IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF METALLIC SOLUTIONS
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Romley Alder Wright Doctor of Science
Consulting Chemist of 3 Castillain Road Maida Vale in the County of
Middlesex for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF
METALLIC SOLUTIONS"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Romley Alder
Wright at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th February
1883.
CHARLES ROMLEY ALDER WRIGHT Doctor of Science Consulting Chemist of
3 Castillain Road Maida Vale in the County of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PRODUCTION OF METALLIC SOLUTIONS
"
This Invention relates to improvements in the production of certain compounds
of copper and zinc with oxygen and watery solution of ammonia which form fluids
capable of being employed for various useful purposes.
"t
It is well known that when metallic copper is moistened with or immersed in,
watery solutions of ammonia and exposed to the air, oxygen is gradually taken up
by the copper from the air and the oxide of copper formed dissolves in the solution
of ammonia forming a blue liquid sometimes spoken of as copperised amonia as
cupro-ammonium," or otherwise as solution of "cuprammonium hydrate." The
object of this invention is to render practicable the manufacture with facility and
speed of large quantities of this liquid, and also of the analogously constituted
solution containing zinc instead of copper, which may be termed solution of "zinc
ammonium bydrate," and also of analogous solutions containing both copper and
zinc simultaneously.
The first part of this invention relates to the production of solution of
cuprammonium hydrate which may be effected by means of the following
processes.
First process. Metallic copper either in small lumps of solid metal, in the
condition of clippings or cuttings of sheet copper, or in the form of copper filings
or of precipitated copper, is covered with a solution of ammonia in water, or with
a weak solution of cupraṁmonium hydrate, containing an amount of free ammonia

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Charles Romley Alder Wright in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 9th August 1883.
CHARLES ROMLEY ALDER WRIGHT Doctor of Science Consulting Chemist of
3 Castillain Road Maida Vale in the County of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
PRODUCTION OF METALLIC SOLUTIONS
"
This invention relates to improvements in the production of certain compounds
of copper and zinc with oxygen and watery solution of ammonia which form fluids
capable of being employed for various useful purposes.
A
33
It is well known that when metallic copper is moistened with or immersed in
watery solution-of-ammonia and exposed to the air oxygen is gradually taken up
by the copper from the air and the oxide of copper formed dissolves in-the
solution of ammonia forming a blue liquid sometimes spoken of as "copperized
ammonia as "cuprammonium or otherwise as solution of " cuprammonium
hydrate." The object of this invention is to render practicable the manufacture
with increased cheapness facility and speed of large quantities of this liquid and
also of the analogously constituted solution containing zinc instead of copper
which may be termed solution of "zine ammonium hydrate" and also of analogous
solutions containing both copper and zine simultaneously.
-
The first part of this invention relates to the production of solution of
cuprammonium hydrate-this I effect in the following manner.
Metallic copper in lumps or fragments of convenient size is loosely piled inside
a vertical tube or tower or other conveniently shaped vessel and water is allowed
to trickle from a pipe or cistern over the copper so as to keep its surface moist.
At the base of the tower a current of air mixed with ammonia gas is caused to
pass into the tower so as to ascend upwards meeting the descending water as it
trickles over the copper. Under these conditions the copper becomes oxidized
and the water dissolves firstly the ammonia gas and secondly the oxide of copper
formed so that the liquor which passes out at the base of the tower is a solution
of cupraminonium hydrate the strength of which depends on the proportions
subsisting between the bulk of the mass of copper the quantity of water trickling
over it and the amounts of air and ammonia gas supplied in a given time.
The same result is equally arrived at if instead of water a weak solution of
ammonia or of cuprammonium hydrate be allowed to trickle over the copper.
As an example of the manner in which the above process may be carried out
I proceed as follows:-I construct a vertical iron tower or tube which may be ten
inches in internal diameter and ten feet in height and I fill it with scraps of
copper or cuttings of copper sheet. On to this mass of copper loosely piled
together I allow water to trickle whilst at the base of the tower I pass in by
means of a pipe a mixture of air and ammonia gas which passing upwards through
the tower acts on the copper and water present forming a solution of cuprammo-
nium hydrate which is allowed to trickle out at the base of the tower into a tank
or other convenient receptacle. The ammonia gas I generate by ordinary well
known processes such as the action of lime on sulphate of ammonia. I so regulate
the supply of water to the tower relatively to the quantity of ammonia gas as to
prevent undue dilution of the metallic solution ultimately obtained.
I find it advantageous to use a series of towers instead of one only, allowing
the air and ammonia gas that pass out at the top of the first tower to enter at the
bottom of the second tower and so on successively throughout the sories. The
weaker solutions produced in the later towers of the series I employ systematically
instead of water in the earlier towers, in such a way that practically all the

page_text: ammonia gas originally used is obtained in the form of cuprammonium hydrate
solution issuing from the first tower of the series.
In certain cases I find it advantageous to apply well known means of cooling to
the first tower or to the first and second towers of the series such as water jackets;
the object of this being to enable ammonia gas to be more completely absorbed on
account of the diminution effected in the heating of the liquor which is otherwise
apt to become considerably heated owing to the well known evolution of heat
during the condensation of considerable quantities of ammonia gas in water.
of
In some cases when it is desired to obtain solutions containing a large proportion
copper I find it advantageous to use a series of towers such as above described
to produce a liquid containing a large quantity of ammonia in solution together
with more or less copper and afterwards to immerse fragments of copper into such
solution and force a current of air through the whole so that the air comes in
contact with both copper and ammonia simultaneously thus causing copper to
dissolve and so increase the amount of copper in solution. A tower similar to those
used in the first stage of the process but somewhat larger in diameter may
advantageously be used for the purpose.
The air which issues from the apparatus used in this stage of the process carries
away with it a considerable amount of ammonia gas; this I recover in the form
of weak cuprammonium solution by causing the air and ammonia gas to pass
either through one of the later towers in the series above referred to or through a
separate tower on the same principle. The weak cuprammonium hydrate solution
thus obtained I employ along with other similar liquor obtained in the later
towers of the series, instead of water in the earlier towers of the series, so that
ultimately practically all the ammonia gas used is converted into cuprammonium
hydrate solution of any required degree of richness in dissolved copper consistent
with the amount of ammonia present.
The second part of this invention relates to the production of solutions
containing zinc ammonium hydrate either alone or admixed with cuprammonium
hydrate. I have found that if brass or other copper zinc alloys essentially
consisting of from two to three parts of copper and one of zinc with but little
admixture of other metals be employed instead of copper in the above described
processes both the copper and the zinc readily dissolve simultaneously formning &
mixed solution containing both cuprammonium hydrate and zinc ammonium
hydrate; although zinc alone when thus treated does not dissolve with any
considerable degree of rapidity. In order to manufacture such mixed solutions I
substitute either such copper zinc alloys or a mixture of copper zinc alloys and
copper for copper alone in the processes above described, but otherwise making no
change in them.
In order to prepare solutions containing more zinc in relation to the copper
present than can be obtained by the use of such copper zinc alloys I make use of
a well known chemical reaction namely the displacement of copper by zinc from
ammoniacal solution; I digest a solution of cuprammonium hydrate or mixed
solutions of cuprammonium and zinc ammonium hydrates prepared as above
described with metallic zine; in a few hours the copper is wholly displaced if
sufficient zinc be employed; by running off the liquid after the lapse of a shorter
period any required proportion can be attained between the zinc and the copper
still left in solution.
Having now described the nature of my said invention and the manner in which
the same may be carried into effect I wish it to be understood that I do not
confine myself to the exact details as above described in the examples given
inasmuch as the shape and dimensions of the towers vessels and other appliances
employed and their material mode of construction and arrangement and the
velocity and amount of air current used and the amount of ammonia gas and of
water employed may be varied to a large extent and must be so varied to suit
particular cases but what I claim as my Invention is :-
First The conversion of fragments of metallic copper into solution of

page_text: cuprammonium hydrate by allowing water or a watery solution of ammonia or a
weak solution of cuprammonium hydrate to trickle over the fragments loosely piled
up in a convenient vessel through which a stream of air mixed with ammonia gas
is caused to pass substantially as described.
Second The conversion of fragments of metallic copper into solution of
cuprammonium hydrate by passing a stream of air through a watery solution of
ammonia or solution of cuprammonium hydrate containing ammonia in which
copper is immersed, and afterwards leading off such streams of air into and
through a tower or towers filled with fragments of copper over which water or a
watery solution of ammonia is allowed to trickle and subsequently utilizing the
weak solution of cuprammonium bydrate thereby obtained substantially as
described.
Third The conversion of fragments of brass or other similar zino copper alloys
or of a mixture of fragments of copper and brass into solutions containing both
zine ammonium and cuprammonium hydrates by treating them substantially in
any of the ways by which copper alone is herein before directed to be treated in
order to convert-it-into solution of cuprammonium hydrate.
In witness whereof the said Charles Romley Alder Wright have hereunto
set my hand and seal this Eighth day of August in the year of our Loid One
thousand eight hundred and eighty three.
CHARLES. R. ALDER WRIGHT. (L.S.)