US39257A

US39257A - constable

Info

Publication number: US39257A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1863-07-14
Anticipated expiration: 1880-07-14

Description

J. L. CONSTABLE.

Shaft Furnace. N0;39. 257. Patented July 14. 1863- In w't nes ses i Wfiw AM. PHOTO-LITHOJQ NM (OSBORNE'S PROCESS) JOHN L. CONSTABLE,

OF NEXV YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT lN REFINING ORES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 39,257, dated July 14, 1863.

generally accompany the gold are, chiefly, iron pyrites, copper pyrites, and mispickel or arsenical pyrites, and it is this combination with sulphur in some shape or other, whether it is chemical or merely mechanical, that prevents the dissolution of all the gold in the ore by amalgamation with mercury. I11 auriferous pyrites, which are also ferruginous, the gold may be invisible when it is first mined, although it may be present in an appreciable quantity; but by subsequent exposure to moisture or the action of the atmosphere, which occasions its decomposition, the metallic gold becomes apparent in bright particles, shining on the reddish bottom of the oxidized iron 5 and this takes place by the absorption of the sulphur by the iron, on account of their increased affinity under the change of circum-. stances, releasing a portion of the gold which may have otherwise remained hidden and inseparable under the form of an intractable sulphuret. "Where there is not sufficient iron to take up all the sulphur, or where there is no iron at all in the ore, the sulphur prevents the amalgamation of the gold and its recovery from the ore in all those cases where mercury alone has been depended upon to effect the separation and reduction of the gold. In a similar manner the variety of auriferous pyrites, which is found in argillaceous loam, and is called greasy quartz, andis accompanied with the debris of rocks, is sometimes unprofitable to work, on account of the same difficulty which has hitherto existed of desulphurizing the ore, and removing from it the other volatile impurities which prevent its combination with mercury.

The object of my invention is to remove this sulphur and other objectionable matter from the ore; and it is accomplished by subjecting the ore, in a comminut-ed state, to the action of a blast of combined hot air and superheated steam in such a manner that every atom of the finely-divided auriferous matter will be enveloped and brought in contact with the steam and gaseous results of combustion heated above the volatilizing temperature of sulphur to about 800.

The preceding remarks have been principally directed to the ores of gold; but it is obvious that the same treatment may be usefully applied to the ores of silver, and nickel, and other ores which are combined with sulphur and other volatile matter; and it is believed that the use of a superheated-steam blast, in

combination with a furnace, may be made to develop a degree of heat of sufficient intensity to burn the iron out of gold and other valuable ores where it may be necessary and desirable to calcine them without direct contact with a furnace.

To enable others skilled in the arts to which it appertains to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation with reference to the drawing.

The pipe a proceeds from an ordinary steamboiler, b, and traverses the furnace c in a series of coils, d, by which the steam passing through it becomes highly superheated. The steam is delivered after the manner of a blast into the fine 0 of the furnace in the vicinity of a hopper, f, which also discharges into the flue. The crushed and ground ore is placed in the hopper, from which it falls into the flue, where it is caught in the current of hot air and superheated steam, and carried either into the open air or into a chamber, as hereinafter described. The steam-pipe and the hopper are furnished with valves for the purpose of controlling the flow of the steam and the ore in the ordinary manner, as they would be applied for analogous purposes by an ordinary mechanic.

XVhen the particles of metal under treatment are very minute, as is often the case with gold, if the blast were delivered into the open air, it would involve considerable loss, and it is therefore sometimes desirable to deliver it into a close chamber, 9, where the heavier particles will fall upon the floor, and the lighter ones will be retained upon the wetted gauze, which covers the disk of the revolving wheel h in the passage of the blast through the meshes of the gauze in making its exit through the flue i to the chimney. The lower portion of the wheel h dips into the tank of water 75, and the part opposite the flue may be constantly kept wet, when the apparatus is in use, by slowly revolving the Wheel by means of the pulley Z 011 the outer end of the shaft on which it is placed.

The advantages of the apparatus I have described and illustrated consist, chiefly, in using a blast of superheated steam to impel the combustion of the furnace, and in employing this blast, together with the products of combustion which have been thus intensified, for the purpose of refinin g ore sand impure metals; and I make no claim, therefore, to the principle of pose specified.

JOHN L. CONSTABLE. lVitnesses: 1

I. BURNHAM, WM. Kmrnnn Hunt.