IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING PYRITES AND OTHER MATTERS TO OBTAIN SULPHUR, SULPHUROUS ACID, AND OTHER PRODUCTS
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
FARMER, of Gunnersbury House, near Acton, in the County of Middlesex,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-fifth day of February, in the third year of Her reign, did
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Farmer, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and authority, that I,
the said Thomas Farmer, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Thomas Farmer, my exors, admors, 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 TREATING PYRITES AND OTHER MATTERS TO OBTAIN
SULPHUR, SULPHUROUS ACID, AND OTHER PRODUCTS;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that I, the said Thomas Farmer, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I the said
Thomas Farmer, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say)-
.
My Invention consists of treating pyrites or other substances containing
sulphur in a state of combination, by causing them to burn in a furnace of the
description delineated in the Drawing, by means of which they are burnt
without the aid of fuel, so as to disengage the sulphur which they contain in
its simple state of sulphur or in the form of sulphurous acid gas. The furnace
having been heated in the first instance with coals or with burning pyrites
from a previous operation, is afterwards fed with pyrites introduced into the
doorway marked (A), which is then closed as is also the doorway (B) at the
back of the furnace; and the combustion is sustained by the admission of
atmospheric air by one or other of these doorways, as is found to be
necessary for the more or less perfect combination of the oxygen of the air
with the burning materials or with the disengaged gas. In proportion as the
burning pyrites runs into a clinker, which occurs after it has remained for
some minutes at a red heat, it is taken out at the front door (A) by the help
of a poker and rake, and a fresh charge of pyrites is introduced upon that
portion which has not clinkered. The second range of bars or grating (C) re-
ceives the small pieces of pyrites which, in charging or otherwise, pass between
the upper bars undecomposed, and then they continue to burn till it is deemed
necessary to remove the residuum as well as that which is collected in the
ash hole beneath at D.
The sulphurous acid gas, after passing through a pipe at the top of the
furnace, is received into a leaden chamber and treated in the same manner as
sulphurous acid gas obtained from the combustion of sulphur in the ordinary
process for obtaining sulphuric acid. The small openings in the doors are
used as well to observe the operation as to admit air when required.
When it is designed to obtain sulphur rather than sulphurous acid gas the
doorway (A) must be entirely closed except for the introduction of the charges
of pyrites, and only sufficient atmospheric air must be admitted by the door-
way (B) to sustain a slow combustion, the sulphur being collected in the lead
chamber which is connected with the furnace by means of the pipe on the top
of the latter; the occasional admission of vapour produced by water evaporated
from the ash hole (D) facilitates the sublimation of the sulphur. The clinker