IMPROVEMENTS IN ABSORBING AND UTILIZING THE NOXIOUS VAPOURS AND GASES ARISING FROM LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE AND OTHER FURNACES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Settle Barff, M.A., of No. 16, North
Audley Street, Grosvenor Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ABSORBING AND
UTILIZING THE NOXIOUS VAPOURS AND GASES ARISING FROM LOCOMOTIVE
ENGINE AND OTHER FURNACES."
Sealed the 25th March 1870, and dated the 1st October 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Settle Barff
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 1st October 1869.
I, FREDERICK SETTLE BARFF, M.A., of No, 16, North Audley Street,
Grosvenor Square, in the County of Middlesex, Ohemist, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ABSORBING
AND UTILIZING THE NOXIOUS VAPOURS AND GASES ARISING FROM LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE
AND OTHER FURNACES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the absorption of the gaseous-
products of combustion evolved from locomotive engine furnaces and:

page_text: from other furnaces by means of reagents with which they unite
chemically, or by which they are decomposed, or by which their chemical
composition is changed. The gases usually evolved from engine and
other furnaces are sulphurous acid and carbonic acid, but if the quantity
of air supplied to the furnace be small carbonic oxide may be formed.
These gases and any other gases or vapours set free I cause to be brought
into chemical contact with some reagent or reagents with which they
will unite or by which they may be decomposed, or by which their
chemical composition may be changed, so as either to fix them by
forming non-volatile compounds (at least not volatile at any temperature
to which they are likely to be exposed) or to decompose them, or by
otherwise changing their composition to render them inodorous and
harmless. The substances which I prefer to use are the metallic oxides,
used either in solution or otherwise, such as sodic hydrate, calcic hydrate,
or magnesic oxide and other analogous oxides. I also use these said
oxides in combination with chlorous bodies (sometimes called anhydrous
acids), and these compounds I use in solution or otherwise. When
the metallic oxides are used the gaseous products of combustion, such
as carbonic acid and sulphurous acid, unite with them, forming carbonates
or sulphites; but when the compound bodies, as sodic carbonate, are
employed the sulphurous acid displaces the carbonic acid, sodic sulphite
being formed and carbonic acid being set free. If it be desired to fix
carbonic oxide I bring it into contact with cuprous chloride. The
reagents aforesaid I place in suitable vessels, into which the products of
combustion from the furnaces are passed. By fixing the gaseous
products of combustion of furnaces certain of their constituents can be
rendered valuable, whereas before they were useless, as, for example,
sodic sulphite is formed, which is used in the arts as an antichlore.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Settle Barff in the Great Seal Patent 30
Office on the 30th March 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
SETTLE BARFF, M.A., of No. 16, North Audley Street, Grosvenor
Square, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-.
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Frederick Settle Barff, Her special licence
that I, the said Frederick Settle Barff, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick Settle Barff, 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
ABSORBING AND UTILIZING THE NOXIOUS VAPOURS AND GASES ARISING FROM
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINE AND OTHER FURNACES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Frederick Settle Barff, 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 Frederick Settle Barff; do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement,, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object the absorption of the gaseous
products of combustion evolved from locomotive engine furnaces and
other furnaces by means of reagents with which they unite chemically,
or by which they are decomposed, or by which their chemical com-
position is changed. The gases usually evolved from engine furnaces
are sulphurous acid and carbonic acid, but if the quantity of air supplied
to the furnace be small carbonic oxide may be formed. These gases and
any other gases or vapours set free I cause to be brought into chemical
contact with some reagent or reagents with which they will unite or
by which they may be decomposed, or by which their chemical com,
position may be changed, so as either to fix them by forming non-volatile

page_text: compounds (at least not volatile at any temperature to which they are
likely to be exposed) or to decompose them, or by otherwise changing
their composition to render them inodorous and harmless. The substances
which I prefer to use are the metallic oxides, either used in solution or
otherwise, such as sodic hydrate, calcic hydrate, or magnesic oxide and
other analogous oxides. I also use these said oxides in combination
with chlorous bodies-sometimes called anhydrous acids, such as carbonic
acid, and these compounds I use either in solution or otherwise. When
the metallic oxides are used the gaseous products of combustion of
furnaces, such as carbonic acid and sulphurous acid, unite with them,
forming carbonates and sulphites, but when the compound bodies, as
sodic carbonate, are employed the sulphurous acid displaces the
carbonic acid, sodic sulphite being formed and carbonic acid being set
free. If it is desired to fix carbonic oxide I bring it into contact with
cuprous chloride. The reagents aforesaid I place in suitable vessels, into
which the products of combustion from the furnace are passed. By
fixing the gaseous products of combustion of furnaces certain of their
constituents can be rendered valuable, whereas before they were useless,
as, for example, sodic sulphite is formed, which is used in the arts as an
antichlor.
The solutions above described I prefer to employ in suitable vessels.
in conjunction with coke, pumice stone, lumps, or some such porous
substance, whereby a larger surface of the liquid is exposed to the action
of the gaseous products of combustion from locomotive engine and other
furnaces. The porous substance employed I first soak in the solution,
and having drained off superfluous liquid I then place it in the said
vessels. When I use a partially soluble reagent I mix it with water,
and cause the gases to pass through this mixture, they uniting with
that portion of the reagent which is dissolved, and more of the reagent
being dissolved by the water the action is continuous as long as any of
it and a sufficient quantity of water remains,
Having now described the nature of my Invention, I claim,―
1stly. The use of the reagents herein-before described which by
chemical action absorb and retain the gaseous products of combustion
of locomotive engine and other furnaces, or so alter their chemical
constitution that they cease to exist in the gaseous or volatile state.

page_text: 2ndly. I claim the utilization of the products formed by my process
for commercial or other purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Settle Barff, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy,
FREDERICK SETTLE BARFF. (L.S.)
Witness,
T. J. WILLSORE,
3, Southampton Street,
St. Pancras,
London.