AN IMPROVE- MENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SULPHATE OF SODA
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SULPHATE OF SODA."-A communication
from L. Mesdach, of Paris.
Sealed the 21st August 1857, and dated the 28th February 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his.
Petition, on the 28th February 1857.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SULPHATE OF SODA," communicated
to me by L. Mesdach, of Paris, a foreigner residing abroad, to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in an improved method of manufacturing sulphated
soda (soude sulphateé), which may be used directly in the manufacture of
glass, or may be transformed into carbonato of soda. Instead of decomposing'
chloride of sodium by sulphuric acid, I expose this salt to a current of
sulphurous acid obtained from sulphur, iron pyrites, the roasting of sulphurous
ores of zinc, lead, copper, or otherwise. The sulphurous acid decomposes the
water in sea salt, or that which is added to it during the operation, whether in.
a state of water or steam. The hydrogen combines with the chlorine to form

page_text: hydrochloric acid, and the oxygen set free, as well as that derived from the
air, transforms the sulphurous into sulphuric acid, and the sodium into pro-
toxide of soda (oxyde sodique).
These two bodies reacting upon each other form sulphate of soda. There
are also produced sulphites and hyposulphites of soda, which are transformed,
as well as the sulphates, into carbonate of soda by the ordinary processes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Scal Patent
Office on the 28th August 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my exccutors, adminis-
trators, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SULPHATE OF SODA "
municated to me by L. Mesdach, of Paris), upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or onō 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 bo filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
(com-
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Archibald 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:―
This Invention consists in an improved method of manufacturing sulphated

page_text: soda (soude sulphateé), which may be used directly in the manufacture of
glass, or may be transformed into carbonate of soda.
Instead of decomposing chloride of sodium by sulphuric acid, I expose this
salt to a current of sulphurous acid obtained from sulphur, iron pyrites, the
roasting of sulphurous ores of zinc, lead, copper, or otherwise. The sulphurous
acid decomposes the water in sea salt, or that which is added to it during the
operation, whether in a state of water or steam. The hydrogen combines with
the chlorine to form hydrochloric acid, and the oxygen set free, as well as that
derived from the air, transforms the sulphurous into sulphuric acid, and the
sodium into protoxide of soda (oxyde sodique).
These two bodies reacting upon each other form sulphate of soda. There
are also produced sulphites and hyposulphites of soda, which are transformed,
as well as the sulphates, into carbonate of soda by the ordinary processes.
The method of manufacture is extremely simple. Expose chloride of sodium
to the action of sulphurous acid in the flues of a furnace, or on plates heated
by the waste heat from a furnace or otherwise; or sulphurous acid may be
introduced into a solution of sea salt, or it may be conducted through open
channels into chambers containing sea salt, to which water is added from time
to time. The vapours, which escape from the chamber where reaction takes
place, may be led into any other chamber, where combination commences if
the vapours still contain sulphurous acid.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same may be performed, I declare that I claim the manufacturing
of sulphate of soda in the manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of August,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.S.)