IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING AMMONIACAL PREPARATIONS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Laming, of Priory Road, Kilburn, West
Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
Sealed the 28th March 1865, and dated the 4th October 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Laming at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
.. October 1864.
I, RICHARD LAMING, of Priory Road, Kilburn, West Hampstead, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING AMMONIACAL PREPARATIONS," to be as follows:
This Invention relates, firstly, to desulphurating impure solutions of ammonia
by agitating them simply with access of air mixed with oxide of iron.
Secondly, to deodorizing impure solutions of ammonia in preference when
heated by charcoal made from sawdust, spent bark, spent dye woods, or other
carbonaceous matters, with or without the previous removal of sulphuretted
hydrogen from such solutions by agitating them in contact with air and oxide
of iron, or other means.
Thirdly, to the making of solution of caustic ammonia by removing from
impure solutions of ammonia, free from sulphuretted hydrogen, and further

page_text: deodorized by charcoal, their carbonic or other acid by a suitable reagent,
such as lime; and if the solution of caustic ammonia be required still more
pure, by subsequent distillation, with, if necessary, washing by a bath of soda or
other suitable purification.
Fourthly, to the making of carbonate of ammonia by distilling ammonia
alone or in combination with carbonic acid from impure solutions of ammonia,
free from sulphuretted hydrogen, and further deodorized by charcoal into a
condenser or chamber, or into an atmosphere or solution of carbonic acid gas,
with, if necessary, washing by a heated bath of carbonated soda or other
suitable purification.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Laming in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
3rd. April 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
LAMING, of Priory Road, Kilburn, West Hampstead, in. the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Laming, Her special licence that I, the said Richard Laming,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard
Laming, my 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 MAKING
AMMONIACAL PREPARATIONS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Richard Laming, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, 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 performed, 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 Richard Laming, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention; and-in-what-manner the same is to be per

page_text: formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
::
In a Patent bearing date November 26, 1863, I described as a new
Invention the desulphuration of ammoniacal liquors of gas works by forcing
into them while containing oxide of iron a current of atmospheric air. I
have since found that the same effect may be produced with more or less.
rapidity without forcing in the current of air. For this purpose I expose to
the atmosphere the ammoniacal liquors of gas works, mixed with five or ten
or other small per-centage of sulphide or oxide of iron, which I prefer to be
hydrated peroxide made by precipitation, and I stir the mixture occasionally.
or incessantly to keep the metallic substance in suspension until the desul-
phuration is complete, when I allow it to settle, and then draw off the liquor
more or less clear, or filter it for use. The vessels used should be of large
area, and not very deep, in order to favour the contact of the atmosphere
with sulphide of iron formed during the process, and which is necessary for
the peroxidation of the metal. Ammoniacal liquors of gas works, desulphurated,
by oxide of iron or other means, still retain a disagreeable odour, which is
usually got rid of by subjecting them to evaporation, after saturation, by some
acid capable of fixing their ammonia at the evaporating temperature. One
part of this Invention consists in depriving such liquors of disagreeable odour
by a sufficiently long and extensive contact with charcoal. Such a contact
may be established in several ways, but I give a preference to the following:-I
fill a dozen, or more or less of vats, with charcoal in small fragments, obtained
in preference from the carbonization of tan, sawdust, or other waste or cheap
organic material, inclosing it in each vat between a false bottom and a false
head, both pierced with numerous small holes. I connect the vats together
with pipes in such a manner that the liquor being made to run through the
series, ascends in each vat in succession, the speed of its passage being made
slower, as the vats are smaller and fewer in number, and always so regulated
that no liquor leaves the series until sufficiently deodorized for the purpose
for which it is wanted. When the deodorization has become inconveniently
slow, I put the first vat out of connection, recharge it with a packing of fresh
charcoal, and then make it the last in the series, and so on continually, in
order that the liquor may always enter by the foulest vat, and leave by the
purest. It find it advantageous to practice, this deodorization at low temper-
atures. The charcoal I prefer to have packed from the air for storage while
it is yet hot, and to be never afterwards exposed more than is necessary.
This deodorization by charcoal may be practiced with full effect upon the
ammoniacal liquors of gas works without submitting them first to a process of

page_text: desulphuration, but in that case the charcoal absorbs sulphuretted hydrogen
as well as the other odorous substances, and becomes in consequence more:
quickly expended. I prefer to deodorize the liquor after its desulphuration;
and sometimes I first pass into it carbonic acid liberated from some economical
source, as for example, a separate portion of similar liquor under the action.
of sulphuric acid, until I thereby raise the ammonia in the liquor to be.
deodorized to the state of-sesquicarbonate or bicarbonate. The manner of
obtaining ammonia in the state of gas or dissolved in water, by the action of.
lime or some equivalent caustic-earth-or-caustic-alkali upon an ammoniacab
salt, usually sulphate or muriate, and distillation, is well understood..
Another part of this Invention consists in obtaining ammonia in the state>
of 'gas, or dissolved in water, by performing the usual processes with the
ammoniacal liquors of gas works deodorized by charcoal, and whether desul-
phurated by a separate operation or not, as a substitute for- the solutions of
ammonical fixed salt, by which I obtain a product more or less pure, according
to the purposes for which it may be required. The acid which I have to
detach from the ammonia is chiefly the carbonic, which combines with the
lime or the other equivalent. substance used in its place, and becomes pre-
cipitated or not from the liquor, according as the carbonate formed may be
either insoluble in it or soluble. When an insoluble carbonate is formed the
liquors become at once a solution of free ammonia more or less pure, and
the purer. if they have been submitted to a previous distillation. For
obtaining pure. ammonia either in the state of gas, or dissolved in water, I
prefer to distil the liquors subsequently to their treatment with lime or.its
équivalent, and also, as a precautionary measure for keeping back the last
portions of carbonic acid, to wash the ammonia as it passes from the distilling
vessels in a bath, hot or cold, of milk of lime, or caustic alkali, or. both.
Care should be taken to prevent any of the cbarcoal which has been used for
the deodorization from entering the distillatory vessels with the deodorized
liquor, as the odour absorbed by the charcoal is not all retained by it at the
distilling temperature. The fine charcoal which passes in small quantity with
the liquor, may be easily separated by using a suitable filter at the outlet of
the deodorizing vats.
Another part of this Invention, consists in the application of the ammo-
niacal liquors of gas works, deodorized by charcoal, without or after a separate
desulphuration, to the manufacture of compounds of ammonia and carbonic
acid, more or less pure, and either in the solid or liquid form. I sometimes
make this application by conducting.carbonic acid gas from any suitable foreign
source into water or a condensing chamber containing or receiving ammonia

page_text: obtained in the manner just described. In the case of the water it is a
solution of either protocarbonate, sesquicarbonate, or bicarbonate of ammonia
that I thus produce according to the proportion of carbonic acid introduced;
and in the chamber I thus by introducing an adequate quantity of carbonic
acid obtain in a concrete form chiefly sesquicarbonate of ammonia. Some
times I make the application by suppressing the lime used in the foregoing
part of this Invention, and driving over by some suitable-process of distillationi
such for example as that- modification of Coffey's continuous process for
alcohol which has been publicly made known to be useful in ammonia works,
both the ammonia and the carbonic acid of the deodorized liquors, combined
with enough steam to keep them in the condition of vapour into cold water,
or' into a suitable condensing chamber, there to meet, if, need be, with such
further quantity of carbonic acid from some foreign source as they may be
capable of combining with. Solutions of carbonate, sesquicarbonate, and
bicarbonate of ammonia made in either of these ways may be used for purposes
to which such solutions are respectively applicable, or such as are rich enough
in carbonic acid may by the usual means-be made to render up to a con<
densing chamber sesquicarbonate of ammonia in a concrete form: That salt,!
however, obtained by this Invention, may be 'afterwards: submitted to tho
ordinary process of sublimation for giving it the form in which it is known in
commerce under the name of carbonate of ammonia
To secure great purity care must be bestowed in working the Invention to
obtain as pure as possible. both its elements, and for that purpose whenever
any part of the carbonic acid, as well as the ammonia is furnished by the
deodorized liquors, I recommend as a precautionary measure that the wapours
of the compound be driven-through-a bath of fixed inodorous oil, or of water
containing some carbonated alkali, or both, heat enough being everywhere
maintained to prevent the-choking of the-apparatus leading to the condensing
chamber.
Lastly, I remark that I do not restrict the application of my deodorizing
Invention to the ammoniacal liquors of gas works while holding their ammonia
in a volatile condition, as the charcoal acts upon them after their ammonia
has been converted into sulphate or muriate by the processes known to be
effectual for that purpose. The ammoniacal liquors thus deodorized after
conversion are useful as economical substitutes in many cases for water in
which crystals of the same salts have been dissolved, such, for example, as the
manufacture of liquor of ammonia by the decomposing agency of lime and
distillation,

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner the.
same is to be performed, I claim in respect thereof,
Firstly, desulphurating the ammoniacal liquors of gas works when .con--
taining small quantities of sulphide or oxide of iron-by facilitating the access.
of atmospheric air by stirring.
Secondly, deodorizing the ammoniacal liquors of gas works, whether,
previously converted into a solution chiefly of sulphate of ammonia or of
muriate of ammonia or not, and whether previously desulphurated by a
separate operation or not, by bringing-them-into-sufficiently long and extensive
contact at effective temperatures with charcoal obtained from any desirable
source.
Thirdly, obtaining solutions of free ammonia or ammonia gas, more or
less, pure, in or by distillation from the ammoniacal liquors of gas works.
deodorized by charcoal, whether those liquors have been previously
desulphurated by a separate operation or not..
Fourthly, obtaining by distillation compounds of ammonia and carbonic
acid, more or less pure, and either solid or in solution, from the ammoniacal
liquors of gas works deodorized by charcoal, whether they have been previously
desulphurated by a separate operation or not, and whether the carbonic acid
be wholly, or in part, or not at all, derived from other sources.
Fifthly, the use of heated baths of fixed oil, and of the carbonates of soda
and potash for purifying passing vapours, of any carbonate of ammonia.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Laming, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of April, in the year of our Lord. One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
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