IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHOSPHATES CONTAINING ALUMINA, AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Townsend, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHOSPHATES CONTAINING ALUMINA, AND
IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM."
Sealed the 25th August 1871, and dated the 14th April 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Townsend at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th April 1871.
I, JOSEPH TOWNSEND, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHOSPHATES CONTAINING
ALUMINA, AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object to utilise and obtain valuable pro-
ducts from phosphates which contain alumina, and which are obtainable
or similar to what are obtainable from rodondo, in the West Indies.
The Invention is herein-after described as applied to one hundred
pounds of a phosphate, containing about forty per centum of phosphoric

page_text: acid, and twenty per centum of alumina, and the processes must be
correspondingly modified when the material contains other proportions
of the ingredients.
By a first process fifty pounds soda, or seventy-five pounds potash, are
mixed with the phosphate, and heat applied either by fusion, or, as is
preferred, by boiling in about fifty gallons water. After settling the
supernatant liquor is run off, or it is filtered, and the phosphate of
soda or of potash is separated by crystalising, or by concentrating
and depositing, when the remaining liquor will consist principally of
aluminate of soda or of potash. When it is aluminate of potash that
is wanted, aluminate of soda may be first formed as described, and tho
aluminate of potash obtained therefrom by double decomposition on
adding chloride of potassium or carbonate of potash. If alumina is
wanted its deposition from the aluminate of soda or of potash is obtained
by injecting carbonic acid.
By a second process twelve pounds soda, or eighteen pounds potash,
and forty-seven pounds lime are added to the phosphate, and heat is
applied, by preference by boiling, whereby aluminate of soda or of
potash and phosphate of lime are formed.
By a third process forty-seven pounds lime are added to the phosphato
and heat applied, by preference by boiling, whereby there is formed a
mixture of alumina and phosphate of lime, which can be used as a
manure or fertiliser.
By a fourth process fifty-eight pounds lime are added, and in a similar
way cause the formation of a mixture of phosphate and aluminate of a
limc, also usable as a manure or fertiliser; or aluminate of soda or of
potash may be obtained from the mixture by adding twenty pounds
carbonate of soda, or twenty-six pounds carbonate of potash, leaving
carbonate and phosphate of lime usable as a manure or fertiliser. If
phosphoric acid is wanted, nitric, sulphuric, or hydrochloric acid is a
added to the phosphate of soda or of potash obtained by the process
berein-before described, which sets free the phosphoric acid, forming
at the same time the nitrate, sulphate, or chloride of the alkali of the
phosphate, which salt can be separated by well-known means.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Townsend in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 14th September 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
TOWNSEND, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Manu-
facturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Townsend, Her special licence
that I, the said Joseph Townsend, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Townsend, 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
TREATING PHOSPHATES CONTAINING ALUMINA, AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THERE-
FROM," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph
Townsend, 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 Joseph Townsend, 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 in writing, that is to say :-
My said Invention has for its object to utilise and obtain valuable
products from phosphates which contain alumina, and which arc
obtainable or similar to what are obtainable from rodondo, in the West
Indies.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood. I shall proceed to particularly

page_text: describe the various processes comprised in it as applied to a phosphate
containing about 40 per centum of phosphoric acid and 20 per centum
of alumina, and it must be understood that when the material operated
upon contains other proportions of the ingredients the processes are to
be correspondingly modified.
By my first process 50 pounds soda or 75 pounds potash are mixed
with the phosphate, and heat is by preference applied either by fusion
or boiling in about 50 gallons water. After settling the supernatant
liquor is run off, or it is filtered, and the phosphate of soda or of potash
that is formed is separated by crystalising, or by concentrating and
depositing, when the remaining liquor will consist principally of
aluminate of soda or of potash. When it is aluminate of potash that
is wanted, aluminate of soda may be first formed as described, and the
aluminate of potash be subsequently obtained by double decomposition
on adding chlorido of potassium or carbonate of potash. If alumina
is wanted, its deposition from the aluminate of soda or of potash is
obtained by injecting or otherwise applying carbonic acid.
By my second process 12 pounds soda, or 18 pounds potaslı, and
47 pounds lime are added to the phosphate, and by preference heat is
applied by boiling, whereby aluminate of soda or potash and phosphate
of lime are formed, the former in solution, and the latter as a precipitate.
By my third process 47 pounds lime are added to the phosphate, and
by preference heat is applied by boiling, whereby there is formed a
mixture of alumina and phosphate of lime, which can be used as a
manure or fertiliser.
This modo of utilising the rodondo or similar phosphates containing
alumina by adding lime to form a phosphate of lime usable as a fertiliser
is obviously also applicable, although the alumina, or more or less of it,
may have been separated before adding the lime. Thus if the aluminous
phosphate is first treated with sulphuric acid and sulphate of ammonia
or of potash, and the alum thereby formed separated, phosphoric acid is
set free, and remaining in the mother liquors may have the lime, or
what will in this case answer as well, its carbonate, added to it, and so
be converted into phosphate of lime; or alum may be obtained by
adding chloride of potassium and sulphato of magnesia, and after it 3
is separated by well-known means the remaining liquors will contain
phosphoric acid, which may be precipitated as phosphate of lime by
adding lime or its carbonate as before.

page_text: By my fourth process 58 pounds lime are added, and cause the
formation of a mixture of phosphate and aluminate of lime, also
usable as a manure or fertiliser; or aluminate of soda or of potash
may be obtained from the mixture by adding 20 pounds carbonate of
soda, or 26 pounds carbonate of potash, leaving carbonate and phosphato
of lime usable as a manuro or fertiliser. If phosphoric acid is wanted,
nitric, sulphuric, or hydrochloric acid is added to the phosphate of soda
or of potash obtained by the process herein-before described as my first,
which sets free the phosphoric acid, forming at the same time the
nitrate, sulphate, or chloride of the alkali of the phosphate, which salt
can be separated by well-known means; or a phosphate of an carth can
be obtained by adding to the phosphate of soda or of potash, lime,
magnesia, baryta, or strontia, or a soluble salt of any of these earths.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I have to state that I do not
restrict myself to the precise details herein described, but that what I
believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to
me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The treating of phosphates containing alumina with soda or potash,
in order to utilise the same, and obtain valuable products therefrom, as
herein-before described.
2. The treating of phosphates containing alumina with lime, as
herein-before described.
3. The utilising of the phosphoric acid of phosphates containing
alumina, by adding lime or its carbonate, and thereby forming phos-
phate of lime, usable as a fertiliser, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Townsend, have hercunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-onc.