Improvements in Salt for Dietetic Purposes.
Year: 1898

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Salt for Dietetic Purposes.
I, JAMES GARRICK SHEARER, of 5, Everton Valley, Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Secretary, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention has for its object an improvement in salt for dietetic purposes,
whereby it shall not agglomerate together through attracting moisture from the
atmosphere.
The invention consists essentially in mixing with the salt another innoxious
salt having a greater affinity for water than chloride of sodium while forming with
that water a dry hydrate which will again part with its water in a gaseous form
instead of in the liquid form. The result is that the moisture of the atmosphere
instead of combining with the chloride of sodium combines with the other salt when
the air is damp, and the other salt gives out gaseous water to the air when the
weather is dry. Such a salt is carbonate of magnesia, anhydrous, it is a crystalline
powder, hydrous, it is a dry amorphous or crystalline powder, the anhydrous salt
being able to accrete to itself five molecules of water without becoming moist.
We add this carbonate of magnesia in about the proportion of two per cent.,
thereby making the chloride of sodium less absorbent, rendering it more fine
and free, and preventing it becoming caked and hardened.
Dated this 2nd day of March 1898.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, Patent Agents for the Applicant.
I, JAMES GARRICK SHEARER, of 5, Everton Valley, Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Secretary, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
This invention has for its object an improvement in salt for dietetic purposes,
whereby it shall not agglomerate together through attracting moisture from the
atmosphere.
The invention consists essentially in mixing with common salt (chloride of
sodium) another innocuous salt having a greater affinity for water than the
common salt, while forming with that water a dry hydrate which will again part
DQ11

page_text: with its water in a gaseous form instead of in a liquid form. The result is that
the moisture of the atmosphere instead of combining with the common salt com-
bines with the other salt when the air is damp, and that other salt gives out
gaseous water to the air when the air is dry. Such a salt is carbonate of magnesia,
anhydrous it is a crystalline powder, hydrous it is a dry amorphous or crystalline
powder, the anhydrous salt being able to accrete to itself five molecules of water
(HO) without becoming sufficiently moist to cake together. In practice I use
about 2% of carbonate of magnesia to 98 % of chloride of sodium. By this inven-
tion the chloride of sodium is rendered less absorbent making it more fine and free
and preventing it becoming caked and hardened. I am aware that it has been
proposed already to add the chloride of sodium and a complicated addition of
numerous salts for a substantially similar purpose. Some of these salts are very
deleterious, others are practically useless. My invention differs from these in that
I am enabled to use a single cheap neutral innocuous salt instead of a mixture of
a large number of salts, some of them noxious and others used, primarily useless
for the purposes described, but only added from their effect or supposed effect on
other salts in the mixture.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is :-
The improvement in salt for dietetic purposes substantially as herein described
whereby by the admixture with it of a single innocuous salt, the chloride of
sodium is capable of being kept dry and pulverulent when exposed to the air in
ordinary English weather.
1000
this 2nd day of December 1898.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Patent Agents, of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham & London.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Patent Agents, of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham & London.