Improvements in the Method of and Apparatus for the Smelting or Refining of Copper.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Sept., 1886.
Complete Left, 22nd Feb., 1887.
Complete Accepted, 22nd Mar., 1887.
Improvements in the Method of and Apparatus for the Smelting
or Refining of Copper.
I, DUNCAN MCKECHNIE of St. Helens Metal Works, St. Helens, in the County of
Lancaster, Metallurgist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
In the smelting of copper ores and in the refining of copper it has been the practice
to blow a current of air into the fused metal to oxidise and drive off the sulphur and
arsenic. Now I have found the addition of steam also to be beneficial, accordingly
I propose to force the air nitre and other chemicals employed into the furnace by
means of a steam jet, this is pointed into a bell mouth or other enlargement of the air
pipe just as in an ordinary injector, and when nitre has to be injected the latter is
placed immediately below the air admission orifice into the bell mouth. The suction
then draws the powdered chemical up, and the steam and air force it in a fine spray
or dust into the metal. I prefer the steam superheated so as to lessen any chance of
explosion.
2
1
1987
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool,
Patent Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: Improvements in the Method of and Apparatus for the Smelting
or Refining of Copper.
I, DUNCAN MCKECHNIE, of St. Helens, in the County of Lancaster, Metallurgist, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My invention relates to a method and an apparatus of smelting and refining of
copper in reverberatory or other furnaces, by means of passing over or into the
molten copper or matt a mixture of steam and air. Hitherto it has been the practice
to blow a current of air only, into the furnace to drive off the injurious metals, but
I have found that the addition of steam superheated or otherwise is beneficial and that
when this method is applied to a roasting or refining furnace, the sulphur, arsenic,
antimony, bismuth and other injurious metals are rapidly got rid of, and the process
considerably hastened.
The drawings show the apparatus, now very successfully at work at my works, which
however can be modified in various ways to suit exigencies.
Figure 1 is an elevation of a reverberatory furnace fitted with apparatus for admitting
a blast of steam and air.
Figure 2. is a plan of the same.
Figure 3. is a sectional elevation of the blast apparatus for admitting into the furnace
a current of steam and air.
In these A is a reverberatory furnace, supplied with a fire grate B and fire bridge C
of the usual construction. D is the furnace, into the walls of which one or more jets
or tuyères EE pointing downwards so as to play into the molten matt are placed.
The apparatus for mixing steam and air is shewn at K, and on a larger scale in
Figure 3, and consists of a steam pipe F tapered at g, so that the steam shall issue with
great force. G is the air inlet made of suitable size to admit sufficient air. The speed
at which the steam (which may if desired be superheated) issues from the jet F is
sufficient to cause a current of air to be drawn through the inlet G and both are thus
caused to be forced through the jets or tuyères E into the furnace D. A pipe may be
connected to the inlet G, and the air if desired first artificially heated before being
mixed with the steam. When nitre or other pulverulent chemical has to be forced in,
a shallow vessel containing it is placed immediately beneath G, or beneath a tube
attached thereto, and the nitre or other chemical sucked in with the blast. Separate
blast apparatus are preferably employed for each tuyère. H and I are the pipes for
supplying the steam from the boiler, generator or superheator, and if several tuyères

page_text: are employed, they are preferably made of a proportionately larger area than the
pipes F, and U pieces L provided to conduct the steam to each blast apparatus.
By my method the best marketable copper can be made from the most inferior
quality of ore or matt, which is under the old method of working-impossible.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The improvement in the process of refining copper, which consists in injecting air
mixed with steam onto or into the metal in the furnace, substantially as and for the
purposes described.
2. The apparatus applied to copper smelting furnaces for injecting air and steam or
air, steam and nitre or other chemicals, substantially as described.
Dated this 21st day of February 1887.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool,
Agents for the Applicant.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool,
Agents for the Applicant.