CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING SULPHURIC ACID COMMONLY CALLED OIL OF VITRIOL
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PEREGRING
PHILLIPS, Junior, of Bristol, Vinegar Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing dato
at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of March, in the first year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Perigrine Phillips, His especial licence, sole privilege and authority,..
that the said Peregrine Phillips, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Peregrine Phillips, my exors, admors, or assigns,. should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING
SULPHURIC ACID COMMONLY CALLED OIL OF VITRIOL;" in which. said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that I, the said Peregrine Phillips, shall cause a parti
cular description of the nature of my said Invention, and. in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Peregrine Phillips, junior, do hereby declare that the nature of my said im-
provements are herein set forth and explained; but for the better understanding

page_text: of the subject I shall first describe-the-present-mode-of-manufacturing
sulphuric acid, next, the improvements I propose to effect, and then the means
by which those improvements are effected.
Sulphuric acid or oil of vitriol is generally manufactured at present by the
combustion of sulphur or brimstone and saltpetre, either mixed together and
placed in large leaded chambers, or seperately in ovens connected with those
chambers, into which chambers more or less of atmospheric air is admitted.
The sulphur-at first is converted by the combustion into sulphurous acid gas,
and then by the agency of nitrous gas united with oxygen from the atmo-
spheric air in the chamber or from that liberated from the saltpetre, and is thus
converted gradually into sulphuric acid, and is afterwards absorbed by tho
water which covers the bottom of the chamber.
The first improvement, then, which I propose to effect is, an instantaneous
union of the sulphurous acid gas with the oxygen of the atmosphere, and
thereby save the constant expence of saltpetre, and also the great outlay of
capital in the chambers where any great quantity of sulphuric acid can be
manufactured by the gradual conversion of the sulphurous acid into the
sulphuric acid.
'
The second improvement I propose to effect is, to effect a more perfect
'condensation of sulphuric acid-when made by an improved mode of absorbing
the same. The first improvement then, namely, the instantaneous union of
sulphurous acid with the oxygen of the atmosphere, I effect by-drawing them
in proper proportions by the action of an air pump or other mechanical means
thro' an ignited tube or tubes of platina, porcelain, or any other material not
acted on when heated by the sulphurous acid gas. In the said tube or tubes
I place fine platina wire or plátiña in any finely-divided state, and I heat
them to a strong yellow heat, and by preference in the chamber of a rever-
beratory furnace; and I do affirm that sulphurous acid gas being made to pass
with a sufficient supply of atmospheric air through tubes as described,
properly heated and managed, will be instantly converted into sulphuric acid
gas, which will be rapidly absorbed as soon as it comes in contact with water.
The sulphurous acid gas I cause to be generated by the combustion of sulphur
or pyrites, or any other metallic sulphuret, in a close oven, having one or more
apertures for the admission of atmospheric air, and another aperture leading
to or communicating with the aforesaid tubes. The relative proportions of
sulphurous gas and atmospheric air are regulated by the size and working of
the air pump, which must pump out at least eighty-five cubic feet of air for
every pound avoirdupois of sulphur consun:ed.
My second improvement, namely, a more perfect condensation of the sul_

page_text: phuric acid when made, I effect thus:-I cause a chamber or chambers to be
erected, of any size and materials that may be thought convenient, but by
preference of silicious stone in a circular form, and about eight feet in
diameter and thirty feet high. This I cause to be lined nearly or throughout
with lead, to be filled nearly to the top with silicious pebbles, or any substance
presenting an extensive surface, and not acted upon by the sulphuric acid. Upon
the pebbles or other substances I place a sheet of lead, pierced with small holes,
for the better distribution of the liquor to be hereafter mentioned. The chamber
is to be domed over, and rendered air-tight on the outside, except by an opening
on the top, through which a quantity of water or dilute acid is let in upon the
pebbles to the height of about fourteen inches. A lead pump is fixed by the side
of this chamber, drawing the liquor from its bottom, and emptying its contents
into a lead funnel placed in and over the aforesaid opening in the top of the
dome, and which said pump is kept constantly worked by a steam engine or
any other power that may be preferred. The pipe of the funnell must be of
such a size as always to keep some liquor in the funnel, and never to allow
any air to pass down that way into the chamber; and the pump must throw
a sufficient quantity of liquor to keep all or the greater part of the pebbles
moistened. A pipe leading from the ignited tube or tubes, after passing thro
some water for the purpose of cooling it, terminates in this chamber just above
the top of the liquor, while another pipe going off from the top of the chamber
leads to the air-pump, so that all the air charged with sulphuric acid has to
pass through the bed of moistened pebbles, which have a constant supply of
water or dilute acid continually passing down them. When the liquor is
considered sufficiently charged, or when it will not absorb the sulphuric acid
gas, which may be known by examining, the air discharged from the air
pump is to be drawn off by a pipe and cock in the bottom of the chamber, and
treated in the usual way.
Note, I do not claim a right to any mode by which sulphur or sulphurets
may be converted directly into sulphuric acid by the action of heat or other-
wise, if such method ever has been or ever shall be discovered; but I claim an
exclusive right to any plan by which sulphurous gas and atmospheric air,
either alone or mixed with any other gas or gases, shall be either forced or
drawn by an air pump or any other mechanical means thro' an ignited tube
or tubes.
I also claim the exclusive right to the use of platina in any finely-divided
state, for the purpose of assisting the action of heat in combining sulphurous
gas with oxygen in the manufacture of sulphuric acid.
I likewise claim an exclusive right to every mode by which chambers

page_text: used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid can be charged with silicious
pebbles or other substances, for the purpose of exposing extensive surfaces,
and which surfaces can be either constantly or occasionally moistened by the
liquor pumped or drawn from below them.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peregrine Phillips, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of July, in
the year of our Lord 1831, the aforesaid Peregrine Phillips came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.