IMPROVEMENTS IN MANU- FACTURING OXYGEN GAS, AND OBTAINING CERTAIN OTHER PRODUCTS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Webster, of Birmingham, in, the County of
Warwick, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANU-
FACTURING OXYGEN GAS, AND OBTAINING CERTAIN OTHER PRODUCTS."
Sealed the 14th February 1862, and dated the 19th October 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Webster at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
October 1861.
I, JAMES WEBSTER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS -IN
MANUFACTURING OXYGEN GAS,. AND OBTAINING CERTAIN OTHER PRODUCTS," to be as
follows:-
My said Invention consists in a mode of treating a mixture-of-nitrate of
soda or other nitrate with an oxide of iron for the purpose of obtaining oxygen
gas, nitrogenous compounds, and the base of the salt employed: For this
purpose I submit the mixture to distillation in an iron or other..proper retort.
I condense. the nitrogenous compounds contained in the gaseous products of the
distillation in water or in any other convenient manner; and thus separate those
compounds from the residue of the gaseous. products consisting chiefly of oxygen
gas which I collect in a proper receiver; the residuum in the retort at the end.
No text detected.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Webster at the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th
February 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WEBSTER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Webster, Her special license that I, the said James Webster, my
executors, administrators,, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Webster, 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 MANUFACTURING
OXYGEN GAS, AND OBTAINING CERTAIN OTHER PRODUCTS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said James Webster, 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 James Webster, 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):-
My said Invention consists of a mode of treating a mixture of nitrate of
soda or other nitrate with an oxide of iron or burnt oxide of zinc for the
purpose of obtaining oxygen gas, nitrogenous compounds, and the base of the
-salt employed. For this purpose I submit the mixture to distillation in an
iron or other proper retort, I condense the nitrogenous compounds contained

page_text: in the gaseous products of the distillation in water, or in any other convenient
manner, and thus separate those compounds from the residue of the gaseous
products consisting chiefly of oxygen gas which I collect in a proper receiver;
the residuum in the retort at the end of the process contains the base of the
salt employed, which, if it be an alkali or alkaline earth, will be in a caustic
state.
I perform and carry out my Invention as follows:-I take one part of
the nitrate of soda, and two parts of the sesqui-oxide of iron or burnt oxide of
zinc, and mix them well together, I throw the mixture into a red-hot retort,
the lid of which is then luted in its place, and the heat kept up, the gas
generated is conveyed by a pipe into a condenser, where it is passed through
water to extract the nitrous gas and through another similar condenser for the
like purpose, and thence to a chamber which contains a number of perforated
trays on which is placed spent material from the generator after having been
moistened with water or steam. This acts as a purifier and removes all nitrogen
gas that may be with the oxygen. The gas then passes into the gasometer.
After the gas is all given off from a charge of material in the generator, the
spent material is removed, and after moistening it with steam or water it is
placed upon trays in the purifier, and after a few charges of gas have passed
through it, it is removed to another chamber fitted with trays having an
opening near the bottom for a draught hole where it is exposed to fumes (in
preference from metallic iron, nitric acid placed on a vessel at the bottom of
the chamber). In a short time when the acid ceases to act it is withdrawn,
the process forming binoxide of nitrogen which instantly takes up oxygen from
the atmosphere and converts the soda in the trays into nitrate or nitrate of
soda, which process is aided by a draught being formed by connection with a
flue (or by other means), I also utilize the residue from the manufacture of the
gas by throwing the said spent material from the generator whilst hot into
water and crystalizing the undecomposed nitrite of soda (and perhaps some
nitrite of soda) from it and the remaining liquor containing caustic soda may
be further boiled down to hydrate of soda for soap boilers and others, the
oxide of iron or burnt oxide of zinc will precipitate, and may be used again
with other nitrates for the manufacture of gas, in this case. the nitrogenous acid
is not required and may be sold or used for other purposes, or the caustic soda
solution may have the acid from the first condenser (with perhaps a little nitric
acid added) when more nitrate of soda may be crystalized from it, but I prefer
exposing the spent material from the gas to a draught in a chamber with
trays, as I before stated, or to make the caustic soda solution for sale and

page_text: retain the nitrate of soda and the oxide of iron or burnt oxide of zinc for gene-
rating gas, I claim the obtaining oxygen nitrogenous compounds and the base
of the salt employed, or burnt oxide of zinc in the manner before stated.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Webster, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of December, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-one.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by
the above-named James Webster
in the presence of
JOHN HAMILTON,
Birmingham.
JAMES WEBSTER. (L.S.)