AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING WASTE LIQUORS FOR THE DISSIPATING OR UTILIZING OF THE SAME
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Edwards Amos, of the Grove, Southwark,
in the County of Surrey, Engineer, and William Anderson, of Erith,
in the County of Kent, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
MODE OF TREATING WASTE LIQUORS FOR THE DISSIPATING OR UTILIZING OF
THE SAME."
Sealed the 14th September 1866, and dated the 23rd March 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Edwards Amos
and William Anderson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 23rd March 1866.
We, CHARLES EDWARDS AMOS, of the Grove, Southwark, in the County
of Surrey, Engineer, and WILLIAM ANDERSON, of Erith, in the County of
Kent, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING WASTE LIQUORS FOR THE DISSIPATING OR UTILIZING
OF THE SAME," to be as follows;-
This Invention relates chiefly to the disposing of the alkaline waste or
spent liquor obtained in the process of treating straw, grass, and other fibres
preparatory to their conversion into paper, but it is also applicable to the
treatment of other waste liquors with the view to render the same useful or
innoxious. Hitherto it has been customary to run off waste liquors from
paper mills into a neighbouring stream, and where this has been complained
[Price 8d.1

page_text: of as a nuisance the costly process of evaporation has been resorted to, the
recovered alkali affording but a partial recompense for the outlay. Now in
order to effect the evaporation of the alkaline liquor of paper mills in an
economical and expeditious manner, we employ an arrangement of furnace
similar to a blast furnace, either closed or open at top and supplied with a
natural or artificial blast; this furnace we charge with coke or other fuel,
and having fired up the furnace we admit the liquor by a pipe or pipes on to
the top of the fuel, keeping up the current of air as long as the liquor is
supplied. A rapid evaporation of the watery particles will consequently
result, and the alkali will gradually collect at the bottom of the furnace,
whence it may be drawn from time to time, and the vegetable and noxious
matters contained in the liquor will be at the same time consumed. If the
furnace be open at top the heated vapour and gases of combustion will pass
off and be dissipated in the atmosphere, but by closing the top of the furnace
with a cover, part of which may be removable for the purpose of charging
the furnace with fuel, and connecting a pipe to the said cover, the heated
vapour and gases may be led off and made use of for obtaining motive power
or for drying or heating purposes. In cases where it is necessary to treat
the liquor with lime or other chemical agent to assist in the operation of
recovering the alkali, that may be done by adding the chemical agent thereto
at the time the liquor is passing to the furnace.
From the above description it will be understood that the Invention may
be readily applied to other works, for example, dye works, inconveniently
situated for the disposal of the spent liquor, or where such liquor cannot be
got rid of without fouling adjacent streams.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Edwards Amos and William Anderson in the Great
Seal Patent Oflice on the 22nd September 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
EDWARDS AMOS, of the Grove, Southwark, in the County of Surrey, Engineer,
and WILLIAM ANDERSON, of Erith, in the County of Kent, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her

page_text: reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Charles Edwards Amos and William Anderson, Her special
licence that we, the said Charles Edwards Amos and William Anderson,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Charles Edwards Amos and William Anderson, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "AN IMPROVED MODE OF TREATING WASTE LIQUORS FOR THE
DISSIPATING OR UTILIZING OF THE SAME," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Charles Edwards Amos and William Anderson, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, 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 Anderson, on behalf of
myself and of the said Charles Edwards Amos, do hereby declare the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement,
reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters
and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention relates chiefly to the disposing of the alkaline waste or spent
liquor obtained in the process of treating straw, grass, and other fibres pre-
paratory to their conversion into paper, but it is also applicable to the treatment
of other waste liquors with the view to render the same useful or innoxious.
Hitherto it has been customary to run off waste or black liquor produced in
the manufacture of straw paper into a neighboring stream, and where this has
been complained of as a nuisance, the costly process of evaporation has been
resorted to, the recovered alkali affording but a partial recompense for the
outlay incurred in the process.
Now in order to effect the evaporation of the alkaline liquor of paper mills
in an economical and expeditious manner we employ an arrangement' of
furnace similar to a blast furnace, either closed or open at top. This furnace
we charge with coke or other fuel, and having fired up the furnace we admit
the liquor on to the top of the fuel, keeping up a supply of air by means of

page_text: tujeres as long as the discharge of liquor on to the burning fuel is
continued. A rapid evaporation of the watery particles will consequently
result, and the alkali will gradually collect at the bottom of the furnace,
whence it may be drawn, from time to time, and the vegetable and noxious
matters contained in the liquor will be at the same time consumed. If the
furnace be open at top the heated vapor and gases of combustion will pass
off and be dissipated in the atmosphere, but by closing the top of the furnace
with a cover, part of which may be removeable for the purpose of charging
the furnace with fuel, and connecting å pipe to the said cover, the heated vapor
and gases may be led off and made use of for obtaining motive power, or for
drying, or for heating purposes.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 shows in front elevation, Fig.-2 in
plan view, and Fig. 3 in vertical section, a blast furnace suitable for carrying
out the main object of our Invention, viz., the dissipating of the watery
particles of alkaline and other waste liquors.
a, a, is the fire chamber surrounded by an annular chamber b, which forms
a receptacle for the liquor to be evaporated. This chamber at its upper end
The
has a considerable lateral extension at b' which is closed by a cover.
fire chamber a is fitted with a door at a' for the admission of coke or other.
fuel, and access is obtained at a to the bottom of the fire chamber, the opening
being closed when the furnace is at work by a luted door. c, c, are the
tuyeres for admitting a blast of air to the furnace, and d, d, are openings
made in the fire chamber on a level with the water line of the annular
chamber, or at such a height as it is determined to maintain the level of the
liquor in the chamber. A discharge pipe e leading from an adjacent reservoir
conveys the liquor to the furnace, and the liquor becoming quickly heated by
reason of its close proximity to the fire chamber it will throw up foam into
the chamber b', and the heated liquor will discharge itself through the lateral
openings in the fire chamber on to the top of the fuel. The rate at which
this discharge will take place will be governed by the supply to the furnace,
and this must be regulated by the capacity of the furnace to vaporize the
liquor. The vapor, together with the gases of combustion, will pass off
through the open top of the furnace. When the operation has been continued
for a given time, say twelve hours, fuel having been supplied at intervals as
required, the blast is taken off, the door at a is removed, and the partially
fused mass is withdrawn to be further treated by lixiviation or otherwise to
separate the recovered chemical substances of the liquor from the fuel
residuum. In some cases we propose, instead of drawing the whole contents

page_text: of the fire chamber, to insert in the chamber (through the furnace sides)
radial bars a few inches above the tuyeres, which bars will serve as grate
bars to sustain the superincumbent fuel in its place, while that below the bars
is withdrawn with the recovered chemical substances.
In case it is desired to use the steam generated as a motive power or for
heating purposes the process must be carried on under pressure in a closed
furnace, the air being forced in through the tuyeres at a proportionately
increased pressure, and the fuel let down through the usual arrangement. of
double valves or traps. This form of furnace we have shown in sectional
elevation at Fig. 4. where f. f. are the valves or traps for closing the top of
the furnace, and admitting charges of fuel thereto as required. The pipe for
carrying off the steam and gases of combustion to the chamber or pipe to he
heated is shown at g. In this arrangement instead of allowing the liquor
when heated to flow over into the fire chamber it is requisite to discharge it
by force on to the fuel. For this purpose a pine h connected with a force
pump is inserted in the side of the furnace in communication with the annular
chamber, and at a higher level is a pine i which receives the heated liquor
from the force pumn, and discharges it on to the fuel. In either arrangement
however, if thought desirable the liquor may be discharged direct from the
containing tank on to the fuel, and in such case the enlarged annular chamber
will not be required. Fig. 5 shows the furnace in cross section a little way
above the level of the tnyeres.
When using coke as a fuel for evaporating the black liquor from straw
boiling we find that the residuum is chiefly a sulphate of soda. In order to
obtain the carbonate, which is the material we employ in the process of boiling
the straw, we propose to add to the black or waste liquor before admitting it.
to the furnace chalk or whiting in proportion equivalent to the strength of
the alkaline liquor; a residuum of carbonate of soda will thus be obtained. In
like manner when other waste liquors than the black alkaline liquor above
mentioned are to be acted upon to recover the chemical substances contained
therein, those substances known to chemists as capable of combining under
the conditions present in the furnace with the recovered chemical matters to
form a desired product are to be used; but as this branch of the process of
utilizing waste liquors forms no part of our Invention, but is merely ancillary
thereto, we content ourselves with the foregoing remarks thereon.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "An Improved Mode
of Treating Waste Liquors for the Dissipation or Utilization of the same,"
and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect we wish it to be

page_text: understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent we claim,
discharging such liquors on to burning fuel contained in an open or closed
furnace in the manner and for the purposes above described.
In witness whereof, I the said William Anderson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-first day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
WILLIAM ANDERSON! (L.S.)