OBTAINING TIN OR COMPOUNDS OF TIN FROM THE SCRAPS OR CLIPPINGS OF TINNED SHEET IRON
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Frederick Claus, of Latchford, in the County
of Chester, Chemist, for the Invention of "OBTAINING TIN OR COMPOUNDS
OF TIN FROM THE SCRAPS OR CLIPPINGS OF TINNED SHEET IRON."
Sealed the 4th August 1857, and dated the 7th January 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Frederick Claus
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 7th January, 1857.
I, CHARLES FREDERICK CLAUS, of Latchford, in the County of Chester,
Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "OBTAINING
TIN OR COMPOUNDS OF TIN FROM THE SCRAPS OR CLIPPINGS OF TINNED SHEET IRON,"
to be as follows::_
1st; in the separation of the tin from the iron of refuse tin plate, by means
of boiling solutions of sulphurets of calcium, which contain an excess of
sulphur, or to which free sulphur has been added, a source from which, for
the sake of cheapness, I prefer to obtain my solutions of sulphuret of calcium.
I take the materials generally known as alkali waste and gas waste substances,
which have hitherto been thrown away in large quantities.

page_text: I carry this operation out as follows:-I place the tin scraps into large open
pans, which may be heated either by means of steam pipes or by a fire under-
neath, fill the same with the solution of the sulphurets of calcium until the
whole of the scraps are covered with the liquid; I then place on the top of
the scraps a box filled with flower of sulphur, sulphur powder, or the sulphur
which is obtained by one of my subsequent operations, which I shall further
describe hereafter. The box containing the sulphur is furnished with a per-
forated or sieve bottom, covered with a coarse canvas; I then heat the contents
of the pan by the means mentioned above until the liquid boils, and continue
the boiling until all the tin of the scraps is dissolved; 'the scrap thus stripped
is then removed from the liquid, and a fresh quantity put in, which operation is
repeated until the liquid will dissolve no more tin.
The stripped scraps, to which, especially when it was rusty before, a coating
of sulphuret of iron adheres, is then packed in baskets, and passed quickly
through diluted muriatic acid to free it of the sulphuret of iron, after which
it is fit to be worked up again into iron, or employed for other useful
purposes.
2nd. The second part of my Invention relates to the treatment of the
solution of tin obtained in the manner described above, and is carried out
by precipitating the tin from the same as a sulphuret of tin by means of
acids, and I prefer for this purpose muriatic acid. From the precipitate of
bisulphuret of tin, thus obtained, the supernatant liquid is decanted off; the
precipitate freed from all its adhering impurities by washing it with water,
is then filtered through shallow filters of canvas.
This part of my Invention is also applicable when the tin has been dissolved
from the iron of tin scraps by means of sulphurets of alkalies.
I claim also the use of sulphuret of tin obtained by the same process from
the solutions of such stanno-sulphurets of alkalies, though I wish it to be clearly
understood that the separation of iron and tin of scrap tin by means of sul-
phurets of alkalies is not a part of my. Invention. After the precipitate has
been sufficiently freed from the liquid it is removed from the filter and
dried in stoves, and may then be used in any convenient manner, as, for
instance, by roasting it at a low heat into oxide of tin in furnaces commonly
employed for such and similar purposes; and the oxide of tin thus obtained I
smelt into metallic tin, in the manner described in works on metallurgy, or
by dissolving the said bisulphuret of tin in muriatic acid, when -bichloride of
tin is formed and sulphur set free.
The sulphur obtained is again used by adding it to the solution of the

page_text: sulphurets of calcium, in the manner described in the first part of this Speci-
fication, in order to assist in the separation of the tin from the iron. The
sulphuretted hydrogen evolved in this operation I conduct through pipes into
water and burn it.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,.
and of an order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said Charles Frederick
Claus in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th August 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, CHARLES
FREDERICK CLAUS, of Latchford, in the County of Chester, Chemist; send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Frederick Claus, Her special licence that I, the said Charles
Frederick Claus, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Charles Frederick Claus, 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
"OBTAINING TIN OR COMPOUNDS OF TIN FROM THE SCRAPS OR CLIPPINGS OF TINNED
SHEET IRON," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles
Frederick Claus, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and 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 within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
"
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Frederick Claus, 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:-
My Invention consists,-1. In the separation of the tin from the iron of refuse
tin plate by means of boiling solutions of sulphurets of calcium, which contain

page_text: :
an excess of sulphur, or to which free sulphur has been added, a source from
which, for the sake of cheapness, I prefer to obtain my solutions,of, sulphuret
of calcium. I take the materials generally known as alkali waste and gas
waste substances, which have hitherto been thrown away in large quantities.
I carry this operation out as follows:-I place the tin scraps into large open
pans, which may be heated either by means of steam pipes or by a fire under-
neath, fill the same with the solution of the sulphurets of calcium until the
whole of the scraps are covered with the liquid; I then place on the top of
the scraps a box filled with flower of sulphur, sulphur powder, or the sulphur
which is obtained by one of my subsequent operations, which I shall further
describe hereafter. The box containing the sulphur is, furnished with a
perforated or sieve bottom, covered with a coarse canvas; I then heat the
contents of the pan by the means mentioned above until the liquid boils, and
continue the boiling until all the tin of the scraps is dissolved. The scrap,
thus stripped, is then removed from the liquid and a fresh quantity put in,
which operation is repeated until the liquid will dissolve no more tin.
The stripped scraps, to which, especially when it was rusty before, a coating
of sulphuret of iron adheres, is then packed in baskets, and passed quickly
through diluted muriatic acid to free it of the sulphuret of iron, after which
it is fit to be worked up again into iron.
2. The second part of my Invention relates to the treatment of the solution
of tin obtained in the manner described above, and is carried out by pre-
cipitating the tin from the same as a sulphuret of tin by means of acids, and
I prefer for this purpose muriatic acid. From the precipitate of bisulphuret
of tin thus obtained the supernatant liquid is decanted off'; the precipitate,
freed from all its adhering impurities by washing it with water, is then filtered
through shallow filters of canvas.
This part of my Invention is also applicable when the tin has been dissolved
from the iron of tin scraps by means of sulphurets of alkalies.
I claim also the use of sulphuret of tin obtained by the same process from
the solutions of such stanno-sulphurets of alkalies, though I wish it to be
clearly understood that the separation of iron and tin of scrip tin by means
of sulphurets of alkalies is not a part of my Invention. After the precipitate
has been sufficiently freed from the liquid, it is removed from the filter and
dried in stoves, and may then be used in any convenient manner, as, for
instance, by roasting it at a low heat into oxide of tin in furnaces commonly
employed for such and similar purposes; and the oxide of tin thus obtained I
smelt into metallic tin, in the manner described in works on metallurgy, or by

page_text: dissolving the said bisulphuret of tin in muriatic acid, when bichloride of tin
is formed and sulphur set free. The sulphur obtained is again used by adding
it to the solution of the sulphurets of calcium, in the manner described in the
first part of this Specification, in order to assist in the separation of the tin
from the iron. The sulphuretted hydrogen evolved in this operation I conduct
through pipes into water and burn it.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Frederick Claus, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Fifth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
CHARLES FRED. CLAUS. (L.S.).