A NEW PROCESS FOR PRODUCING HYDROGEN
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, of the Firm of Robert-
son, Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agents, for the Invention of "A NEW PROCESS FOR
PRODUCING HYDROGEN." -A communication from abroad by Cyprien
Marie Tessié du Motay and Charles Raphael Marechal, fils, both of
Metz, France.
"
Sealed the 25th February 1868, and dated the 9th September 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Clinton Edgcumbe
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
I on the 9th September 1867.
.
I, CLINTON EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman,, and
Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW PROCESS FOR
PRODUCING HYDROGEN," to be as follows:-
It is known that carbon, pure or combined with carbonated hydrogen, is
decomposed by steam at an orange red heat, and that there is produced

page_text: hydrogen and carbonic acid mixed more or less with oxide of carbon. It is
also known that the hydrogen produced by the decomposition of carbon by
means of steam has not hitherto been produced economically, 1st, because
the steam in order to be generated absorbs a large quantity of lateut caloric;
2nd, because this steam produced at 212° Fahrenheit requires a great deal of
free beat to raise it to the temperature of decomposition, whether this heat be
derived from special superheating apparatus, or be furnished by the incan-
descent fuel which it decomposes; 3rd, because the retorts containing the
carbon which serves to decompose, raised to a bright red and exposed to the
direct contact of the steam, deteriorate rapidly.
Now this Invention consists in a more economical and rational method or
process of producing hydrogen by the decomposition of water by means of
carbon.
The process or method is as follows:-Alkaline and alkalino-terrous
hydrates, such as hydrates of potash, soda, strontia, baryta, lime, and others
mixed with charcoal, coke, anthracite, coal, peat, and the like, and heated
with these combustible matters to a red heat are decomposed by them into
carbonic acid and hydrogen without any other loss of heat than that due to
the production of the carbonic acid and hydrogen. In this operation *the
hydrogen gas is generated without special production of steam; it is in a
manner engendered without a boiler, and. without any other generating
apparatus than the retorts themselves; besides these retorts being thus
never exposed to the direct action of the steam do not undergo any interior
alteration, whence it follows that the hydrogen gas produced by the
decomposition by means of carbon of the bydrates before named is generated
at a small cost, and quite as practicably as are at the present time the
carbonated hydrogens arising from the distillation of coal or other hydro-
carbonated organic matters.
This Invention therefore consists in the employment of the alkaline and
alkalino-terrous bydrates before named mixed in a chemically defined pro-
portion, or without a determined proportion with the various mineral or
vegetable combustible matters, in order to produce at a red heat in contact
with these matters hydrogen suitable for lighting and heating, and this in
such apparatus of distillation and calefaction as it may be found convenient
to employ, such as retorts, crucibles, and the like.
.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 9th March 1868.
1.
;
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL, COME, I, CLINTON
EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of
166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, send: greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight, hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give, and grant unto me, the
said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said Clinton
Edgcumbe Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, my 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 Inven-
tion for "A NEW PROCESS FOR PRODUCING HYDROGEN," (a communication from
abroad by Cyprien Marie Tessié du Motay and Charles Raphael Marechal,
fils, both of Metz, France,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Clinton Edgcumbe. Brooman, my executors or administrators, by,
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, 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 Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, 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 :-
It is known that carbon, pure or combined with carbonated hydrogen, is,
decomposed at an orange red heat by steam, and that there is produced
hydrogen and carbonic acid mixed more or less with oxide of carbon. It is
also known that the hydrogen produced by the decomposition of steam by,
means of carbon has not hitherto been produced economically, first, because
the steam in order to be generated absorbs a large quantity of latent caloric;
second, because the steam produced at 212° Fahrenheit requires a great deal,

page_text: of free heat to raise it to the temperature of decomposition, whether this heat
be derived from special superheating apparatus, or be furnished by the
incandescent fuel which it decomposes; third, because the retorts containing
the carbon which serves to decompose raised to a bright red and exposed to
the direct contact of the steam deteriorate rapidly.
Now this Invention consists in a more economical and rational method or
process of producing hydrogen by the decomposition of water by means of
carbon.
The process or method is as follows:-Alkaline and alkalino-terrous
bydrates, such as bydrates of potash, soda, strontia, baryta, lime, and
others mixed with charcoal, coke, anthracite, coal, peat, and the like, and
heated with these combustible matters to a red heat are decomposed by them
into carbonic acid and hydrogen without any other loss of heat than that due
to the production of the carbonic acid and hydrogen: In this operation the
hydrogen gas is generated without special production of steam; it is in a
manner engendered without a boiler, and without any other generating
apparatus than the retorts themselves; besides these retorts being thus
never exposed to the direct action of the steam do not undergo any interior
alteration, whence it follows that the hydrogen gas produced by the de
composition by means of carbon of the hydrates before named is generated
at a small cost, and quite as practicably as are at the present time the
carbonated bydrogens arising from the distillation of coal or other hydro-
carbonated organic matters. The hydrates of potash, soda, and others, and
especially the bydrates of lime employed for the purpose of being decomposed
by carbon into bydrogen and carbonic acid, may be used indefinitely for this
decomposition upon the condition of being each time damped by water, so as
to reform the decomposed hydrates.
Upon the principal reaction before pointed out depends the following reaction,
which will furnish a fresh quantity of pure bydrogen. The proto-carbonated
and bi-carbonated hydrogen gases as well as the bydrocarburets, arising from
the distillation of the mineral and vegetable combustible matters in passing at
a clear cherry red over hydrate of lime or over alkaline or alkalino-terrous
bydrates generally become divided into carbon and hydrogen; the carbon
separated unites with the oxygen of the hydrates before named and forms
carbonic acid, while the hydrogen of the water thus decomposed unites with
the hydrogen set free from the proto-carbonated and bi-carbonated gases or
bydrocarburets. Among the other accessory products which can be utilized
in this process I may specially mention the-earbonic acid, the anhydrous lime,

page_text: and anbydrous baryta, the formation of which accompanies the production of
the hydrogen.
It will be understood from the foregoing description that this Invention consists
in and I claim the employment of the alkaline and alkalino-terrous bydrates
before named, mixed in a chemically defined proportion, or without a de-
termined proportion, with the various mineral or vegetable combustible matters
in order to produce at a red heat in contact with these matters hydrogen
suitable for lighting and heating, and this in such apparatus of distillation and
calefaction as it may be found convenient to employ, such as retorts, crucibles,
and the like.
In witness whereof, I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
C. E. BROOMAN. (L.S.)