User:Chuckhoffmann/sandbox/New Jersey Zinc Company

The New Jersey Zinc Company created or improved many industrial processes and products over its long history.

One of the first was an improved process for creating zinc oxide. Previously, the process involved refining zinc ore into metallic zinc, which was then loaded into a muffle furnace and the vaporized zinc exposed to atmospheric oxygen. This was known as the French process, developed in 1844 following four years of experimentation by Edme Jean LeClaire and Jean Joseph Ernest Barruel and patented in the United States in 1850. While in the employ of the New Jersey Zinc Company, Samuel Wetherill developed a process that allowed the production of zinc oxide directly from its ore. When Wetherill attempted to sell the patent for the furnace used to the company (despite having used the company's resources), he was refused, and resigned in 1852. Wetherill would continue developing his method and obtained U.S. patent number 13,806 in November 1855. This patent, combined with another issued in 1852 to Samuel T. Jones for the collection of zinc oxide, became known as the Wetherill process or American process.

However, the New Jersey Zinc Company determined that they were entitled to use the furnaces that Wetherill had supervised, and ensured that Wetherill could not patent his furnace, claiming it was derivative of another experiment by employee John Barrows conducted in 1851. They used a process that was substantially similar to that used in Wetherill's 1855 patent, which would eventually lead to a patent lawsuit.

The Cronak process, which creates a thin layer of zinc chromate by dipping a workpiece into a solution of sodium dichromate in acid, was patented in 1936.

The Zamak series of alloys for die casting.

Zilloy, a rolled zinc alloy, was originally created by adding 1% copper and 0.01% magnesium to provide a stiffer material for roofing and siding.

Wetherill v. New Jersey Zinc Co. 1 Bann. & Ard. 105, Fed. Cas. No. 17463. Contempt in civil case.

Wetherill v. New Jersey Zinc Co. 1 Bann. & Ard. 485, Fed. Cas. No. 17464. Damages for infringement of patents.

New Jersey Zinc Co. V. Franklin Iron Co., 29 N.  J.  Eq. {2 Stew.) 422

U.S. Patent 7351 Leclaire

U.S. Patent 8756, 1852-2-24 Improvement in the Manufacture of Zinc-White. Samuel T. Jones

U.S Patent 13806 1855-11-13 Improvement in processes for making Zinc-White. Wetherill

U.S. Patent 15830 1856-9-30 Improvement in furnaces for zinc white. Wetherill

U.S. Patent 16362 1857-1-6 Improvement in processes for reducing zinc ores.

U.S. Patent 22758 1859-1-25 Furnace for obtaining metallic zinc directly from the ore. Wetherill

73146 1868-1-7

73147 1868-1-7