and silver, or
copper only from ores containing "cromium," and also-from ores. containing
zine; and, secondly, in applying part of these product in printing, dyeing, and
producing color, and also in bleaching or discharging color.
In operating on ores containing copper and silver, or copper only, I proceed
as follows: After the whole of the sulphur, or nearly so, has been separated
from them, by roasting or other means reducing the ores to oxides of the metals,
I place the prepared ore in water-tight tanks and pump on them a weak solu-
tion of ammonia until the ore is completely saturated therewith. I allow this to
remain on twelve to twenty-four hours, and then draw it off, when the ammonia
will be found saturated with oxide of copper, and if silver be present, oxide of
silver also. The silver I separate by any of the usual methods, and likewise the.
copper; but the way I prefer is to precipitate the silver by hydrochloric acid or
salts containing that acid, and afterwards the copper by hydosuphuric acid or
salts containing that acid. The strength of the solution of ammonia I makė
use of is about 0-980°, but either stronger or weeker will answer."
In operating on ores containing zinc I proceed as "follows:-I-take the
native sulphurit of zink and mix it with common salt about its own weight (or
muriate of potash, muriate of any of the earths, but I prefer common salt), and
then calcine it in an oxidizing flame by a slow protracted heat until the
sulphur is converted into sulphuric acid." I then separate the products of
the operation by dissolving the soluble products in water; which will consist of
sulphat of soda, muriate of zinc, and muriate of iron; these I séparate in
the common way, by first obtaining the sulphate of soda and afterwards preci-
pitating the metallic oxides of zinc and iron by. lime or any other alkaline
earth or substance, and afterwards smelting the oxide of zinc in the usual
way.
In operating on ores containing chromium I proceed as follows:-After
having pulverised the ore I mix it with its own weight of common salt, or of
muriate of potash, or bydrate of lime; and if I want a product containing soda
as the alkali, I take the mixture containing common salt and expose it in a

page_text: reverberating furnace to a full red or even to a white heat, applying at the
same time a jet of steam at a very elevated temperature, (the exact tempe
rature is not material.to the success of the process,) stirring the mixture in the
furnace every ten or fifteen minutes until the effect required is produced, which
will be ascertained by taking a small quantity from the furnace and testing it;
as it is usual to do. When the process is finished the product will be chromate
of soda; the hydrochloric acid, having carried away the iron, or most of it, in
the shape of sesquichloride of iron; the product withdrawn from the furnace I
treat as usual in the manufacture of chromic or bichromic salts. I proceed in
the same way with the potash salt mixture and also with the lime mixture;
from the first mixture of materials I manufacture pure bichromate of soda, and
by adding hydrochloric acid I produce chlorochromate of soda, and from the
last or lime mixture I manufacturé chromate of lime, or by the addition of
soda or potash a compound salt of soda or potash and lime.
. Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that I claim as my
Invention,
Firstly, the extraction of copper and silver from their ores by the use of a
solution of ammonia or salts containing ammonia.
Secondly, I claim the improved method of extracting zinc from the native
sulphuret of zinc by the process of roasting the ores with common salt, or any
other articles or substance containing muriatic acid.
Thirdly, I claim the process of forming chromic salts by operating on the
ores mixed with muriatic salts subjected to the action of steam.
Fourthly, I claim the use or application of pure bichromate of soda (instead
of the bichromate of potash, hitherto in use,) for the purpose of producing color
or raising vegetable or metallic colors, or discharging colors, when so applied
for that purpose.
Fifthly, I claim the use or application of chlorochromate of soda, potash, or
lime (as new compounds not before used) in producing color, and also in
bleaching or discharging color.
Sixthly, I claim the compound salt of chromate of soda and lime, or
chromate of potash and lime, for the uses aforesaid, being a more economical
and useful salt for producing orange colors than those heretofore in
use.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Swindells, have set my hand and
seal, this Thirteenth day of May, One thousand eight hundred and
JOHN (L.S.) SWINDELLS.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid John Swindells 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.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid John Swindells 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.
Enrolled the Fourteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One.
thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.