IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE SULPHATE OF SODA
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LAURENCE
Rowe, of Brentford, in the County of Middlesex, Soap Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixteenth day of April, in the second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Laurence Rowe, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Laurence Rowe, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such
others as 1, the said Laurence Rowe, my exors, admiors, 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 expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE SULPHATE
OF SODA;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the
said Laurence Rowe, shall cause a particular description of the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
iurolled in Her 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
Laurence Rowe, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
he manner in which the same is to be performed and carried into effect, is
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
hereof (that is to say):-

page_text: My Invention consists in a mode of applying water to the condensation of
the muriatic and any other deleterious gases produced in the manufacture of
sulphate of soda that can thus be acted upon in their course through flues or
passages from the decomposing furnaces to the chimney. My mode consists
of a fluc leading from the furnace to the chimney over a channel, through
which the water which has been used in purifying falls and passes away,
sufficient space being allowed for the free course of the gases in the flue above
the water in the channel; this flue, at the end of a convenient distance, ascends
to the height of sixteen feet, or any other height adapted to the scale of the
works, and thence descends through a series of alternately ascending and
descending chambers, forming one continued flue, which in each successive
chamber is alternately closed at the top or at the bottom; at the top by the
junction of the brick or stone work of which the flue may be built with the
roof of the flue, and at the bottom by the water in the channel which is made
to rise above a hole or arch through which it passes, but is banked high
enough to prevent the escape of the gases through the same holes. These
ascending and descending chambers in the flue are as numerous as the extent
of the works may require; those which I have successfully used were four
ascending and four descending chambers, the height of each sixteen feet, and
the width of the chambers two feet for the purification of the products of six
furnaces and decomposing thirteen tons of salt per week. The escape of the
gases into the chimney can only take place after in passing through these
chambers they have been exposed to my means of purification.
In order to purify the gases by separating and condensing those which are
deleterious in the course of their passage through these chambers, I place a
vessel or tank of water over or above the top of the flue, with its bottom
sufficiently high above the top of the flue to give full effect by height to the
pressure of the water which is made to pass through pipes down to the bottom
of the chambers, where their ends or nozzles are turned up, and whence the
water issues in a jet or fountain, which, by the pressure of the tank or head
water which is kept constantly supplied, forces the jets to the top or nearly
the top of the chambers; in its ascent it breaks, and is greatly divided, and
falls back again through the current of gases which pass through the chambers
of the flue. These pipes may be brought down either within or without the
chambers; if within, they should be of glazed earthenware, or some material
not readily acted upon by the acid gases. The size and form of the nozzle of
the jet pipe may be round, or any other that will the most effectually break
and disperse the particles of water, yet eject it to the top of the chamber,
thence it returns in a light shower and falls or drips to the bottom, when it

page_text: will have twice passed through the gases in the flue, and presented so large a
surface of particles as to cause the condensation of the deleterious gases, and
bear them down to the channel at the bottom, where the water, having done
its work of purification, flows off.
I have also invented and employed with success the simple admission of
water at the top through a series of short pipes from the tank into the top of
each chamber of the flue, and cach being fitted to a stink trap to prevent the
escape of the gas; through these pipes the water descended into the chambers,
and falling upon some oblique wards, keep them wet and dripping, and thus
increases the wet surface for the purification of the gas; but the advantage
which I gain by the improvement which I have above described is that of the
double action of the water up and down each chamber, thereby greatly
increasing and facilitating the purification of the gases at no greater cost than
the purification by a single or descending course only.
In witness whereof, I, the said Laurence Rowe, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.