IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELTING AND REFINING LEAD ORE
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
YOUNG, Plumber, and HENRY BURGESS YOUNG, Engineer, of Barnstaple, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdon of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of
August, One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in the twelfth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
William Young and Henry Burgess Young, our exors, adñiors, and assigns,
Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the
said William Young and Henry Burgess Young, our exors, adññiors, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said William Young and Henry Burgess
Young, our exors, adññors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELTING AND REFINING LEAD ORE;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that we, the said William Young and Henry
Burgess Young, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal
of one of us, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery

page_text: within six calendar months noxt and immediately after the date of the said in
part recited 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, we, the said
William Young and Henry Burgess Young, do hereby declare that the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
are fully described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof,
reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
Our Invention consists of a new and peculiar mode of condensing and
saving the metallic and other valuable particles that escape from the rever-
beratory and other furnaces in calcining and flowing lead ores, in refining lead,
in reviving litharge, and in cleaning slags, such condensing and saving being
effected in the following manner :-
From the before-mentioned furnaces we construct with suitable materials
an horizontal flue or chimney, in which at a convenient distance from the
furnace we insert an apparatus for exhausting and propelling the air, by which
apparatus the atmosphere in the flue is rarified, the draft for working the
furnace maintained, and the metallic particles, smoke, &c., driven through an
horizontal tube, the end of which is bent or turned down so as to dischargo
its contents on an extensive surface of water, where it is confined until a
sufficient pressure is created to force it through a series of small holes per-
forated in metallic sheets, immersed so far beneath the surface of the water as
the superabundant power of the apparatus will permit, beyond what is required
to cause a sufficient draught through the furnace. The temperature of the
metallic particles, smoke, &c. detained on the surface of the water being con-
siderably above the boiling point, constantly generate steam, which is driven
with the metallic particles, &c. through a series of close vaults or chambers,
which communicate with each other through flues or chimnies extending from
the upper to the lower part of the partition walls. The aperture into the flue
or chimney leading from the first to the second chamber is in the upper part,
and the discharge into the second chamber is near the bottom, from which it
ascends to the top of the next flue, and from thence is discharged near the
bottom of the third chamber, and so on through as many vaults or chambers
as may be deemed necessary. In each of the vaults or chambers is a plate,
perforated with small holes, so placed that through these the metallic particles,
smoke, &c. must pass from the last of these chambers; the remaining part of
the metallic particles, smoke, &c., if any, is conveyed in a flue to discharge itself
near the fire grate of the furnace, sufficiently under the level to allow it to

page_text: into the furnace.
quavary of aturospheric air before it passes
If the steam generated on the surface of the before-mentioned water is
insufficient, we create an additional quantity to be discharged into any part of
the flues or chambers, which may be most effective or convenient; the boiler
for creating such additional steam is set in the usual way, or may be connected
with the furnace or flues.
The mode of condensing and forcing the metallic particles, smoke, &c. through
the perforated, metallic, or other plates immersed in water is as follows:-The
first of the before-mentioned vaults or chambers contains a large reservoir
or tank, constructed of suitable materials to qualify it to contain water. The
before-mentioned flue proceeding from the exhausting and propelling apparatus,
is passed through the wall of the first of the chambers extending on the inside
to the centre of the reservoir, where it is bent or turned to the extent of about
six or eight inches below the level of the upper edges of the reservoir; it is
there securely fastened to the centre of an horizontal metallic plate, over an
aperture of the same size as the interior of the flue, so that the matter pro-
pelled through it may escape under the metallic plate. This plate is about
six inches less diameter than the reservoir or cistern, and consequently giving
about three inches space between the extreme edge of the plate and the sides
of the cistern. Round the metallic plate a rim about six or eight inches wide
is fastened at right angles with it, and other rims of the same depth are also
fastened to the plate between the first and the aperture in the centre of the
metallic plate. The lower part of these rims, to the breadth of three or more
inches, are perforated full of small holes (the plate and its partially perforated
rims we designate the condensing cover), through these small holes all the
metallic particles and smoke of specific gravity so light as not to be deposited
in the reservoir of water must pass, thus creating a divisibility of the atoms,
which, coming in contact with steam and water in its passage through tho
several other chambers, causes the specific gravity to be increased, and thus
encourages its deposit. The surface of the water in the cistern may be kept
at any required height above the bottom of the rims of the condensing cover,
and varied from time to time, as circumstances may require. We accomplish
this by fixing a cistern on the outside of the first chamber, which commu-
nicates with the one on the inside by a pipe or tube fastened near the bottom
of each, so that the beight of the water in one denotes the height in the other.
Water is supplied to the outside cistern to any amount in the usual way, and
the surface of the water raised or lowered by means of a flexible waste pipe,
which is raised or lowered at pleasure, and to which an index is attached to

page_text: complete command of the draught from the furnace, by which great saving
of fuel is effected.
Secondly, by causing the particles of lead which escape with the smoke from
the furnaces to be brought first into contact with a large body of water, then
to be forced through a number of plates finely perforated with holes into
numerous vaults filled with steam, causing, by the divisibility of the atoms of
such metallic particles and smoke, and its coming in contact with such water
and steam, a greater specific gravity, and therefore its deposit in some or one
of the said chambers or vaults, thereby effecting a saving in the smelting of
ores of these metallic particles which by the ordinary flue or stack passes into
the atmosphere.
Thirdly, by the means aforesaid manufacturing in the smelting of lead
valuable white and blue oxide of lead in very fine paste or powder.
And, fourthly, by causing the air, smoke, and remaining particles of metal,
if any, to be brought to discharge itself by means of the power of the draught
and the application of steam from the apparatus through the fire of the
furnace, and thus in continued succession ensuring the most effectual means
of saving all the particles of metals in the process of smelting, and the
preventing smoke and other nuisance by the ordinary mode of smelting ores.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Young and Henry Burgess
Young, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-first day of
February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
forty-nine.
WILLIAM
(L.8.) YOUNG.
IIENRY BURGESS (L.s.) YOUNG.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of February,
in the year of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid William Young and Henry
Burgess came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained
and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid
was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-third day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.