A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS OR PROCESSES FOR OBTAINING, PREPARING, OR MANUFACTURING THE FOSSILE OR MINERAL ALKALI FROM VARIOUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HODSON, of the City of Chester, Ash Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS. His present Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of
February last past, hath given and granted unto me, the said George Hodson;
my executors, administrators, and assigns, special licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, to make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,. Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, during the term of years therein expressed,"
my Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS OR PROCESSES FOR OBTAINING,
PREPARING, OR MANUFACTURING THE FOSSILE OR MINERAL ALKALI FROM VARIOUS
SUBSTANCES;" in which said. Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said George Hodson, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
(relation being thereunto had) more fully and at large appears.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Hodson, in compliance with the
said proviso, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in the following description, and in the Drawing or section here-
unto annexed; that is to say:

page_text: I obtain, prepare, or manufacture the fossile or mineral alkali from kelp
soza, the caput mortuums produced from the use of salt rock, common salt
brine, sea water, from black ashes, natron salts produced from the sopers' lye
from salt rock, common salt, brine, sea water, and sopers' spent lyc, in the
following manner:-In order to obtain the mineral alkali from the salt con-
tained in the kelp, I take about two hundred and a half weight of kelp,
previously bruised or ground small, one hundred and a half weight of
soapers' waste ashes, and one hundredweight of tanners' waste bark, and
mix them well together. I then pour over them water or soapers' spent
lye sufficient to moisten the whole mass. In this state they are thrown
into a reverberating furnace of the construction represented in the annexed
Drawing or section, or of any other construction properly adapted to make
the flame reverberate upon the materials, which are thrown in by the
entrance E, and spread regularly on the bottom of the furnace by means of an
iron rake A, or any similar instrument. At intervals of about ten minutes the
whole mass should be stirred, and the several parts thereof successively brought
to the surface, that they may receive more strongly the action of the rever-
berating flame. At every such interval two or three spadesfull of tanners'
waste bark, and two or three gallons of water, are thrown into the furnace on
the top of the materals, and regularly mixed with them. I pursue this
process until about ten buckets of water, and about three hundredweight of
tanners' bark, are introduced into the furnace. By this means the materials
are preserved in a state resembling garden soil. Throughout the whole ope-
ration a strong and regular heat is kept up, and in about four hours the
materials will begin to flux on the top, and in five or six hours the whole mass
will be fluxed. In this state, after it has been well stirred with the rake, it
must be drawn out of the furnace, and when cold broken up for use. To
obtain the mineral alkali from soza and the caput mortuums before men-
tioned, or others of a similar nature, I proceed exactly in the same way as
described above respecting kelp. To obtain the mineral alkali from the salt
in black ashes, I take of them two hundredweight, first ground small, which
Ldissole_in_water_or_soapers_spent lyc. I take two hundredweight and a
half of soapers waste ashes, and one hundredweight and a half of tanners'
waste bark, and mix them intimately together. They are then moistened
throughout with the lixivium made of the black ashes, and thrown into the
furnace. Afterwards I proceed as in the case of kelp, excepting that I sub-
stitute this lixivium in the place of water, which is thrown into the furnace
with the bark before each stirring of the materials, until the whole lixivium is
used. I then employ water, as described above with respect to kelp. I

page_text: proceed precisely in the same way in obtaining the mineral alkali from the
natron, and also from salts produced from soapers' spent lye, excepting that
the lixivium in the latter instance is made with two hundred and a half
instead of two hundredweight of the salts. To obtain the mineral alkali from
salt rock and common salt, I take two hundredweight of either of them, and
one hundredweight of black ashes, or the same quantity of salts obtained
from soapers' spent lye. I add the soapers' waste ashes or lime and the waste
bark, and then proceed exactly as I do with kelp. To obtain the mineral
alkali from brine and sea water, I evaporate them until they yield their salt,
with one hundredweight of which I mix the same quantity of black ashes or
of salts produced from soapers' lye. I then add the soapers' waste ashes,
tanners' bark, water, or spent lye, and proceed as with the kelp, &c. To
obtain the mineral alkali from sopers' spent lye, I evaporate it until it is
strongly impregnated with salt, and then proceed as with the lixivium made
of black ashes. In each of these cases the process will take up about six
hours. To improve kelp in the first manufacture of it, and so render it more
fit for producing the mineral or fossile alkali, or for any of the uses to which
kelp is applied, I intermix the watre or sea weed with bean, pea, vitch, or
any kind of straw, together with fern, furze, broom, with any other vegetable
substances, all well dried previously to their being put in the kiln.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Hodson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and two.
Taken and acknowledged by the said
George Hodson, at the City of
Edinburgh, this Thirteenth day of
August, One thousand eight hun-
GEORGE HODSON. (L.S.)
James Robertson, of York Place, Edinburgh, Writer, maketh oath and
saith, that he was present, and did see George Hodson, of the City of Chester,
Ash Manufacturer, duly take and acknowledge the Specification hereunto
annexed, before Richard Bannatine, Esquire, one of the magistrates of the
City of Edinburgh, and that the names George Hodson and Richard

page_text: of the proper handwriting of the said George Hodson and
Bannatine are, of the proper
Richard Bannatine,- Esquire..
Sworn before me, this Thirteenth day 1
of August; One thousand eight
hundred and.two.
.
JAS ROBERTSON,
+