IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HYDRATED OXIDES, AND SALTS OF IRON, AND SALTS OF THE FIXED ALKALIES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Richardson, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and
Manning Prentice, of Stowmarket, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HYDRATED OXIDES, AND SALTS OF IRON, AND SALTS
OF THE FIXED ALKALIES"
Sealed the 22nd May 1860, and dated the 17th March 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Richardson,
and Manning Prentice, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 17th March 1860.
We, THOMAS RICHARDSON, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and MANNING PRENTICE,
of Stowmarket, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HYDRATED OXIDES. AND SALTS OF IRON, AND
SALTS OF THE FIXED ALKALIES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in submitting oxides of iron to the action of
sulphurous acid, and exposing the solution to the atmosphere to obtain
hydrated oxide of iron and sulphate of iron.
The Invention also consists in decomposing such solution by muriate of
soda or potash to obtain corresponding alkaline salts, and also muriate of
iron, from which muriate of iron hydrated exide of iron may be precipitated
by lime, magnesia, or baryta, or their carbonates.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Richardson and Manning Prentice, in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 17th September 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
RICHARDSON, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and MANNING PRENTICE, of Stowmarket,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty,in the twenty-third year of Her
reigu, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Thomas Richardson and Manning Prentice, Her special licence that
we, the said Thomas Richardson and Manning Prentice, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Rich-
ardson and Manning Prentice, our 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 MANUFACTURE OF HYDRATED OXIDES, AND
SALTS OF IRON, AND SALTS OF THE FIXED ALKALIES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Thomas Richardson and Manning Prentice, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 Thomas Richardson, on behalf of myself
and the said Manning Prentice, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in submitting oxides of iron to the action of
sulphurous acid, and exposing the solution to the atmosphere to obtain
hydrated oxides of iron and sulphate of iron.
The Invention also consists in decomposing such solution by muriate of soda
or potash to obtain corresponding alkaline salts, and also muriate of iron,

page_text: from which muriate of iron hydrated oxides of iron may be precipitated by
limo, magnesia, or baryta, or their carbonates.
The apparatus we employ in carrying out our Invention consists of an
arrangement of condensing towers, such as are in ordinary use, for condensing.
muriatic acid, but instead of filling them with coke or fire-bricks we employ
the burnt pyrites which is now a waste product in chemical works. As the
oxide of iron dissolves out, the insoluble portion has a tendency to choke
the column, and we therefore divide the interior every few feet by means
of stone shelving, perforated with holes, to admit the passage of the gases
and liquids. Openings are formed through the towers to coincide with the
floors or horizontal partitions, and these openings are closed by suitable
doors. The towers thus modified in their internal construction and filled
with burnt pyrites, are supplied with a stream of water, which in falling
meets a current of sulphurous acid, which may be obtained from those
sulphur ores which are too poor for the use of sulphuric acid makers, and
which may be burnt in small open fires or furnaces of the simplest con-
struction. The sulphurous acid is partially oxidized at the expence of part
of the oxygen of the burnt pyrites, and the oxides of iron dissolve in the
acid liquid. The solution on exposure to the air, either before or during
concentration, furnishes a hydrated precipitated oxide of iron well adapted
for the purification of coal gas, or as a manure, to act as a purveyor of
oxygen to the land. When the liquor from the condenser has acquired a
strength of about 40° Twaddell, it is concentrated and set aside for the
crystallization of ordinary green copperas.
mixed salts stands
column nearly to
The mother liquor
Instead of using water we supply the condensing tower with a solution
of muriate of potash or soda, at about 15° Twaddell, and we conduct the
operation as already described until the solution of the
at 50° Twaddell, we boil the liquids obtained from the
dryness, and separate the salts which crystallize out.
contains the muriate of iron which may be employed in this state, or we dry
it up with sawdust and employ the mixture in purifying gas, or liquors con-
taining sulphur compounds, or we previously mix it with an equivalent
quantity of lime, magnesia, baryta, or their carbonates, and then dry up
with sawdust.
The mixed salts of sulphate and muriate of the alkali which crystallize
out are dissolved in water, and this solution of the same strength as before
is employed as at first as the condensing medium in the columus or towers,
and the above operations are repeated until the muriate of the alkali is con-

page_text: verted into a corresponding sulphate. When the liquor from the column
falls below 5° Twaddell the remains of the burnt pyrites are removed and
replaced by fresh charges; and similarly, when the muriate of the alkali is
nearly decomposed into sulphate, the liquor is boiled down to obtain this
salt while it is replaced by a fresh solution of the muriate.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Richardson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventeeth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
THOMAS RICHARDSON. (L.S.)