AN IMPROVED REVERBERATORY FURNACE TO BE USED IN THE SMELTING OF COPPER ORE OR OTHER ORES WHICH ARE OR MAY BE SMELTED IN REVERBERATORY FURNACES
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN WHITE
WELCH, of Number 9, Austin Friars, in the Parish of Saint Peter-le-Poor,
in the City of London, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did, by Petition, humbly represent unto Her present most
Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, that in consequence of a communication
from a certain Foreigner residing abroad I was in possession of an Invention
of "AN IMPROVED REVERBERATORY FURNACE TO BE USED IN THE SMELTING OF
COPPER ORE OR OTHER ORES WHICH ARE OR MAY BE SMELTED IN REVERBERATORY
FURNACES," and Her said Majesty being willing to give encouragement to all
arts and inventions which may be for the public good, was graciously pleased,
by Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first
day of July (One thousand eight hundred and forty-one), in the fifth year
of Her reign, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, to give and grant unto
me, the said John White Welch, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I or
they, by myself or themselves, or by my or their deputies, servants, or agents,
or such others as I or they should agree with, and no others, during the
term of fourteen year from the date of the said Letters Patent, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend the said Invention within that part
of Her said Majesty's Dominions called England, Her Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, in such manner as to me, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, shall seem meet, and as that I or they shall enjoy the whole

page_text: profit and advantage arising by reason of the said Invention during the said
term of fourteen years; and for that end Her said Majesty requires and
strictly commands all Her subjects whatsoever, within England, Wales, and
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the Colonies and Plantations aforesaid, that they
shall not, neither directly or indirectly, make, use, or put in practice the said
Invention, or any part thereof, nor in anywise counterfeit, imitate, or resemble
the same, nor make any addition thereto or subtraction therefrom, whereby
to pretend himself or themselves to be the inventor or inventors thereof; and
whereas the said Letters Patent contain a proviso obliging me, the said John
White Welch, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, and to cause the same to be enrolled in
Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said 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 White Welch, do hereby declare that the said Invention is described
and ascertained in manner following, and by the aid of the Sheet of Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
The said improved reverberatory furnace is represented in the said Drawings
in three Figures, which are drawn on a scale of one fourth of an inch to a
foot, or one forty-eighth part of the real size, Figure 1 being a horizontal
plan of the lower part of the said furnace, with the upper part thereof removed
in order to shew the said lower part; Figure 2 a side elevation, shewing the
exterior of the furnace on that side thereof where the fireplace is situated,
with the door or opening for introducing the fuel into that fireplace; and
Figure 3 is a vertical section of the furnace, viewing it in the same direction
as in Figure 2, and shewing its interior form. The same letters of reference
are used to denote the same parts in all the three Figures. The furnace has
two chimney flues G, H, I, and G, H, I, leading away in opposite directions
from the circular bason or body A of the furnace to two upright chimney
stacks E, E, by means of which chimneys the requisite draft or current of air is
obtained to cause the fire which is contained in the fireplace F (on the firegrate
therein) to burn with intensity; and a rapid current of flame, heated smoke,
gas, and air, proceeding from that fire passes over a low wall C, called the fire
bridge, into the body A of the furnace at the upper part thereof, where the
said current of flame which is intermixed with heated smoke, air, and gas pro-
ceeding from the said fire strikes upwards beneath the arched dome which
forms the cover or ceiling over the said body A of the furnace; and the said

page_text: current of flame; heated smoke, gas, and air is reflected or reverberated
downwards from that dome upon any ore (or ore in the state commonly called
regulus or imperfect metal,) or melted metal which may be laying on the floor
or bottom part of the said body A of the furnace so as to give a strong heat
to the said ore (or regulus or imperfect metal) or melted metal; and then the
said current of heated smoke, gas, and air, with so much of flame as may be
remaining therein, becomes divided into two such currents, which proceed
away from the opposite sides G, H, G, H, Figure 1, of the body of the
furnace A in contrary directions one to the other, the said two divided
currents proceeding towards the lower parts of the two chimnies E, E, by
which the requisite draft or current of air is produced, as already mentioned;
and in so passing from the two sides G, H, G, H, of the body A to the two
chimnies E, E, the divided current passes along the two passages G, H, I, E,
and G, H, I, E, the ceilings whereof reverberate the said currents down-
wards upon the floors or lower parts of the said passages so as to give heat
to any ore (or ore in the state commonly called regulas or imperfect metal,),
which may be laying upon the said floors, and which said floors of the said
passages have a slope downwards towards the floor or bottom of the body A
of the furnace, and of which [last-mentioned floor or bottom A the aforesaid
floors or
bottoms of the passages G, H, I, E, are continuations, with easy.
slopes from one each way up to the other; and in like manner the ceilings over
the said passages G, H, I, E, are continuations of the dome or ceiling over
the body A of the furnace, with easy slopes downwards each way from the
said dome to the said ceilings. The ore (or ores in the state commonly called
regulus or imperfect metal,) may be introduced into the furnace by letting
such ore (or regulus or imperfect metal) down from hoppers situated above
the places marked. H in Figure 1, so that the said ore (or regulus or imperfect
metal) will be deposited in the said passages G, H, I, E, and G, H, I, E, at,
the uppermost or highest parts thereof where the divided currents of heated
smoke, gas, and air, with so much flame as there may be in such currents,
will strike upon and will heat the said ore (or regulus or imperfect metal).
as to give heat thereto in a suitable manner for performing the operation
commonly called calcining or roasting of ore, or regulus or imperfect metal,.
(or a similar operation to those which are so called); and there are open-
ings at K, K, Figure 1, near to each of the chimneys E, E, through which
openings iron rabbles can be introduced in order to stir and turn over the
ore (regulus or imperfect metal) which is or may be lying in the passages
G, H, I, E, and to push the same (when required) down the sloping floors of
those passages on to the floor or bottom of the body A of the furnace where the
SO

page_text: heat is greatest in consequence of the proximity of the fireplace F. And ore
(or regulus or imperfect metal) may be introduced into the centre of the
body A of the furnace from a suitable hopper placed over the top of the
arched dome which covers over and forms the ceiling to that body A. The
general dimentions of the furnace may be ascertained by measuring the
Drawings by their scale of feet and inches; but for more certainty the following.
are the principal dimensions:-The circular body A of the furnace is nine
feet in diameter within, and the perpendicular height from the centre of the
under side of the arched dome to the centre of the bottom is three feet. The
height of that centre last mentioned is two feet above the ground line, that
height of two feet being made up with sand, which forms the floor of the
body A. The fireplace F, measured at the level of the fire grate, is two feet four
inches wide across inside, and two feet nine inches long inside from the fire door
to the fire bridge C, which latter is one foot by three feet seven inches, and
the top of that fire bridge is one foot above the level of the fire grate, and the
said top is one foot four inches below the level of the centre of the under
side of the arched dome over the body A. The opening of the fire door is
one foot square; the two chimneys E, E, are twenty-two feet apart in a
straight (but oblique) line from one chimney E to the nearest part of the other
chimney E; the distance between the centres of the two chimneys E, E,
measured along a curved line supposed to be drawn through the centre of the
body A of the furnace and along the centres of the passages G, H, I, E
and G, H, I, E, is twenty-nine feet; the vertical chimneys E, E, are one foot
seven inches square withinside; the entrances into the lower parts of the
vertical chimneys E, E, from the passages G, H; I, E, Figure 1, near E, E,
are one foot ten inches square withinside. And note, instead of two distinct
vertical chimneys. E, E, one tall vertical chimney may be made to perform the
office of both by carrying two flues or passages from the two places E, E,
Figures 1 and 3, in any suitable direction, so that both those flues or passages
will join to the lower part of the one tall vertical chimney aforesaid, in order
that it may produce the same effect as the two chimneys E, E. The two
chimneys E, E, are each five feet square outside at their bases, and they con-
tinue of that size up to a height of five feet nine inches above the ground line;
and then the chimneys continue upwards nine feet higher with a smaller size
outside, but continuing to be one foot seven inches square inside up to the
top. That last-mentioned height of the chimneys is suitable in case of wood
being used for fuel, which, as it burns with much flame, does not require so
strong a draft; but when pit coal is used for fuel instead of wood, the chimneys
E, E, must be carried up as much higher as will produce a sufficient force of

page_text: draft suitable for such fuel. The height of the chimneys E, E, may in such
case be about two thirds of the height of the chimneys in the furnaces usually
employed in copper smelting in Great Britain. D, Figure 1, is the tapping
hole for drawing off melted ore (regulus or imperfect metal) or melted metal
from the bottom of the body A of the furnace after the same has, by operation
of the furnace, been melted or reduced to a fluid or a semifluid state. L and M
are openings into the body of the furnace for the purpose of skimming and
raking off the scoria from the surface of the ore (regulus or imperfect metal)
contained in the body A of the furnace. The opening M also gives access
for stopping up the tapping hole D from the inside when required. The
furnace is built of bricks, and lined with fire bricks at all the parts which are
exposed to the strong heat in the usual manner of the furnaces used in copper
smelting, and about four thousand five hundred fire bricks are required for the
furnace in case of the chimneys being only nine feet high above the furnace,
as above mentioned. The brickwork is strongly bound together with upright
iron bars and horizontal iron ties passing across the furnace from one such
upright to another corresponding upright at the opposite side of the furnace in
the usual manner of reverberatory furnaces, videlicet, there is one of the said
horizontal ties passing between the lower ends, and another such horizontal tie
between the upper ends of every two of the aforesaid corresponding uprights
at opposite sides of the furnace, so as to bind the two sides thereof together.
The lower horizontal ties pass across beneath the bottom of the furnace near
the ground line, and are buried in the sand whereof that bottom is formed.
The upper horizontal ties pass across above the arched top of the furnace,
which top is built of fire bricks, and sustains itself in consequence of its arched
form, the aforesaid iron ties retaining the abutments of the arch, all which is
as usual in smelting furnaces. The three hoppers into which the ore or
regulus is put, as before mentioned, in order to let the same down into the
furnace at I, I, and at the centre of the body A. of the furnace, are made of
iron, and the three iron hoppers are sustained. on arched frames or bridges
of iron, whereof the extreme ends rest on the side walls of the furnace without
any weight being thrown on the arched dome of the furnace, which is the
usual manner of supporting such hoppers over smelting furnaces. The threo
holes through the arched dome at which the ore (regulus or imperfect metal)
is to be let down from those three hoppers into the furnace, as aforesaid, are
about eight inches by four inches each hole. P, P, Figure 2, are openings into
the chimneys E, E, for the purpose of clearing them out; those openings are
stopped up with bricks or stones when the furnace is in use.
The improved reverberatory furnace. above described is to be used in the

page_text: smelting of copper ores or other ores which are or may be smelted in rever-
beratory furnaces, such, for instance, ores of tin, or lead, or zink, or bismuth, or
other ores. The ores are to be properly dressed and prepared for smelting in the
usual manner, with due attention to the admixture of different lots or parcels of
ore of the same metal together in all cases when it is known by experience that
the extraneous matters in one lot can by judicious mixing be made to serve
as a flux to those in another lot, as is the ordinary practice in copper smelting,
and is well understood. The ore so dressed, prepared, and mixed (if mixing is
advantageous) is put into the three hoppers above the furnace, about sixty
hundredweight of copper ore being in general a proper quantity for a charge
of the furnace, but that quantity may be varied according to the nature of the
ore; and the said quantity of ore which is to serve for a charge is to be
divided amongst the three hoppers.before mentioned, the quantity which is put
into each of those hoppers being apportioned according to the quantity of ore
that it is intended to introduce at I and I, Figure 1, into the passages G, H, I, E,
and G, H, I, E, and the quantity that it is intended to introduce into the
centre of the body A of the furnace. The ore which is introduced into the
said body A can be stirred, raked, or skimmed through the openings L, M,.
and the ore which is introduced at I, I, can be stirred through the openings
K, K, and can also (when required) be pushed down towards the body A of
the furnace to join to and become mixed with the ore therein. The improved
reverberatory furnace can, when required, be used for a calcining or. roasting
furnace by suitable. management of the heat and duly regulated admission
of air. through the fire grate or through hollow passages which may be made
in the fire bridge, if that mode of admitting air in order to strike in a current
upon the ore in the furnace is preferred, and as is commonly practised in some
furnaces used in copper smelting. And the improved reverberatory furnace
will act, when required, as a melting furnace for melting the ore by stopping
such addmission of air, closing the furnace doors, and urging the fire.. The
improved reverberatory furnace may be used to calcine or roast the ore in the
first instance, and afterwards, by continuance of. the operation of the furnace,
and increasing the heat therein, to melt the same ore, after having calcined it,.
without withdrawing the ore from the furnace in the calcined state; or the ore
when calcined may be withdrawn from the furnace without such melting, and
the melting may be performed afterwards as a distinct: operation, and the
improved reverberatory furnace may be used for performing that operation..
The improved reverberatory furnace may be used for calcining and melting
copper or other ores in manner aforesaid, or it may be used for calcining and.
melting what is termed regulus, which is ore after it has. undergone some

page_text: powerful operation (or operations) by fire, such as roasting, calcining, or
melting, whereby the ore has been in part smelted and reduced to an inter-
mediate state between ore and metal; or the improved reverberatory furnace
may be used for calcining and melting imperfect metal, which is ore (or
regulus) in a still more advanced state of smelting than what is commonly
called regulus, being further removed from the state of ore and more. nearly
approaching to the state of metal, and such imperfect metal is designated by
different names in different places. Note, the terms ore, regulus, imperfect
metal, and metal, are somewhat differently used in different places, but they
always designate the ore which is to be smelted, when the same in some of
the various stages of the process of smelting or reducing into a metallic state;
that is to say, the terms ore, regulus, imperfect metal, and metal (as the same
are used in this Specification) mean ore in some of those intermediate states
between ore and pure metal which, according to established custom, the ore
must pass through in being reduced from a state of ore to bring it to the
state of pure metal. The improved reverbatory furnace may be used in the
smelting of copper ores or other ores which are or may be smelted in
reverberatory furnaces for the roasting, calcining, melting, or other treatment
by fire of such ores when the same are in any of the intermediate states
between the state of ore and the state of pure metal which such ores may have
to pass through, according to the nature of the ore and the habitual practice
of the smelters who may adopt the use of the improved reverberatory
furnace.
Having now described the said improved reverberatory furnace, I, the said
John White Welch, do hereby declare that the new Invention whereof the
exclusive use is granted to me by the Letters Patent herein-before mentioned,
consists in the construction herein-before described of the improved rever-
beratory furnace, the novelty and the chief distinction between such improved
furnaces and those in common use being, that the current of flame, heated
smoke, gas, and air, which proceeds in the usual manner of ordinary rever-
beratory furnaces from the fireplace and over the fire bridge into the body of
the furnace (instead of proceeding onwards away from that body by one flue
or passage to the chimney, as is the case in ordinary furnaces), the said current
in the improved reverberatory furnace is divided into two separate currents,
which pass away laterally from the body of the furnace in opposite directions
in order to go by two distinct flues or passages to the chimneys. And in each
of those flues or passages part of the ore (regulus or imperfect metal) which is
to be operated upon may be placed so as to receive a heating action from the
divided current of flame, heated smoke, air, and gas which is passing through

page_text: each of the said passages respectively, so that two flues or passages both
having ore (regulus or, imperfect metal) in them are heated by the same
fire, and with an economy of fuel. And note, the improved reverberatory
furnace may have two distinct vertical chimnies; as represented in the Draw-
ings; or else the said two vertical chimneys may be brought together into
one vertical stack or chimney by means of suitable flues or passages extending
from what is the lowest part of the two vertical chimneys represented in the
Drawings, to lead into the lower part of the said one stack or chimney, if that
mode is preferred.
In witness whereof, I, the said John White Welsh, have hereunto set my
hand and, this Twenty-first day of January. One thousand eight hundred