IMPROVEMENTS IN OXIDISING ALCOHOLS AND OTHER SIMILAR MATTER OR FLUIDS, WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS CAN BE EMPLOYED FOR PRODUCING CONCENTRATED ACID A
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Thomas Hughes. at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th February 1883.
Communicated to him from abroad by David Sandmann of the Town of
Charlottenburg in the Kingdom of Prussia and German Empire.
EDWARD THOMAS HUGHES of the firm of Hugbes and Son, Patent Agents,
5 Chancery Lane, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN OXIDISING ALCOHOLS AND OTHER
SIMILAR MATTER OR FLUIDS, WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS CAN BE EMPLOYED FOR
PRODUCING CONCENTRATED ACID A communication to me from abroad by
David Sandmann of the Town of Charlottenburg in the Kingdom of Prussia and
German Empire.
"
This Invention relates to improvements in oxidising alcohols and other similar
matter or fluids which said improvements can be employed for producing concentrated
acetic acid, and is based upon the well known fact, that alcohol by the action of
oxygen or ozone becomes oxidised to acetic acid.
This method has up to now not been realized on a large scale on account of the
large developement of other products of oxidation, such as aldehyde and ether,
which occur at the expense of the formation of acetic acid besides which an ignition
of the other substances consequent upon the heat produced by the oxidation often
took place.
I have succeeded in inventing a system by means of which alcohol, aldehyde,
acids, their intermediate products as well as all oxidisable fluids, which have
different boiling points at different stages of the process may be oxidised with
advantage
For the purpose of oxidation I transform the fluids to vapour or steam and then
conduct ozone, oxygen, or a mixture or composition containing oxygen to the same,
for instance, in the presence of platinum or other suitable absorbents which carry
oxygen, or electricity with simultaneous cooling in order to prevent the danger of
ignition.
I separate the products of oxidation thus formed by means of their various
boiling points. This I do by condensing the vapours which are not sufficiently
operated upon, the boiling points of which are higher than the boiling point of the
desired product-After this I conduct them back to be again converted to steam
and to be again operated on.

page_text: At the same time the product which is desired to be obtained and which
possesses a lower boiling point and cannot be condensed with the same degree of
coolness is conducted into a separate condenser and cooled and collected in a
suitable receptacle.
If on the other hand the boiling point of the desired product is higher than that
of the other products which are produced in the course of the process, a temperature
below that of the boiling point of the desired product is maintained in the
apparatus. By this means that fluid only whose boiling point is lower than the
temperature in the apparatus is converted to steam and operated on as described.
The vapours passing off without being operated on are oxidised as far as possible
in other cylinders and those vapours which are not properly operated on are
conducted back into the apparatus-At the end of the process the desired product
remains in the apparatus.
The operation can, with the apparatus constructed by me be continued without
interruption or after the necessary alterations have been made, an ordinary tower
apparatus can be employed for this process.