IMPROVED MEANS FOR CONVEYING AND STORING VITRIOL
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Balmain and William Jones
Menzies, both of Saint Helens, in the County of Lancaster, for the
Invention of "IMPROVED MEANS FOR CONVEYING AND STORING VITRIOL."
Sealed the 8th July 1870, and dated the 12th January 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry Balmain
and William Jones Menzies at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 12th January 1870.
We, WILLIAM HENRY BALMAIN and WILLIAM JONES MENZIES, both
of Saint Helens, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the
nature of our said Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS FOR CONVEYING AND
STORING VITRIOL," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in conveying and storing vitriol in air-tight
iron vessels, the strength and purity of the vitriol being such that in the
exclusion of air and moisture it will not have a corrosive action on that
metal.
We are aware that in the present mode of packing vitriol the air is
more or less excluded by the means which are employed to avoid leakage

page_text: of vitriol, and we are also aware that iron vessels have been used to boil,
hold, and carry vitriol for a short time, but our improvement consists in
using an air-tight iron vessel, by which means we are enabled in the
large way to use the same vessel for a long time without much wear and
tear, and we are also able to extend the use of iron to smaller packages
such as are now made of glass or stoneware and with great advantage
to the export trade.
Having constructed any suitable iron air-tight vessel we ensure that
the vitriol we use is up to a good strength and free from any impurity
*that can have any action upon iron.
.
When our vessels are emptied we still exclude all unnecessary air, or,
in other words, cut off all communication between the small quantity of
air shut into the vessel and the general air outside, or else we thoroughly
wash the vessel immediately the vitriol is taken out of it. The strength
of vitriol which we prefer is that which would be defined as over 150
degrees Twaddle, but it may be as low as 130 degrees, or even somewhat
less.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Henry Balmain and William Jones
Menzies in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th July 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
HENRY BALMAIN and WILLIAM JONES MENZIES, both of St. Helens,
in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
thrird year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said William Henry Balmain and William Jones
Menzies, Her special license that we, the said William Henry Balmain
and William Jones Menzies, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as wc, the said William Henry Balmain and William
Jones Menzies, our executors, administrators, or 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

page_text: Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVED MEANS FOR CONVEYING AND STORING VITRICL," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that we, the said William Henry Balmain and
William Jones Menzies, our executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal
of one of us or them, 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 we, the said William Henry Balmain and
William Jones Menzies, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
Our Invention consists in an improved means of conveying and storing
vitriol of a certain strength and purity in closed vessels of iron, the
strength and purity of the vitriol being such that it will not have a
corrosive action upon that metal. .
Heretofore vitriol has been stored and transported in carboys, that is,
in large glass bottles protected with wickerwork, or by packed boxes
through the top of which the necks of the bottles project. More or less
inconvenience is experienced in thus storing and transporting vitriol,
owing partly to the large space occupied by the packages and partly to
the frequent fracture of the glass vessels.
We have discovered the fact that if vitriol be concentrated to a given
strength it may be stored or transported in iron vessels with perfect
safety and with much more economy than in ordinary carboys.
Three conditions are however necessary in order successfully to carry
out our Invention. First, the vitriol must be of a certain strength, and
the strength we prefer it to be is from about 150° to 170° Twaddle,
although it may be stored or transported in iron vessels at a strength as
low as 130°. Second, the surface of the vitriol must not be freely exposed
to air, as in that case a thin film of weak vitriol might form on the surface,
and this weak vitriol has the most destructive effect on the iron, at
the same time however the vitriol may be exposed to such small
portions of air as may be contained within the vessel when the latter
is partially filled; this air however being effectually cut off from the

page_text: external air by means of a stopper or other close fitting arrangement.
Third, it is also necessary that the vitriol as well as being of the
desired strength shall be free from such impurities as may have an
injurious effect upon the iron.
.
When the vessel is emptied it should be immidiately washed
thoroughly with water, and finally rinsed with a solution of soda ash
or with milk of lime or other alkali, or the vessel may again be closed
up so as to exclude the external atmosphere.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, we would observe in conclusion that what we consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as thic Invention secured to
us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the application
and use of iron vessels capable of being rendered air-tight for the
purpose of conveying and storing vitriol of such strength and purity as
shall have no injurious action upon that metal.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Henry Balmain and
William Jones Menzies, have to this our Specification set our
hands and seals, this Ninth day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and seventy.
WILLIAM HENRY BALMAIN. (L.s.)
WILLIAM JONES MENZIES.
(L.S.)