An Apparatus for Nitrifying Cotton, Cellulose, Straw, and similar Material.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 7th June, 1890-Accepted, 20th Sept., 1890
An Apparatus for Nitrifying Cotton, Cellulose, Straw, and similar
Material.
I, EMIL MÜLLER of Hohenzollernring No. 19, Cologue in the Empire of Germany,
Chief Director of the company for the manufacture of explosives styled, "Rheinisch-
Westfälische Sprengstaff-Actien-Gesellschaft" and domiciled at Cologne, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
In the nitrifying apparatus hitherto known, the nitrified material cannot be
delivered of the acid within the apparatus proper and the removal of the product
of nitrification and the centrifugal treatment and pressing out thereof outside the
apparatus always entails loss in acid. Moreover the attendant person is exposed to
the noxious influence of the vapours, the inhalation of which, owing to the necessity
of opening the apparatus, cannot be avoided.
The improved apparatus, represented by Figs. 1 and 2 in sectional elevation and
partial top view respectively, is intended to remove the drawbacks above referred to,
the elimination of the vapours taking place in the apparatus so as to allow the
substance freed of the acid to be taken out without any inconvenience to the workman
and delivered by washing in the known manner of the last traces of the acid.
The main feature of the improved nitrifying apparatus is that the nitrified sub-
stances are freed of the acid within the nitrifying receptacle having a loosely lying-
on cover, without necessitating the same to be opened. This elimination of the acid
from the nitrified substances is effected by suction through a vacuum producer in
combination with an acid reservoir inserted between the latter and the nitrifying
vessel.
This removal of the acid by suction is particularly important and advantageous, as
compared with the pressing out and centrifugal treatment of the same, by the acid
vapours being also removed from the nitrifying receptacle and from the nitrified sub-
stances so as to exclude any prejudicial effect on the health of the attendant.
The improved device is arranged as follows:-
The nitrifying receptacle consists of a cast iron or leaden vessel adapted to be closed
loosely by means of an ordinary lid not shewn in the drawing. Said vessel, in which
a sieve bottom S is provided, is placed into a wooden reservoir or tank for cooling
water and communicates through a pipe R with an acid reservoir likewise made of
iron or lead. The pipe R¹ leads from the acid reservoir to a vacuum-producer or
-pump.
When commencing the nitrification, the vessel A, after the cocks H H¹ are closed,
is filled to a certain extent with the acid mixture to be used for nitrification. Sub-
sequently the material to be nitrified is immersed therein and the vessel is closed with
the lid.
After the lapse of the time required for nitrification the attendant person
opens the cock H' and turns the cock H2 into the position a shewn as a detail with
Fig. 1.
This having been done, the acid is drawn by suction into the reservoir C
(the loose cover on A does not fit so tightly as to prevent a sufficient quantity of air
from the atmosphere to be substituted) and then the cock H' is closed. The cotton
or other material is now taken out of the vessel A and is brought if necessary into a
centrifugal device or direct into the washing vessels. Subsequently the cock H' is
opened and the cock H2 given the position b shown as a detail with Fig. 1.
Thereby the reservoir is placed into communication with the atmospheric air and
consequently the acid returns from O into the vessel A where it is employed in the
same manner as herebefore described.
When the acid has become unfit for further use it can be let off through the
cock H.

page_text: Another material advantage of the improved nitrifying apparatus, beside the
troublesome pressing out of the acid from the nitrified material being dispensed with,
consists in the far more perfect delivery of the nitrified material from the acid and in
the greater facility of handling by the attendant.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
An apparatus for nitrifying cotton, cellulose, straw and similar substances, con-
sisting of a receptacle A having a sieve bottom S and adapted to be cooled by a
cooling vessel B (or a cooling pipe) an acid reservoir C communicating with the
bottom of said nitrifying receptacle, and a vacuum producer, adapted, through suitable
connection, to draw the acid from the nitrified product contained in A by suction into
the reservoir ( for the purpose of eliminating the acid and acid vapours from the said
product, substantially as illustrated and described.
Dated thin 6th of June 1800
EMIL
MÜLLER.
Per Huelser & Co.,
Attorneys.