Bulletin 152 Abstracts of Current Decisions on Mines and Mining

The Sullman, Picard & Ballot patent, No. 835120, is a process of concentrating ore which consists in mixing the powdered ore with water, adding a small proportion, a fraction of 1 per cent on the ore, of an oily liquid having a preferential affinity for metal- liferous matter, agitating the mixture until the oil-coated mineral matter forms into a froth and separating the froth from the remain- der by flotation. The process is known as an air-flotation process which consists in the use of a frothing agent in conjunction with such agitation of the ore pulp as will distribute the metallic particles of the ore throughout the mixture and produce bubbles of air and bring them in contact in the mixture with the metallic particles so dis- tributed. The bubbles will become attached to such metallic par- ticles, carrying them separately from the particles of gangue up through the surface of the mixture where they can be readily collected by skimming, by overflow, or by the use of other well-known devices. The air-flotation process was a patentable invention in the discov- ery made in March, 1905, and was not anticipated and is valid. Prior to that time there had been no suggestion in the arts that a propor- tion of 0.1 per cent of oil to ore or of any other fraction of 1 per cent of oil to ore would or might result in successful concentration. While the ascertainment that such a minute proportion of oil would affect a successful concentration of ore through a flotation process was a discovery, it was nevertheless of such a character, viewed with respect to the circumstances under which it was made, as to involve inven- tion and confer patentability. Claims 1 and 12 of the Sullman, Picard & Ballot patent, No. 835120, for a process of concentrating ore, known as the air-flotation process, are valid; but claim 9 is so indefinite as to render the claim void. The object of the Sullman, Greenway & Higgins patent, No. 962678, dated June 28, 1910, for improvements in ore concentration, is to separate metalliferous matter, graphite, and the like from gangue by means of oil, fatty acid, or other substances which have a prefer- ential affinity for metalliferous matter over gangue, and it is valid. The Greenway patent, No. 1099699, dated June 9, 1914, for improve- ments in the concentration of ores is invalid, as in view of the prior art the omission to use acid in the process can not confer patenta- bility.