IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE
Year: 1875

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."
Sealed the 20th July 1875, and dated the 1st June 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Deacon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st June 1875.
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:
This Invention relates to the manufacture of chlorine by what is
known as Deacon's process, in which heated currents of hydrochloric
acid gas (usually that obtained in the manufacture of sulphate of soda)
mixed with air are passed over heated porous substances such as burnt
clay, burnt pyrites, or the like, which substances are impregnated with

page_text: chemical substances, such as sulphate of copper and with others which
I have in my former Specifications termed active substances, and this
Invention consists in employing purifying materials or agents in order
to free the hydrochloric acid gas employed for the before mentioned
purpose from the whole or from the greater proportion of the sulphuric
acid which the hydrochloric acid may contain, the separation of the
sulphuric acid from the hydrochloric acid gas may be effected either by
washing the said hydrochloric acid gas with aqueous hydrochloric acid,
or by passing the hydrochloric acid gas at an elevated temperature
through a mass of heated chlorides, such for example as common salt,
the object being to effect the absorption of the sulphuric acid contained
in the gas without any loss or material diminution in the quantity of
the hydrochloric acid therein contained.
When using aqueous hydrochloric acid to wash the hydrochloric acid
gas I employ an ordinary "condenser," made of stone and filled with
flints, bricks, or the like, and pass streams of the aqueous acid and of
the hydrochloric acid gas through the same as when "condensing "
hydrochloric acid in the ordinary way except that the condenser should
be kept warm in order to keep the hydrochloric acid gas in a gaseous
condition, whilst at the same time effecting the entire or partial
condensation of the sulphuric acid.
When passing the hydrochloric acid gas through heated masses of
chlorides, such as common salt, I place the chlorides in a solid and in
a disintegrated form in suitable apparatus, which may be of cast iron
to which heat can be applied, and I also heat the hydrochloric acid
(which may be effected by passing it through heated cast-iron pipes),
and the chlorides and the gas when brought in contact should have such
a temperature as that the decomposition of the chlorides shall be effected
by any sulphuric acid gas which may be present.
The aqueous bydrochloric acid employed as a purifying agent in the
one case, and the heated chlorides in the other, may be used until the
aqueous acid become practically saturated with sulphuric acid, and the
chlorides be converted into sulphates.
The purifying apparatus may be used in series, the impure hydro-
chloric acid gas first entering the piece of apparatus which contains the
purifying materials (aqueous hydrochloric acid, or chlorides, as the case

page_text: may be) in the most nearly saturated condition, and lastly leaving the
piece of purifying apparatus which contains the fresh purifying
materials.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,-
filed by the said Henry Deacon in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 30th November 1875.
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 First day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth 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, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Deacon, my 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 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 administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Scal 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 :-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of chlorine by what is
known as Deacon's process, in which heated currents of hydrochloric

page_text: acid gas (usually that obtained in the manufacture of sulphate of soda)
mixed with air are passed over heated porous substances such as burnt
clay, burnt pyrites, or the like, which substances are impregnated with
chemical substances such as sulphate of copper, and with others which
I have in my former Specifications termed active substances, and this
Invention consists in employing purifying materials or agents in order
to free the hydrochloric acid gas employed for the before-mentioned
purpose from the whole or from the greater proportion of the sulphuric
acid which the hydrochloric acid may contain, the separation of the
sulphuric acid from the hydrochloric acid gas may be effected either by
washing the said hydrochloric acid gas with aqueous hydrochloric acid,
or by passing the hydrochloric acid gas at an elevated temperature
through a mass of heated chloride, such for example as common salt,
the object being to effect the absorption of the sulphuric acid contained
in the gas without any loss or material diminution in the quantity of
the hydrochloric acid therein contained.
"
The purifying agent or material I prefer to employ is aqueous
hydrochloric acid, and the impure hydrochloric acid gas may be washed
therewith in an ordinary condenser made of stone, and filled with flints,
bricks, or the like, with streams of the aqueous acid and of the impure
hydrochloric acid gas passing through the same as when "condensing
hydrochloric acid in the ordinary way, except that the condenser should
be kept warm in order to keep the hydrochloric acid gas in a gaseous
condition, whilst at the same time effecting the entire or partial
condensation of the sulphuric acid, and if the washing acid and gases
have a temperature of about 225° Fahrenheit the uncondensed hydro-
chloric acid gas can be practically washed free from sulphuric acid.
It is evident that if vapour of water be present in the gases it and
hydrochloric acid gas will be condensed together as aqueous hydro-
chloric acid when the temperature falls, and the aqueous hydrochloric
acid thus produced may be employed in this process of washing; and
if this cooling and consequent condensation and production of aqueous
hydrochloric acid takes place in the upper part of a " condenser," as the
aqueous acid descends in the condenser, it will " pro tanto" wash the
hydrochloric acid gas in contact with it.
Although I prefer to employ aqueous hydrochloric acid as above
described, yet it may sometimes be thought desirable to employ a heated

page_text: impure hydrochloric acid gas to the action of aqueous hydrochloric
acid in the manner herein-before described.
Second. Effecting the separation of sulphuric acid from hydrochloric
acid gas when the same is to be employed for the production of chlorine
in the manner herein mentioned and referred to, by submitting such
impure hydrochloric acid gas to the action of alkaline or earthy
chlorides, such for example as chloride of sodium, at an elevated
temperature in the manner herein-before described.
'
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Deacon, have to this my
Specification, set my hand and seal, the Thirtieth day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
HENRY DEACON. (L.S.)