Improvement in the manufacture of oxede of zinc from sulphuretted ores

Page 1

Drawing sheet — no readable text.

Page 2

inited states' eatent

()ffice.

DAVID LEES, OF BLAIR COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Letters Patent No. 83,643, dated November 3, 1868.

IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE of oxiDE of ZING FROM suTPBURETTED OREs.

The schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same,

. To all whom it may concern: this chemical change is perfectly effected, and the sul phate of lead is forced overinto the ordinary collecting

Beit known that I, DAVID LEEs, of Blair county, apparatus, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented an Im along with the oxide of zinc, by means of provement in the Art, or Manufacture of Oxide of theSecond, blast or current.

Zinc, or of a mixture of oxide of zinc and sulphate of ucts of thethere being a perfect oxidation of the prod heated mixture of ore and coal, there call lead from ores of sulphuret of zinc, or from sulphuret be no volatile hydrocarbons and free carbon in a state of zinc containing galena, or sulphuret of lead, by the introduction of a current or blast of air into the ordi of minute division carried over with the produced ox nary oxide-of-zinc, or other furnaces, in such a manner ide. These would impair the color of the oxide of zinc. that there shall be maintained a constant oxidizing By this means bituminous coals can be employed to atmosphere above the whole surface of the bath or mix with the ore, instead of only anthracite, as in the charge of mixed ore and coal; and I do hereby declare ordinary methods. ... . Third, by distributing this blast over the whole in that the following is a full and exact description thereof, sterior reference being had to the accompanying drawings, only bysurface of the furnace, which is perfectly done the above-described arrangement, the oxide of and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention consists in the applica zinc and sulphate of lead are produced in an atmost tion of a blast or current of air by means of a supply phere with a temperature sufficiently elevated to de pipe, a, with slots e c, enclosed in pipe b, kept con compose all the sulphate of zinc, which is always formed stantly filled with water, which water is kept hot by and exists in oxide of zinc, when manufactured from sulphuretted ores in the previously-employed methods.

the fire of the furnace, and, whilst it heats the air in This sulphate of zinc, although white, is of a crystal troduced, prevents the destruction of the pipes. The pipe a is also furnished with valves did, for regulating so line nature, and will not admit of being mixed with oil, the supply of air which is thereby introduced above as toorproduce a homogeneous mixture, freefrom small the charge, and distributed perfectly over the whole in lumps granules, adapted to the purposes of an oil terior surface of the furnace, so as to maintain a con pigment.What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure stant oxidizing-atmosphere.

By thus applying a hot blast substantially in the byThe Letters Patent, is manner described, threefold advantages are secured: mannerapplication of a hot blast, substantially in the and by the process above described, to the

First, by introducing the air above the charge of ore and fuel, there is maintained an atmosphere which is always manufacture of oxide of zinc, whereby the oxide is always oxidizing, whereas, if the air has access from temperature formed in an oxidizing-atmosphere, and at a beneath, it becomes mixed with reducing-gases, such jurious products. sufficiently elevated to decompose all in as carbonic oxide, resulting from the imperfect com DAVID LEES. bustion of the fuel, &c. These reducing-gases act in Witnesses:

juriously, by preventing the oxidation of sulphuret or sulphide of lead, which is of a dark color, and its con W. L. CALDERWOOD, version into sulphate of the oxide of lead, which is J. P. STEWART.

white. In an oxidizing-atmosphere such as iproduce,