IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN, APPLICABLE ALSOIC ACID
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Weldon, of Rede Hall, Burstow, in the County of
EC
Surrey, for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
CHLORINE AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED THEREIN, APPLICABLE ALSO
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Weldon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th March 1881.
WALTER WELDON, of Rede Hall, Burstow, in the County of Surrey.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE AND IN APPARATUS TO
BE EMPLOYED THEREIN, APPLICABLE ALSO TO THE MANUFACTURE OF HYDRO-
CHLORIC ACID."
On the same day as the present Provisional Specification, will be filed on my
behalf four others describing certain new processes for the manufacture of chlorine
and hydrochloric acid. The said new processes all possess this common feature,
that they all involve heating certain solid bodies or mixtures of solid bodies in
either a current of air, or a current of steam, or a current of air and steam, or a
current of products of combustion, or a current of products of combustion to which
steam has been added. The Invention I am about to describe relates to a method
of performing such operations, and to apparatus for carrying the said method into
effect:
The objects of the said Invention are to render continuous the manufacture of
chlorine or hydrochloric acid when conducted by heating in a current of either air
or steam, or products of combustion, or of any mixture of two or more of these, any
compound or mixture of compounds capable of yielding under such treatment
either free chlorine or hydrochloric acid or both, and at the same time to utilize
the heat of the gases or vapours which at certain stages of such operations must
leave at a very high temperature the solid compound or mixture of compounds over
or through which they have passed.
The method by which I accomplish these objects consists in performing the
treatment by air or steam or products of combustion, or by any mixture of
two or more of these, of any compound or mixture of compounds capable
under such treatment of yielding either chlorine or hydrochloric acid or both in an
apparatus consisting of a series of distinct compartments so arranged and disposed
Dine S71

page_text: that one or more such compartments shall be capable of being isolated at will, so
that one or more of the series of compartments may be being discharged and
re-charged while the other compartments are at work, and so that the gases or
vapours, or mixture of gases and vapours passing from one part of the apparatus at
a high temperature shall be employed to heat up those portions of the charge
contained in other portions of the apparatus which have not yet attained that
temperature.
One form of apparatus by which I propose to carry into effect this method of
rendering at once continuous and economical of fuel the manufacture of chlorine or
hydrochloric acid, or both, by such processes as I have indicated, consists of a series
of vertical iron cylinders lined with brick or with other material not susceptible of
being attacked by chlorine or hydrochloric acid, or both, as the case may be. The
number of such cylinders which it may be best to employ will vary with
circumstances, but for the purpose of the present description I will suppose it to be
eight, and I will indicate the eight cylinders by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
and H. I will suppose the eight cylinders to be arranged in two rows of four
each, A, B, C, D, in one row and E, F, G, H, in another row, the two rows of
four cylinders each being so placed that A and E, B and F, C and G, and D and H
are respectively opposite to each other. Between the two rows of cylinders is a
conduit for conveying to them highly heated air, or highly heated steam, or a
mixture of both air and steam, or products of combustion, or a mixture of products
of combustion with steam, as the case may be. Each cylinder is divided vertically
into two compartments by a diaphragm or partition of brick-work, which either
does not descend quite to the bottom of the cylinder, or if it does descend in places
quite to the bottom of the cylinder, has in it at the bottom either an aperture or
several apertures for the passage of the gaseous current. In the top of the cylinder
are two apertures, one over each of the two compartments into which each cylinder
is divided by the vertical partition in it. Through these apertures the cylinders
are charged with the solid compound or mixture of compounds from which chlorine
or hydrochloric acid is to be evolved, and by means of elbow pipes, the extremities
of which can make gas-tight joints with flanges or other convenient appliance
surrounding those apertures, communication can be established between each
cylinder and the conduit before mentioned, between each cylinder and the next
cylinder, and between each cylinder and a second conduit. It will be convenient
to speak hereafter of the first mentioned conduit as the "air-main" and of the
other conduit as the "chlorine-main." In each of these conduits are apertures, by
means of which and elbow pipes either cylinder can be connected at will with or
disconnected at will from either conduit.
Let us now suppose that the seven cylinders A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, are all
charged with lumps or cakes of a solid compound or mixture of compounds capable
of giving off chlorine on being treated by highly heated air, and that an elbow pipe
connects the air-main with the left of the two apertures in the top of the cylinder A,
and that elbow pipes similarly connect the other aperture in the top of A with the
left aperture in the top of B, the right aperture in the top of B with the left
aperture in the top of C, the right aperture in the top of C with the left aperture
in the top of D, D similarly with E, E similarly with F, F similarly with G,
and the further aperture in the top of G with the chlorine-main. All the apertures
in the air-main except that in communication with A and all the apertures in the
chlorine-main except that communicating with G being closed, and highly heated
air from a hot-blast stove being forced into the air-main, highly heated air will
enter A by one of the apertures at the top of that cylinder, will pass down on one
side of the partition dividing that cylinder, and will then pass under that partition,
and then up on the other side of it." A mixture of nitrogen, air, and free chlorine
or hydrochloric acid, or both, as the case may be, will now pass from the top of A
by the other aperture in the top of that cylinder into the elbow pipe by which A
communicates with B; the gaseous current then successively traversing B, C, D, E,
F, and G, just as it had traversed A, and finally passing from G into the chlorine-

page_text: main, which it will reach at a comparatively low temperature. While the current
is thus passing into A, thence into and through B, C, D, E, F, and G, successively,
and from G into the chlorine-main, workmen will have been charging the
cylinder H. When the charge contained in the cylinder A has been sufficiently
treated the entrance of hot air into the air-main will be stopped for a moment,
A will be disconnected from the air-main and from B, the air-main will be con-
nected with B instead of with A, G will be disconnected from the chlorine-main,
and connected with H, H being now connected with the chlorine-main, and then
air from the hot-blast stove will be readmitted into the air-main. The gaseous
current will now enter B, will traverse successively B, C, D, E, F, G, and H, and
will pass from H into the chlorine-main. While this is going on A will be
discharged and re-charged. When the charge in B has been sufficiently treated
and A has been discharged and re-charged, B will be isolated for discharging and
re-charging, C now becoming the cylinder which the hot air enters and A the
cylinder from which the gaseous current passes into the chlorine-main after
having traversed successively C, D, E, F, G, H, and A. From these examples
the other successive changes in the course of the gaseous current will be
understood.
For the purpose of discharging the cylinders they are provided with doors in
their lower part.
Instead of the series of cylinders being arranged in two straight rows, as above
described, they may be arranged in a circle or otherwise, as may be more con-
venient in each case. Instead of their being charged by the apertures by which
the gaseous current enters and leaves them they may be charged by special
apertures, and the apertures by which. the gaseous current enters and leaves them
may be in the upper part of their sides instead of in the positions above indicated.
Instead of the connections of cylinder with cylinder, and of the cylinders with the
air-main, and the chlorine-main being made by means of movable elbow pipes, as
above described, they may be made by means of fixed pipes, having valves or
dampers in them. The cylinders may moreover be without internal partitions, the
gaseous current in such cases passing either down one cylinder and up the next, or
passing from the bottom of one cylinder to the upper part of the next by a pipe
or conduit placed externally to the cylinders themselves.
Another form of apparatus which will permit the manufacture of chlorine or
hydrochloric acid or both to be conducted by the continuous method which
constitutes an essential part of the present Invention consists of a series of
horizontal furnaces, arranged and disposed and connected together by movable or
fixed passages for the gaseous current in the same manner as I have described for a
series of vertical cylinders. Such horizontal furnaces however can best be charged
through the doors by which they are discharged. In each such furnace I prefer
that there should be several vertical partitions, so disposed as to cause the gaseous
current to pass under one partition and then over the next partition, and so on
alternately. Such horizontal furnaces may be so disposed as to admit of the
charges treated in them being heated otherwise than simply by means of heat
previously communicated to the hot air or gases or vapours by which the charges
are treated; that is to say, they may be furnaces in the ordinary sense, having fire-
places or combustion chambers in which fuel can be burnt for the direct heating of
their charges. When they are such I prefer that they should be adapted for the
burning of producer gas, and that the dispositions should be such that any one or
more of the series of furnaces may be being heated externally while the other
members of the series are not being so heated, and moreover such that the fuel
gases may be turned off from any one member of the series, and on to the next
at will.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Walter Weldon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th August
1881.
WALTER WELDON, of Rede Hall, Burstow, in the County of Surrey. " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED
THEREIN, APPLICABLE ALSO TO THE MANUFACTURE OF HYDROCHLORIC ACID."
Her Majesty's Letters Patent, numbered respectively 964, 965, 966, and 967, of the
current year, have been granted to me for certain new processes for the manufacture
of chlorine and hydrochloric acid. The said new processes all possess this common
feature that they all involve heating certain solid bodies or mixtures of solid bodies
in either a current of air or a current of steam, or a current of air and steam, or a
current of products of combustion, or a current of products of combustion to which
steam has been added. The Invention I am about to describe relates to a method
of performing such operations and to apparatus for carrying the said method into
effect.
The objects of the said Invention are to render continuous the manufacture of
chlorine or bydrochloric acid when conducted by heating in a current of either air
or steam, or products of combustion, or of any mixture of two or more of these,
any mixture of a metallic chloride or metallic chlorides with a basic metallic oxide
or basic metallic oxides, with or without a metallic peroxide, which is capable of
yielding under such treatment either free chlorine or hydrochloric acid or both, and
at the same time to utilize the heat of the gases or vapours which at certain stages
of such operations must leave at a very high temperature the portion of the charge
over or among which they have passed.
The method by which I accomplish these objects consists in performing the
treatment by air or steam or products of combustion, or by any mixture of two or
more of these, of any mixture of a metallic chloride or metallic chlorides with a
basic metallic oxide or basic metallic oxides, with or without a metallic peroxide,
which mixture is capable under such treatment of yielding either chlorine or
hydrochloric acid or both in an apparatus consisting of a series of distinct com-
partments, so arranged and disposed that one or more of such compartments shall
be capable of being isolated at will, to permit of their being discharged and
re-charged while the other compartments are at work, and so that the gases or
vapours or mixture of gases and vapours passing from one part of the apparatus at
a high temperature shall be employed to heat up those portions of the charge
contained in other portions of the apparatus which have not yet attained that
temperature.
One form of apparatus by which I propose to carry into effect this method of
rendering at once practically continuous and economical of fuel the manufacture of
chlorine or hydrochloric acid or both by such processes as I have indicated, consists
of a series of vertical iron cylinders lined with brick or with other material not
susceptible of being attacked by chlorine or hydrochloric acid or both as the case
may be.
The number of such cylinders which it may be best to employ will vary with
circumstances, but for the purpose of the present description I will suppose it to be
eight, and I will indicate the eight cylinders by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
and H. I will suppose the eight cylinders to be arranged in two rows of four
each, A, B, C, D, in one row, and E, F, G, H, in another row, the two rows of four
cylinders each being so placed that A and H, B and G, C and F, and D and E, are
respectively opposite to each other. Between the two rows of cylinders is a
conduit for conveying to them highly heated air, or highly heated steam, or a
mixture of both air and steam, or products of combustion, or a mixture of products

page_text: of combustion with steam, as the case may be. Each cylinder is divided vertically
into two compartments by a diaphragm or partition of brickwork, which either
does not descend quite to the bottom of the cylinder, or if it does descend in places
quite to the bottom of the cylinder, has in it at the bottom either an aperture or
several apertures for the passage of the gaseous current. In the top of each
cylinder are two apertures, one over each of the two compartments into which each
cylinder is divided by the vertical partition in it. Through these apertures the
cylinders are charged with the solid compound or mixture of compounds from
which chlorine or hydrochloric acid is to be evolved, and by means of elbow-pipes,
the extremities of which can make gas-tight joints with flanges or other convenient
appliances surrounding those apertures, communication can be established between
each cylinder and the conduit before mentioned, between each cylinder and the
next cylinder, and between each cylinder and a second conduit. It will be con-
venient to speak hereafter of the first-mentioned conduit as the "air-main," and of
the other conduit as the "chlorine-main." In each of the conduits are apertures by
means of which and elbow-pipes either cylinder can be connected at will with, or
disconnected at will from, either conduit.
Let it now be supposed that the seven cylinders A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, are all
charged with small lumps, or cakes, or other fragments of a solid compound or
mixture of compounds capable of giving off chlorine on being treated by highly
heated air, and that an elbow-pipe connects the air-main with the left of the two
apertures in the top of the cylinder A, and that elbow-pipes similarly connect the
other aperture in the top of A with the left aperture in the top of B, the right
aperture in the top of B with the left aperture in the top of C, the right aperture
in the top of C with the left aperture in the top of D, D similarly with E,
E similarly with F, F similarly with G, and the further aperture in the top of G
with the chlorine-main. All the apertures in the air-main except that in communi-
cation with A. and all the apertures in the chlorine-main except that communicating
with G being closed, and highly heated air from a hot-blast stove being forced into the
air-main, highly heated air will enter A by one of the apertures at the top of that
cylinder, will pass down on one side of the partition dividing that cylinder, and
will then pass under that partition, and then up on the other side of it. A mixture
of nitrogen, air, and chlorine, with perhaps some vapour of hydrochloric acid will
now pass from the top of A by the other aperture in the top of that cylinder into
the elbow-pipe by which A communicates with B, the gaseous current then
successively traversing B, C, D, E, F, and G, just as it had traversed A, and finally
passing from G into the chlorine-main, which it will reach at a comparatively low
temperature. While the current is thus passing into A, thence into and through
B, C, D, E, F, and G, successively, and from G into the chlorine-main, workmen
will have been charging the cylinder H. When the charge contained in the
cylinder A has been sufficiently treated the entrance of hot air into the air-main will
be stopped for a moment, A will be disconnected from the air-main and from B, the
air-main will be connected with B instead of with A, G will be disconnected from
the chlorine-main and connected with H, H being now connected with the chlorine-
main, and then air from the hot-blast stove will be readmitted into the air-main.
The gaseous current will now enter B, will traverse successively B, C, D, E, F, G,
and H, and will pass from H into the chlorine-main. While this is going on A will
be dis-charged and re-charged. When the charge in B has been sufficiently treated
and A has been discharged and re-charged, B will be isolated for discharging and
re-charging, C now becoming the cylinder which the hot air enters and. Å the
cylinder from which the gaseous current passes into the chlorine-main after having
traversed successively C, D, E, F, G, H, and A. From these examples the other
successive changes in the course of the gaseous current will be understood. It will
of course be understood also that the method of working will be the same as just
described, also when products of combustion, mixed or not with steam, are used
instead of air for the purpose of obtaining vapour of hydrochloric acid instead of
free chlorine.

page_text: For the purpose of discharging the cylinders they are provided with doors in
their lower part.
Instead of the series of eylinders being arranged in two straight rows, as above
described, they may be arranged in a circle or otherwise, as may be more
convenient in each case. Instead of their being charged by the apertures by which
the gaseous current enters and leaves them they may be charged by special
apertures, and the apertures by which the gaseous current enters and leaves them
may be in the upper part of their sides instead of in the positions above indicated.
Instead of the connections of cylinder with cylinder, and of the cylinders with the
air-main and the chlorine-main being made by means of movable elbow-pipes, as
above described, they may be made by means of fixed pipes having valves or
dampers in them. The cylinders may moreover be without internal partitions, the
gaseous current in such case passing either down one cylinder and up the next or
passing from the bottom of one cylinder to the upper part of the next by a pipe or
conduit placed externally to the cylinders themselves.
Another form of apparatus on the same principle which will permit the manu-
facture of chlorine or hydrochloric acid or both to be conducted by the practically
continuous method which constitutes an essential part of the present Invention
consists of a series of horizontal furnaces, arranged and disposed and connected
together by movable or fixed passages for the gaseous current in the same manner
as I have described for a series of vertical cylinders. Such horizontal furnaces
however can best be charged through the doors by which they are discharged. In
each such furnace I prefer that there should be several vertical partitions so
disposed as to cause the gaseous current to pass under one partition and then over
the next partition, and so on alternately. Such horizontal furnaces may be so
disposed as to admit of the charges treated in them being heated otherwise than
simply by means of heat previously communicated to the hot air, or gases, or
vapours by which the charges are treated; that is to say, they may be furnaces in
the ordinary sense, having fire-places or combustion chambers in which fuel can be
burnt for the direct heating of their charges. When they are such I prefer that
they should be adapted for the burning of producer gas, and that the dispositions
should be such that any one or more of the series of furnaces may be being
heated externally while the other members of the series are not being so heated, and
moreover such that the fuel gases may be turned off from any one member of the
series and on to the next at will.
Sheet I. of the accompanying two Sheets of Drawings represents an arrange-
ment of eight vertical cylinders, as above described. Figure 1 is a plan with one
cylinder shown in section; Figure 2 is an elevation with three cylinders shown
in section; and Figure 3 is a transverse section through the cylinders B and G.
The letters have the same signification in all the Figures in which they occur.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H are the eight cylinders; a, b, are the apertures in
the tops of the cylinders for charging them and for the inlet and outlet of gases
and vapours; c, c, are doors for discharging the cylinders; d is the partition or
diaphragm in each cylinder; the openings in these diaphragms are marked e. I is
the main pipe for conveying to the cylinders hot air or hot products of combustion;
K, K, are pipes for conveying the gaseous current away from the cylinders; f. f. f,
are apertures in the main pipe I; L is a movable elbow-pipe for connecting one of
the apertures a, b, with one of the apertures f, f, f; M, M, M, M, are movable
elbow-pipes for conveying the gaseous current from cylinder to cylinder; N is a
movable elbow-pipe for conveying the gaseous current from the cylinder, which
for the time being is the last of the series to the pipes K, K; and g, g, g, are
apertures in the pipes K, K, by means of which and the elbow-pipe N commu-
nication can be established between the pipes K, K, and any one of the eight
cylinders.
The Figures in Sheet II. represent respectively, Figure 1, a plan of eight
horizontal furnaces; Figure 2, a part clevation with two furnaces in section; and
Figure 3, a transverse section through the furnaces B and G. The letters on

page_text: these Figures have the same essential signification as the same letters on the
corresponding Figures on Sheet 1, except that a, b, Sheet II. are simply inlets and
outlets for the gaseous current, and c, c, c, c, doors for both charging and
discharging.
Means of applying heat externally to these horizontal furnaces systematically
and successively, as above described, are not shown in the Drawings, but will be
readily understood.
What I claim as constituting the present Invention consists in the above
described method of rendering practically continuous and economical of fuel the
treatment by air, or steam, or by products of combustion, or by any mixture of two
or more of these, of any mixture of a metallic chloride or of two or more metallic
chlorides with a basic metallic oxide, or two or more basic metallic oxides with or
without a metallic peroxide, for the purpose of obtaining therefrom either chlorine or
hydrochloric acid or both, and the above described appliances for carrying this
method of proceeding into effect.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Weldon, have hereto set my hand
and seal, this Twentieth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty-one.
WALTER WELDON. (L.S.)