IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SULPHUR, SULPHURIC ACID, AND SULPHATE OF SODA
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
FRANCOIS JOSEPH DUCLOS, of Clyne Wood Works, Swansea, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seat of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eleventh day of July, in the third year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Edward
Francois Joseph Duclos, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Edward Francois Joseph Duclos, my exors, admors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward Francois Joseph Duclos, my
exors, adñiors, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SULPHUR, SULPHURIC ACID, AND SULPHATE OF
SODA;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said
Edward Francois Joseph Duclos, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled 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
Edward Francois Joseph Duclos, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention,

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention relates, first, to certain modes of manufacturing sulphur;
secondly, to a mode of manufacturing sulphuric acid; and, thirdly, to a mode
of manufacturing sulphate of soda.
And in order to give the best information in my power, I will proceed to
describe the processes as pursued by me.
The first part of my Invention relates to a mode of treating pyrites in order
to obtain sulphur therefrom, and having described the process of obtaining
sulphur which constitutes one mode of obtaining sulphur, I will for the con-
venience of description proceed with the treatment of part of the products of
such first process in order to obtain sulphuric acid according to the second
part of my Invention. I will then describe the other mode of manufacturing
sulphur, included under the first part of my Invention. And I will then
describe the mode of manufacturing of sulphate of soda, constituting the third
part of my Invention.
In treating pyrites according to the first part of my Invention, a portion
of the sulphur is distilled therefrom by placing the pyrites into retorts such
as I have described in my former Patent for treating copper ores in order
to obtain a portion of sulphur therefrom, such retorts consisting of fire-
clay, which are capable of being closed air-tight at both ends, when the
pyrites are under the process of distillation, by heat externally applied to the
retorts, there being a tube or eduction pipe leading from each retort, and
dipping into a trough or other vessel containing water, by which means the
vapours of sulphur distilled off and produced from the pyrites, will be condensed
and received into the trough or other vessel placed for such purpose, the
quantity of sulphur so distilled over being generally about fourteen per cent.
The pyrites in the retorts are then submitted to the process of roasting or
calcining, either in such retorts by admitting atmospheric air, or the pyrites
being removed from the retorts are to be heated in reverberatory furnaces
according to the more general mode of making copperas, until this product
from the retorts is converted into protosulphate of iron, which is to be
converted by further process of roasting into a persulphate of iron completely
deprived of the water of crystalization, and is again to be treated by a further
process of distillation at a high temperature; and I perform this process of
distillation in fire-clay retorts, carefully excluding the atmospheric air, and by
such process of distillation, I obtain highly concentrated sulphuric acid, which
is condensed in any suitable vessel or receiver.
I will now proceed to describe the second mode of manufacturing sulphur,

page_text: which consists of bringing sulphurous acid gas.and sulphuretted bydrogen gas
together, and by such means obtain sulphur. I would remark that there are
many processes in manufactures where sulphurous acid gas is evolved, such as
calcining or roasting copper ores, and such is the case in pursuing like pro-
cesses on other ores, and there are many processes where sulphuretted
hydrogen gas is evolved, as is well understood. And in many processes such
gases are evolved into the atmosphere and lost, particularly the sulphurous
acid gas, and the object of my Invention is to carry on suitable process for
evolving these gases, in order to take advantage of the gases so evolved, and
although I make no claim to any such processes separately where such gases
are evolved, I shall give such a description of two processes of manufacture as
will fully explain the nature and object of this part of the Invention, which, as
before stated, consists in bringing these gases together, in whatever processes
they are separately evolved, and by their mutual decomposition produce
sulphur therefrom. Thus I will suppose that I am calcining copper or
zinc, or other ores containing sulphur, and I prefer that the process of
calcination should be in retorts as the products of combustion of the fuel
employed are thereby separated from the products evolved from the ores, and
it is well known that in such process of calcination, much sulphurous acid
gas is evolved, and I cause such gases to be conveyed by suitable pipes
from the retorts into a vessel such as is employed in the manufacture of
sulphuric acid, and at the same time a quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen is
also admitted, and jets of steam, the bottom of the vessel or chamber being
covered with water. By this means sulphur will be thrown down, and the
proportions of the respective gases which should be admitted as nearly as
possible most beneficially to carry on this process are, two voluins of
sulphuretted bydrogen to one volum of sulphurous acid gas. And the
mode by which I obtain sulphuretted hydrogen is by treating metallic
sulphurets with muriatic acid; and I perform this operation in wooden
vessels lined with lead, having steam pipes of lead at the bottom to heat
the metallic sulphurets; and I pour in muriatic acid, which sulphuretted
hydrogen is evolved, and the metallic sulphurets will be converted into
chlorides; and the same are removed, and fresh sulphurets supplied. But
I would have it understood, as before stated, that such process forms no
part of the Invention as claimed under this Patent, nor do I confine myself
thereto. And I have only mentioned these modes of obtaining the required
gases as one means of carrying out my Invention, which relates to the so
treating such gases as by their mutual decomposition to produce sulphur,
from whatever source produced; the above modes being applicable to those

page_text: classes of manufacture where.metallic ores require calcining and smelting.
And there is another manufacture, amongst others, to which this part of my
Invention is particularly applicable, that is, in the manufacture of carbonates
of soda or potash, in which manufacture it is well known that much sulphur
is thrown into the atmosphere, and much of the sulphur is taken by the lime,
and thrown away as refuse. The process I employ for evolving sulphuretted
hydrogen is to cause carbonic acid to pass through a concentrated solution of
sulphuret of soda or potash, which I put into any suitable vessel, and force
streams of carbonic acid gas through the same, by which bicarbonate of soda
will be made, and sulphuretted hydrogen evolved, which, being brought in
contact with sulphurous acid gas produced in any way, will be the means of
obtaining the sulphur evolved in the form of those gases from the different
processes. And this process I prefer to accomplish by using the apparatus
generally known as Woolf's apparatus. And again I would remark that I
lay no claim to the process of evolving sulphuretted hydrogen or making
bicarbonate of soda by such means. And in such cases, where the products
of calcining copper and other ores are washed with water, the water may be
first used to wash the vapours of processes producing sulphuretted hydrogen,
and thus by saturating the water with sulphuretted hydrogen, such water being
used to condense and wash the vapours of calcining copper and other ores,
will be the means of depositing the sulphur respectively contained in the
gases.
I will now describe the third part of my Invention, which relates to the
decomposition of common salt by means of sulphate of protoxide of iron
(copperas). And I perform this part of the Invention by mixing these two
salts in a pulverized state, according to their equivalents, and submit these
mixed salts to a heat of about eighty degrees to one hundred degrees of
Fahrenheit for three or four days, and then submit such materials, to a red
heat in a reverberatory furnace, by which I obtain hydrochloric acid, peroxide
of iron, and sulphate of soda; the two latter are separated by solution, the
first is evolved.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I would have it
understood that what I claim is,-
First, the mode of manufacturing sulphur from pyrites as above described.
Secondly, the mode of manufacturing sulphur, by bringing sulphurous acid
gas and sulphuretted hydrogen gas together, by their mutual decomposition
producing sulphur.'
Thirdly, I claim the mode of manufacturing sulphuric acid, as above

page_text: And, fourthly, I claim the mode of manufacturing sulphate of soda, as
above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Francois Joseph Duclos, have
hereunto set my haud and seal, this Eleventh day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty.