IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRO-DYNAMIC MACHINES FOR OBTAINING METALS FROM THEIR SALTS, REGENERATING GALVANIC BATTERIES, AND OBTAINING OTHER CHEMICAL REACTIONS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRO-DYNAMIC MACHINES FOR OBTAINING
METALS FROM THEIR SALTS, REGENERATING GALVANIC BATTERIES, AND
OBTAINING OTHER CHEMICAL REACTIONS."--A communication from abroad
by Dieudonné François Lontin, of Paris, France.
Sealed the 30th July 1875, and dated the 8th February 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Clark at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th February 1875.
I, WILLIAM CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of
5 Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRO-DYNAMIC
MACHINES FOR OBTAINING METALS FROM THEIR SALTS, REGENERATING GALVANIC
BATTERIES, AND Obtaining other Chemical ReactIONS," to be as follows:-
It is well known that electricity decomposes metallic salts and
O eliminates the metals therefrom, but according to this Invention it is

page_text: proposed to employ only electricity generated by electro-dynamic
machines, and collected under the conditions herein-after explained.
Take, for example, an electro-dynamic machine which, as is well known,
generates electricity merely at the expense of motion. In these machines
a portion of the electricity developed goes to magnetize the electro-
magnets, and the remainder is at the service of the operator. If the
proportion of electricity appropriated for magnetization be increased, or
if the whole of the electricity produced be so applied (and this is the
condition under which it is proposed to operate) the machine may
acquire such a degree of resistance to rotation that it can no longer be
kept in motion.
The principle on which this Invention is based may then be briefly
stated as consisting in the employment of an electro-dynamic machine
wherein the whole of the current produced by the machine is returned
to the primary electro-magnets (simple or compound), in which circuit
are placed (what are herein termed voltameters to be operated on.
I will now explain the Invention more fully. Suppose a break be
made in any one of the wires of the machine its power will thereupon
cease, and if the broken wire be reunited its power is again renewed.
If therefore the circuit be completed by one or more apparatus, herein
termed voltameters, the machine will work, and the substances placed in
each voltameter will be decomposed, the resistance of the latter dimin-
ishing to a corresponding extent the resistance to the rotation of the
machine. If now I employ as voltameters heated crucibles containing,
for example, double chloride of aluminum and sodium, and two electrodes
of prepared carbon, aluminum and chlorine are obtained.
In these crucibles may be placed any metallic salt from which it is
desired to obtain the metal.
By the name of voltameters I designate any apparatus in which are
placed one or several chemical substances capable of being decomposed
by electricity, and I designate by the name dynamo-chemical an electro-
dynamic machine employed in the manner above specified.
The voltameters employed with a dynamo-chemical machine contain
metallic salts or solutions of metallic salts, and in this manner I obtain
metals such as potassium, sodium, calcium, aluminum, magnesium,
copper, silver, and all other metals useful for manufacturing purposes,
as for example, in plating or coating with gold, silver, nickel, bronze,

page_text: copper, tin, et cætera, and also obtain sodium, lithium, barium, aluminum,
magnesium, et cætera.
I may also obtain by dynamo-chemical decomposition most of the
metalloids, such as chlorine, oxygen, hydrogen, iodine, bromine, and
others.
By the dynamo-chemical means o
obtain at the same expense 100 times the quantity of electricity obtainable
from batteries.
I will now describe a novel application forming part of the present
Invention. I take a battery whose action is exhausted, and send through
it a current from an electro-dynamic or dynamo-chemical machine in
the reverse direction to the current produced by the battery. The latter
may then be considered as a voltameter, the metal being regenerated as
well as the exciting liquids. The battery is thus reconstituted, and is
again fit for use. As this regeneration may be repeated indefinitely a
battery is by this means rendered almost everlasting. Take, for example,
a Smee's battery, which is composed of platinum, zinc, sulphuric acid,
and water, but after the battery has been at work it becomes platinum,
zinc, sulphate of zinc, and water; now, if it be electrified as above
mentioned, its elements will return to their original form of platinum,
zinc, sulphuric acid, and water, as expressed in the following
equation :-

page_text: such as potash, soda, chloroform, chloral, acetic acid, formic acid, and in
short all chemical products which under suitable conditions are formed
or produced by electricity.
on the 7th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Clark, Her special licence
that I, the said William Clark, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Clark, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRO-DYNAMIC MACHINES FOR OBTAINING METALS PROM
THEIR SALTS, REGENERATING GALVANIC BATTERIES, AND OBTAINING OTHER CHEMICAL
REACTIONS," a communication to me from abroad by Dieudonné François
Lontin, of Paris, France, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
.said William Clark, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
:
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Clark, do hereby declare

page_text: performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say :-
It is well known that electricity decomposes metallic salts, and
eliminates the metals therefrom, but according to this Invention it is
proposed to employ only electricity generated by electro-dynamic
machines, and collected under the conditions herein-after explained.
Take, for example, an electro-dynamic machine which, as is well known,
generates electricity merely at the expense of motion. In these machines
a portion of the electricity developed goes to magnetize the electro-
magnets, and the remainder is at the service of the operator. If the
proportion of electricity appropriated for magnetization be increased, or
if the whole of the electricity produced be so applied (and this is the
condition under which it is proposed to operate) the machine may
acquire such a degree of resistance to rotation that it can no longer be
kept in motion.
The principle on which this Invention is based may be briefly
stated as consisting in the employment of an electro-dynamic machine,
wherein the whole of the current produced by the machine is returned
to the primary electro-magnets (simple or multiple) in which circuit are
placed what are herein termed the voltameters to be operated on.
I will now explain the Invention more fully. Suppose a break to be
made in any one of the wires of the machine its power will thereupon
cease, and if the broken wire be reunited its power is again renewed. If
therefore the circuit be completed by one or more apparatus, herein termed
voltameters, the machine will work, and the substances placed in such
voltameter will be decomposed, the resistance of the latter diminishing
to a corresponding extent the resistance to the rotation of the machine.
If now I employ as voltameters heated crucibles containing, for example,
double chloride of aluminum and sodium, and two electrodes of prepared
carbon, aluminum and chlorine are obtained.
In these crucibles may be placed any metallic salt from which it is
desired to obtain tho metal, the completeness of the decomposition
exceeding anything hitherto attained.
By the name of voltameters I designate any apparatus in which are
placed one or several chemical substances capable of being decomposed
by electricity, and I designate by the name dynamo-chemical an
electro-dynamic machine employed in the manner above specified.

page_text: The voltameters employed with a dynamo-chemical machine contain
metallic salts or solutions of metallic salts, and in this manner I obtain
metals.such as potassium, sodium, calcium, lithium, barium, aluminum,
magnesium, copper, silver, and all other metals useful for manufacturing
purposes, as for example, in plating or coating with gold, silver, nickel,
bronze, copper, tin, et cætera.
I may also obtain by dynamo-chemical decomposition most of the
metalloids, such as chlorine, oxygen, hydrogen, iodine, bromine, and

page_text: wherever it may be required, as for galvano-plastic, gilding, silvering,
and such like purposes, or as a motive power to a limited extent.
The Invention further consists in the production by the dynamo-
chemical means of this Invention of alkalies, salts, and organic products,
such as potash, soda, chloroform, chloral, acetic acid, formic acid, and in
short all chemical products which under suitable conditions are formed
or produced by electricity.
I have before mentioned that in order to effect a chemical decom-
position in the manner described I employ electro-dynamic machines,
but I have only briefly referred to the means by which the same may
be applied to the greatest advantage, which may be as follows :-
1st. Take any electro-dynamic machine, and return to the electro-
magnets (simple or multiple) the whole of the current produced by the
machine, and place in the circuit the voltameters to be operated on.
2nd. The machine should have a continuous and not an intermittent
current (by an intermittent current is meant that produced by Siemens'
and Ladd's machines), as with an intermittent current no possible result
can be obtained in a dynamo-chemical point of view.
3rd. The machine should be so constructed that the whole of the
electricity produced shall be absorbed by the work to be done, otherwise
the electricity unabsorbed would so heat the electric machine that on
the one hand the machine could not be worked for any length of time,
and on the other hand the heat developed in the machine would absorb
such a considerable proportion of the motive power that the machine
would produce but one-tenth of its effect relatively to the motive power
employed. Such would be the case for example with the Siemens' and
Halske machine, on the Hefner Alteneck system.
Another application which may be made consists in employing
electricity, as above mentioned, for charging a second machine with
magnetism. This second machine may be employed for producing light
with alternate currents, this being the best kind of light. An electric
separator may be strengthened in this manner, whereby the same may
be rendered more powerful than any other.
In conclusion I would remark that by the method or means of
3 employing electricity herein-before described, much more effective
results are obtainable than with the means ordinarily employed.

page_text: Having described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be
protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, in an
electro-dynamic machine having a continuous current I claim collecting
and returning the whole of the current to the electro-magnet or magnets,
and interposing in the circuit the work to be performed, as herein
described, the Invention being applicable to electric lighting apparatus
with alternate currents, magnetic, sorting, and other machines, but more
especially in electro-metallurgical operations.