IMPROVE MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DECOMPOSING AND SUPERHEATING LIQUIDS VAPOURS, AND GASES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT
to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DECOMPOSING AND SUPERHEATING LIQUIDS
VAPOURS, AND GASES."-A communication from abroad by Gustave Renard,
of St. Ouen, and Amedee Lipman, of Paris, both in the Empire of
Dance
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd October 1865.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DECOMPOSING AND SUPERHEATING LIQUIDS,
VAPOURS AND GASES," to be as follows:-
The apparatus consists of one or more tubes of metal or other substance
capable of resisting more or less high temperature, and containing inside
fragments of material with or without action upon the liquids, vapours, or
gases placed in contact with them. The chief use for the apparatus is the
production of oxygen by the decomposition of sulphuric acid. I take, for
Price 8d1

page_text: example, three or four lengths of tubes of cast iron, place them vertically, and'
connect them by bends so as to form a continuous tube, and place the tubes
in a furnace or heating chamber. I fill the tube with silex or sand, and intro-
duce an inlet and an outlet pipe through luted stoppers at the ends of
the apparatus. The inlet pipe is in communication with a reservoir or other
supply containing sulphuric acid, while the outlet pipe leads into a gasholder.
The tube is heated to a dull red, and sulphuric acid is let into it; the acid
becomes converted into vapour. This acid vapour passes through the sand,
and is decomposed by the action of heat alone into oxygen and sulphurous
acid gases, which pass through the outlet pipe into the gasholder. In order to
separate the gases they are subjected to pressure to liquify the sulphurous
acid, the oxygen remains free, and by a slight washing all trace of sulphurous
acid is removed; however, when once the sulphuric acid is decomposed any
means practised in chemistry for the separation of the gases may be followed.
The action of the metal upon the sulphuric acid vapour is of little moment,
though the oxygen oxidizes the tube; an oxide of iron is formed, but after
the lapse of a few minutes this oxide preserves the metal underneath, and the
vapours issuing at a pressure of 5 or 6 atmospheres and above, according
to the temperature, are decomposed by contact with the red hot sand. As
there is water in sulphuric acid it is decomposed by contact with the tube
containing the sand and hydrogen is produced, but as oxygen is also produced
the hydrogen combines with it and forms water. Hydrogen is only produced
for a very short interval. The metal once oxidized ceases to absorb oxygen,
and the cast-iron apparatus works as if it were of platinum or refractory earth.
If instead of sulphuric acid water is introduced, superheated steam at the
temperature of the substances through which it is made to pass will be
obtained.
SPECIFICATION
in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 'filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd April 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of Her

page_text: reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors,
administrators, and 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 Apparatus FOR
DECOMPOSING AND SUPERHEATING LIQUIDS. VAPOURS, AND GASES," (communicated
to me from abroad by Gustave Renard, of St. Ouen, and Amedee Lipman,
of Paris, both in the Empire of France,) upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by th
following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunt
annexed, that is to say:-
The chief object of this Invention is to produce oxygen by the decomposi-
tion of sulphuric acid as hereafter described. The apparatus consists of one
or more tubes of metal or other substance capable of resisting more or less
high temperature placed in a furnace or heating chamber, and containing
inside fragments of material without chemical action upon the liquids, vapours,
or gases placed in contact with them. I employ, for example, a cast-iron
tube A such as represented in Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying
Drawings.
I fill the tube with silex or sand B or other neutral body in a greater or
less state of division and without chemical action on the oxygen, and I introduce
an inlet pipe C and an outlet pipe E through stoppers at the ends of the
apparatus. The sulphuric acid is poured into a funnel D, so as to pass through
the pipe C into the tube A, while the pipe E carries off the oxygen and sul-
phurous acid which are formed in consequence of the decomposition of the
sulphuric acid. The tube A is heated to a dull red, and sulphuric acid is let
into it by a pump or reservoir connected with the funnel D. The

page_text: At
acid becomes converted into vapour owing to its contact with the heated sand.
This acid vapour passes through the sand and is decomposed thereby into
oxygen and sulphurous acid, which issue through the outlet pipe E into a gas-
holder. In order to separate these gases they are subjected to a pressure of
3 or 4 atmospheres to liquefy the sulphurous acid; the oxygen remains free
in a gaseous state, and by a slight washing all trace of sulphurous acid is
removed; however, when once the sulphuric acid is decomposed any means
practised in chemistry for the separation of the gases may be followed.
the commencement of the operation a part of the oxygen is absorbed by the
metal, but it soon forms on the interior of the cast-iron tube A a compact
magnetic oxide, which renders the iron quite impermeable to the gas; the
operation being then continued all the oxygen gas produced passes without
loss to the gasholder. If instead of sulphuric acid water is introduced, super-
heated steam at the temperature of the substances through which it is made to
pass will be obtained.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare. that I claim constructing
apparatus, arranged and acting substantially as herein-before described, for
decomposing and superheating liquids, vapours, and gases particularly
applicable for the production of oxygen by the decomposition of sulphuric
acid.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Second day of April, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-six.