IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELTING COPPER
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Hussey Vivian, of Swansea, M.P., for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELTING COPPER."
Sealed the 1st July 1859, and dated the 16th April 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Hussey Vivian at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th April 1859.
I, HENRY HUSSEY VIVIAN, of Swansea, M.P., do hereby declare the nature
of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SMELTING COPPER," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in smelting copper. Here-
tofore the ordinary process of smelting sulphurous copper ores has been to
calcine the ore in the first instance to such a degree only as to produce, when
smelted, a regulus, containing about 33 per cent. of copper, and afterwards
again to calcine this regulus, so that when re-smelted it may produce a regulus
much richer in copper; from this rich regulus the copper is obtained by other
subsequent operations. Now it is found that if the first calcination is carried
so far as to produce a regulus much richer than 33 per cent., the slag produced
when it is smelted contains a considerable proportion of copper, and as the

page_text: object of the copper smelter has been to produce slags which may be thrown
away without involving much loss of copper, the carrying the first calcining
beyond the point above mentioned has been as far as possible avoided.
Now, according to my Invention, I calcine the ore in the first instance so
far that when smelted it will produce rich regulus, similar to that usually
produced after two calcinings and two smeltings, and containing, say, 70 per
cent. of copper (unless a somewhat lower regulus for the purpose of making
best selected copper be required), and the slag produced in this smelting
process, which will be rich in copper, I smelt in a blast furnace, by which
operation I obtain from it a further quantity of regulus, and a clean and more
uniform slag, avoiding much loss which now occurs from carelessness and
mechanical imperfection in slag trying. I employ as fuel in the blast furnace,
either wholly or in part, the coal and cinders which fall through the bars of
the calcining and smelting furnaces, and which cannot afterwards be con-
veniently burnt in such furnaces, and are consequently at the present time
wasted. I also employ the blast furnace to reduce the red or coppery slags
resulting from processes of copper smelting which are subsequent to the
production of regulus; by this means metallic copper is obtained from these
slags instead of regulus, as is now the practice. The impurities contained in
these slags are not by this process re-introduced into fresh lots of copper, as is,
now the case, and by the reducing action of the blast furnace many impurities
not easily separable in the reverberatory furnace are driven off, and the quality
of copper produced from the slags is improved. I also treat in a similar
that is to say, by smelting in a blast furnace, ores of copper which do
not contain sulphur, and thus metallic copper is at once obtained from such
ores, in place of, as at present, reducing the copper contained in such ores
to the state of regulus, by smelting them with regulus containing an excess
of sulphur, which process necessitates the use of a large proportion of sul-
phurous ores.