IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHOSPHATES AND OTHER SUBSTANCES CONTAINING ALUMINA, AND OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Townsend, of Glasgow; in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHOSPHATES AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
CONTAINING ALUMINA, AND OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM."
"
Sealed the 13th February 1872, and dated the 29th August 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Townsend
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 29th August 1871.
I, JOSEPH TOWNSEND, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PHOSPHATES AND OTHER
SUBSTANCES CONTAINING ALUMINA, AND OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM," to be
as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object to utilise and obtain valuable
products from phosphates and other substances containing alumina; and
it consists, in the first place, in treating the said substances with
hydrochloric acid; and, secondly, in subsequently applying improved

page_text: processes to obtain alum and other products, which processes are
applicable either when the original substance has been treated with
hydrochloric acid, or when it has been treated with sulphuric acid.
In treating one hundred pounds of a phosphate, such as what is
known as Rodondo phosphate, and containing, for example, about 40 per 5
centum of phosphoric acid and 20 per centum of alumina, 43 pounds
hydrochloric acid are added, producing chloride of aluminium and phos-
phoric acid, which is by preference allowed to settle or is filtered; then
23 pounds sulphate of ammonia, or 35% pounds sulphate of potash are
alded, and 83% pounds sulphate of soda, or instead of the latter 1
70% pounds sulphate of magnesia, producing alum which can be
separated by well-known means. The mother liquors will contain
principally phosphoric acid, which may be utilised by the means
described in the Specification of Letters Patent obtained by the present
applicant, and dated 14 April 1871 (No. 995).
1
By a modification of the processes the Rodondo or similar phosphate
is treated with 47 pounds sulphuric acid, thereby producing sulphate of
alumina and phosphoric acid, to which are added 29 pounds chloride
of potassium and 28 pounds sulphate of soda, or instead of the latter
23% pounds sulphate of magnesia, producing alum. The alum can be 2
separated by well-known means, and the mother liquor be treated as
described in the carlier Specification herein-before referred to.
In a similar way bauxite or similar substances containing alumina
and little or no phosphoric acid are by this Invention to be treated with
hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, and subsequently by any of the other 2
processes herein-before described for obtaining alum; or the chloride
of aluminium or sulphate of alumina may be sold or used as such
without being converted into alum.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Townsend in the Great Seal Patent Office 30
on the 14th February 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
TOWNSEND, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Manufacturing Chemist, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of August, in the year
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give:
and grant unto me, the said Joseph Townsend, Her special licence
that I; the said Joseph Townsend, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Townsend, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no
others, from time to time and at all times thercafter 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
TREATING PHOSPHATES AND OTHER SUBSTANCES CONTAINING ALUMINA, AND
OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM," upon the condition (amongst others) that
5 I; the said Joseph Townsend, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, 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 Seal Patent Office within six
O calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent..
NOW KNOW YE,- that I, the said Joseph Townsend, 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 in writing, that is to say:-
1.
My said Invention has for its object to utilise and obtain valuable
products from phosphates and other substances containing alumina; and
it consists, in the first place, in treating the said substances with hydro-
chloric acid, or with a suitable chloride yielding similar results; and.
▸ secondly, in subsequently applying improved processes to obtain alum.
and other products, which processes are applicable either when the
original substance has been treated with hydrochloric acid or a chloride,
or when it has been treated with sulphuric acid.
İn treating one hundred pounds of a phosphate 'such as what is
known as Rodondo phosphate, and containing, for example, about 40 per
centum of phosphoric acid and 20 per centum of alumina, 43 pounds
hydrochloric acid aro added, producing chloride of aluminium and phos-

page_text: '
phoric acid, which is by preference allowed to settle or is filtered; or the
chloride of aluminium may be obtained by heating a dry mixture of one
hundred pounds of the phosphate with 69 pounds chloride of sodium
and 16 pounds soda, or with 87' pounds ehloride of potassium and 25
pounds potash. The chloride of aluminium is volatilised, and may bo 5
condensed or collected, leaving phosphate of soda or of potash; which
may be converted into the phosphate of lime, of magnesia, of baryta,
or of strontia by adding the corresponding earth, such phosphate being
precipitated and leaving soda or potash in solution.
By another modification of my process, I form chloride of aluminium 1
by heating a dry mixture of 100 pounds of the phosphate with 67
pounds chloride of calcium, 13 pounds lime, or with 55½ pounds
chloride of magnesium, forming at the same time phosphate of lime or
of magnesia. To the chloride of aluminium, either mixed with phos-
phoric acid or alone, I add 23 pounds sulphate of ammonia or 35.1
pounds sulphate of potash, and 83% pounds sulphate of soda, or instead
of the latter, 70% pounds sulphate of magnesia, producing alum, which
can be separated by well-known means.
When the mother liquors contain phosphoric acid this may be utilised
by the means described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to 2
me, and dated 14 April 1871 (No. 995).
By a further modification of my processes the Rodondo or similar
phosphato is treated with 47 pounds sulphuric acid, thereby producing
sulphate of alumina and phosphoric acid, to which are added 29%
pounds chloride of potassium and 28 pounds sulphate of soda, or instead
of the latter, 23% pounds sulphate of magnesia, producing alum. Tho
alum can be separated by well-known means, and the mother liquor be
treated as described in my earlier Specification herein-before referred to.
In a similar way bauxite or similar substances containing alumina
and little or no phosphoric acid, are by my present Invention to be
treated with hydrochloric or sulphuric acid, and subsequently by any
of the other processes- herein-before described for obtaining alum; or the
chloride of aluminium may be sold or used as such without being
converted into alum.
2
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the s
manner of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict
myself to the precise details herein described, but that what I believe to

page_text: be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by.
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,—
1. The treating of phosphates and other substances containing
alumina with hydrochloric acid or a suitable chloride, as and for the
purposes herein-before described.