As IMPROVED PROCESS FOR PRODUCING AMMONIA
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to. Thomas James Smith, of the Firm of Robertson,
Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London,
Patent Agents, for the Invention of "As IMPROVED PROCESS FOR
PRODUCING AMMONIA."- A communication from abroad by Cyprien
Marie Tessié du Motay, of Paris, France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas James Smith
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 25th August 1871.
I, THOMAS JAMES SMITH, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
5 Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
PROCESS FOR PRODUCING AMMONIA," to be as follows:-
Azotures (or compounds of nitrogen with simple combustible bodies)
of titanium, Ti Az, Ti Az', heated in a current of hydrogen at a cherry

page_text: G
red heat give off ammonia, and there remains a new azoture of tita-
nium, the recognised formula for which is Ti' Az'. This azoture when
kept at the same temperature returns to the condition of Ti Az or Tia
Az³ in the presence of a current of pure nitrogen or a mixture of nitrogen
or oxide of carbon or any other inert gas mixed with nitrogen. It i
follows from this double reaction that nitrogen can unceasingly be
transformed into ammonia.
In order to take advantage for ordinary purposes of the production
of ammonia by means of the azotures of titanium, tubes or retorts are
filled with one of the azotures of titanium and heated in a reverberatory 1
or other known furnace. In this process are alternately passed, 1st,
a current of hydrogen, which disengages ammonia; 2ndly, a current
of pure nitrogen or a mixture of nitrogen with oxide of carbon, which
causes the azoture Ti³ Az³ to return to the state of Ti Az or Ti³ Az³. Tho
alternate currents of hydrogen and nitrogen thus produce a constant 1
reaction, which has for effect the production of ammonia, the two
essential agents of which are economically taken, one from the hydrogen
of water and the other from the nitrogen of the air.
This Invention therefore consists in the employment of the azotures
of titanium Ti Az, Ti³ Az², Tï³ Az³, which when heated to an elevated 2
temperature are submitted to the action of alternate currents of hydrogen
and nitrogen in order to produce ammonia.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas James Smith in the Great Scal Patent
Office on the 21th February 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, TпомAS
JAMES SMITH, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of
100, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, send greeting.
2
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of August, in the 3
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in
the thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas James Smith,
Her special licence that I, the said Thomas James Smith, my exccutors,

page_text: administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas James
Smith, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 Inven-
tion for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR PRODUCING AMMONIA,” (a communication
to me from abroad by Cyprien Marie Tessié du Motay, of Paris, France,)
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas James
Smith, 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 Thomas James Smith, 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 the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
Azotures, or compounds of nitrogen with simple combustible bodies,
of titanium Ti Az, Ti Az, heated in a current of hydrogen at a cherry
red heat give off ammonia, and there remains a new azoture of titanium,:
the recognized formula for which is Ti Az'. This azoture when kept
at the same temperature returns to the condition of Ti Az or Ti³ Az'
in the presence of a current of pure nitrogen or a mixture of nitrogen
or oxide of carbon or any other inert gas mixed with nitrogen. It
follows from this double reaction that nitrogen can unceasingly bo
transformed into ammonia.
. In order to take advantage for ordinary purposes of the production of
ammonia by means of the azotures of titanium, tubes or retorts aro
filled with one of the above mentioned azotures of titanium and heated
in a reverberatory or other known furnace. In these furnaces are alter-
nately passed, 1st, a current of hydrogen which disengages ammonia;
2ndly, à current of pure nitrogen or a mixture of nitrogen with oxide
of carbon, which causes the azoture Ti³ Az' to return to the state of Ti
Az or Ti Az. The alternato currents of hydrogen and nitrogen thus
produce a constant reaction, resulting in the production of ammonia,

page_text: the two essential agents of which are economically taken one from the
hydrogen of water and the other from the nitrogen of the air.
This Invention therefore consists in the employment of the azotures
of titanium Ti Az, Ti³ Az², Ti³ Az³, which when heated to an elevated
temperature are submitted to the action of alternate currents of hydrogen
and nitrogen in order to produce ammonia.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas James Smith, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Twenty-third day of February
Ono thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.