IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN SALTS OF SODIUM AND POTASSIUM
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Meldrum and James Young, both of Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, Merchants, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Meldrum and
James Young at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 4th October 1855.
We, EDWARD MELDRUM and JAMES YOUNG, both of Glasgow, in the County
of Lanark, Merchants, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN SALTS OF SODIUM AND POTASSIUM"
to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to the manufacture of those salts known as the
cyanides of sodium and potassium, and we make those salts directly by using
the metal sodium or potassium in the metallic state, and combining the metal
with nitrogen and carbon.
We obtain the metal sodium or potassium from salts of soda or potash,
and we employ them either in the solid or melted state, or in the state
of vapour. We obtain the nitrogen from horn, wool, blood, ammonia, or
other suitable matters containing nitrogen, or from the atmosphere. We
procure the carbon from organic substances, from coal, sulphuret of carbon,

page_text: or other suitable matters containing carbon, in either the solid, liquid, or
gaseous form, and we convert the resulting cyanide of sodium into prussiate
of soda by the usual process; and to make prussiate of potash or cyanide of
potassium from prussiate of soda or cyanide of sodium, we convert the prussiate
of soda or cyanide of sodium by double decomposition into prussiate of potash
or cyanide of potassium, or we convert the prussiate of soda or cyanide of
sodium only partly into prussiate of potash or cyanide of potassium, and so
obtain a salt containing both prussiate of potash and soda, or cyanide of
potassium and sodium, to be afterwards converted into prussiate. This double
salt we also obtain by combining a mixture of the metals, sodium, and
potassium with nitrogen and carbon, forming cyanides of the mixed metal,
which are afterwards converted into the salt containing both prussiate of soda
and potash.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Meldrum and James Young in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 4th April 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDWARD
MELDRUM and JAMES YOUNG, both of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
Merchants, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Edward Meldrum and James Young, Her special licence that we, the said
Edward Meldrum and James Young, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Edward Meldrum and James Young,
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 lnvention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
PACTURE OF CERTAIN SALTS OF SODIUM AND POTASSIUM," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Edward Meldrum and James Young, or
one of us, by an instrument in writing, under our hands and seals, or under
the 'hand and seal of one of us, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-

page_text: formed, 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 James Young, on behalf of myself and
the said Edward Meldrum, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention consists of manufacturing the cyanides of sodium and of
potassium by employing the metals sodium and potassium in place of employing
the oxides or salts of those metals, as heretofore practised.
In carrying out this Invention, the metals sodium and potassium are first
prepared or obtained in the manner heretofore practised, and which separately
is not claimed by us as any part of our Invention. The manufacture of the
cyanides of sodium or potassium, according to our Invention, may be varied,
but we believe that the following is the best and most practically useful:-
Into a heated iron retort is placed a quantity of sodium, supposing the
cyanide of sodium is to be manufactured, and for every fifty parts by weight
of such metal about one hundred parts of charcoal in a state of division are
introduced into the retort, and the mixture is to be kept well stirred; and
when it has arrived at a bright red heat, ammonia or nitrogen of the air is
introduced, or horn or matters capable of affording the requisite nitrogen are
slowly added, the stirring being continued; and when a quantity of such
nitrogenous materials have been introduced, as will afford at least fifty parts
by weight of nitrogen, and when no more ammonia or nitrogen is taken up
by the mixture (and this will be readily ascertained by testing the gases coming
off), the process will be complete, and the prussiate is then to be made in the
same manner as it is usually prepared from cyanide of sodium by the old
process.
If cyanide of potassium is to be manufactured, then a quantity of potassium
is to be introduced into a retort, and for every fifty parts by weight thereof, a
quantity of charcoal in the state of powder, equal to about seventy parts by
weight, are to be introduced, and the two are to be stirred till the heat arrives
at a bright red, when ammonia or nitrogen of the air is to be introduced, or
horn or matters capable of affording at least thirty parts by weight of nitrogen
are to be added slowly; and when the whole quantity has been introduced,
and when the ammonia or nitrogen ceases to be taken up by the mixture, the
process is complete, and the charge is then to be worked for the manufacture
of prussiates in the ordinary manner of making them from the cyanides of
potassium produced in the usual way.

page_text: When it is desired to form a double salt, containing both sodium and
potassium, then both the metals are introduced into the retort, and the process
is carried on as above explained. The cyanides thus manufactured are then
capable of being used and employed as cyanides prepared as heretofore have
been used in the preparation of other salts, as is well understood.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the best
manner of performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not
confine ourselves to the precise details herein described so long as metal
sodium or metal potassium is used in the manufacture of cyanides of those
metals; and we would state that the vapours of those metals are capable
of being used, but we believe not so conveniently; what we claim is, the
manufacture of cyanides of sodium or potassium by using the metals sodium
and potassium.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Young, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord Onc
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
JAMES YOUNG. (L.S.)