IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Deacon, of Appleton House, Widnes, in
the County of Lancaster, Alkali Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE."
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE.”
Sealed the 8th April 1873, and dated the 11th February 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Deacon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th February 1873.
I, HENRY DEACON, of Appleton House, Widnes, in the County of
Lancaster, Alkali Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of my said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE," to be as
follows:-
Chlorine is frequently manufactured by what is known as Deacon's
process, that is, by passing a heated current of hydrochloric acid gas
and air over some active substance, such as sulphate of copper, which
is generally dissolved in water and then used to saturate porous
materials, such as pieces of burnt clay. The active substance, such
as sulphate of copper, is also generally used as a simple salt, or when
two or more salts are mixed together each salt is active when used
alone. In the Specification of Letters Patent granted to me for im-
provements in the manufacture of chlorine, and dated the 29th April

page_text: 1868, No. 1403, such a mixture is described composed of two active
substances, viz., oxide of copper, and oxide of manganese.
Now my present Invention consists in mixing the active substance
or substances with one or more substances of another class, which when
used alone are inactive or inert, that is, do not possess the power of
decomposing heated hydrochloric acid gas and air, or oxygen in any
material degree; but when mixed with the sulphate of copper, ceteris
paribus, materially increase its activity in this respect. Sulphate of soda
and sulphate of potash are types of this class of inactive but, so to say,
accelerating substances.
In applying this Invention, the active salt, which may be sulphate
of copper, and the inactive but accelerating salt, which may be an
equivalent quantity of sulphate of soda, may be dissolved, and porous
materials, such as pieces of burnt clay, may be saturated with the
solution. These saturated or impregnated materials may be used in
apparatus described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to
me for improvements in apparatus for the manufacture of chlorine,
and dated 13th September 1870, No. 2469, and the manufacture of
chlorine proceeded with as described therein, or the said mixture of
active with inactive but accelerating substances may be used and applied
in any other convenient manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Deacon in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 24th July 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
DEACON, of Appleton House, Widnes, in the County of Lancaster,
Alkali Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in
the thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Deacon, Her
special license that I, the said Henry Deacon, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Deacon, my

page_text: executors, administrators, or 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
5 and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Henry Deacon, my executors or ad-
ministrators, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
Ovention, 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 Henry Deacon, 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 :-
Chlorine is frequently manufactured by what is known as Deacon's
process, i.e., by passing a heated current of hydrochloric acid gas and
air over porous substances impregnated with some active substance,
such as sulphate of copper, which is generally dissolved in water and
then used to saturate porous materials, such as pieces of burnt clay.
The active substance, such as sulphate of copper, is also generally used
alone or as a simple salt, or when two or more substances or salts are
mixed together each salt is active when used alone. In the Specifi-
cation of Letters Patent granted to me for improvements in the manu-
facture of chlorine, and dated the Twenty-ninth April, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-eight, No. 1403, such a mixture is described
composed of two active substances, videlicet, oxide of copper, and oxide
of manganese.
Now my present Invention consists in mixing the active substanco
or substances with one or more substances of another class, which when
used alone are inactive or inert, i.e., they do not possess the power of de-
composing heated hydrochloric acid gas when mixed with air or oxygen
in any material degree; but when mixed with the sulphate of copper,
ceteris paribus, they materially increase its activity and decomposing
power. Sulphate of soda and sulphate of potash are types of this class
of inactive, and what I term accelerating substances.

page_text: In applying this Invention the active salt, which for example may
be sulphate of copper, and the inactive but accelerating salt, which for
example may be about an equivalent quantity of sulphate of soda, may
be dissolved in water, and porous materials, such as pieces of burnt clay,
may be saturated with the solution. These saturated or impregnated 5
materials may be used in apparatus described in the Specification of
Letters Patent granted to me for improvements in apparatus for the
manufacture of chlorine, and dated Thirteenth September One thousand
eight hundred and seventy, No. 2469, and the manufacture of chlorine
may be proceeded with as described therein, or the said mixture of 1
active with inactive but accelerating substances may be employed for
effecting the generation of chlorine in the manner before mentioned,
or may be used and applied for such purpose in any other convenient
manner.
In the practical manufacture of chlorine by what is known as 1
Deacon's process, the gases which are passed through the apparatus
always contain more or less free sulphuric acid, and for this reason,
as well as from its suitability in other respects, sulphate of copper is the
active substance now practically employed.
The sulphate of potash and the sulphate of soda have so much 2
greater accelerating power than other substances with which I have ex-
perimented, and can be so easily obtained that the choice practically
lies between them. Sulphate of potash is slightly more accelerating
than sulphate of soda, but it is less soluble and more expensive, hence
sulphate of soda is the accelerating substance I generally prefer, and 2
I prefer to use somewhat more of it than is equivalent to the sulphate
of copper employed. I prefer to mix the active and inactive substances
or salts in solution, and to use the solution as strong and as warm
as can be conveniently worked with. A saturated solution of sulphate
of soda and of sulphate of copper at the temperature of about 180° F. 3
will have a specific gravity of about 1.310, and will contain a
mixture of about three equivalents of the soda salt to two equivalents
of the copper salt, and will usually be convenient for the desired
purpose. If after one saturation of the porous materials before referred
to with this solution the porous materials are dried and re-saturated 3
with the same solution, a further quantity of salts will be retained
by the porous materials, but their activity in the manufacture of
chlorine will not be materially increased thereby ; but if a solution

page_text: is employed in the first instance which is not saturated with the before-
mentioned salts, then the activity of the porous material will be reduced
almost in simple proportion to the extent of the dilution of the im-
pregnating solution.
Burnt clay roughly in the shape of small spheres is the porous
material I usually find most convenient, and I prefer to employ
burnt clay which does not materially decompose the copper salt when
impregnated with its solution; but it is sometimes difficult to procure
such burnt clay, and I then add some free sulphuric acid to the solution
to neutralize the base in the clay which acts on the sulphate of copper;
but frce acids in the solution reduces the solubility of the copper salt,
and to that extent is an evil, and its use should therefore be avoided or
restricted as much as possible.
I prefer having all the materials and substances as free as possible
from chlorides.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to
be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the employ-
ment of a mixture of an inactive but accelerating substance, such as
sulphate of soda, with an active substance, such as sulphate of copper,
for the production of chlorine in what is known as Deacon's process
for the manufacture of chlorine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Deacon, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of June
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.