IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF POTASSA AND SODA CARBONATES FROM POTASSIUM AND SODIUM CHLORIDES.
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Imray, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF POTASSA AND SODA CARBONATES FROM POTASSIUM AND
SODIUM CHLORIDES. A communication from abroad by the Société Anonyme
de Croix, of Croix, near Roubaix, France, an Incorporated Company.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Imray at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th October 1878.
JOHN IMRAY, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF POTASSA AND SODA
CARBONATES FROM POTASSIUM AND SODIUM CHLORIDES." [A communication
from abroad by The Société Anonyme de Croix, of Croix, near Roubaix, France,
an Incorporated Company.]
Carbonate of soda has been largely produced by the action of bicarbonate of
ammonia on sodium chloride, but a like process for producing carbonate of potassa
from potassium chloride has not been practically successful. This Invention relates
to means of effecting the latter object, and the same means are applicable to the
production of carbonate of soda. For this purpose the bicarbonate of trimethylamine
is employed to act on potassium chloride or sodium chloride, the result of the
re-action being the production of carbonate of potassa or soda and hydrochlorate of
trimethylamine. The process may be conducted according to two methods.
According to the one method, the chloride of the alkaline base is digested in a
concentrated solution of the bicarbonate of trimethylamine which may be applied
in the proportion of the chemical equivalents of the substances treated, but is with
advantage applied in excess, as the re-action is thereby promoted and the product
increased. The other method is applicable when the bicarbonate of trimethylamine
is not conveniently obtainable; it is conducted as follows:-The chloride of the
[Price 6d.

page_text: alkaline base in a state of division is intimately mixed with trimethylamine of
commerce in the proportion of about one part of the former to four of the latter.
Into the mixture is injected carbonic acid to complete saturation. By this means
is produced first the carbonate and then the bicarbonate of the trimethylamine
which acts on the chloride, and the substances resulting from the re-action are the
bicarbonate of the alkali and the hydrochlorate of trimethylamine. The operation
may be carried on at ordinary temperatures, but coolness, pressure, and agitation
are favourable to the absorption of the carbonic acid. For conducting the manu-
fucture with economy the excess of carbonic acid employed can be recovered and
the trimethylamine regenerated, or some of its salts can be obtained by well-known ]
chemical processes for those purposes. The alkaline carbonates produced as above
described are applicable in the ordinary way for the production of the other salts of
the respective alkalies.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Imray in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 25th March
1879.
JOHN IMRAY, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF POTASSA AND SODA
CARBONATES FROM POTASSIUM AND SODIUM CHLORIDES." A communication from
abroad by The Société Anonyme de Croix,' of Croix, near Roubaix, France, an
Incorporated Company.
Carbonate of soda has been largely produced by the action of bicarbonate of
ammonia on sodium chloride, but a like process for producing carbonate of potassa
from potassium chloride has not been practically successful. This Invention relates
to means of effecting the latter object, and the same means are applicable to the
production of carbonate of soda. For this purpose the bicarbonate of trimethylamine
is employed to act on potassium chloride or sodium chloride, the result of the
re-action being the production of carbonate of potassa or soda, and hydrochlorate of
trimethylamine. The process may be conducted according to two methods.
According to the one method, the chloride of the alkaline base is digested in a
concentrated solution of the bicarbonate of trimethylamine, which may be applied
in the proportion of the chemical equivalents of the substances treated, but is with
advantage applied in excess, as the re-action is thereby promoted and the product
increased. The other method is applicable when the bicarbonate of trimethylamine
is not conveniently obtainable; it is conducted as follows:-The chloride of the
alkaline base in a state of division is intimately mixed with trimethylamine of
commerce in the proportion of about one part of the former to four of the latter.
Into the mixture is injected carbonic acid to complete saturation. By this means
is produced first the carbonate and then the bicarbonate of the trimethylamine
which acts on the chloride, and the substances resulting from the re-action are tho
bicarbonate of the alkali and the hydrochloride of trimethylamine. The operation
may be carried on at ordinary temperatures, but coolness, pressure, and agitation
are favourable to the absorption of the carbonic acid. For conducting the manu-
facture with economy the excess of carbonic acid employed can be recovered and
the trimethylamine regenerated, or some of its salts can be obtained by well-known
chemical processes for those purposes. The alkaline carbonates produced as above
described are applicable in the ordinary way for the production of the other salts of
the respective alkalies.
The re-action of the carbonic acid on the mixture of trimethylamine with the
alkaline chloride may be effected in apparatus of various forms. The accompanying
Drawings shew several arrangements of apparatus which are found to be suitable
for this process.
The apparatus represented in vertical section at Fig. 1 consists of
a vessel A with a coned bottom B connected by a pipe D with a pump C. By this
pump the mixture of trimethylamine and alkaline chloride contained in the vessel A
is kept continually agitated, being drawn from the bottom and discharged from the
pipe E in a shower within the vessel, while carbonic acid gas admitted by the
perforated pipe H bubbles through the mixture and rises through the shower, the
excess beyond that which is absorbed escaping by the pipe I. The vessel is charged
by a man-hole or hand-hole M, and the liquid contents are run off by a cock R. Similar
apparatus is shewn in Fig. 2, an additional pump being applied to effect the agitation
of the mixture and prevent settlement of the solid particles. In the arrangement
shewn in Fig. 3 two screens F and G of open grated work are caused to reciprocate
vertically within the vessel so as to expose at every up stroke their surfaces,
moistened with the mixture, to the carbonic acid passed through the vessel by the
pipes H and I. Fig. 4 represents a longitudinal, and Fig. 5 a transverse section of
an arrangement of apparatus in which revolving agitators L work in a cylindrical
vessel K containing the mixture. It may be readily understood that other forms

page_text: of apparatus could be applied to effect the objects in (view, namely, to keep the
mixture in agitation and to expose a large sub-divided surface of it to the action of
the carbonic acid.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondents,
I claim,―
First. The manufacture of potassa or soda carbonate from potassium or sodium
chloride by digesting the chloride in bicarbonate of trimethylamine, as herein
described.
Second. The manufacture of potassa or soda carbonate from potassium or sodium
chloride by mixing the chloride with trimethylamine, and exposing the mixture to
"the action of carbonic acid, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Imray, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twenty-fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-nine.