CERTAIN METHODS OF OBTAINING OR MANUFACTURING LIME FROM A SUBSTANCE OR SUBSTANCES NOT HITHERTO MADE USE OF FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1843

page_text: DANIELL AND
INS
ΑΠΟΝ.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, FRANCIS
DANIELL, of Camborne, in the County of Cornwall, Assay Master and
Analytical Chemist, and THOMAS HUTCHINSON, of Rosewarne, in the Parish and
County aforesaid, Esquire, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britian, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourth day of May, in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said Francis
Daniell and Thomas Hutchinson, our exors, admors, or assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said Francis
Daniell and Thomas Hutchinson, our exors, admors, and assigns, and such
others as we, the said Francis Daniell and Thomas Hutchinson, our exors,
admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of
Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, called England,
Her Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention
of "CERTAIN METHODS OF OBTAINING OR MANUFACTURING LIME FROM A SUBSTANCE OR
SUBSTANCES NOT HITHERTO MADE USE OF FOR THAT PURPOSE;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, that we, the said Francis Daniell and
Thomas Hutchinson, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, under our
hands and seal, or under the hand and seal of one of us, to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and

page_text: by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Francis Daniell and Thomas Hutchinson, do hereby declare that the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, are
fully set forth and ascertained in and by the following Specification thereof, that
is to say:-
Whereas lime is at present usually manufactured from limestone, or chalk,
or other substances in which it exists in an indurate state or state of solid com-
bination with other bodies. Now, the nature of our said Invention consists in
our having discovered that there are large tracts of sand on the coasts of this
kingdom, and particularly on the coast of the county of Cornwall, which are
at present treated as valueless, or made use of like other sand, for purposes of
mechanical mixture, merely as in the making of mortar, breaking up of
tenacious soils, &c., but from which nevertheless lime of an excellent quality,
applicable to building, agricultural, manufacturing, and other purposes, can
be manufactured in large quantities by the means to be herein-after described.
By numerous and careful analyses of the sand to which we refer, we have
ascertained that it usually contains more than seventy per cent. of carbonate of
lime. And we declare that the manner in which the said Invention is to be
performed is as follows:-
In the first place, in order to test whether the sand on which we propose
to operate is of the proper quality, we put an ascertained quantity into
a retort and pour dilute muriatic acid upon it; if it contain carbonate of
lime a violent effervescence ensues, and carbonic acid is rapidly evolved
(the presence of which may be readily detected by its reddening litmus
paper); we then neutralize the muriatic acid by the addition of liquid
ammonia, and precipitate the lime by adding the carbonate of ammonia in
excess; we next weigh this precipitate, which gives us a measure of the
average quantity of lime which may be extracted from larger quantities of the
sand of which that experimented upon was a sample. If the weight of the
precipitate is from six to eight-tenth parts of the original weight of sand tested,
then the sand is of a proper quality for the purpose of our manufacture; but
if much under that, the product will in some places not be sufficient to defray
the expences of reduction.
Secondly, in manufacturing the lime on the large scale, we proceed as
follows: We make use of reverberatory furnaces, varying in size according to
the quantities operated upon, but the bodies of which are generally from twenty
to thirty feet in length, from six to ten feet in their greatest width, but

page_text: gradually contracted towards the end, where they open into the chimney, and
from fifteen inches by two feet in height. The sand is laid upon the bed of
the furnaces to the height of the bridges, which are made a little higher than
usual, in order that they may protect the sand from being blown forward by
the direct action of the current of flame upon them. The high degree of heat,
to which the sand is here exposed, expels the carbonic acid so quickly, that in
about two hours the process of conversion is generally perfected. The lime is
then withdrawn from the furnace through doorways, made at intervals, either
in the sides, end, or bottom, for that purpose. It is now in a proper state to
be employed as a manure, but to fit it for the various other purposes to
which it may be applied, we first pass it through fine sieves, to separate any
extraneous substances which it may contain. When it is desired to convert
the lime, so obtained, into hydrate of lime, we add the necessary equivalent of
water; if into sulphate of lime or gypsum, we add the necessary equivalent of
sulphuric acid, and so on, through all the various combinations of which lime is
susceptible.
And having now described our said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, we declare that what we claim as new is, the obtaining or
manufacturing of lime from the loose sand of the localities, and possessing the
properties aforesaid, by the methods before described, or by any other equivalent
method or methods.
In witness whereof, we, the said Francis Daniell and Thomas Hutchinson,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, the First day of November, One
thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
FRANCIS. (L.B.) DANIELL.
T. (L.8.) HUTCHINSON.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the First day of November, in the
year of our Lord 1843, the aforesaid Francis Daniell and Thomas Hutchinson
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-three.