CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ALUM AND ALUMINOUS COMPOUNDS FROM A SUBSTANCE NOT HITHERTO USED FOR THAT PURPOSE, AND IN THE PRODUCTION OF AN IMPROVED FIRE CLAY FROM THE RESIDUUM THEREOF
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JosЕРп
CLIFF, of Wortley, in the County of York, Fire Brick Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifth day of June, One thousand eight hundred and forty-
five, in the eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Cliff, my exors, adiñiors,
and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Joseph Cliff, my exors, adññiors, or assigns, or such others as I,
the said Joseph Cliff, my exors, adiñiors, 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 England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,.
my Invention of. "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ALUM AND
ALUMINOUS COMPOUNDS FROM A SUBSTANCE NOT HITHERTO USED FOR THAT PURPOSE,
AND IN THE PRODUCTION OF AN IMPROVED FIRE CLAY FROM THE RESIDUUM THEREOF;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Joseph.
Cliff, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her
said 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, I, the said
Joseph Cliff, hereby declare that the nature of the. said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, are fully and particularly described
in and by the present Specification thereof.
Of the native fire clays in ordinary use for the purpose of making fire bricks,
glass-house pots, gas retorts, crucibles, and other like articles, there are few, if
any, which do not contain an intermixture of substances more or less injurious
to the quality of the manufactured articles. Very commonly they contain
alumina in excess, in consequence of which the articles made from them are
apt to contract, scale, disintegrate, and break when subjected to long continued
strong heats or sudden and excessive changes of temperature, and more par-
ticularly when exposed at a high temperature to the action of acid vapours.
In other cases the clays contain iron and lime, both of which are not only
injurious in themselves, but at 'high temperatures act as a flux to the other
materials which enter into the composition of such clays. The articles maile
therefrom are thus rendered easily fusible by an intense heat, and furnaces
or other articles made or built of such clay; or bricks made from such clays, are
soon worn out or destroyed.
Now, the nature of my said Invention is such as to enable me completely or
in a great measure to remedy the said defects, and so to apportion the silica
and alumina in the clay, brick, or other manufactured articles as to prevent
the contraction or flying in picces, to obviate the tendency to fusibility which
may arise from the presence of injurious substances, and to make each com-
position of clay such as shall be best fitted for the particular work to which it
is intended to be applied; and the same consists, first, in separating from fire
clays any excess of alumina which they may happen to contain previously
to applying them to the manufacture of fire bricks, glass-house pots, gas
retorts, crucibles, and other fire-resisting articles, and converting such alumina
into the alum and alum salts of commerce; and secondly, in making use of
a particular description of fire clay, which contains alumina' in more than
ordinary abundance, and is at the same time unusually free from iron and
lime, and which species of fire clay has not, to the best of my knowledge, been
heretofore made use of in the manufacture of alum or of any aluminous
compounds.
The particular species or description of fire clay to which I refer is that
known as the "Wortley bed of fire clay," because of its being found in its
greatest state of purity in the township of Wortley, in the parish of Leeds,

page_text: and County of York, and having been long employed there in the manufacture
of fire bricks and other fire-resisting articles. The same sort of clay is
known to lie under part of the several. townships of Leeds; Holbeck, Beeston
Royds, Farmley, and Armley, all in the parish of Leeds, and also under párt
of the townships of Pudsey and Eccleshill, in the parish of Calverley. It is
further known, or, to be reasonably inferred from the geological position of this.
clay in the Yörkshire coal fields, that it is to be found in a bed or beds imme-/
diately under the bed of coal known as the "better, bed coal."
The manner in which I carry the said Invention into effect is as follows:-
I take the Wortley fire clay or any other sort of fire clay containing alumina
in excess, and first grind it, then calcine it, 'and afterwards submit it to the
action of sulphuric, nitric, muriatic, or other acid, more or less diluted with
water, and either with or without the assistance of heat; I then, by lixiviating
the mass with water, obtain the alumina in solution, and next free this solution
from iron by means of prussiate of potash, gallic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen,
or any other known and ordinary agent for precipitating iron or-its oxides; L
then either evaporate the solution down by itself, and thus get the sulphate,
nitrate, or muriate of alumina, according to the kind of acid I have used, or I
mix the sulphate or muriate of potash, soda, or ammonia with the solution,
and evaporate and crystallize so as to obtain the alum salts, and then by
roaching form the alum of commerce. After the whole or greater portion of
the alumina has been thus separated from the fire clay, I make use, in manner
following, of the residuary earths to manufacture therefrom or therewith a
superior, description of fire bricks, glass-house pots, and other like fire-resist-
ing articles. I either use these residuary or purified earths by themselves, or
I mix them with some of the fire clay in its native state finely ground..
When the fire brick or other articles are to be used for purposes in which there
are many and great changes of temperature, whereby there would be risk of
destruction of the bricks or other articles by the contraction causing it to
crack in pieces, or where the bricks or other articles are exposed at high heats
to the action of acid vapours, then I take a quantity of my residuary clay
with just as much ground native clay as will work up with water into a well-
tempered plastic body, and afterwards make it into bricks or other articles in
the ordinary way; but I find that the proportions in which the residuary clay
is mixed with the ground native clay ought to be varied according to the
purposes for which the bricks or other articles are used, having regard to the
fusibility as well as to the before said tendency of the bricks, or other articles
to be destroyed by splintering from changes of temperature. These propor-
tions must necessarily differ so much that no general rule for them can be

page_text: laid down; but it may be observed generally, that the manufacturer can by such.
mixtures of purified and native clays (no matter what the porportions may be).
always produce a better composite clay than any which can be found in the
native state.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what 5
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is, First, the
extraction wholely or partially from fire clays of the whole or part of the
alumina contained therein, previous to the application thereof to the making
of fire bricks and other like fire-resisting articles.
Second, the manufacture of alum and aluminous compounds from the 1
Wortley fire clay before mentioned, or any other fire clay containing alumina
in similar abundance.
And, third, the application of the residuum of such fire clays, either by itself.
or in combination in any proportion with Wortley or any other fire clay in its
native state, to the making of fire bricks, glass-house pots, crucibles, gas
retorts, and other like articles.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
eighth day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
Junded and furt-five