CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING CARBONATED HYDROGEN GAS, AND IN APPLYING THE PRODUCTS RESULTING THEREFROM TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FLORENTIN
JOSEPH DE CAVAILLON, of No. 8, Rue de la Paix, Paris, in the Kingdom of
France, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the First day of August, in the thirteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Florentin Joseph De Cavaillon, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Florentin Joseph De Cavaillon, my exors,
adiiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Florentin Joseph De
Cavaillon, my exors, admors, 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
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING CARBONATED HYDROGEN GAS, AND IN APPLYING THE PRODUCTS
RESULTING THEREFROM TO VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Florentin Joseph De
Cavaillon, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her

page_text: 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
Florentin Joseph De Cavaillon, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particu-
larly described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof
(that is to say):-
The substance which is generally employed for the manufacture of car-
buretted hydrogen gas is pit coal, but in place of this substance other materials
may be also employed. The following materials may be used either as a sub-
stitute for or in combination with pit coal (namely), bones, kitchen stuff,
graves, the residuum of suet, tallow, or other animal waste, the residuum of
seeds or other oleaginous matters, spent bark, sawdust, and also sawdust or
pulverized or reduced wood that has been used for the purification of oils, also
peat or turf, either pulverized or in small pieces.
For the purpose of making gas any of these materials may be taken
separately; or all of them may be mixed together in greater or less propor-
tions (that is to say), without being mixed in any definite proportion (except
that fifty per cent. of the compound should consist of coal, and the remainder
of the other substances, either by equal or unequal proportions, or of some of
them only if the others cannot be conveniently procured). These materials
must be first consolidated or caused to adhere together, either by means of
some gummy or resinous matter or by some empyreumatic oil, or the molasses
of sugar.
These matters, after being properly mixed together, are introduced
by means of a shovel into retorts such are usually employed in gas works;
the materials are then submitted to a high temperature for some hours, for
the purpose of being distilled, in the same manner as pit coal is operated upon
in ordinary gas works. This having been done, the following products are
obtained (namely) :-
First, a very fine carburetted hydrogen gas of high illuminating power.
Second, animal charcoal. Third, animal and vegetable charcoal in powder.
This product may be employed for various purposes, such as for the prepara-
tion of manure. Fourth, empyreumatic oil mixed with tar. Fifth, very rich
ammoniacal water.
The materials employed for the preparation of a powder for purifying the
gas, and the manner of using the same, are as follows:-Sulphate of lime is
the principal ingredient, as it forms the base of the mixture, one half of which

page_text: consists of the substance which is commonly known as plaster when calcined.
I prefer to use old plaster which has once been used for building or other
purposes. And I would here observe, that as scientific men have always con-
sidered that sulphate of lime artificially made is the same substance as the
sulphates of lime found in nature, I therefore intend to include in the pre-
paration of my purifying powder any artificial or natural sulphates, without
reference to their origin, or from whatever process they may have been
obtained. I particularly prefer those sulphates which are derived from the
manufacture of composition or stearine candles, and also those sulphates
obtained from the processes of purifying oils or other substances which in
their preparation or manufacture give as one of their products artificial sul-
phates of lime. In combination with the sulphate of lime, either natural or
artificial, I employ, second, coke finely pulverized, and sifted river or other sand
not too fine; third, pulverized vegetable charcoal; fourth, pulverized animal
charcoal; fifth, sawdust; sixth, pulverized peat or turf; seventh, spent bark
(tannin) reduced to powder; eighth, sulphate of lead mixed with oxide of
lead. As the situation of the works and other circumstances may render it
difficult to obtain a regular supply of all the materials above mentioned, I do
not think it advisable to state any precise quantities or proportions in which the
said matters may be mixed for the preparation or composition of the purifying
powder, as it may sometimes be found convenient to increase the proportions
of some or diminish the quantity of others, or in some cases to omit some of
the ingredients altogether. All the materials to be employed in the prepa-
ration of the purifying powder must be pulverized, and when they are all
properly mixed together they must be wetted with dilute sulphuric acid or
acidulated water weighing from six to seven degrees of Beaumé's acid
weighing apparatus. This wetting operation should be conducted in a similar
manner to that adopted for adding common water to the lime which is
usually employed for purifying gas from sulphuretted hydrogen. I would
here remark, that if the sulphate of lime which is to be employed in the
purifying powder is artificial and obtained from some manufacture or process,
then it will not be necessary to add any sulphuric acid, but it will be always
necessary to wet the mass, but this may be done with common water. The
purifying powder thus prepared must be placed upon the sieves or perforated
shelves of the purifiers; and if the perforated shelves of the purifier are made
of metal then it will be advisable to cover them with moss, hay, straw,
or some other suitable material before placing the purifying materials
thereon, in order that the holes in the shelves may not be stopped
up by the purifying materials, but if the shelves are made of wicker

page_text: work, this precaution will be unnecessary. This purifying powder "may be
employed in greater or less quantities, as may be desired.
In the gas
works in France in which my process has been adopted, it has been used
in the proportion of two-thirds for one-third of lime, (that is to say) two-thirds
of the lime are dispensed with, and in place thereof the purifying powder
is employed. A certain quantity of lime is however made use of in the
purifiers, for the purpose of neutralizing the sulphuretted hydrogen; this
lime should be slacked and wetted, and will take up all the sulphuretted
bydrogen that exists in the gas, and the purifying powder will take up the
ammonia, and will also partially neutralize the sulphuretted hydrogen,
and give to the gas a brilliancy and illuminating power superior to that obtained
by the processes now in use. It is scarcely necessary to say, that when the
purifying powder is entirely saturated with ammonia, which will be easily
ascertained by exposing to the current of gas some termeric test paper, which
will be blackened by the ammonia if the purifying properties of the powder
be exhausted, then the purifying powder on the perforated shelves must be
renewed. The same may be said of the line which will take up the sul-
phuretted hydrogen. It is easy to ascertain when the lime is saturated with
this gas and should be removed and the purifier supplied with fresh lime in
its place, by testing the gas by means of paper saturated with acetate of lead,
which will become black upon exposure to the gas if any sulphuretted
hydrogen is present. From what has been said, it will be understood that the
substances which I employ are of three sorts, (viz.) those which are naturally
purifiers, those which have been made purifiers, and those which are inert.
The substances which are purifiers naturally are sulphate of lime, pulverized
vegetable carbon or charcoal, animal charcoal, the sulphate and the oxide of
lead. The substance which is artificially made a purifier is sawdust, which,
although in its natural state inert, becomes a purifier by damping it with from
seven to eight per cent. of sulphuric acid. The inert substances are sawdust
without sulphuric acid, pulverized peat, pulverized spent bark or tannin, sand,
and pounded coke. The purifying powder should be compounded in such a
manner that about seventy per cent. in volume of the mixture should consist of
sulphate of lime. Of the remaining thirty per cent. about one third should
be composed either of the above-mentioned purifying ingredients, and the rest
of the inert matters, such as coke, sawdust, &c. or the whole thirty per cent.
may be composed of the above-mentioned inert substances. It should be
remarked, that the purifying powder should always be placed upon the per-
forated shelves, trays, or sieves of the purifier in such a manner that the
current of gas to be purified may pass through it before arriving at the lime.

page_text: Therefore, if the current of gas is made to ascend, the purifying powder must
be placed first upon the perforated shelves of the purifier, and then covered with
the lime; if the current of gas is made to descend, the lime must be placed
first upon the shelves and covered with the purifying powder.
In witness whereof, I, the said Florentin Joseph De Cavaillon, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty.
FLORENTIN JOSEPH
(L.S.) DE CAVAILLON.
FLORENTIN JOSEPH
aken and acknowledged by Florentin
Joseph De Cavaillon (party hereto),
at Paris, in the Republic of France,
the Twenty-sixth day of January,
One thousand eight hundred and
fifty, before me,
(L.S.) DE CAVAILLON.