CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF AMMONIA
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, 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 Ninth day of November, in the fifth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William
Edward Newton, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors,
administrators, 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, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PRODUCTION OF AMMONIA," being a communication from a Foreigner residing
abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the
said William Edward Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in Her 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Wiliam Edward Newton, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say):
These Improvements consist in the application of a particular apparatus
hitherto used in this country for distilling alcohol, or some modification of
such apparatus, to the production of ammonia, either pure or more or less
impure, according to the purpose for which it is required, from any liquid, from
which, by the agency of steam, it may be eliminated either alone or in conjunc-
tion with vapour, carbonic acid, or other volatile matters, the presence of which
do not prevent the application of ammonia to one or more useful purposes.
The apparatus intended to be employed is an upright vessel divided by lori-
zontal diaphragms or partitions into a number of chambers; it may be made
of any suitable materials; but I prefer to have the vessel itself of wood, lined
with lead, and the diaphragms of sheet iron. Each diaphragm is perforated
with many small holes, so regulated, both with regard to number and size, as
to afford, under some pressure, passage for the clastic matters which ascend
during the use of the apparatus, to make their exit by a pipe opening from the
upper chamber. Fitted to each diaphragm are several small valves so weighted
as to rise whenever elastic matters accumulate under them in such quantity as
to exert more than a desirable amount of pressure on the diaphragms. A pipe
also is attached to each diaphragm passing from about an inch above its upper
surface to near the bottom of a cup or small reservoir fixed to the upper
surface of the diaphragm next underneath. This pipe is sufficiently large to
transmit free y downwards the whole of the liquid which enters for distillation
at the upper part of the upright vessel, and the cup or reservoir into which the
pipe dips forms, when full of liquid, a trap by which the upward passage of
elastic matters by the pipe is prevented. The vessel may rest on a close cistern,
contrived to receive the descending liquid as it leaves the lowermost chamber,
and from this cistern it may be run off by a valve or cock whenever expedient.
The cistern, or, in its absence, the lowermost chamber, contains the orifice of a
pipe which supplies steam for working the apparatus. The exact number of
chambers into which the upright vessel is divided is not of essential import
ance; but the quantity of liquid and the surfaces of each diaphragm being
given, tho distillation within certain limits will be more comp'ete, as the
chambers are more numerous; and the quantity of liquid and the number of
chambers being given, the process within certain limits will be more perfect as

page_text: cach diaphragm is of larger dimensions. The liquid undergoing distillation
in the apparatus necessarily covers the upper surface of each diaphragm to the
depth of about an inch, being prevented from passing downward through the
small perforations by the upward pressure of the rising steam and other elastic
matters; and on the other hand, the steam, being prevented by the traps from
passing upwards by the pipes, is forced to ascend by the perforations in the
diaphragms, so that the liquid lying on them becomes heated, and in conse-
quence gives off its volatile matters.
The management of the apparatus varies in some measure with the form in which
it is desirab'e to obtain ammonia. When the ammonia is required to leave the
upper chamber in the form of gas, either pure or impure, it is necessary that the
steam which ascends, and the current of ammoniacal liquid which descends,
be in such relative proportions that the latter remain at or near the atmospheric
temperature during its passage through some of the upper chambers, becoming
progressively hotter as it descends, until it reaches the boiling temperature, in
which state it passes through the lower chambers either to make its escape, or
to enter a cistern provided to receive it, and in which it may for some time be
maintained at a boiling heat; on the contrary, if the ammonia, either pure or
impure, be required to leave the upper chamber in combination. with the
vapour of water, the supply of steam entering below must bear such proportion
to that of the ammoniacal liquid supplied above, that the latter may arrive at
a boiling temperature in the upper part of the apparatus. Solutions of animo.
niacal salts, which have had their respective acids abstracted by any of the
usual means, afford by being thus treated ammonia gas, either alone or in
combination with vapour of considerable purity; but the apparatus is equally
serviceable for obtaining similar results, more or less impure, from the water
obtained by the distillation of coals or of bones, or other animal matters, as well
as from stale urine. Acids and certain other matters contained in these impure
liquids may first be partly removed by line and other well-known means, and
some of them will be further removed during the passage of the ammonia
through the apparatus; or the liquids may be submitted in their naturally
impure state to the steam in the apparatus, care being taken to use them so
dilute that the vapour which escapes with them shall be sufficient in quantity
to prevent the solidification of the ammonia by the carbonic acid which rises
with it, and the consequent obstruction of the passages.
In order that the Invention and the foregoing description may be more per-
fectly understood, I have attached to these Presents a Drawing representing a
sectional view of an apparatus that has been found to answer the purposes required.
It will be merely necessary to indicato by letters of reference the various parts
referred to in the above description. The apparatus consists, as before mentioned,

page_text: of the upright vessel a, a, a, a, made of wood and lined with lead; this vessel is
placed on the top of a close cistern b, b, b, b, and is subdivided into small
chambers c, c, c, c, c, c, by the horizontal partitions or diaphgrams d, d, d, d, d, d;
these diaphragms are perforated with small holes, are also furnished with the
short pipes e, e, e, e, e, e, the lower ends of which are inserted into cups or traps
ffffff, for the purposes before mentioned; the diaphragms are also fur-
nished with valves 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, for the purpose of allowing the elastic matters
to pass upwards when too great a pressure is exerted by them in the chambers.
The ammoniacal liquor is admitted into the apparatus by the pipe h, and
descending from one chamber to another, eventually falls into the close cistern
b, b, from whence it is drawn off by the cock i. Steam is conveyed into the
apparatus by the pipe j, j, and ascends from the close cistern 6 towards the top
of the apparatus with the elastic matters which it eliminates from the ammoniacal
liquor, and ultimately escapes with them, if not previously condensed, through
the exit pipe k, k. The apparatus may be varied in its parts, and yet remain
more or less efficient. For example, instead of being furnished with perfo-
rations, valves, and pipes, the diaphragms may have plain surfaces, and each be
bent upwards at one of its sides so as not entirely to separate the contiguous
chambers. The diaphragms should be bent upwards at opposite sides alter-
nately, thereby permitting the descending liquid to fall or cascade from the
right-hand side of one diaphragm on to the next below, and then from the left-
hand side of that one on to the next in succession, and so on until the whole of
the diaphragms are occupied with liquid to depths corresponding to the height of
their bent-up edges. With such a modification of apparatus, the liquid will be
heated by the contact of the ascending steam sweeping over its extensive
surface, and also by the steam acting on the under sides of the diaphragms on
which the liquid rests.
I do not confine myself to the apparatus above described, nor to any modi-
fication of it; nor do I claim the application of this apparatus to the pro-
duction of alcohol. But I claim as new the application to the production of
ammonia pure or in combination with vapour, or with vapour and other volatile
matters, as already described, of any apparatus whose construction and use are
such as to cause by means of diaphragms a liquid containing ammonia in a volatile
state, and steam, to pass in mutual contact and in opposite directions, whereby
a given quantity of heat is made to liberate ammonia from successive portions of
ammoniacal liquid.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-two.
W. E. (L.s.) NEWTON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Seventh day of May, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Edward Newton came
before our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Ninth day of May, in the year above written.