AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING SULPHATE OF AMMONIA
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Hills, of Warsash, in the Parish of Titchfield,
in the County of Southampton, Merchant, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING SULPHATE OF AMMONIA."
Sealed the 13th July 1858, and dated the 16th January 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Hills at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th January 1858.
I, EDWIN HILLS, of Warsash, in the Parish of Titchfield, in the County of
Southampton, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING SULPHATE OF AMMONIA," to be
as follows:-
My Invention consists in the direct action of sulphuric acid gas on any
ammoniacal liquor or vapor, such as gas water, stale urine, bone liquor, or any
liquid or substance containing ammonia. In a common oil of vitriol furnace
or sulphur burner, I burn sulphur or sulphur ore with a quantity of nitre
and steam usual in vitriol making, and I pass the sulphuric acid gas into 2
vat lined with lead, in the same way as it is passed into vitriol chambers.
Into this vat I allow the ammoniacal liquor to pass through a pipe perforated
with small holes, or terminated by a rose, or by any other suitable means, so
that the liquor may come in contact in a finely divided state with the
sulphuric acid gas at about the same level in the vat; or I put the ammoniacal
liquor or substances containing ammonia into a still made of iron or lead, and

page_text: distil off the ammonia; but in either case, whether as ammoniacal liquor or
ammoniacal vapour, causing it to meet the sulphuric acid gas in as sub-
divided a state as possible. A small escape pipe is placed on the top of the
vat to give draft to the process and mix the vapours. By this process a liquid
sulphate of ammonia is produced, and may be boiled down in the usual way
and crystallized.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edwin Hills in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th
July 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN
HILLS, of Warsash, in the Parish of Titchfield, in the County of Southampton,
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of January; in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Edwin Hills, Her special licence, that I, the said
Edwin Hills, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Edwin Hills, 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
"AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING SULPHATE OF AMMONIA," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edwin Hills, 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 Edwin Hills, 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:
My Invention consists in the production of sulphate of ammonia by the
direct action of sulphuric acid gas on any ammoniacal liquor or vapor, such as

page_text: gas water, stale urine, bone liquor, or any liquid substance or vapor
containing ammonia.
In a common oil of vitriol furnace or sulphur burner I burn sulphur,
sulphur ore, or substances containing sulphur, and pass a sufficient quantity of
nitrous gas and steam therewith for making oil of vitriol into a large vat,
chamber, or high tower lined with lead, as in the common process of vitriol
making, but taking care to use a sufficient quantity of nitre. From this vat,
chamber, or tower I allow the sulphuric acid gas, together with any sulphuric
acid formed, to pass in as divided a state as possible into a second vat, chamber,
or tower lined with lead, into which I also pass the ammoniacal liquor through
a coil of pipe, perforated with small holes or terminated by a rose, or by any
suitable means so that the liquor may come in contact in a finely divided state
with the sulphuric acid gas, and the sulphuric acid formed in the process at
the most suitable level of the vat; or, I distil the ammoniacal liquor or
substance containing ammonia, and pass the ammoniacal gas in a similar way
into contact with the sulphuric acid gas and sulphuric acid. A small escape
pipe is placed on the top of the second vat, chamber, or tower, to give a draft
to the process.
By this Invention a liquid sulphate of ammonia is produced, which may be
boiled down and crystallized in the usual way.
ג'
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I claim as constituting my Invention the
production of sulphate of ammonia by the direct action of sulphuric acid gas
on any ammoniacal liquor or vapour, as gas water, stale urine, bone liquor, or
any liquid substance or vapor containing ammonia.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Hills, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
WILLIAM JAMES.
EDWIN HILLS. (L.S.)