IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF OBTAINING OR MANUFACTURING COMMERCIAL SALTS OF LEAD DIRECTLY FROM TEE ÛRES OF LEAD
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Cobley, of Meerholz, in the Electorate of
Hesse, Germany, Metallurgist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MODE OF OBTAINING OR MANUFACTURING COMMERCIAL SALTS OF LEAD
DIRECTLY FROM TEE ÛRES OF LEAD."
Hesse, Germany, Metallurgist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MODE OF OBTAINING OR MANUFACTURING COMMERCIAL SALTS OF LEAD
DIRECTLY FROM THE ÜRES OF LEAD."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Cobley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
January 1861.
I, THOMAS COBLE:, of Meerholz, in the Electorate of Hesse, Germany,
Metallurgist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MODE OF OBTAINING OR MANUFACTURING COMMERCIAL SALTS OF LEAD
DIRECTLY PROM THE ORES OF LEAD," to be as follows:--
In the preparation of the salt known in commerce as sugar of lead, I
take the ore, and having first crushed it, I subject it to the action of pyro-
ligneous or ascetic acid, or ascetous gases, according to the quality of the salt
required; where time is an object I prefer to use calcined or oxidized ore and
heat the acetate; the salt of lead formed is then lixiviated, concentrated, and
crystallized by the usual known means.
In preparing chromate of lead I take the acetate salt, formed from the ore,
ás before mentioned, and introduce into it any available salt of chrome by

page_text: means of which the chromate of lead is precipitated, carefully washed, and
dried, and passed by means of calcination into such shades of pigment chrome
as may be required; the acetate alkaline solution is concentrated, crystallized,
or otherwise prepared for the market.
In preparing the nitrate of lead, I take the acetate salt of led, formed as
before mentioned, and add a solution of nitrate of soda or other alkaline nitrate,
and by means of double decomposition, produce the nitrate of lead and the
acetate of soda, which are separated by careful crystallization, or the pulverized
pre may be treated with nitric or nitrous acid, in a soluble or gaseous form,
and the nitrous salt of lead thus formed is lixiviated, concentrated, and
crystallized, or otherwise made available for use.
For any cther salt I proceed in the same way, always obtaining and acetate
of lead from the ore, and then by adding a compound containing the element
of the required salt by double decomposition, I obtain that salt of lead with
an acetate of some other.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said Thomas Cobley in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th December 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
COBLEY, of Meerholz, in the Electorate of Hesse, Germany, Metallurgist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, By Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Cobley, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Cobley,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Cobley, my executors, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF
OBTAINING OR MANUFACTURING COMMERCIAL SALTS OF LEAD DIRECTLY PROBY THE
ORES OF LEAD," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas
Cobley, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and

page_text: ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was
to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office on or before the Eleventh of December, One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-one.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Cobley, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say :-
I take carbonates of lead ores, and after reducing them to a powder by
grinding, I subject them to the vapours of ascetic or pyroligneous acid, either
derived from distillation or vapourization of the acids themselves, or the
decomposition of acetates or pyrolignites, or by fermentation.
In the application of gases I apply the same apparatus, and in the manner
as described in the Specification of my Patent, No. 2612, dated 26th October
1860, with this exception, where I use the condensed or liquid pyroligneous
acid, and this I effect by means of a worm, whereby the superfluous steam of
the establishment may be economised and used to disengage the acetic vapour,
but where greater purity is required, then the pyroligneous acid may be mixed
with charcoal, which in the distillation will keep down the tar and organic
impurities. The quantity of acid used will depend entirely upon the per-
centage of lead in the ores acted upon, which in all cases ought to be saturated
with water to condense the vapours. I use a series of vats filled with the
prepared ore, and work the liquor through until sufficiently concentrated for
chrystallization or decomposition, allowing it to pass through animal charcoal or
other decolourizing matters to brighten the liquor. The mother liquors I use
for the purposes described in the Specification of my Patent before referred to,
or otherwise, as may be found convenient in the course of manufacture.
The other combinations of lead are formed as follows:-
Nitrate of lead. The prepared ore is sufficiently saturated with water so as
to condense and dilute the acid formed, and nitrous vapours allowed to pass
into it in closed vats; the nitrate solution is filtered off and chrystallized.
Nitric or nitrous acid should be employed in a sufficiently dilute state where
the first mode cannot be conveniently carried out, or the acetate of lead solution
obtained by the means before described may be treated with acetate of soda or
any alkaline nitrate in solution, so as to form nitrate of lead and acetate of soda
or alkaline acetate, which salts may be separated by chrystallization.
Chromate of lead.-To form this salt I use either acetate or nitrate solutions
produced as before described, and add a solution of any soluble chromic com-
bination, in such proportions as to precipitate the whole of the lead in solution;

page_text: it will depend entirely upon the particular shades of chromic required to be
produced, whether the nitrate or acetate liquors be employed, or chromic
combinations.
The tone of the colour may be much improved and deepened by calcination,
but the character of the colour must wholly depend upon the precipitate,
as is known to every chemist and colour maker.
Having now described my Invention, and how the same is carried out in
practice, I now state that what I claim and wish secured to me by the before
in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First, the use and application of carbonate of lead ore, or native carbonates
of lead as a source or material for manufacturing commercial salts of lead.
Second, the mode of producing acetates of lead by subjecting the said
carbonates of lead ore when crushed to the action of vapours of pyroligneous,
acetic, or nitrous acids, substantially as herewithin described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Cobley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
TH. COBLEY. (L.S.)