IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF AMMONIACAL AND OTHER LIQUOR OF GAS WORKS, SEWAGE, AND OTHER WATERS CONTAINING FOREIGN MATTERS IN SUSPENSION OR SOLUTION IN ORDER TO OBTAIN USEFUL PRODUCTS THEREFROM
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Christy, the younger, of No. 155,
Fenchurch Street, in the City of London, Gentleman, for the In-
vention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF AMMONIACAL AND OTHER
LIQUOR OF GAS WORKS, SEWAGE, AND OTHER WATERS CONTAINING FOREIGN
MATTERS IN SUSPENSION OR SOLUTION IN ORDER TO OBTAIN USEFUL PRODUCTS
THEREFROM.”—A communication from abroad by Alexander Bobrow-
nicki, of No. 27, Rue des Ecoles, Paris, in the Republic of France.
Scaled the 9th July 1872, and dated the 2nd May 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Christy at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd May 1872.
I, THOMAS CHRISTY, the younger, of No. 155, Fenchurch Street, in
5 the City of London, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF AMMONIACAL AND
OTHER LIQUOR OF GAS WORKS, SEWAGE, AND OTHER WATERS CONTAINING FOREIGN
MATTERS IN SUSPENSION OR SOLUTION IN ORDER TO OBTAIN USEFUL PRODUCTS
THEREFROM," a communication to me from abroad by Alexander Bobrow-

page_text: COSMOS, as, in the Republic of France, to de
as follows:
This Invention relates to an improved process of treating liquids, such
as ammoniacal water from gas works, stagnant water, sewage waters,
and other waters containing foreign matters in suspension or solution,
the object being to extract such matters, and obtain them in a com-
paratively solid or condensed form, in which they may be used or
prepared for use as commercial products.
Hitherto it has been usual in treating liquids in order to obtain the
various foreign matters contained in them to employ the process of
evaporation, and use complicated and costly apparatus at a high tem-
perature, a process which is expensive and tedious, and in many cases is
likely to change the nature of the substances. Processes of filtration
and precipitation have also, as is well known, been employed, but in
regard to the object of this present Invention none of those processes
possess the same advantages in point of efficiency and economy.
I treat liquid matters according to the Invention at the ordinary
temperature, and the agent which I employ to effect the required
extraction or condensation of the matters desired to be obtained is silica
(any of the ordinary forms in which silica is found may be employed, 2
such as fluorure of silicium (Si F 1) hydro-fluo-silicic acid (2 Si³ 3 H F 1),
chloride of silicium (Si Cl³), and the alkaline soluble silicates may be
used, care being taken that the silica is used in such a form as to be
capable of penetrating the entire liquid mass, and of combining with
the water, thereby forming a hydrate which agglomerates the substances 2
suspended or dissolved in the liquid. The matters thus agglomerated by
the agency of the silica arc presented in a comparatively solid or con-
densed form, and may afterwards be further solidified or condensed by
exposing the mass to the action of the atmosphere, and allowing it to
part with its excess of water. It is the property of the hydrate formed 3
as above described to lose the excess of water at the ordinary tempera-
ture, and it will then leave a crystalline deposit composed of useful
matters. This deposit forms a raw product, the obtaining of which
constitutes the object of the present Invention.
Ondinen soluble alkaline silicates

page_text: In carrying the said Invention into practical operation I mix the
silicate with the liquid to be treated in an open or closed vessel, and add
a suitable acid to the mixture if there be not an acid already present
therein; the silicate is thereby formed into hydrate.
The quantity of the silicate that should be used, and of the acid re-
quired to saturate it, will depend upon the nature of the silicate employed,
and on the density of the liquid proposed to be treated, and also on the
density of the agglomerated mass which is produced, and which may
be rendered more or less firm, as required.
Persons experienced in carrying on similar chemical operations will
have no difficulty after a little practice, and with the information abovo
given, in adapting the improved process to various conditions, and
obtaining such results as may be required.
For treating an ordinarily saturated liquor, such as ammoniacal
liquid, the following are the proportions which I employ, and which
may serve as a guide for other operations :-
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Christy in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 2nd November 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
› CHRISTY, the younger, of No. 155, Fenchurch Street, in the City of
London, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Thomas Christy, Her special license that
I, the said Thomas Christy, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Thomas Christy, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from

page_text: 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 THe Treat-
MENT OF AMMONIACAL AND OTHER LIQUOR OF GAS WORKS, SEWAGE, AND OTHER
WATERS CONTAINING FOREIGN MATTERS IN SUSPENSION OR SOLUTION IN ORDER
TO OBTAIN USEFUL PRODUCTS THEREFROM," a communication to me from
abroad by Alexander Bobrownicki, of No. 27, Rue des Ecoles, Paris, in
the Republic of France, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Thomas Christy, my exccutors 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 Scal 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 Christy, 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 :-
This Invention relates to an improved process of treating liquids, such
as ammoniacal water from gas works, stagnant water, sewage waters,
and other waters containing foreign matters in suspension or solution,
the object being to extract such matters, and obtain them in a com-
paratively solid or condensed form, in which they may be used or
prepared for use as commercial products.
Hitherto it has been usual in treating liquids in order to obtain the
various foreign matters contained in them to employ the process of
evaporation, and use complicated and costly apparatus at a high tem-
perature, a process which is expensive and tedious, and in many cases is
likely to change the nature of the substances. Processes of filtration
and precipitation have also, as is well known, been employed, but in
regard to the object of this present Invention none of those processes
possess the same advantages in point of efficiency and economy.
But that the Invention may be fully understood, I will proceed more
fully to describe means pursued by me in carrying the same into effect.
The object of the Invention is to concentrate at the ordinary tempera-
ture all matters, whether soluble or not, contained even in small

page_text: quantities in liquid masses, for example, water formed on fecal matters,
refuse water from gas works or other factories, and which are at present
only utilised by recovery with the ordinary method of distillation.
These two examples are given, but the process is quite general, and may
be applied to any such water dissolution, so as to render much valuable
service in agriculture, metallurgy, and several branches of industry. It
is general because, without doubt, the volatile and liquid masses of the
telluric formation have been naturally concentrated by the same agent.
The theory of the process is as follows:-The soluble salts possess the
faculty of becoming crystallized, but cannot frequently do so because
their particles separated by the liquid mass escape the attraction of the
molecular force. Instead of employing heat to concentrate the liquor
as usual I introduce silica into the liquid mass in a state of soluble
combination, and then I get it into the nascent, state in order that the
molecular action of the hydrated silica may by its rapid action bring
together the particles of the salts, and crystallize them by enclosing
them in a gelatinous network of sufficient solidity. This hydrated mass
exposed to the free action of the ordinary temperature, the excess of
water can be expelled with the slightest pressure, and the whole will bo
converted into a pulverising mass composed of all the crystals formed,
and of the other matters which existed primitively in the liquor giving a
raw product which the Inventor calls "silicoid."
All the combinations of silica, in as far as they are competent to
penetrate and saturate the liquid mass to be precipitated can be used
for this purpose. Many of these combinations are already known in the
present state of science, and are amongst the chemical products of
commerce, such as fluorure of silicium (Si FP), hydro-fluo-silicic acid
(2 Si³ 3 H Fl), chloride of silicium (Si CI³), the alkaline soluble silicates,
and so on.
The fluorure and the chloride of silicium are decomposed by water
when they deposit the silica in the nascent state, giving rise to the
formation of hydro-fluo-silicic acid (2 Si FP 3 H Fl), and chlorohydric
acid, consequently these two combinations of silica may be advan-
tageously employed for all liquors containing volatile substances of an、
alkaline nature.
Hydro-fluo-silicic acid is not decomposed by water, but by treatment
She sent silion In chart the soluble

page_text: alkaline silicates should be dissolved by means of some acid or by means
of a mixture of several acids according to the nature of the water. The
acid reactive may be introduced into the liquor either after or before the
introduction of the silicate, very often according to the nature of the
water; this decomposition may be even occasioned by the presence of a
salt which may yield up its acid to the alkali of the silicate, and bring
the silica into the nascent state ready to make fresh combinations with
water or with some other body present in the water.
If the liquor to be concentrated contains products which may become
volatile in conjunction with the alkali of the silicate, the acids should be
introduced into the liquor before the silicate and in sufficient quantity,
not only to decompose the silicate, but also to fix the volatile product if
it is of the alkaline nature.
In practice two things may occur, there may be either an excess or an
insufficient quantity of acid. In the first case a certain portion of the
silica will be dissolved, giving rise to the separation of a liquid portion
from the gelatinous mass. This liquid portion will be collected for
separate treatment generally by evaporation at a low temperature, and
the residue thus obtained is valuable for agricultural purposes, containing
silica in a state of solubility which allows the roots of the plants to 2
absorb this important element in vegetable economy. In the second
case, when the quantity of acid is insufficient, volatile emanations may
take place. To avoid any loss of these useful products, they must be
fixed according to their nature by the known methods.
For ammoniacal emanations for example it will be sufficient to 2
powder the gelatinous mass with natural mineral phosphates, or those
previously treated by the acid chlorohydric, sulphuric, or in some other
manner. These emanations may also be destroyed by the presence in
the liquor of any fatty substance.
When treating the fetid water of focal matter it is necessary to 3
disinfect them previously with heavy oils. Their presence facilitates the
decomposition of the silicate, and imparts an empyreumatical odour to
the pulverous residuum which cannot but be very useful in manure for
the prevention of insects.
The practical operation, according to this process, is the most simple 3
one. It is effected at the ordinary temperature and is easily carried
out an the most extensive scale, abviating the use of any complicated

page_text: and costly apparatus, and simply consists in an admixture of the liquor
to be treated with the silicious reactive, an admixture which may be
made in ordinary wooden tubs, closed or opened, according as it is
required to obtain a product composed of all the salts present in the
liquor, or to have the volatile products separated from them for separate
treatment. As soon as the gelatinous mass has become sufficiently con-
sistent, which occurs immediately it is placed upon ground prepared
and sheltered from the rain, in pretty large heaps similar to the heaps
in salt pits, this mass, in consequence of natural desiccation, is soon
covered with a fine crystalline dust which must be swept off occa-
sionally, and forms the product silicoid which contains all the salts
present in the mother liquor. This treatment in no way modifies the
substances nor their property of solubility; and to become convinced
of this it is sufficient to mix a portion of this dust with pure water,
and you immediately obtain the mother liquor with its primitive color,
only containing besides a small quantity of the neutral silica, but in
such a fine state of division that plants absorb it easily.
Having thus described the Invention as communicated to me I wish
it to be understood that what I claim is,―
First. The manufacture of silicoids by treating ammoniacal and other
liquor of gas works, sewage, and other waters containing foreign matter
in suspension or solution by means of hydrated silica, with or without
the aid of auxiliary means, substantially as described.
Second. The operating upon the admixtures and the desiccation of the
gelatinous mass and its sub-products, substantially as described.
Third. The disinfecting waters, such as referred to, with a view to
utilize them, in manner substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Christy, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this First day of November, in the year of
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
our