AN IMPROVEMENT IN SMELTING COPPER ORE
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Spence, of Smedley New Hall, near Man-
chester, in the County of Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, and Henry
Davis Pochin, of Broughton Old Hall, near Manchester, aforesaid,
Manufacturing Chemist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
SMELTING COPPER ORE."
Sealed the 15th November 1864, and dated the 17th June 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Spence and Henry
Davis Pochin at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 17th June 1864.
We, PETER SPENCE, of Smedley New Hall, near Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Manufacturing Chemist, and HENRY DAVIS POCHIN, of Brough-
ton Old Hall, near Manchester, aforesaid, Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN SMELTING
COPPER ORE," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the use of aluminous shales chiefly obtained from
the coal measures in smelting copper ore, after such shales have been acted
upon by sulphuric or other acids, which removes a portion of the alumina.
We have found the refuse of shales which have been used in the manu-
facture of alum to form a clean slag, and the use of such refuse enables us to
dispense with the use of sand or other silicious matter in copper smelting.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Spence and Henry Davis Pochin in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 15th December 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, PETER
SPENCE, of Smedley New Hall, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Manufacturing Chemist, and HENRY DAVIS POCHIN, of Broughton Old Hall,
near Manchester, aforesaid, Manufacturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said Peter
Spence and Henry Davis Pochin, our executors, administrators, and assigns, Her
special license that we, the said Peter Spence and Henry Davis Pochin, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Peter
Spence and Henry Davis Pochin, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN SMELTING COPPER ORE," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Peter Spence and Henry Davis Pochin, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Peter Spence and Henry Davis
Pochin, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, that is to say:-
In the ordinary mode of copper smelting it is usual when the ores do not of
themselves contain matters sufficient to form a suitable flux or slag to add
sand or other substances in such quantities as will unite with the iron and
other bodies, or some portion thereof respectively, to form a flux or slag that
shall separate itself in the smelting furnace from the regulus or metal con-
taining the copper, so that such slag may be easily withdrawn from the
furnace without at the same time withdrawing any or a very small portion of
the copper.

page_text: Our improvement consists in using for this purpose the spent shale of the
alum manufacture, being the residuum of the shale of the coal measures after
it has been acted upon by sulphuric acid for the production of alum, which
shale we believe has not before been used for such purpose.
The quantity of such spent shale necessary for each charge of ore will vary
with the character of the ore, and in practice is easily ascertained by the
workman, who will discover that when a sufficient quantity has been added,
the flux or slag will part easily from the regulus or metal, and enable him to
skim off and draw out the slag without the regulus or metal clinging to it.
We find in practice that by using such spent shale for a flux we are able
to get a slag more than ordinarily free from copper, or, as it is termed, a clean
slag, which is a matter of great importance in copper smelting, as when the
slag is not clean there is a great loss of copper in consequence. We there-
fore claim the use of spent shale as a flux in copper smelting.
In witness whereof, we, the said Peter Spence and Henry Davis Pochin,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Thirteenth day of Decem-
ber, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
four.