IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MODE OF EXTRACTING AMMONIA AND OTHER COMPOUNDS FROM GAS, GAS LIQUOR, SEWERAGE, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1857

page_text: oy the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Maltby at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th June
1857.
I, WILLIAM MALTBY, of Grove Hill, Camberwell, County of Surrey,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MODE OF EXTRACTING AMMONIA AND OTHER COMPOUNDS FROM GAS,
GAS LIQUOR, SEWERAGE, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES," to be as follows, that is
to say:-
In extracting ammonia from gas I cause the latter to flow through a vessel
containing oil or other fatty matter, the action of the oil or fatty matter being
to cause the ammonia to leave the gas and enter into combination with it,
forming a new compound. By treating this oily compound with hydrochloric,
sulphuric, or other acids, the oil is set free, and a salt of ammonia is formed,
which may be obtained in the usual manner. The oil may again and again be
used for the same purpose.
In applying this process to the purification of gas made from the distillation
of coal, I adopt the above-described method when ammonia alone is to be
eliminated; but when carbonic acid, sulphuret of carbon, sulphuretted hydro-
gen, and the other impurities contained have also to be removed, I can effect
this in one operation by mixing the oil with lime and a metallic salt or oxide,

page_text: such as are generally employed, and after allowing the gas to pass through
this mixture, to treat the oily compound of ammonia with an acid, as before
described. I prefer, however, that the gas should first pass through the lime
and then through the oil in a seperate vessel, and in this way have the
ammonia and other gases removed. When I make use of a metallic salt or
oxide for removing the sulphuretted hydrogen and sulphur, I propose to use
the waste products of copper and zinc resulting from the action of the galvanic
and other batteries employed for telegrapbic, electro-plating, and other similar
purposes.
Another method which I propose to employ for removing the sulphuretted
hydrogen, ammonia, and other impurities from gas, gas liquor, or sewerage,
and which I prefer, is as follows:-I take a quantity of litharge, alone or
mixed with lime or common salt, one or either, by boiling or otherwise, the
soluable liquid part (when there is such) being seperated from the insoluable;
I pass the gas or liquor over or through the latter, and afterwards through the.
vessel of oil before described, the ammonia being seperated from the oil by an
acid, as before mentioned. I propose to apply the oil and other mentioned
ingredients in a somewhat similar way, to seperate the ammonia, phosphates,
and other foul gases from sewerage and other bodies.
When the lime which has been used for purifying has become saturated
with foul gases, I propose to repurify it by passing steam from water mixed
or unmixed with atmospheric air through it, and afterwards to pass the same
steam, with the impurities it then has suspended or contained in it, through
the vessel of oil, whero the ammonia and naptha will be taken from it, and the
sulphurous and other gases may be conducted into fires, or into a chimney, or
otherwise got rid of.