Improvements in the Treatment of Gas Liquor, or like Ammoniacal Liquor, and in Obtaining Useful Products therefrom.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Apr., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 27th Jan., 1896-Accepted, 29th Feb., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Treatment of Gas Liquor, or like Ammoniacal
Liquor, and in Obtaining Useful Products therefrom.
-
I, HENRY BOWER, of 29th Street, and Gray's Ferry Road, Philadelphia, U.S.A.,
now residing at Tavistock Hotel, Covent Garden, London, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows :-
The object of my present invention is to separate from gas liquor the cyanogen
compounds which it contains.
In the preparation of the gas liquor I either use a salt of iron, or I add iron to
the liquor, then I distil the liquor with excess of lime to separate and drive off
ammonia. So far the operation is in accord with the Specification of the Patent
No. 2918 in the year 1882 granted to my correspondent Mr. Sydney Pitt.
According to my present invention I add an acid solution of copper-preferably
chloride of copper-to the liquor remaining after distillation, which liquor holds
in solution ferrocyanide of calcium and sulphocyanide of calcium. So I obtain a
precipitate containing ferrocyanide of copper and sulphocyanide of copper mixed
together. I treat this mixed precipitate with metallic iron by which means I
decompose it, the copper being deposited upon the iron whilst at the same time
the precipitate is converted into sulphocyanide of iron which is soluble and a
ferrocyanide which is insoluble; the products are thus easily separated.
By known methods both the sulphocyanide and the ferrocyanide may be converted
into prussiate of potash for which there is a large commercial demand or they may
be otherwise utilised.
.
Dated this 26th day of April 1895
Improvements in the Treatment of Gas Liquor, or like Ammoniacal
Liquor, and in Obtaining Useful Products therefrom.
I HENRY BOWER, of 29th Street and Gray's Ferry Road Philadelphia U.S.A.,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:—
My invention relates to improvements in the treatment of gas liquor or like
ammoniacal liquor and in obtaining useful products therefrom and in economically
obtaining the sulphocyanide and ferrocyanide in separate form available for the
manufacture of the various commercial salts.
I add to the ammoniacal liquor, while cold and before it has been heated or
subjected to the action of an acid, metallic iron or a salt of iron, or both, in
quantity sufficient to convert the hydrocyanic acid, present in any form, into ferro-
cyanide of iron, and the sulphocyanic acid, present in any form, into sulphocyanide
of iron. I then run the mixture into a still or treating vessel provided with means
for agitating its contents, add excess of lime to evolve ammonia, and distil the
latter off by means of heat and agitation in any of the well-known methods for
[Price 8d.]

page_text: recovering ammonia. So far my process is similar to that described in Patent
No. 2918 in the year 1882 granted to my correspondent Mr. Sydney Pitt.
Having driven off the ammonia, I add to the liquor, which holds in solution
ferrocyanide of calcium and sulphocyanide of calcium, an acidified solution of a
salt of copper (preferably cuprous chloride) sufficient to 'decompose the calcium
ferro and sulphocyanides, a chloride being chosen on account of forming a soluble
salt of calcium, and a cuprous salt being preferred to a cupric salt because the
cuprous sulphocyanide is insoluble. I thus obtain a precipitate containing ferro-
cyanide of copper and sulphoeyanide of copper mechanically mixed. After
separating the precipitate by settling, filtration, or other well-known means, I
treat it while wet, and preferably by agitation with a sufficient quantity of finely
divided metallic iron, as iron filings or borings or "reduced iron," to decompose the
copper salts, converting the ferrocyanide of copper and the sulphocyanide of copper,
respectively, into ferrocyanide of iron, which is insoluble, and sulphocyanide of iron,
which is in solution, and copper, which is in the metallic state.
The ferrocyanide of iron, on being treated with an alkali, an alkaline salt, or an
alkaline earth, gives as a result the ferrocyanides of the respective salt used, while
the solution of sulphocyanide of iron, on being evaporated, yields crystals of sulpho-
cyanide of iron; or this salt may be produced in an impure state by evaporating to
dryness out of contact with the air.
'
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
The process of recovering cyanogen compounds from the liquor from ammonia
stills containing soluable ferrocyanide and sulphocyanide, which consists in adding
to the liquor a soluable copper salt to form insoluble ferrocyanide and sulphocyanide
of copper, and then adding metallic iron to decompose the precipitate and form a
solution of sulphocyanide of iron.
Dated this 24th day of January 1896.
CARPMAEL & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.