AN IMPROVED CHALYBEATE WATER
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BEWLEY, of the City of Dublin, Licentiate Apothecary and Chemist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-third day of June, in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry
Bewley, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Henry Bewley, my exors, admors,
and assigns, and such others as I, the said Henry Bewley, my exors, admors;
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make use, exercise, and vend, within that part of
Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
Her Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Inven-
tion of "AN IMPROVED CHALYBEATE WATER;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso that I, the said Henry Bewley, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, under my hand and seal, 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
annear

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Henry Bewley, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention
consists in the preparation of an improved chalybeate water, or organic saline
solution of iron, not readily changed by keeping or carriage, and rendered very
agreeable to the palate, and inoffensive to the stomach, by combination with
carbonic acid gas. Iron is already extensively used for medicinal purposes,
prepared either according to the directions contained in pharmaceutical works,
or according to the extemporaneous prescriptions of medical practitioners, or
as it exists in chalybeate waters. But of the artificial preparations of iron
in common use, some are liable to rapid decomposition, and are conse-
quently of varying and uncertain strength, while others are insoluble till
they meet with an acid in the stomach, and therefore act with more or less
efficacy according to the quantity of that acid. Some again, are, from their
irritant properties, liable to disorder the stomach, while most are nauseous to
the taste. The natural waters, especially characterized as chalybeates, are also
very generally subject to speedy decomposition, so that though drank with
advantage by invalids at the sources, they can seldom be transmitted as an
article of commerce to distant parts without having their efficacy impaired by
transport or keeping.
My improved preparation contains the iron in a state of complete solution,
so that there is no obstacle to its ready absorption; it exerts a mild tonic effect
on the system, and being charged with carbonic acid gas, is highly effervescent,
like many of the natural chalybeate waters. The manner in which I prepare my
improved chalybeate water is as follows:-I dissolve, in a mixture of about
ten pints of water and three ounces and a half by weight of good commercial
sulphuric acid, of the specific gravity of 1-840, or thereabouts (the said
mixture being contained in a stoneware or porcelain basin or capsule, or other
convenient vessel set in a sand bath), one pound of the crystallized sulphate of
iron, such as is sold by manufacturing chemists for medicinal purposes. I raise
the heat of the solution to the boiling point, and then add at intervals nitric
acid of ordinary commercial strength of the specific gravity of about 1.340,
stirring frequently till the solution ceases to give off vapours of an orange
colour, which is a well-known indication of the iron having attained the state
of peroxide. I then pour this peroxidized solution into about ten gallons of
water, and add to this mixture (stirring it at the same time) water of caustic
ammonia, the liquor ammonia, fort. Lond. Pharm. to precipitate the peroxide of
iron until the ammonia is in excess. I then collect the precipitate on a filter,
and wash it well by repeated affusions of water. I next dissolve about eight
ounces of crystallized citric acid (or more, as the case may be,) in about 4 time

page_text: its weight of water in a stoneware capsule or other suitable vessel set in a
sand bath, as before, and raised to a temperature of from one hundred and
sixty to one hundred and eighty degrees of Fahrenheit, and add to the solution
the peroxide of iron prepared in manner aforesaid in the moist state, and
continue to add it with agitation until it ceases to be dissolved; that is, until
the citric acid is as fully saturated with the peroxide of iron as their affinities
will readily admit of, and after that, filter the solution. I then ascertain the
exact strength of the solution of citrate of iron by evaporating a certain
quantity to dryness, and weighing the dry ferruginous salt. Having thus
ascertained the strength of the solution of citrate of iron, I mix it, for the pur-
pose of rendering my improved chalybeate water as palatable and grateful as
possible, with a weak simple syrup of sugar, or with a syrup flavored or
aromatized according to the taste, and in proportions, the one to the other
corresponding with the degree of ferruginous strength desired to be given to
the mixture. I generally add them in such proportions that each fluid ounce
of the mixture may contain thirteen grains of citrate of iron. And finally, I
pour about an ounce of this mixture (when of the above strength) into a seven
ounce bottle, and fill up with about five ounces of water charged with three or
four times its volume of carbonic acid gas (by means of a soda-water machine,
such as in common use), and when the bottle has been so filled, it must be
corked immediately very tightly, and the cork secured in any suitable manner.
I also prepare my improved chalybeate water with a modified triple com-
bination of the citric acid with the oxide of iron by adding to the above
described citrate of iron some alkali, as ammonia, potash, or soda. Instead.
of the citrate of iron other suitable organic salts of iron (as tartaræte or lactate)
combined or not combined with an alkali (as potash, soda, or ammonia), may
be employed.
Now, though I have stated the different quantities and proportions in
which the substances employed in the preparation of my improved chaly-
beate water are to be made use of, I desire that it should be understood
that I do not confine myself to the precise quantities and proportions above.
mentioned, but I believe that the quantities and proportions I have herein
given are those which will produce a chalybeate water of commerce well
adapted to general purposes. It will, also, be obvious that the strength of my
improved chalybeate water may be varied either by mixing a greater or less
quantity of the solution of citrate of iron with the simple or aromatized syrup,
or by mixing a greater or less quantity of the sacchro-ferruginous mixture
(according to its strength) with the water charged with carbonic acid
will be further understood that the chief use of the syrup, whether simple or
gas. It

page_text: aromatized, is to render my improved chalybeate water more palatable to the
taste, and that it may be omitted without affecting the medicinal value of my
improved chalybeate in other respects, or its utility as an article of commerce;
and finally, I declare that what I claim as of my Invention is the manufacture
of an improved chalybeate water of the nature aforesaid, whether such
chalybeate water be prepared by the particular method or process herein-before
described, or by any other analagous method or process.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Eighteenth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and
font
BARDSWELL, Extra.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the 1 wenty-nith day November,
in the year of our Lord 1842, the aforesaid Henry Bewley came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-two.