CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING GAS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ILLUMINATION
Year: 1835

page_text: SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
PHILLIPS, of Exeter, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by Ilis Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of August, in the sixth year of His
reign, did, for Ilimself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Phillips, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and autho-
rity, that I, the said Henry Phillips, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Henry Phillips, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING GAS FOR THE
PURPOSE OF ILLUMINATION;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a pro-
viso that I, the said Henry Phillips, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Phillips, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascer-
tained in and by the following description thereof (that is to say):-
It is well known that coal gas, even after it has been subjected to the
common processes of purification, up to and including the action of lime on
it, contains a notable quantity of ammonia or volatile alkili, which ammonia,
besides occasioning other inconveniences, is a principal cause of the corrosion
and destruction that is continually going on in the jets and such other parts
of the apparatus as are made of brass and copper, and are employed in deli-
vering the gas at the places where it is burnt or used. The object of the
improvements for which I have taken out the present Patent is, to separate
more or less perfectly the ammonia from the other substances constituting or
contained in coal gas, by the application of the saline liquors or solutions
hereafter mentioned by means of requisite apparatus, to the process of
purifying coal gas for the purposes of illumination. These my improve-
ments are most advantageously applied to the gas after it has undergone the
usual methods of purification, up to and including that by means of lime.
For this purpose I prefer to cause the pipe which conveys the gas out of
the lime apparatus to enter near the bottom of a box of any convenient
form (quadrangular or rectangular is best) having a number of perforated
plates or shelves placed one above another, the area of each shelf being
equal to that of the box. These shelves I cover to the thickness of about
five or six inches, more or less, with refuse tan, twigs, fern, coak, pebbles,
hair, cloth, or any other woven fabric, or with any other substance capable of
absorbing or detaining for a time the saline solutions hereafter described. On
the top of the box, immediately beneath the cover, I lay a perforated metal
plate, the upper surface of which is spread over with coarse linen or other
cloth, and through the cloth into every hole in the plate I pass a nail, so that
it shall remain suspended by its head with the point projecting downwards for
an inch or more. I secure the cover of the box by a water joint, as is well
understood, and insert in the cover a tube or tubes, for the purpose of
conveying the saline solutions which I make use of to the upper perforated
plate, through which the nails project, as already described. The saline
liquor, being delivered on the aforesaid plate, is quickly distributed by means
of the capillary attraction of the fibres of the linen or other cloth, and this
occasions a continual dropping of the liquor from the points of the nails. The
liquor falls on the tan or other substance, which covers the nearest perforated
plate, and soaking through, drops from the perforations to the next layer of tan

page_text: or other substance, and so on till it arrives at the bottom of the box, from
whence it is conveyed away by means of an inverted syphon. The gas in
passing from the lower or entrance pipe to the upper or exit pipe, which
conveys it out of the box, is obliged to pass through the whole series of
perforated plates and the layers of tan or other substance by which they are
respectively covered, and in so doing is exposed to the action of the saline
liquor or liquors which are continually dropping from plate to plate, as above
described. From the upper part of the first box the gas is conveyed into
the lower part of a second box, in all respects similar to the first, and thence
into a third box, if required. It will be desirable to provide means for the
occasional renewal of the contents of the boxes, and this is best done by having
two sets or series of them, and working them alternately. The saline liquors
above referred to, by means of which I separate the ammonia from the coal
gas, are either a cold saturated solution of common alum in water, or of the
sulphate and chlorate of manganese, or of any other manganesian salt, either
alone or separate, which may be obtained by lixiviating the matter which
remains after making chlorine or chloride of lime for the use of the bleachers
from the materials commonly employed for that purpose. In order to
ascertain if the gas, after passing through the box or boxes aforesaid, is free
from ammonia, I expose a piece of paper tinted with litmus, and afterwards
reddened by an acid, to a stream of the gas. If the colour of the paper
becomes blue, it is a sign that ammonia is still present in the gas; but if no
change of colour ensues, it is a proof that the gas is free, or very nearly free,
from ammonia.
I do not claim as my Invention any part of the apparatus above described
in its separate condition when not used to effect the object of my Invention, it
being nearly the same as that whereby coal gas is purified by what is generally
called "the dry lime process." Nor do I confine myself to the precise
arrangement of apparatus herein described, for it will be evident that the
above-mentioned saline liquors may be brought to act on the gas, and separate
the ammonia therefrom by other means or apparatus, such, for instance, as are
used for washing gas with lime water. And I would remark, that it is not
essentially necessary that the saline liquor should be actually saturated, as
weaker solutions will answer the purpose, but the quantity required would in
that case be greater.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and having fully
explained the best means with which I am acquainted for carrying the same
into effect, I would have it understood that what I claim as my improvements
is, the application of the saline liquors or solutions herein described, by means

page_text: of requisite apparatus to the process of purifying gas for the purposes of
illumination, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Phillips, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
HENRY (L.S.) PHILLIPS.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of February, in
the year of our Lord 1836, the aforesaid Henry Phillips came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above-
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.

page_text: En the Matter of a Patent granted to HENRY PHILLIPS, of Exeter
Chemist, for his Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING
GAS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ILLUMINATION," bearing dato at West-
minster, the Seventeenth day of August, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-five, to which said Letters Patent a Specification was
DISCLAIMER AND MEMORANDUM OF ALTERATION proposed
to be entered by the said Henry Phillips with the Clerk of the Patents
of England, pursuant to an Act passed in the fifth and sixth year of the
reign of His late Majesty King William the Fourth, entitled "An Act
to amend the Law touching Letters Patent for Inventions."
I, the said Henry Phillips, did, in my said Specification, describe my
Invention to relate to a mode of separating ammonia from inflammable gas
by applying certain saline liquors or solutions mentioned and described in the
said Specification, and in drawing and settling the Draft Specification the
saline liquors described as being used by me in carrying out my said Invention
were, "a cold saturated solution of common alum in water, or of the sulphate
and chloride of manganese or any other manganesian salt, either alone or
separate;" but, in the engrossment of the said Specification taken from the
said Draft, the word "chlorate" was by error inserted for "chloride," for
which reason I am desirous of altering the word "chlorate" into chloride.
And I have discovered that the employment of other manganesian salts than
those of the sulphate and the chloride of manganese, though new, is not
useful; for which reason I am desirous to disclaim, and do hereby disclaim,
the following words of the Specification: "or any other manganesian salt,
either alone or separate," and thereby reduce the claim of Invention to the
application of the solutions of alum and the sulphate and the chloride of
manganese.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Phillips, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of February, One thousand eight hundred
and forty-one.
IY PHILLIPS. (L.B.)

page_text: To the Clerk of the Patents of England.
This is to certify, that the above-named Henry Phillips has applied to me for
leave to enter with you the above-written Disclaimer and Memorandum of
Alteration of part of the Specification of a certain Invention for which Letters
Patent were duly granted to him under the Great Seal, dated at Westminster,
the Seventeenth day of August, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five,
and the Specification of which was enrolled on the 16th day of February, One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-six; and having considered the said appli-
tion, and no objection having been made to the same, I have accordingly
granted leave to the said Henry Phillips to file his said Disclaimer and Alte-
ration, pursuant to the Statute passed in the sixth year of the reign of His
late Majesty William the Fourth, entituled An Act to amend the Law
touching Letters Patent for Inventions.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the First day of February, in the
year of our Lord 1841, the aforesaid Henry Philips came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Disclaimer afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Disclaimer aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.