AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING A BRITISH BARILLA AND POTASH, AND OF OBTAINING A GREATER QUANTITY OF ALKALI THAN HITHERTO DISCOVERED, BY SATURATING WITH QUICKLIME THE ASHES MADE FROM BLEACHERS' WASTE LIE, ROCK SALT, SODA, NATRON, COMMON SALT, BLACK ASHES OF THE SOAP BOILERS LIE, KELP OR TOBACCO ASHES, SAL ENIXUM, CAPUT MORTUUMS OF THE VITRIOLIC AND MURIATIC ACIDS; AND ALSO FOR SEPARATING THE VITRIOLIC AND MURIATIC ACIDS, AS THEY EXIST IN COMMON SALT, SEA WATER, BLEACHERS' WASTE LIE, AND THE OR SALT OF SOAP BOILERS' WASTE LIE, THESE, OR ANY OR ALL OF THEM TOGETHER, OR ANY OTHER SUBSTANCE THAT IN WHOLE OR IN PART CONTAINS A VEGETABLE, MINERAL, OR FOSSIL A
Year: 1801

page_text: THE following is the Specification of a Patent, dated the Second day of
June 1801, for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING A BRITISH BARILLA AND
POTASH, AND OF OBTAINING A GREATER QUANTITY OF ALKALI THAN HITHERTO
DISCOVERED, BY SATURATING WITH QUICKLIME THE ASHES MADE FROM BLEACHERS'
WASTE LIE, ROCK SALT, SODA, NATRON, COMMON SALT, BLACK ASHES OF THE SOAP
BOILERS LIE, KELP OR TOBACCO ASHES, SAL ENIXUM, CAPUT MORTUUMS OF THE
VITRIOLIC AND MURIATIC ACIDS; AND ALSO FOR SEPARATING THE VITRIOLIC AND
MURIATIC ACIDS, AS THEY EXIST IN COMMON SALT, SEA WATER, BLEACHERS' WASTE
LIE, AND THE LIE OR SALT OF SOAP BOILERS' WASTE LIE, THESE, OR ANY OR
ALL OF THEM TOGETHER, OR ANY OTHER SUBSTANCE THAT IN WHOLE OR IN PART
CONTAINS A VEGETABLE, MINERAL, OR FOSSIL ALKALI."
To obtain the alkali contained in ashes made from the bleachers' waste lie,
rock salt, common salt, soda, natron, black ashes of the soap boilers' waste lie,
kelp or tobacco ashes, I take of rock salt, common salt, black ashes from the
soap boilers' waste lie, kelp or tobacco ashes, or of any or all of them, twenty
hundredweight, or of ashes made from bleachers' waste lie, soda, or natron, or
any or all of them, ten hundredweight, and grind, pound, or roll them
sufficiently fine as to pass through a fine sieve; to which I add sixteen
hundredweight of cokes or cinders, charcoal, small coal, dyers' waste wood,
sawyers' dust, or any other combustible destitute of sulphur, being first ground

page_text: and sifted. These I mix till they appear of one sameness, and then spread on
an even floor a thin layer of them, to which I add a layer of quicklime, on
which I sprinkle as much common water, lie, brine, or sea water, as the mass
will absorbe. This done, I continue the layers until sixteen hundredweight of
lime is added. I let them here saturate, and, whilst warm, I cut down the
layers, and add a sufficient quantity of common water, lie, brine, or sea water
as, when ground, beat, or trodden with the feet, or any other mode, it assumes
the appearance of mortar; which, when done and perfectly dryed, either upon
iron plates or pans, or any other more convenient way, introduce it into the
reverberating furnace, and bring the same into a flux at a moderate tem-
perature, which, in two, three, or four hours or more (according to quantity),
being repeatedly stirred, and the same temperature kept up, will produce what
I call my British barilla.
To obtain the alkali contained in sal enixum and caput mortuums of
vitriolic and muriatic acids, I take, if of sal enixum or residuum of muriatic
acid, twenty hundredweight, and if of vitriolic acid, thirty-five hundredweight,
to cach of which quantities separately, or a due proportion of them jointly, I
add of natron ten hundredweight, of black ashes of the soapboilers' waste
lie fifteen hundredweight, of kelp twenty hundredweight, salts obtained from
the soap boilers' waste lic twenty hundredweight, or any other neutral salt or
alkali in proportion to its quality; to which I add thirty-two hundredweight of
cokes or cinders, charcoal, or small coal, sawyers' dust, or dyers' waste wood,
or any other combustible substance destitute of sulphur. The above, ground,
sifted, and well mixed, to be spread on an even floor, as before, until thirty-
two hundredweight of quicklime be added, and then proceed as before, which
will also produce my British barilla.
To obtain the separation of the vitriolic and muriatic acids, as they exist in
common salt, brine, or sea water, the bleachers' waste lie, and the soap-
boilers' waste lie, or the salts obtained therefrom, I take of salts obtained from
the soapboilers' waste lie twenty hundredweight, or of common salt twenty
hundredweight, and ten hundredweight of tobacco ashes ; these, either
separately or jointly, in the above proportions, to which, if salts obtained
from soapboilers' waste lie is used, add sixteen hundredweight, and if common
salt and tobacco ashes, twenty-eight hundredweight (or a due proportion,
according to the salts used) of cokes or cinders, charcoal, &c., as before; to be
ground, sifted, and mixed as before. These spread in layers, and sprinkled
with lie, brine, or sea water until, if soapboilers' salts are. used, sixteen
hundredweight of quicklime is used, and if common salt and tobacco ashes,
then twenty-eight hundredweight of quicklime is used, or in that proportion,

page_text: and then to undergo the afore-mentioned processes for making the British
barilla.
If to make potashes, I ail to every twenty hundredweight of the whole
mass twenty hundredweight of black ashes, salts obtained from soapboilers*
waste lie, or any other neutral salt or alkali in due proportion, which I treat
in the manner before mentioned with the aforesaid mass; or I introduce it in
like proportion at the time of charging the reverberating furnace; but I prefer
the former. In two, three, or four hours from the introduction (according to
the quantity) it will become a liquid mass, which I then tap, & call my British
potash.
Notwithstanding the proportions above described, the writer is aware that
great diversity of opinion upon the proportions of each ingredient will be found
amongst the consumers, first, on account of the alkaline basis, and, secondly,
with regard to the causticity desired. But the writer is of opinion that the
proportions he has laid down are preferable to any other; notwithstanding
which, he desires it may be understood that every process to obtain alkali from
any of the before-mentioned ingredients, by saturating with quicklime in any
proportion, and treading or grinding as before described, will be an infringe-
ment of this Patent.
Given under my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and one.