IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING COPPER AND OTHER METALS FROM THEIR ORES, AND IN IN FURNACES TO BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Watson Hughes, of 48, Porchester Terrace,
Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN EXTRACTING COPPER AND OTHER METALS FROM THEIR ORES, AND IN
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Watson Hughes at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd August 1881.
WALTER WATSON HUGHES, of 48, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING COPPER AND OTHER METALS
FROM THEIR ORES, AND IN FURNACES TO BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE."
This Invention has for its object improvements in extracting copper and other
metals from their ores, and in furnaces to be used for this purpose.
For extracting copper and other metals from their ores I employ what I call my
reducing and desulphurising furnace constructed as hereinafter described, and which
may be made in any form, shape, or size,
Preferably, I make the furnace rectangular and considerably longer than it is
broad. At one end I provide a fire place as in a reverberatory furnace. The
furnace has three tap holes, one at the bottom, and two at different heights above
the bottom. It has five (5) rabble doors, two of them at different heights above
the bottom of the furnace, and three of them a little above the line of upper
tuyers.
The first tap hole is for running the metal or metals clean out from the bottom
of the furnace when it is required to do so for repairs or otherwise.
The second tap hole is for running the metal or metals off until it is level with
the bottom part of the lowest line of tuyers, and this is in case of any accident
to the engine, so that the metal or metals may not stop up the nozzles of the
tuyers.
The third or upper tap hole runs the metal or metals off when the operation is
completed to a level a little above the nozzles of the lower line of tuyers. I can
thus keep a large quantity of metal in the furnace for the charges to be dropped on
to. The metal is kept rotating around the interior of the vessel as described in
the Provisional Specification lodged by me on the 28th April last, and as a charge
is dropped on to the surface of the metal it is carried forward by the rotating
metal without settling on the bottom of the furnace, but should any of the ores
settle on the bottom it is at once stirred up with a rabble from any one of the
three upper rabble doors. The rotatory motion is kept up by the blast from the
lower tuyers.

page_text: At all times I charge the furnace with the necessary quantity of ores and fluxes,
and I melt the first charges down with the furnace fire and then draw off the slag
from the lowest rabble door. I put on the blast from the lowest line of tuyers as
soon as the metal or metals cover their nozzles. The operation of smelting now
goes on rapidly and the sulphur is driven off freely.
I place a bar of iron three or four inches deep across the bottom or sill of the
lowest rabble door, backed inside with clay, and by this means I get the metal up
to the level of the door after the slag is drawn off. I then remove the iron bar
and close up the door. I now continue charging the furnace with ore and
flux, and drawing off slag at the upper rabble door until the operation is
completed.
I use two lines of tuyers for blast, the nozzles of the lowest line I place five (5)
to six (6) inches above the bottom of the furnace and all on the same level. They
are not so large as the tuyers on the upper line, and by the strength of the blast
from them I regulate the heat in the furnace and stir up the metals from the
bottom.
The tuyers I use in the upper line are from two to three inches diameter and
have a moderate strength of blast, as I find it is a large quantity of air entering
the metals that carries off the sulphur quickest, and leaves the furnace uninjured
by too strong a heat. The blast from these tuyers is put on as soon as the
metals and slag rise up to their nozzles and the sulphur is now carried off very
rapidly.
I place all the tuyers in the sides and ends of the furnace. The tuyers in one
side I place near to one end of the furnace and send the blast along this end,
whilst the tuyers in the other side are near to the other end of the furnace and
send the blast along that end.
In this way the force of the blast keeps the metal rotating continuously around
the furnace.
I generally use 24 tuyers, but more or fewer may be used. Preferably I point
all the tuyers a little downwards, but the tuyers may be pointed either up or
down.
I use four hoppers from which I drop the charges into the furnace in front of
the tuyers. The ores used answer best when ground or broken small, when if the
charge is not dropped from the hopper too fast it will be carried forward by the
circulating metals. But if any-of-it-should-go-to-the-bottom of the furnace I use
the rabble from any one of the upper rabble doors to stir it up.
I can bring the metal or metals to a high state of purity in this furnace; but I
prefer to run it into iron or sand moulds where it cools, and the different metals are
separated from each other and afterwards refined,
The sulphur driven off' I save in any of the usual ways as sulphuric acid.
I make a receptacle in the bottom of my furnace for collecting any of the
precious metals that may have been in the ores.
I place a damper in front of the hearth when the fire is not required, but it must
be always ready as the slag at times sets very rapidly and would otherwise stop
the whole operations.
I use two blast engines; one of low pressure, and the other of higher pressure.
They may be made to serve one or more furnaces. The lower line of tuyers. is
supplied with blast from one engine and the upper line of tuyers from the other
engine.
A refining furnace may be so placed as to receive the metal to be refined as it
runs from one or more reducing and desulphurising furnaces.
I use fuel of any kind that will answer my purpose.
I use a blast of either air or steam, and I arrange the blast pipes so as I can use
either of them separately or both of them together; I cool the furnace with the
steam when the heat is becoming too high, endangering the lining. The steam also
drives off the sulphur with it.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed.
by the said Walter Watson Hughes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st February 1882.
WALTER WATSON HUGHES, of 48, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXTRACTING COPPER AND OTHER METALS
FROM THEIR ORES, AND IN FURNACES TO BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE."
This Invention has for its object improvements in extracting copper and other
metals from their ores and in furnaces used for this purpose.
For this purpose I first use a cupola or reverberatory furnace for smelting the
sulphides or other ores of copper, and all necessary fluxes are mixed with the
charges.
The slag is run or drawn from either of these furnaces in the usual way, and
the regulus is run off into sand beds, or I run the molten regulus into a ladle
and pour it into the desulphurating furnace.
I place the regulus obtained from the sand bed into a large melting reverberatory
or other furnace where I bring it into a thoroughly molten state, and after drawing
off any slag that may have risen upon it I run it into or carry it in a ladle and
pour it into the desulphurating furnace, which is heated up ready to receive it.
I use a desulphurizing furnace of the construction shewn in the Drawing here-
unto annexed. Figure 1 is a vertical section of the furnace, and Figure 2 a
sectional plan of the same. The main bed of the furnace is longer than it is wide,
say, about nine and a half feet long and six and a half fect broad, internal
measurement. The depth of the furnace from the level of the skimming plate to
the bed is about twelve inches, but these dimensions may be considerably varied
and the furnace may be made larger or smaller, as desired.
The two ends of the main bottom of the furnace are semi-circular. At one end
is a skimming door A, and in front of this door the bed is stepped up, say, about
six inches, forming a platform B and bay measuring two feet along the centre of
the furnace. Into this bay the slag accumulates before it is drawn or run off.
At this end of the furnace is also a flue leading to the culvert or chimney stack,
whilst the fire place is at the opposite end of the furnace, as in an ordinary
reverberatory furnace. The flue leading to the culvert or stack I make larger than
the flue of an ordinary copper smelting furnace, otherwise the fumes of the sulphur
would for want of vent be driven out at every opening in the furnace.
The fire is required for creating draft when the furnace is not working on a
stack with other furnaces, and is at all times required for keeping it hot between
the charges and for heating it up after repairs.
I place a small door C in each side of the furnace, one door near one end of the
furnace and the other door near the other end of the furnace, and opposite to
these doors I place tuyeres in the positions shewn by the dotted lines D, D; these
tuyercs are set in the walls of the furnace. I use one or two teirs of tuyeres
according to the depth of metal to be blown upon, the lower tuyeres a little above
the bottom, the upper tuyeres a little higher in the side of the furnace.
By placing the tuyeres in the opposite sides and ends of the furnace, the blast
keeps the molten contents in rapid circulation and supplies itself with a constantly
renewed surface to blow upon. The blast enters through the sides of the wall.
I use large tuyeres with a moderate pressure rather than small tuyeres with a
high pressure, as I find in practice that it is not heat so much as air that is
required to drive off sulphur. I use either fire clay or iron tuyeres.
When I commence each operation with the desulphurating furnace, as soon as
the molten regulus begins to run or as it is poured into it, I put on the blast and

page_text: increase it to the required strength. As the contents rise to a level with the
skimming plate, where it is always kept at a level by running or pouring in molten
regulus as the slag is drawn or run off.
When the contents of the furnace are brought up to 85 or 90 per cent. of
metallic copper, I run it off either into sand beds or into iron moulds and begin
another operation.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manuer of performing
the same, I would have it understood that I claim,-
First. The construction of desulphurizing furnaces, substantially as herein before
described and illustrated in the Drawing annexed.
Second: Setting the tuyeres in the walls of the furnace in the position described
so as to produce a rapid circulation of the contents of the furnace by the force of
the blast.
Third. The bay in the wall in front of the skimming door with its floor raised
above the floor of the bed of the furnace, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Watson Hughes, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty two.
I IZ HUGHES
W. W. HUGHES
(L.S.)