AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PREPARING CLAY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CRUCIBLES, POTS, AND EARTHENWARE
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Bower, of Hunslet, in the County of York,
Chemist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PREPARING CLAY
FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CRUCIBLES, POTS, AND EARTHENWARE."
Sealed the 25th May 1860, and dated the 28th November 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Bower at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th November 1859.
I, JOSEPH BOWER, of Hunslet, in the County of York, Chemist, do hereby
3 declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF PRE-
PARING CLAY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CRUCIBLES, POTS, AND EARTHENWARE," to
be as follows:-
My Invention consists in purifying those clays containing iron, lime, or
magnesia by the employment of an acid which will dissolve those substances.
In order to carry out my Invention, I take a given quantity of clay, and having
ascertained the proportion of iron, lime, or magnesia by analysis, I take suf-
ficient acid to dissolve these substances. I prefer muriatic acid mixed with
water, and boiled by the aid of steam with the clay in a tub or stone cistern
for about an hour, then the soluble parts are washed off by repeated washings
till the water is tasteless, or shows no precipitate on the addition of ammonia;
then the clay is dried in the usual way, and is ready for use.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Bower in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th May 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
BOWER, of Hunslet, in the County of York, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Joseph Bower, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph
Bower, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Joseph Bower, 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OF PREPARING CLAY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CRUCIBLES, POTS, AND EARTHEN-
WARE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Bower, 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 Joseph Bower, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
The object of my Invention is to purify the clay from which crucibles, pots,
and earthenware are to be made, when such clay contains iron, lime, or mag-
nesia, by removing these impurities from it, and this I do by first mixing with
the clay an acid which will dissolve the iron, lime, or magnesia contained in it,
and then washing out the dissolved impurities with water. In carrying my
Invention into effect, I take a quantity of the clay to be purified, and having
ascertained by analysis the proportions of iron, lime, or magnesia which it
contains, I mix a corresponding quantity of a suitable acid, by preference, mu-
riatic acid, with enough water to more than saturate the clay, and having
placed the clay in this solution, I boil the whole in a tub or stone cistern for

page_text: about an hour; I then wash away the dissolved impurities by repeated wash-
ings with water until the wash waters become tasteless, or cease to throw down
a precipitate on the addition of ammonia. The clay is then dried in the usual
way, and is ready for use.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the method of
purifying clay for the manufacture of crucibles, pots, and earthenware by the
employment of an acid which will dissolve the iron, lime, or magnesia con-
tained therein, and by repeated washings, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Bower, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of May One thousand eight
hundred and sixty.
JOSEPH BOWER. (L.S.)