METALLURGY OF ANTIMONY. 
293 
according to Dr. Jackson, in New Hampshire, at Cornish and Lyme, where it is associated with 
quartz. But the most important locality known is in the island of Borneo, from which the 
principal supply of the world is obtained. The mines are upon the west side of the island, and 
within twenty miles of the sea. They are reported to he the property of Sir James Brooke, and 
to be very valuable. 
Treatment of the ores of antimony for the separation of the metal .—The separation of antimony 
from the gangue and sulphur requires two distinct operations. The first has for its object the 
simple separation of the sulphuret, from the minerals with which it is associated, and the second 
consists in the reduction of the sulphuret, or the separation of the sulphur and the antimony. 
The first is effected by simple fusion, or a process called liquation, and gives, as a result, the 
crude antimony of commerce ; the second yields the regulus of antimony. 
The operation of liquation may be performed in a rude manner by placing the ore in an 
earthen pot or crucible, the bottom of which is pierced with small holes. This is set upon or 
into the top of another pot which is imbedded in the earth. The joint being luted with clay, 
and the upper pot tightly covered, it is heated for several hours, the fuel being piled around 
the pot containing the ore. The sulphuret of antimony fuses and drains out of the gangue, 
passing through the holes in the bottom of the pot into the vessel below, where, on cooling, a 
mass of crude antimony is found. In operating in the large way, it is necessary to observe a 
greater economy of fuel and to avoid the constant interruption of the operation. One of the 
most simple of the furnaces contrived for this purpose is described by Dumas as in use in 
the department of Vendee, France, and consists of a reverberatory furnace of a circular form, 
REVERBERATORY FURNACE FOR EXTRACTING CRUDE ANTIMONY. 
shown in section in the figure. The floor of the surface is concave, and formed of a mixture of 
clay and charcoal. Upon this the mineral is laid, and, when heated, the fused sulphuret runs 
out through a pipe into a receptacle on the outside of the furnace. 
Another and a more complicated furnace, the invention of M. Panserat, of Alais, has been in 
use at the mines of Malbosc, in Ardeche. It may he described as a dome like furnace, in which 
vertical cylinders (E E in the figure) are so placed that the flames can play around them. These 
are pierced with a hole at the bottom, and stand upon a hollow support containing earthen pots, 
D, D, as receptacles. These are placed upon a small car, or frame with wheels, so as to be 
readily withdrawn or replaced. The mineral is placed in the cylinders in masses of the bigness 
of an egg; the fire is made upon the grates, A, B, C, and the flames after encircling the 
cylinders escape into the chimney by openings not shown in the section. The sulphuret being 
fused drips down into the pots below, which are heated by the fire on*each side, and so retain 
the mineral in its melted state until it is withdrawn and poured off. 1 
Metallic antimony is obtained by first roasting the sulphuret so as to expel as much of the 
sulphur as possible and form an oxide. This is afterwards reduced by heating in crucibles with 
1 This description of the furnace is condensed from Dumas Traili de Chimie Appliquie aux Arts, t. iv, pp. 168,169. 
