IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF AMMONIA
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 16th February 1875.-A communication from abroad by
Farnham Maxwell-Lyte, of Paris, France.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF AMMONIA," to
be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the production of ammonia by causing
nascent hydrogen to act upon nitrogen in presence of one of the triad or
pentad elements. I produce first of all a combination or alloy of one
of the more easily oxidable metals, say, for instance, potassium or
sodium, one of the alkalino-earthy metals, or even zinc, with one of the
triad elements, as, for instance, antimony, bismuth, arsenic, phosphorus,
or tin, it being understood that the combination or alloy in question
should be of such chemical or physical constitution as to be able to
decompose water or watery vapour at a moderate temperature, not
exceeding that of low or incipient redness. An alloy of antimony and
sodium or potassium, for instance, which decomposes water at ordinary

page_text: temperatures and rapidly at the boiling heat, is of this nature. Such an
alloy may for convenience be produced by calcining oxide of antimony,
or the powder of that metal with carbonate of soda or potassa, and
enough charcoal or organic matter to effect the reduction, or with any
proper reducing material. If the carbon or organic matter be in
sufficient excess it retains the reduced metals in an amorphous and
porous state, fit to be rapidly acted on in the subsequent treatment.
I now place this reduced alloy or combination in a proper receptacle,
and expose it to the action of a mixture of aqueous vapour and nitrogen
when the sodium or potassium of the alloy uniting with the oxygen of
the water produces hydrogen, which in its. nascent state combines with
the nitrogen present and produces ammonia, arsenide of sodium,
phosphide of sodium, bismuthide of sodium. Tin and sodium produce.
similar results with nitrogen and aqueous vapor, not all however to the
same extent. The process being accelerated by heat it is advisible to
maintain the material at a temperature of from 100 to 400 centigrade
(212° to 750° Fahrenheit) during the passage of the nitrogen and
aqueous vapor. The sodium may be here replaced by the other
alkaline metals, alkalino-earthy metals, or by zinc, or by a mixture of
them.
The reaction here employed may be represented by the following
general formula, where M represents the triad or pentad element, and
R the oxidable metal; N, nitrogen; H, hydrogen; and O, oxygen:-
2 (MR) + 2 N + 3 (H2O) = M, +6 (RO) + 2 (N H₂)..
The presence of the triad or pentad element is essential to the process,
but the presence of hydrogen in the nascent form is also an essential.
It is evident that in this reaction it may also be presumed that there
is formation of a hydrogen compound of the triad or pentad which is
subsequently decomposed in contact with the nitrogen present, as for
instance, the compound of triad antimony with hydrogen. The reaction
in this case would not be represented as above, but would be thus for the
case of antimony S b H, + N = NH3 + Sb, or generally MH, + N
= M + NH3, but in this case it is none the less certain, but we have
equally as before the presence of nascent hydrogen with nitrogen, and
the simultaneous presence of a triad, which combination of substances
forms: the basis of the present application, the presence of aqueous
vapor being merely an accessory requisite for producing nascent hydrogen
in certain cases.

page_text: I may add that in order to regenerate the metallic alloy or com-
bination, and so reproduce the ammonia producing compound it is
sufficient to expose the same to a red heat under the action of a
reducing agent, gaseous liquid, solid, inorganic, or organic, for instance,
6 if enough carbon still remains in the compound simple heating to redness
will regenerate it.