IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN CYANOGEN COMPOUNDS
Year: 1884

page_text: I JOHN YOUNG of Kincaid House Milton of Campsie in the county of Stirling,
Technical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of my said invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN CYANOGEN
COMPOUNDS "to be as follows:-
This invention relates to Improvements on the well known process of obtaining
cyanides by passing nitrogenous gases over a mixture of charcoal or other car-
bonaceous matter with an alkali or alkaline earth at a high temperature. Many
attempts have been made to carry out this reaction on a commercial scale generally
with a view of converting the cyanogen compound into ammonia by treatment
with steam, but all have been more or less unsuccessful. One principal cause of
this failure has been the great wear and tear of plant caused by the destructive
action of the alkaline mixture at the high temperature necessary for the chemical
combination, retorts whether of iron or fireclay being rapidly corroded.
To overcome this difficulty I propose to avoid the use both of inetallic and
silicious materials and make the section of the apparatus in which the cyanide is
formed and which is exposed to the highest temperature of some basic substance
upon which the alkaline mixture or reduced alkali metal will have little or no
effect. A suitable material for this purpose is found in the magnesian limestone
compound now used for dephosphorization in the manufacture of iron though any
other suitable basic material may be employed.
The apparatus may either be built up of basic bricks cemented with similar
composition; or pipes, cylinders, crucibles, or retorts may be moulded from the
plastic material and afterwards burnt.
The arrangement of apparatus and process of working which I prefer to adopt
is similar to that described in specification, Letters Patent granted to Alfred V.
Newton N° 9985 of 1843 and improved by Thomas Bramwell (and described in
specification of Letters Patent sealed Oct 8 1846) but the use of basic material for
the purpose of forming apparatus for manufacturing cyanides may of course be
applied to other arrangements and processes than the ones mentioned in the above
referred to Specifications.
·

page_text: Cyanogen Compounds.
I, JOHN YOUNG of Kincaid House Milton of Campsie in the County of Stirling
Technical Chemist do hereby declare the nature of my said invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN CYANOGEN
COMPOUNDS and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly.
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :—
This invention consists in improvements on the well known process of obtaining
cyanides by passing nitrogenous gases over a mixture of carbonaceous matter with
an alkali or alkaline earth at a high temperature.
Many attempts have been made to carry out this reaction on a commercial scale,
generally with a view of converting the cyanogen compounds into ammonia by
treatment with steam, but all have been more or less unsuccessful. One principal
cause of this failure has been the great wear and tear of plant caused by the
destructive action of the alkaline mixture at the high temperature necessary for the
chemical combination, retorts whether of iron or fireclay (the only two materials
yet proposed) being rapidly corroded.
To overcome this difficulty, I avoid the use both of metallic and silicious materials,
and make the section of the apparatus in which the cyanide is formed and which
is exposed to the highest temperature of some basic or non-acid substance upon
which an alkaline mixture or reduced alkali metal will exert little or no chemical
action.
Among the various non-acid substances I have tried, carbon has been found to
answer moderately well, either in the state of compressed coke as employed in
electrical work, or in the form of plumbago as used in metallurgical operations, no
more foreign matter being mixed with it than is necessary to give it sufficient
coherence: but the material which I have found most successful is; the magnesian
limestone compound now used for dephosphorization in the manufacture of iron,
the raw limestone being calcined, ground, mixed with tar, moulded and reburnt, in
a manner well known to those conversant with the Gilchrist-Thomas dephos-
phorization process.
In applying such material to the manufacture of cyanides, the apparatus may
either be built up of alkali resisting bricks cemented together, or pipes cylinders,
crucibles, or retorts of suitable size and shape may be moulded from the plastic
material and afterwards burned in the manner in which basic bricks are now made,
which need not be here detailed.
The arrangement of apparatus and process of working which I adopt is similar
to that patented by A. V. Newton No. 9985 of 1843, and improved by Bramwell
as described in Specification of his Letters Patent No 11553 of 1847 and for the
manufacture of cyanide of potassium consists in passing more or less continuously
a dry mixture of carbonate of potash and charcoal downwards through an upright
retort, (made of the alkali resisting material herein described) at a bright red heat
approaching whiteness, while a current of nitrogenous gas as rich as possible in

page_text: nitrogen and free from oxygen, carbonic acid or oxidising compounds is passed up
in the opposite direction: the conversion of carbonate to cyanide being mainly
proportional to the length of retort heated, the time allowed, the area of contact
between charcoal and gas and the richness of the gas in nitrogen. But the principle
of forming apparatus of basic or non acid material for the purpose of manufac-
turing cyanides may of course be applied to other arrangements and processes than
the one mentioned.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
The improvements in or relating to the production of cyanogen compounds by
the direct action of nitrogen upon carbon and alkali, which consists in the manu-
facture and use for such purpose of apparatus formed of refractory material, the
chemical nature of which is non-acid and non-metallic, substantially as described.
WP. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and
323, High Holborn, London,
Patent Agents for the Applicant.