IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATMENT OF SALT OR CRUDE CHLORIDE OP SODIUM PREPARATORY TO CHEMICAL PROCESSES. AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN SUCH TREATMENT." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Milburn and Henry Jackson, both of
THE
the Hatcham Iron Works, Pomeroy Street, New Cross Road, in the
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TREATMENT OF SALT OR CRUDE CHLORIDE OP SODIUM PREPARATORY TO
CHEMICAL PROCESSES. AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN SUCH TREATMENT."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Milburn and
Henry Jackson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 26th May 1875.
J
We, ROBERT MILBURN and HENRY JACKSON, both of the Hatcham
Iron Works, Pomeroy Street, New Cross Road, in the County of Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE TREATMENT OF SALT OR CRUDE CHLORIDE OF SODIUM PREPARATORY TO
CHEMICAL PROCESSES, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN SUCH TREATMENT," to be
as follows:-

page_text: sulphate of sodium. In such processes it is of importance that the
crystals of salts shall be agglomerated into small masses, so that when
a vessel is filled with such masses the body of salt is permeable to gas.
Hitherto in order to form such masses a layer of damp salt has been
dried and the cohering mass has been broken up into pieces of a suitable |
size, the pieces and particles too small in size having to be again
treated.
According to our Invention the salt in a moist condition is fed into a
moulding machine, as for example, into a brick-making machine, or a
modification of such machine, it being preferred that the salt shall be 1
delivered from such machine in the form of balls, more or less spherical
in form. The said balls are then fed into a drying machine, the bod of
which consists of a series of flaps or trays, which are caused to traverse
through a heated drying stove by means of an endless chain or of endless
chains mounted on pulleys or chain wheels, which are actuated by 1
suitable means. We prefer to make the said flaps or trays of cast iron,
and to form them with grooves or recesses which tend to retain the said
balls in position during their progress through the stove, and which
onable the feeding of the apparatus to be more easily and quickly
accomplished. The said flaps or trays are hinged to the travelling chain 2
or chains so that when travelling towards the delivery end of the stove
they form a continuous or nearly continuous floor to sustain the said
balls, but when returning towards the feeding end they hang in a
vertical or nearly vertical position so as to permit the heat from the
furnace or furnaces to have free access to the plates forming the 2
floor.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Milburn and Henry Jackson in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th November 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT 30
MILBURN and HENRY JACKSON, both of the Hatcham Iron Works,
Pomeroy Street, Now Cross Road, in the County of Surroy, send
orceting
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Milburn and Henry Jackson in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th November 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ROBERT 30
MILBURN and HENRY JACKSON, both of the Hatcham Iron Works,
Pomeroy Street, Now Cross Road, in the County of Surrey, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of May, in the year 35

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
fortieth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Robert Milburn and Henry
Jackson, Her special licence that we, the said Robert Milburn and
3 Henry Jackson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Robert Milburn and Henry Jackson, 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE TREATMENT OF SALT OR CRUDE CHLORIDE OF SODIUM PREPARATORY TO
CHEMICAL PROCESSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Robert Milburn and Henry Jackson, our executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under our, 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 per-
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 Henry Jackson, for myself and
on behalf of the said Robert Milburn, 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 (and accompanying Drawings), that is to say :-
Our Invention relates principally to the treatment of salt preparatory
to processes whereby the said salt is converted into salt cake or crude
sulphate of sodium. In such processes it is of importance that the
crystals of salt shall be agglomerated into small masses, so that when
a vessel is filled with such masses the body of salt is permeable to gas.
Hitherto in order to form such masses a layer of damp salt has been
dried and the cohering mass has been broken up into pieces of a suitable
size, the pieces and particles too small in size having to be again
heated.
According to our Invention the salt in a moist condition is put into a
moulding machine, as for example, into a brick-making machine, or a
modification of such machine, it being preferred that the salt shall be
delivorod from such machine in the form of balls, more or less spherical

page_text: -
in form. The said balls are then fed into a drying machine, the bed of
which consists of a series of flaps or trays, which are caused to traverse
through a heated drying stove by means of an endless chain or of
endless chains mounted on pulleys or chain wheels, which are actuated
by suitable means. We prefer to make the said flaps or trays of cast
iron, and to form them with grooves or recesses, which tend to retain
the said balls in position during their progress through the stove, and
which make the feeding of the apparatus to be more easily and quickly
accomplished. The said flaps or trays are hinged to the travelling
chain or chains, so that when travelling towards the delivery end of the
stove they form a continuous or nearly continuous floor to sustain tho
said balls, but when returning towards the feeding end they hang
in a vertical or nearly vertical position so as to permit the heat from
the furnace or furnaces to have free access to the plates forming the
floor.
And in order that our said Invention may be fully understood wo have
appended hereunto a Sheet of Drawings made to a scale of about threc-
quarters of inch to a foot, and marked with letters of reference,
corresponding marks indicating the same parts in the various Figuros.
Referring to the said Drawings Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal
elevation partly in section of our improved apparatus and arrangement.
Fig. 2 is a plan of the feeding end of the apparatus; Fig. 3 is a plan
of the delivery end of the same; and Fig. 4 represents a vertical section
on the line A in Fig. 1.
In the said Figs. B is a moulding machine; O is the drying stove;
and D is the travelling floor. The said moulding machine is formed
with moulds and fitted with plungers for compressing the salt into the
moulds and for ejecting the formed balls therefrom, the said moulds and
plungers being in the example formed to compress the salt into the
shape resembling two semispheres united by a short cylindrical zone,
this being the form of ball we prefer as having been found to be
suitable. We do not however confine ourselves to this shape of the
masses of salt.
As the compressing machine does not constitute any part of our
claim we have not thought it necessary to do more than indicate it in
the Drawings.

page_text: The balls of salt delivered from the moulds are received upon a
travelling apron a, which is mounted upon end rollers, and is kept tight
by means of a weighted roller b. Guides c, c, are arranged above the
apron and act to diverge the balls. In the example the machine B is
supposed to have ten moulds in each row and to deliver ten balls upon
the apron at each delivery. The said balls are carried by the
apron and are delivered on to the floor D. Two shafts d and e are
fitted to revolve in plummer blocks f, g, and upon the said shafts are
fixed octagonal chain wheels, upon which are mounted two strong
endless pitch chains h, h. The plummer blocks g are fitted to be slid
by means of screws i, i, when the chains require tightening. Flaps or
trays j, j, extend from one chain to the other, and are hinged by one
edge or side to the chains. In the example each flap is supposed to be
made of cast iron, and to be formed or provided at the ends with
trunnions, which enter holes formed in the links of the chains, but this
arrangement may be varied, as for example, rods may extend from one
chain to the other and the flaps be hinged to the rods. Each flap is
corrugated or formed with channels, but if considered to be more suitable
detached recesses, each suitable to hold one ball, may be substituted for
the channels. In the example each flap is formed with three channels,
each of which can contain about twenty balls. On the shaft d is fixed
a worm wheel k, with which gears a worm on the shaft l,.which is con,
nected by the bevil gearing m with the driving shaft n, which is
provided with a strap pulley o, or with fast and loose pulleys, as may be
preferred. The shaft n being actuated by suitable means a travelling
motion in the direction indicated by the arrow is imparted to the floor D.
As the hanging flaps are raised from the lower to the higher level the
free end of each flap is supported by the hinged end of the next flap,
thereby forming the said floor. The said floor is covered and enclosed
by means of side walls, and of the covering plates and girders p, and
the interior of the stove so formed is heated by means of a furnace E.
The products of combustion issue from the said furnace into the space
below the floor D, the hanging flaps ƒ permitting the heated gases to
pass between them to the under side of the said floor. The heated
gases find an exit from the space below the said floor through side
flues into the upper space above the said floor, through which space
the said gases flow to a flue 8, or to flues formed on each side of the
floor, in situations corresponding to the flue s, such flue or flues
g