IMPROVEMENTS IF THE Manufacture of CHLORINE
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Deacon, of Appleton House, Widnes, in
the County of Lancaster, Alkali Manufacturer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IF THE Manufacture of CHLORINE."
Sealed the 18th July 1875, and dated the 25th May 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Deacon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th May 1875.
I, HENRY DEACON, of Appleton House, Widnes, in the County of
3 Lancaster, Alkali Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of my
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE," to be
as follows:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of chlorine by what is
known as Deacon's process, and which is produced when heated hydro-
O chloric acid gas and air are passed over heated porous substances
impregnated with a salt of copper, and consists in the addition to the

page_text: salts of copper with which the porous substances are to be impregnated,
of magnesia or one of its salts, or instead of employing such before
referred to porous substances I use a porous substance containing
magnesia or a salt thereof in material quantity as one of its natural
constituents. For example, in conjunction with salts of copper, sulphate
of magnesia may be employed, instead of or in addition to the sulphate
of soda or of potash referred to in the Specification of an Invention for
which Letters Patent were granted to me for "Improvements in the
Manufacture of Chlorine, and which are numbered 505, and dated
11 February 1873. But the effect produced by magnesia and its salts 1
and by bodies of the same chemical nature or clay is essentially different
from the effect produced by soda and its salts and bodies of the same
chemical nature in so far that bodies of the magnesia class promote or
accelerate the formation of chloride of copper, and bodies of the soda
class hinder or retard its formation. Barium is a body of the magnesia 1
class, but I prefer magnesia, and in the Specification of Letters Patent
before referred to I have shewn the similarity of the effect both of soda
and of potash, which is a body of the same chemical nature or class as
soda; or a mineral in a divided condition, for example, magnesite, may
be employed instead of the porous pieces of burnt clay referred to in the
Specification of an Invention for which Letters Patent were granted to
me for "Improvements in the Manufacture of Chlorine, and which are
numbered 1403, and dated 29 April 1868.
The porous materials impregnated with the copper and magnesium
salts or the natural magnesian product or mineral, such for example, as
magnesite after impregnation with a salt of copper may be employed in
the manner set forth in the Specifications before referred to, or in any
modification of such apparatus or process.
Instead of employing salts or compounds of magnesia alone in con-
junction with salts of copper, a salt or compound of barium or other {
element of like chemical nature may be employed with the salts of
copper either alone or in conjunction with magnesia or with the salts of
magnesium.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Deacon in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 23rd November 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
DEACON, of Appleton House, Widnes, in the County of Lancaster,
Alkali Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
`Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the 38th
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Henry Deacon, Her special license that I, the
said Henry Deacon, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Henry Deacon, my executors, administrators,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter 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 THE MANufacture of
CHLORINE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry
Deacon, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Deacon, 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, that is to say:-
The said Invention relates to the manufacture of chlorine by what is
known as Deacon's process, and which is produced when heated hydro-
chloric acid gas is passed over heated porous substances impregnated
with a salt of copper, and consists in the addition to the salts of copper
with which the porous substances are to be impregnated of magnesia or
one of its salts, or instead of employing such before referred to porous
substances I use a porous substance containing magnesia or a salţ

page_text: thereof in material quantity as one of its natural constituents. For
example, in conjunction with salts of copper sulphate of magnesia may
be employed instead of or in addition to the sulphate of soda or of
potash referred to in the Specification of an Invention for which Letters
Patent were granted to me for "Improvements in the Manufacture of i
Chlorine, and which are numbered 505, and dated Eleventh February
Ono thousand eight hundred and seventy-three. But the effect produced
by magnesia in conjunction with salts of copper is essentially different
from the effect produced by soda and its salts and bodies of the same
chemical nature in so far that bodies of the magnesia class promote or
accelerate the formation of chloride of copper, and bodies of the soda
class hinder or retard its formation. Barium is a body of the magnesia
class, but I prefer magnesia, and in the Specification of Letters Patent
before referred to I have shewn the similarity of the effect both of soda
and of potash (which latter body is of the same chemical nature or class
'as soda); or a magnesian product or mineral in a divided condition, for
example, magnesite may be employed instead of the porous pieces of
burnt clay referred to in the Specification of an Invention for which
Letters Patent were granted to me for "Improvements in the Manu-
facture of Chlorine, and which are numbered 1403, and dated Twenty-
ninth April, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
The porous materials impregnated with tho copper, together with
magnesian salts, or with the natural magnesian product or mineral, such
for example as magnesite after impregnation with a salt of copper, may
be employed in the manner set forth in the Specification before referred
to, or in any modification of such apparatus or process as is therein
described.
Instead of employing salts or compounds of magnesia alone in conjunc-
tion with salts of copper, a salt or compound of barium or other element
of like chemical nature may be employed with the salts of copper, either
alone in conjunction with magnesia, or with the salts of magnesium,
may be employed for impregnating the porous substances herein
referred to.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that I do not claim
the use of heated mixtures, or compounds of manganese and mag-
nesium, or their oxides, but what I consider to be novel and original

page_text: and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before
in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The employment in and for the production of chlorine of porous
substances impregnated with salts or compounds of magnesia in con-
junction with salts or compounds of copper in the manner and for the
purpose herein-before described.
Second. The employment in and for the production of chlorine of
natural magnesian minerals or products, the same being impregnated
with salts of copper, and employed in the manner and for the purposes
herein referred to.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Deacon, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of
November One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five..
TONDY ADILCOV