IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF THE RESIDUES RESULTING FROM THE BURNING OF IRON PYRITES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Mason, of Eynsham Hall, near Witney, in the
86
County of Oxford, for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT
OF THE RESIDUES RESULTING FROM THE BURNING OF IRON PYRITES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Mason at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th October 1878.
" IM-
JAMES MASON, of Eynsham Hall, near Witney, in the County of Oxford.
PROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF THE RESIDUES RESULTING FROM THE BURNING
OF IRON PYRITES."
This Inventian relates to the treatment of the residues resulting from the burning
of iron pyrites, and more particularly of those burnt residues which result when
pyrites, such as are referred to in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me
No. 2984, 1877, and No. 2993, 1877, have been employed, and consists in effecting
the elimination of practically the whole or part of any residual sulphur which may
remain in the form of a metallic sulphide, such, for example, as sulphide of iron, or of
copper, or of lead, by first either submitting the burnt ore to the action of heat,
either in a closed or in a partially closed furnace, by preference with the admission
of air in order that the metallic sulphides may be reacted upon by the metallic
oxides, and thus by mutual decomposition sulphur in the form of sulphurous acid
may be liberated and the resulting residue be rendered more suitable for the pro-
duction of iron and steel.
Second. Or in such cases where the ore has been rendered or has become so dis-
integrated as that its direct employment in the blast furnace would not be advan-

page_text: tageous, I cause it before being submitted to the sulphur eliminating process before
mentioned to be mixed or incorporated with clay, and when such mixture has
attained the desired consistency-I-cause-the-same to be moulded into bricks or
other suitable forms, and after having been dried, the same are placed in a kiln,
such, for example, as a fire-brick kiln, and are subjected to heat or are burnt during
_ such operation. The reaction between the metallic sulphides and the metallic
oxides takes place, and sulphur in the form of sulphurous acid--is-eliminated; the
resulting burnt product will then be found both chemically and physically better
suited for employing in the production of iron in the blast furnace.
I wish it to be understood that I do not propose to apply my herein-before men-
tioned processes to the-treatment of all burnt ores, such for example as those known
as purple ores, and which are produced or result from those processes known as
Longmaid's and Henderson's, but I wish to limit myself to the treatment by the
processes herein described of burnt residues containing sulphur resulting from the
burning of iron pyrites, or of pyrites of those classes which are referred to in
the Patents granted to me and herein-before recited, and more particularly to those
burnt residues which are obtained from pyrites specially referred to in the Specifi-
cation of Letters Patent grated to me No. 2993, 1877, as the burnt residues
therefrom always contain a notable quantity of sulphur in the form of metallic
sulphide.