US698163A - Process of refining spelter. - Google Patents

Description

AEN FFICEQ CHARLES WESSELL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PROCESS OF REFINING SPELTER.

SPECIFICATION forining part of Letters Patent No. 698,163, dated April 22, 1902.

Application filed April 29, 1901. fierial No. 57,917. (No specimens.)

have invented certain new and useful Im-- provements in Processes of Refining Spelter, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a process for refining spelter; and its object is to convert a comparatively cheap grade of spelter-for example, that known as Western or J oplin spelterto a finer grade which has the high quality of Eastern spelter and brings a proportionately higher price. The cheap grade of spelter is found to be unsuitable for making German silver or the better qualities of brass, and it has been necessary to use for such purposes a high grade, as stated, made from more expensive ores,the supply of which is limited. By my invention the suppliesof low-grade spelter, which are comparatively abundant and cheap, are made available for these special uses.

My invention may be carried out in any suitable melting apparatus"say a crucible holding five hundred pounds or an iron pot holding two thousand pounds or a reverberatory furnace with a capacity of twenty thousand pounds or more. I will describe my invention as carried out with a crucible of five hundred pounds capacity.

About one pound of crushed horn (cows horn) is placed on the bottom of the crucible and five hundred pounds of cheap spelter (Western spelter) are placed in the crucible, which is then raised to the melting point of the spelter. Then I add one-half pound of phosphorus for every one hundred pounds of spelter. This may be done in various ways. I prefer to wrap up one-half pound of phosphorus in damp paper, tie it with cord or zinc wire to the end of a Wood pole or iron rod, plunge it to the bottom of the melted spelter, and hold it there until the phosphorus is all absorbed or melted off. This operation is repeated until one-half pound of phosphorus is used for every one hundred pounds of spelter in the melt. o The melt may then be cast in the usual manner. It will then be found sists in treating the melted spelter with phosthat the resulting dig or block of spelter has go a different appearance from the original spelter, its crystallization being sharply defined, regular, and brilliant, while the crystallization of the original spelter was mottled, ragged, and dull and was mixed with considerable porous or granular structure. The refined spelter is in this respect very similar to the high-grade spelter produced from New Jersey ore, but is, if anything, more'brilliant and regular than the latter. A corresponding improvement in the qualityis found when the spelter is used in the manufacture of alloys, as above stated. I have also found that by adding two ounces of magnesium to every one hundred pounds of spelter the quality can be still further improved, especially if it is to be usedin making German silver, as the German silver made with spelter so treated becomes much more ductile and malleable and canbe spun up without annealing. The addition of the magnesium can be effected, as above described, for phosphorus. It 'is possible to improve by such addition not only the refined spelter above described, but also New Jersey or Berthaspelter.

I consider phosphorusas the essential material for carrying out the process; butit may housed in connection with other material, such as horn=clippings or magnesium, the essential feature being that the material used shall contain phosphorus in condition suitable for acting on the spelter.

Having thus described my invention, the following is what I claim as new therein and desire to secure by Letters Patent: 7

1. The process of refining spelter which consists in treating the melted spelter with phos phorus.

2. The process of refining spelter which conphorus and with magnesium.

3. The process of refining spelter which consists in treating the melted spelter with horn, phosphorus and magnesium.

CHARLES \VESSELL.

\Vitnesses:

J. GREEN, A. P. KNIGHT.