MAKING SODA AND ALUM
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Francis Gybbon Spilsbury, of Chaudfontaine, in
the Kingdom of Belgium, and of 56, Stones End, Borough of South-
wark, County of Surrey, Gentleman, for the Invention of "MAKING
SODA AND ALUM.”
Sealed the 19th December 1856, and dated the 19th June 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis Gybbon Spils-
bury at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th June 1856.
-7
:
I, FRANCIS GYBBON SPILSBURY, of Chaudfontaine, in the Kingdom of Bel-
gium, & of 56, Stones End, Borough of Southwark, Surrey, Gentleman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "MAKING SODA AND ALUM,"
to be as follows:-
I take the mineral called cryolite, which is a fluate of alumina & soda, &
grind it into fine powder.
To make soda, I mix this powder with an equivalent of caustic lime, &
boil the mixture in water, which will then extract all the soda. The solution
may then be evaporated to form solid caustic soda, or the solution itself
employed. The caustic soda may be converted into carbonate or bicarbonate
of soda in the usual manner.
To make alum, I take the powdered cryolite and-digest it with sulphuric
acid & water, adding an equivalent of sulphate of alumina. The mineral is
thus converted into a solution of alum, which may be evaporated & crystallized
in the ordinary way.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Francis Gybbon Spilsbury in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 19th December 1856..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, FRANCIS
GYBBON SPILSBURY, of Chaud Fontaine, in the Kingdom of Belgium, and of
56, Stones End, Borough of Southwark, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman,
send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Francis Gybbon Spilsbury, Her special licence that I, the said Francis Gybbon
Spilsbury, my executors, administrators, and, assigns, or such others as I, the
said Francis Gybbon Spilsbury, iny 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 "MAKING
SODA AND ALUM," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Francis
Gybbon Spilsbury, 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 Francis Gybbon Spilsbury, 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:-
1
In order to make soda and alum, I make use of cryolite, which is a mineral
consisting of fluate of alumina and fluate of soda. To separate the soda the
cryolite is to be reduced to powder, mixed with its weight of caustic lime and
as much water as will bring it to the consistency of milk; this mixture is to
be boiled several hours, adding water as it evaporates. The fluoric acid and
alumina pass over to and combine with the lime, while the soda is dissolved
by the water. The liquid is to be filtered, and the filtrate washed with fresh
water until all the soda is- removed. The washings being added to the
original liquid, the whole is to be evaporated to dryness.. What remains is

page_text: caustic soda, which may be converted into carbonate of soda in the usual way.
Instead of boiling cryolite with lime and water, it may be previously fluxed
with lime, and the mass exhausted with water afterwards, but I prefer the
former method. A second mode of separating the soda consists in fusing
wolfram or tungstate of iron and manganese with about the half of its weight
of cryolite in a reverberatory furnace, and after the melted mass has been
run out and cooled, exhausting it with water, the clear liquor evaporated to
dryness produces tungstate of soda. The soda may be separated from the
tungstic acid by dissolving the tungstate of soda in water, and mixing it with
caustic lime in the proportion of six parts of the former to one of the latter.
Insoluble tungstate of lime is then produced, and a solution of caustic soda,
which is to be treated as before.
To convert cryolite into soda alum, I boil one hundred parts of powdered
cryolite previously mixed with fifty-four parts of clay in two hundred and
eighty. parts by weight of sulphuric acid, specific gravity 1.84, until all the
fluoric acid is driven off, which may either be condensed in proper lead vessels
or allowed to escape into the chimney. The resulting mass must then be
exhausted with water. The filtered liquid on being evaporated and crystallised
yields cubic alum.
I claim, first, the extraction of caustic soda from cryolite by caustic lime
and water.
Secondly, I claim the fluxing of wolfram with cryolite as well without as
with the subsequent application of lime.
Thirdly, I claim the application of sulphuric acid with or without an
additional portion of clay to cryolite for the purpose of producing alum.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Gybbon Spilsbury, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
F. GIBBON SPILSBURY. (2.5.)