IMPROVED PROCESSES FOR THE TREATMENT OF ORES IN ORDER TO EXTRACT COPPER THEREPROM
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas James Smith, of the Firm of Robertson,
Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London,
Patent Agents, for the Invention of "IMPROVED PROCESSES FOR THE
TREATMENT OF ORES IN ORDER TO EXTRACT COPPER THEREPROM."-A com-
munication from abroad by the Company or Society Cyprien Marie
Tessié du Motay and Company, of Paris, France.
Scaled the 15th September 1870, and dated the 22nd March 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas James Smith
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 22nd March 1870.
I, THOMAS JAMES SMITH, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED PROCESSES
FOR THE TREATMENT OF ORES IN ORDER TO EXTRACT COPPER THEREFROM," to be as
follows:-
The processes which form the object of the present Invention are
especially applicable to the treatment of the sulphurets, the arsenio-

page_text: sulphurets, and the antimonio-sulphurets of copper, as well as to the
refining of copper containing iron, antimony, tin, or lead.
The processes consist,-
1st. In roasting in the presence of silica and oxides of iron or man-
ganese or of terrous and metallic silicates the simple pyrites of copper,
the double pyrites of copper and iron, as well as the antimonio-sul-
phurets of copper in blast furnaces until the complete elimination of the
sulphur or arsenic.
2ndly. In thus forming multiplied metallic silicates capable of con-
taining the oxides of antimony, lead, or tin, but at the base the oxide of
manganese and copper, which silicates when submitted to the action
of charcoal and iron, either alone or combined, in reverberatory or
cupola furnaces give up in the metallic state the copper, antimony, lead,
or tin which they contain without the oxides of iron or manganese
united to the silica being reduced.
3rdly. In obtaining alloys of copper free from sulphur and arsenic,
but capable of containing antimony, tin, lead, or iron, and often several
of these metals, or sometimes all of them at the same time.
4thly. In remelting in reverberatory furnaces, or in any other low-
hearthed furnaces, the alloys of copper produced by the above processes
in order to submit them to the action of the aëro-hydric or oxyhydric
blow pipe fed by pure or carbonated hydrogen, the air or oxygen being
in definite proportions, so as to produce neutral flames without free
oxygen.
5thly. In oxidizing by means of these blow pipes by the action of
the neutral flames alone metals which, such as iron, antimony, or tin,
decompose water at a high temperature when in the state of scorified
oxides from the metallic copper which the flames do not oxidize.
6thly. Lastly, when the alloy of copper to be treated contains lead,
which like copper, is not oxidized by neutral flames, in employing the
simultaneous action of these flames and of the air from a bellows in
order to separate the copper from the lead in the same manner as
silver or gold are separated from the same metal in the cupel.
The processes of roasting and the silication of the minerals of sul-
phuretted, arsenio-sulphuretted, or antimonio-sulphuretted copper, as
well as the process of the reduction by charcoal or iron of the multiple
silicates of copper with a base of oxide of iron or manganese have been

page_text: and are still partly in practice, and I do not wish to include them
in my present Invention; but the essential features of my Invention are
as follows:
First. The fundamental reaction of steam in a nascent state produced
by blow pipes fed by air and hydrogen or hydrogen and oxygen upon
the alloys of copper, iron, antimony, and tin, the effect of which
reaction is to separate in the metallic state the copper which the
nascent steam does not oxidize from all metals which the steam does
oxidize.
Secondly. The employment of this reaction in metallurgic furnaces in
order to completely purify the copper and to separate it in the metallic
state from iron, antimony, or tin during the passage of these metals into
the state of scorifiable oxides.
Thirdly. Lastly, the alternate employment of the oxidizing reaction
of the nascent steam upon iron, antimony, or tin united with the copper
and of the oxygen of the air in order to oxidize the lead which the steam
does not oxidize when this metal becomes portion of an alloy of copper,
iron, antimony, or tin.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas James Smith in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 22nd September 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
JAMES SMITH, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of
166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas James Smith, Her special licence
that I, the said Thomas James Smith, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas James Smith, my 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,

page_text: Fourthly. In remelting in reverberatory or cupel furnaces or in any
other low-hearthed furnaces the alloys of copper produced by the above
processes in order to submit them to the action of the aero-hydric or
oxyhydric blow pipe fed by pure or carbonated hydrogen, the air or
oxygen being in definite proportions, so as to produce neutral flames
without free oxygen.
Fifthly. In oxidizing by means of these blow pipes by the action
of the neutral flames alone metals which (such as iron, antimony, or
tin) decompose water at a high temperature when in the state of
scorified oxides from the metallic copper which the flames do not
oxidize.
Sixthly. Lastly, when the alloy of copper to be treated contains lead,
which, like copper, is not oxidized by neutral flames, in employing the
simultaneous action of these flames and of the air from a bellows in
order to separate the copper from the lead in the same manner as silver
or gold are separated from the same metal in the cupel.
The processes of roasting and the silication of the minerals of sul-
phuretted, arsenio-sulphuretted, or antimonio-sulphuretted copper, as
well as the process of the reduction by charcoal or iron of the multiple
silicates of copper with a base or oxide of iron or manganese have been
and are still partly in practice, and I do not wish to include them
in my present Invention; but the essential features of my Invention
are as follows:-
:—
1st. The fundamental reaction of steam in a nascent state produced
by blow pipes fed by air and hydrogen, or hydrogen and oxygen, upon
the alloys of copper, iron, antimony, and tin, the effect of which
reaction is to separate in the metallic state the copper which the
nascent steam does not oxidize from all metals which the steam does
oxidize.
2ndly. The employment of this reaction in metallurgic furnaces in
order to completely purify the copper and to separate it in the metallic
state from iron, antimony, or tin during the passage of these metals
into the state of scorifiable oxides.
3rdly. Lastly, the alternate employment of the oxidizing reaction
of the nascent steam upon iron, antimony, or tin united with the copper
and of the oxygen of the air in order to oxidize the lead which the steam

page_text: does not oxidize, when this metal becomes portion of an alloy of copper,
iron, antimony, or tin.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas James Smith, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of September
One thousand eight hundred and seventy.