AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELTING COPPER OR OTHER ORES
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANCIS
HAY THOMSON, of Hope Street, in the City of Glasgow, in North Britain,
Doctor of Medicine, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fourteenth day of March, One thousand eight hundred and
forty-nine, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Francis Hay Thomson, Her especial licence that I, the said
Francis Hay Thomson, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Francis Hay Thomson, my exors, adñors, 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 that part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations,
my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELTING COPPER OR
OTHER ORES :" And whereas since the granting of the said Letters Patent a
Disclaimer of the words "or other" in the title of my said Invention has
been duly entered with the Clerk of the Patents of England: And whereas
in the said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Francis

page_text: Hay Thomson, by ar. instrument in writing under my hand and seal, par-
ticularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the Jame is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Francis Hay Thomson, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
to consist in the application of what are commonly called whinstones, and
also of iron slag (which partakes much of the nature of whinstone), and also
of other stones of a similar nature to whinstone, such as trap, bassalt, syenite,
and the like, being fusible silicates, as a flux in the smelting of copper ores,
whether such ores are in the state of sulphurets, carbonates, or oxides. And
in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Francis Hay Thomson,
do hereby describe the manner in which the same may be performed by the fol-
lowing statement of the processes which I use for the purpose, that is to say :-
Suppose the ore to be a sulphuret copper ore containing twenty per cent.
or upwards of copper, and the quantity one ton, which has been previously
calcined in the usual way, and is now placed in an ordinary reverberatory
copper smelting furnace, such as is generally used in the present process of
smelting copper. To this I add four hundredweight of whinstone, broken
into small fragments, and seventy pounds weight of pulverized coke. By this
means a most excellent and cheap flux is produced, and the fullest amount
of copper obtained. I consider it improves the process to add barilla to the
mixture, and in that case the quantity of whistone may be diminished in
the following proportion, that is to say:-If thirty-seven pounds of barilla
be used when the ore contains twenty per cent. of copper or upwards, then
two hundredweight of whinstone to the ton of ore will be sufficient. But
now, suppose the ton of ore to be either a carbonate or an oxide copper ore,
and containing twenty per cent. or upwards of copper, the same quantities
of whinstone and coke may be used, but I add fifty-six pounds weight of
limestone and twenty pounds weight of oxide of iron, in order to produce the
result required; and in all cases, if the ore, of whichever kind it may be,
contains less than twenty per cent. of copper, then my rule is to use about
one-third less of the whinstone; and I may here state, that the use of barilla
would be equally advantageous here as in the former case, and that if barilla
be used in smelting the carbonate or oxide ores, then the limestone and oxide
of iron may be diminished by about one-half, and the process becomes the

page_text: same in other respects as that adopted with reference to the sulphuret orcs,
with the exception only of their not requiring to be previously calcined.
Now, whereas I have to avoid confusion in explaining my improved process
only named whinstone, coko, oxide of iron, limestone, and barilla as the
ingredients I have used, but it is evident, inasmuch as the slags produced
from blast furnaces in the ordinary process of smelting iron, and commonly
called iron slags, partake of the nature of whinstone as regards the ingredients
of which they are composed, and are equally inexpensive to procure, I find
they answer the purpose and may be used in the same proportions as whin-
stone, as also the stones called trap, syenite, basalt, and some others.
And whereas where I have described coke as being used, my object being
merely to add carbon to the mixture of coarse charcoal or .antracite, coal
would answer the purpose; and where I have described oxide of iron as
used by me, it must be evident to persons acquainted with chemistry that
calcined blackband, ironstone, or carbonate of iron would answer the purpose;
and so in like manner where I have described barilla as used by me, it must
be equally evident that ordinary kelp would answer the purpose; but as
these various articles in their varieties and endless combinations might require
an equally endless variety of proportions in their admixture, I have only
deemed it necessary in my Specification to name those substances, out of
the various classes of substances which are applicable to my Invention, which
I have found best to answer the purpose, and the best proportions of which
I have ascertained.
But whereas the spirit of my Invention being the application of cheap and
abundant natural fusible silicates or substances containing the ingredients
required as a flux in the smelting of copper ore, instead of using the ingre-
dients in a more costly state, or separated from their natural matrices, and in
order to accomplish which in the best manner, I find it useful to add to the
said natural fusible silicate other classes of matters, of which there are
numerous varieties, I have only deemed it necessary to name one in each class
in describing the processes I use.
But whereas I claim as my Invention the smelting of copper ores by the
use of what is commonly called whinstone as a flux, or other like stones,
broken into fragments, or by the use of what is commonly called iron slag.
all having carbon added, and either with or without alkali, as an improved
flux. And such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge and belief
entirely new and never before used in that part of Her said Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of
Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in the Islands of Jersey,

page_text: Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in Her said Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and
that I do verily believe this my Specification doth comply in all respects fully
and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain
exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh
day of September, One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
FRANCIS HAY THOMSON. (L.S.)
Signed and sealed by the above-named
Francis Hay Thomson (the inter-
lineation between the thirty-eighth
and thirty-ninth lines having been first

page_text: In the Matter of a Patent granted to Francis Hay Thomson, of Hope
Street, in the City of Glasgow, in North Britain, Doctor of
Medicine, for his Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS
IN SMELTING COPPER OR OTHER ORES," bearing date at Westminster,
the Fourteenth day of March, One thousand eight hundred and
forty-nine.
DISCLAIMER proposed to be entered by the said Francis Hay Thomson with
the Clerk of the Patents of England, pursuant to an Act passed in the
fifth and sixth years of the reign of His late Majesty King William
the Fourth, intituled "An Act to amend the Law touching Letters
Patent for Inventions."
I, the said Francis Hay Thomson, do declare that since I obtained the said
Letters Patent I have discovered that part of the Invention which was intended
to have been described under that part of the title which is contained in the
following words, "or other," is not of such practical utility as would make it
desirable to retain it, for which reason I am desirous to, and do hereby disclaim
all that part of the title which is contained in the following words, " or other,"
so that the title of the Invention may remain thus "An Improvement or
Improvements in Smelting Copper Ores."
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh
FRANCIS HAY THOMSON. (L.S.)
Signed and sealed by the above-named
Francis Hay Thomson, in the presence of
JOHN KINGDON,
10, Whitehall.
To the Clerk of the Patents of England.
This to certify, that Francis Hay Thomson, of Hope Street, in the City
of Glasgow, in North Britain, Doctor of Medicine, has applied to me for
leave to enter with you the above-written Disclaimer of a certain Invention

page_text: for which Letters Patent were granted to him under the Great Seal, dated the
14th day of March 1849; and having considered of the said application, and
no objection having been made to the same, I have accordingly granted leave
to the said Francis Hay Thomson to file his said Disclaimer, pursuant to the
Statute passed in the 5th & 6 years of the reign of His late Majesty King
William the 4, entitled An Act to amend the Law touching Letters Patent
for Inventions.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eleventh day of September, in
the
year
of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid Francis Hay Thomson came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged 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 Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One