IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY, APPARATUS, MATERIALS, AND PROCESSES FOR PREPARING AND TREATING AURIFEROUS, ARGENTIFEROUS, AND CUPREOUS ROCKS, MINERALS, AND COMP TO
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Radley, of Hill Street, Peckham, in the
County of Surrey, Surgeon, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY, APPARATUS, MATERIALS, AND PROCESSES FOR PREPARING AND
TREATING AURIFEROUS, ARGENTIFEROUS, AND CUPREOUS ROCKS, MINERALS, AND
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Radley at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration, on
the 20th June 1856, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent Law
Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,. WILLIAM,
RADLEY, of Hill Street, Peckham, in the County of Surrey, Surgeon, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY, APPARATUS, MATERIALS, & PROCESSES FOR PREPARING & TREATING
AURIFEROUS, ARGENTIFEROUS; AND CUPREOUS ROCKS, MINERALS, AND ALLUVIUMS,
PARTS WHEREOF ARE. APPLICABLE TO. OTHER PURPOSES," and in what manner the.
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and.
by the following statement, that is to say: -
.
My Invention, consisting of several parts and operations, I shall describe
under the six several heads or sections following; and, firstly, of the preparation

page_text: of the rock, mineral, & alluvium: If the substance to be prepared is quartzose
or trappean, I break it into pieces, not exceeding a hen's egg in size, and
subject it to calcination in. a. close receptacle or kiln, with or without an
alcaline or earthy sulphide.or chloride, as herein-after said, during one to four
hours, at a full red to white heat, and withdrawing it, I plunge it into water,
and preferably into hot water, to render. it more friable and easy to crush &
grind. When the mineral is pyritic, I roast it in a similar kiln or other
receptacle, heated by convenient furnaces & flues, with an aperture at top and
bottom; from the upper part of which kiln or receptacle a pipe or passage leads
to a dust chamber, so as to collect and separate all dust from the sulphurous
fumes for use, as herein-after described under the sixth head or section.. When
the pyritic mineral has lost about one-half or more of its component sulphur, I
withdraw it, as before described respecting quartzose substances, and plunge
it into a solution of sulphide of potassium or sodium, barium, strontium, or
calcium, more or less concentrated and sulphurated, but I prefer that of the
sulphide of potassium, and especially that kind known as "liver of sulphur,"
or that of "balsam of sulphur;" removing it thence, I roast it in a similar
manner, but at a higher temperature, in fact, at as high a temperature as I
can possibly command without fusing the pyritic material. Through the
incandescent mass in the kiln or receptacle, and by an aperture at the foot
thereof, in the first roasting of the pyritic mineral I pass,. continually or
periodically, steam to facilitate the process, and in some cases a blast or arti-
ficial current of air, or other vehicle containing oxygen gas, as where it is
desirable to increase the yield of sulphurous and manufacture of sulphuric
acid. With respect to the proportion of sulphide to be used, no rule can be
given, except that richer auriferous pyrites require more, and poorer ones less,
of the sulphide, but for average specimens about 28 pounds avoirdupois to
every ton of 2240 pounds of the mineral. The pyritic matter, thus treated and
deprived of all the sulphur that can be by roasting or lixiviation with a
sulphide, is to be withdrawn, and treated, when cool, with successive washings of
hot or cold water to abstract all soluble, alcaline, or earthy sulphide, and being
then left to dry, it is ready for farther treatment. When the pyritic substance-
is withdrawn from the kiln or receptacle after the first roasting, it may be
sprinkled with any of the sulphides in powder, or a powdered sulphide or
chloride may be introduced into the kiln or receptacle, and sprinkled upon the
incandescent substance, instead of steeping it therein. .
The second part or section of this Specification relates to crushing and
grinding, the aforesaid or any, substance, which I perform as follows:-The:

page_text: material to be crushed is to be introduced into a machine, which I denominate
a gyro-stamper, and constructed thus, a basin or mortar of cast iron or stone of
the general form of an apothecaries mortar, but instead of being hemispherical
in its cavity, I prefer to make it paraboloid, and identical with one-half or less
than one-half of an ellipse, sectionally of small excentricity, cut in the sense of
its transverse diameter. I prefer to make it 4 feet wide at the brim and 2 feet
6 inches in vertical depth, about 6 inches in thickness in the bottom, tapering
radially to about 2 inches in thickness at the brim, with a strong flanch outside
its bottom by way of a foot to fasten it down by, and an aperture about 4 to 6
inches in diameter in the center of its bottom to effect the discharge of the
crushed material spontaneously. The curvature of the cavity may, however, be
varied from a greater to a lesser excentricity, and vice versa, according to the
nature of the material to be crushed and incipiently ground, making it greater
for more friable, & less for harder minerals & materials. To this mortar I
adapt a pestle head of cast iron, steel, or stone, in the general form of this
well-known instrument, whose lower surface shall answer and adapt itself to
that of the elliptic mortar, and occupying or covering from one-half to two-
thirds of the concave surface of the same. To this pestle head I attach a cast,
but preferably, a malleable, iron helve, connected above or below with a source
of continuous circular motion, and provided also with a cam or rack motion to
lift the pestle occasionally upwards, to fall again upon the materials to be
crushed and ground lying within the cavity of the mortar aforesaid: The upright
drilling machine may be given as an instance how to effect this gynglimo-
circular motion required for the pestle, which any engineer can exccute; or
the mortar may be made to revolve upon its foot, supported upon friction
rollers set in a strong cast-iron anvil or sole piece, or by balls placed in a
circular channel therein, containing oil, fat, or other lubricating material. The
weight of the pestle head and helve, and the height from which it should fall,
must be regulated by the hardness of the material to be crushed, but as a
general indication 12 to 15 cwts. will do for the one, and the heighth to be
raised may be 12 inches, more or less, but never less than about 3 inches, to
enable the lumps of material to roll or get underneath the pestle head; and the
proportion of strokes to revolutions of the pestle or mortar, as the case may be,
should vary with the nature of the material, being for average stuff about one
stroke for every revolution, so as to exert both a crushing and a separating
action. From the aperture in the bottom of the mortar of the gyro-stamper
a shute will transfer the broken material over the brim and into the cavity of
the grinder proper, denominated "the muller." This machine consists, like the

page_text: preceeding one, of a mortar and a pestle, with this; difference, that the cavity of
the muller mortar is to be made hemispherical, and with about one-half more
width at brim than the gyro-stamper-mortar, of the same or less thickness of
material in the bottom, but provided with a central aperture of spontaneous
discharge in the bottom, of similar diameter. To the cavity of this mortar. a
hemispherical muller must be adapted,' to whose upper surface a helve or shaft
must be attached; of length about tripple that of the semi-diameter, of the brim
of the mortar or muller basin, and fixed by a binnacle, or universal joint at
about a distance from the face of the muller, equal to the semi-diameter or
depth of the basin from the brim to the bottom, to a stay or bearer firmly
fastened upon and across the brim of the basin, so as to allow of and compel
the muller to adopt a circular, and also at the same time a sideling. or oscil
lating motion within the basin of the muller, provision being made in the center
of the universal joint by a box,and key piece, that the muller shall bear with
its full weight upon the material to be levigated, whether it be coarser or finer.
The opposite. end of the helve or shaft of the muller is to be connected with an
arm.or crank fixed upon the lower end of a vertical shaft, made to revolve, by
suitable geering above, in such a manner that when the arm or crank revolyes
a: circulating, motion will be given to that end of the helve, and a corresponding
motion to the muller within the basin or mortar, provision being also made in
the arm. or crank for a fixed screw, or pair of screws, of two or more threads;
to be stepped or centered therein or thereto, whose nut shall carry a piece of
metal or swivel to transmit & carry round with the crank the upper end of the
helve, either in a fixed or loose condition, so as to impart to the face of the
muller a rotatory as well as a circulating, motion within & on the concave
surface of the basin; and also, that by the direct and reverse action, of the
screw. or screws alternately, the muller, may operate sometimes on one side,
sometimes on the other, and 'sometimes in the middle of said basin,or, mortar
alternately: To effect. this direct and reverse action of the screw or screws,
and thereby, also the backward and forward traverse of the nut from the central
to the terminal end of 'the crank or arm, and vice versa,; a toothed pinion,
fixed upon the outward end of the screw, and jutting beyond the end of the
arm or crank, may take, into the teeth or cogs of a circular rack, in two separate
halves, the one-half of whose teeth shall engage the upper and the other half
the lower side of the pinion alternately; or a channel, in the form of a double
spiral or volute, formed upon the lower face of a revolving plate or which, into
which the top of the helve, takes, will effect the same sort of motion. The
muller basin, instead of being a fixture, may be set and fastened upon the upper
+

page_text: end of a vertical shaft, similarly provided and constructed as the helve of the
muller, whereby a compound double or tripple motion, like unto that of the
muller, may be given to it in a contrary direction to that of the muller, or the
two may partake of these motions respectively in a direct and retrogradė
manner, and the gyro-stamper as well as the muller may work, when grinding
minerals or alluviums, with or without the use of water or mercury, but when
water is used & not mercury, I prefer to dry the pulverized material before
subjecting it to the process of amalgamation herein-after and now to be
described.
The third part or section of my Invention relates to the machinery and
apparatus for effecting the process of amalgamation of gold & silver as a
separate & distinct operation, and consists of an amalgamating barrel, a mer-
cury retort & furnace, and an amalgam separator. The amalgamating barrel
consists of a cylindrical vessel of strong sheet or cast iron; resting upon tri-
angular supports by its lower convexity. Into this barrel a skeleton druni;
consisting of a hollow axle, with hollow tubular arms, and tubular tyres, with
tubular cross pieces from tyre to tyre at the ends of the arms, all continuously
tubular throughout with and from the axle, is introduced, & made to revolve.
The tubular cross pieces, 4, 5, or 6 in number, are to be perforated with holes
of about one-eighth of an inch in diameter at their sides, contrary to that of
the direction of motion to be imparted to the drum. To one end of this axle
a speed pulley is to be fixed, with a corresponding pulley on the shaft that
imparts motion to the drum, so as to render the speed of its revolution variable
at pleasure, whilst to the other end of the axle a tube of iron, leading to
& from the mercury retort reciprocally, is adapted by means of a metallic
gland that will admit of motion in the axle with imperviousness to mercurial
vapour in the tubular connection. To the tubular cross pieces aforesaid are
to be firmly attached paddle plates of malleable or cast iron, bearing upon
& being stayed by the ends of the drum arms, the plates to be about one-
fourth to one-sixth the diameter of the barrel in breadth, perforated with holes
about one inch in diameter, and so adjusted as almost to scrape the cylindric
concavity of the barrel. This amalgamator may be modified by causing it to
revolve on its axis, the tube bringing the vapour of mercury to merely enter
the center of the barrel by the bush axis, or the barrel may be fixed as
before, the mercurial vapour being merely led into its cavity by a hole in the
end near the top whilst the drum and paddle plates revolve therein, as before
stated. In any case a sufficiently large aperture, with cover, must be made in
the upper part of said barrel, and in the case of fixture, another similar

page_text: aperture & cover in the end of said barrel close to the side at bottom, the
one to afford ingress to, the other egress for, the amalgamated product and
amalgam. The retort and furnace it is unnecessary to describe, as I have no
invention in them, but not so the separator. This apparatus consists of a
vessel of sheet iron, partly cylindric & partly conical, set and. fixed vertically,
with the apex of the cone downwards. Within this vessel works an agitator
with vertical oblique vanes, and capable of revolving at various speeds,
according to the density or levity of the different results of amalgamation
which, is thrown in at the open upper end of the cylinder, into one side of
which a pipe delivers water, and from the opposite side another pipe conveys
away the muddy water containing the earthy particles, whilst the heavy & metallic
particles subsiding into the cone can be periodically drawn off by a cock or
valve of iron inserted in the orifice of the cone. The muddy waters must be
transferred into tanks to settle, so that, if necessary, the water can be used
again, and the earthy precipitate or residue reserved for other and subsequent
use, as described in the fourth & fifth sections of this Specification.
The fourth part of my. Invention consists in exposing pyritic minerals,
before or after the process of auriferous amalgamation, to the action of the
atmosphere in beds, heaps, or layers, underlaid with conduits leading to tanks
or reservoirs to collect & réserve the solutions percolating through. Upon
these beds of material I throw water from time to time in a shower, to imitate
rain, which may be ordinary water. In those cases where I thus act upon
the pyritic mineral in a ground state before calcination, I prefer to acidulate
the water with sulphuric or nitric acids, or with chlorine gas; and in those
cases where (as described in the first part of my Invention) I have roasted it
with a sulphide, I imbue the water with a corresponding sulphide, pumping
the contents of the tanks or reservoirs respectively back upon the beds or
layers, for continually repcated percolation through the decomposing pyritic
minerals. The pyritic tailings or settlings of the separator may be treated by
the one or the other of these processes for spontaneous decomposition of
quartzose or pyritic minerals as their componency may determine, operating
upon those containing large residuals of gold or silver by a sulphide solution
or by aqueous chlorine, and upon those poor in the precious metals with water
acidulated with sulphuric or nitric acids, to 'decompose their contained metallic
sulphides, entangling the gold in favour of the formation of sulphates and
nitrates. Instead of proceeding to amalgamate pyritic substances after the
second calcination, they may be digested with hot concentrated solutions of a
sulphide, or fused therewith in pots, crucibles, or in the hearth of a rever-

page_text: beratory furnace at a temperature short of that which decomposes or volatilizes
the sulphide, and fluxes the earthy matter with the base of the sulphide, and
acting upon the results of fusion by hot water, so as to produce hot concen-
trated solutions of metallic sulphides.
The fifth section of my Invention relates to those quartzose or trappean
rocks, minerals, and also alluviums, wherein the gold, silver, &c. is in such
a state of combination, or is otherwise in a metamorphic condition, that none
of the previously described processes can separate them therefrom, and
consists in acting upon the substance before or after calcination, but preferably
after being pulverized, firstly, with dilute sulphuric acid, to separate all matters
that may be found soluble therein; and, secondly, after washing and sub-
sidence with a proper mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids, within a
Woolfe's series, of any convenient material, or with chlorine produced from
any ordinary generative mixture, the rock mineral or alluvium being diffused
in the compound acid in the one case and in water in the other; or, if they
can be procured at a reasonable price, I act upon the aforesaid substances
diffused in water, acidulated or not with nitric acid, by the products of the
action of sulphuric acid upon fluor spar, or other body containing fluorine,
within a Woolfe's series of lead or platina, and afterwards either treating it;
as herein-before described, with a sulphide, or subjecting in its wet state to
ordinary amalgamation, or, when thoroughly dried, to the process of amalga-
mation set forth under the third section of this Specification. Fluo-silicic
acid gas, or other body containing loosely associated fluorine, may be used in
these processes, instead of hydro-fluoric acid gas. The resolution of the-sul-
phides & chlorides of gold & silver, and of the sulphates of silver & copper to
the metallic state, & the conversion of the sulphate of iron to a marketable
condition, being well known processes to any chymist, I forbear all mention
of such processes in this Specification.
The sixth section of this Specification, relating to the sulphureous fumes
escaping or liable to escape from the processes of calcining or roasting pyritic
substances generally, and particularly such as are herein-before described,
consists in the collection of such fumes and their conversion into sulphurous
and sulphuric acids for use in the several processes described in this Speci-
fication, and in the processes of the industrial arts generally, which I effect in
the following manner:-Beyond the dust chamber, incidentally mentioned
in the first section of this Specification, must be constructed a refrigerating
chamber of a cylindric shape, of bricks, stone, glass, or other similar material,
set in or bonded with a paste made of sulphate of lead, or other cement

page_text: 7
capable of resisting the action of sulphurous acid; with an inverted dome or
slab of granite, &c. for base, and a regular dome or similar slab for cover,
and be traversed with leaden tubes with cold water circulating through them;
or the chamber may be made of lead and jacketed with iron, with cold water
flowing through the interspace. The dust chamber before mentioned may be
similarly constructed, and made in duplicate, so that one can be disconnected
to be cleared of dust, for which a suitable opening with cover must be pro-
vided, and the refrigerating chamber must be provided with an inlet ábove
and another below, so that water may be introduced from time to time to
cleanse its cavity, & for other purposes. From this refrigerating chamber
a pipe must lead to and into an apparatus designated and described as a
"siccatory" in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to myself the 3rd
day of May, 1845, "for improvements in the production of gases for purposes
of general illumination, &c.," and containing lumps of chloride of calcium or
other material capable of removing all moisture from the sulphureous fumes,
which passing thence enter the inlet of a pump described & designated as
"ram and plunger pump" in the said Specification of May 3rd, 1845. The
vapours of sulphurous acid and atmospheric air passing through and from the
kiln or calcining receptacle aforesaid, being taken & exhausted by the ram
barrel of this pump, will be condensed therein to about 3 atmospheres by the
return of the ram, which, receeding from the plunger, will transfer. the con-
densed vapours into the barrel of the plunger, which, on the next exhaustive
stroke of the ram, will be further condensed to a sufficient degree within the
conduit of the plunger and receivers or condensors beyond. This conduit
leads into the upper part of a leaden or platina condensor, cylindric in form,
closely and strongly covered with a vessel of the same shape made of stout
boiler plates, and jacketed over and outside said. covering with another iron
vessel, having an interspace into which water can be introduced to absorb the
excess of heat made sensible by the "compressive action of the pump. Into
this condensor water is introduced to absorb the acid vapours, and an opening,
furnished with a valve, must be made in the side thereof, near the bottom to
withdraw the acid product, whilst another similar opening exists at the side
near. the top provided with a valve to permit the continual escape of nitrogen
and other non-condensible gases. These two valves must be so weighted.as
that the uncondensed nitrogen & other gas or gases may pass off at a pressure
of 20 to 25 atmospheres for sulphuric acid, thence to 36 atmospheres for
bydrochloric, and up to 50 atmospheres for nitric & nitrous. acids, whilst the
acid valve will not allow of any escape at those pressures; but to allow of

page_text: the condensor being emptied of its contained acid, the weighting of the valve
must be capable of being reduced below that at.which the nitrogen and other.
úncombined gas.
or gases escapes, so as to effect. the. discharge of the acid.
easily, and without violence. A series. of these condensors will be: better.to
work than one, and the compressed. gases. and vapours escaping from the
upper valve of the first may pass into.the middle. of the second, and so forth,
for any number of condensors. Nitric and bydrochloric acids: may.be pre-
pared in a similar manner, without. the necessity of rectification, either from
apparatus purposely generating them; or as waste and noxious products of
other processes: It will be obvious that a supple supplementary vessel must.
be provided and connected with each condensor to receive and hold the water
necessary to recharge the condensor after its acid contents have been dis-
charged, in such a manner that the pressure within the condensor may not bar
the entrance of the water. For this and other purposes the conduit of the
plunger may terminate in a conduit or other vessel of sheet or wrought,
whence valved tubes may lead to each condensor, so that one or
another may
be disconnected for discharge or repairs, whilst the rest are in consecutive
operation. This purpose may be effected by the method set forth in the
above recited Specification of Letters Patent of May 3rd, 1845, under the
description and designation of "the condensing main and gas holders."
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and how it is to be
performed, I specially claim as follows:-
And, firstly, I claim the method or methods of forming sulphides of gold.
and silver with an alcaline or earthy sulphide, substantially as set forth in this.
Specification, or by any modification thereof.
Secondly, I claim the use and application of the gyro-stamper to all pur-.
poses of crushing & incipient grinding of any and every substance whatsoever,
where a rotatory and a vertical action are used combinedly and alternately, or
otherwise.
Thirdly, I claim the use and application of "the muller" to all purposes of.
fine grinding, levigation, trituration, and empastement of dry substances with.
water, oils, or per se, or otherwise, where the action of the ordinary pestle.in
the mortar is used and attained by the methods described, or by any other
means.
Fourthly, I claim the use and method of metallic amalgamation by vapour.
of mercury, substantially as set forth in the third section of this Specification,
or by any modification of the same.
Fifthly, I claim the use and methods of decomposing pyritic minerals, and.

page_text: of separating their component metallic bodies and saline products, as set forth
in the fourth & fifth sections hereof...
Sixthly, I claim the use and application of the machinery, apparatus, and
processes set forth in the sixth section of this Specification for the manufacture
of acids generally from any substances whatsoever, and especially from pyritic
minerals holding copper, silver, lead, & gold, or either of them, to produce
cheap acid menstrua, for the purposes of this Specification and of the arts
generally by compressive action, no matter how nor by what means produced.:
In witness whereof, I, the said William Radley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of June One thousand eight hundred
& fifty-six.
WILLIAM RADLEY. (L.S.)