IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
OXLAND, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twentieth day of February, in the eighth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Robert Oxland, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Robert Oxland, my
exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Oxland,
my exors, adors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE;" in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a proviso, that I, the said Robert Oxland, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be inrolled 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 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
Robert Oxland, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
:-
My Invention consists in a method of manufacturing chlorine by the decom-
position of hydrochloric acid by atmospheric air. And in order that my
Invention may be most fully understood and readily carried into effect, I will
proceed to describe the means pursued by me. I mix hydrochloric acid gas
and atmospheric air in the proportion of one measure of the former to two of
the latter. I pass the mixture through an air-tight furnace, and kept at a
bright red heat. I prefer to obtain the hydrochloric acid gas by decomposing.
common salt by sulphuric acid in a furnace or retort, so heated that the pro-
ducts of combustion do not mix with the acid evolved, as is now extensively
practised, the gas evolved being conducted into another furnace and brought
into contact with atmospheric air, as hereafter explained. The gas should be
dried by passing it through a vessel filled with pieces of fire brick, over which
a constant small stream of concentrated sulphuric acid is flowing. I keep up
the necessary supply of atmospheric air by pumping it into an air-tight iron
reservoir, from which the passage of it is regulated by a stop cock or valve.
The decomposing furnace I employ resembles in form an ordinary reverberatory
furnace, but it is so constructed as to allow of the passage of the fire over the
arch and under the bed by which the furnace is heated without the fire or
flame passing into it. The furnace should be carefully constructed so as to be
rendered as air-tight as may be. The interior of the furnace is filled with
pieces of porous pumicestone, the mixture of gas and air entering at the end,
they pass out at the other end nearest the fire by a pipe at the upper part of the
furnace. That part of the furnace nearest the fire should be kept at a bright
red heat by a fire acting externally, the smoke passing on from the fire place
through flues over the furnace into the chimney. By the passage of the mixture
of hydrochloric acid and atmospheric air through the decomposing furnace, the
products will consist of chlorine associated with undecomposed muriatic acid, and
any excess of atmospheric air and nitrogen; this mixture is to be cooled by passing
it through a series of earthenware tubes, kept cold by water surrounding them;
the bydrochloric acid will be effectually separated by passing the mixture
through water after the same has passed through the cooling pipes. Finally,
the chlorine is obtained and chloride of lime produced by passing the residuary
mixture into the ordinary lime condenser, where the chlorine is absorbed, and
the nitrogen and atmospheric air remaining allowed to pass on into the atmo-
sphere.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the best means I
am acquainted with for performing the same, I would have it understood that

page_text: I do not confine myself to the details herein described, so long as the peculiar
character of my Invention be retained; but what I claim is the mode of
manufacturing chlorine by decomposing hydrochloric acid by atmospheric air.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Oxland, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of August, in
the year of our Lord 1845, the aforesaid Robert Oxland 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 Twentieth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-five.