CERTAIN IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE PURIFICATION AND APPLICATION OF AMMONIA TO OBTAIN CERTAIN CHEMICAL PRODUCTS
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
LAMING, of Radley's Hotel, New Bridge Street, Blackfriars, in the City of
London, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Ifer present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirteenth day of July, in the seventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Laming, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Richard Laming, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said Richard Laming, 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 mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands
Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, my Invention of "CERTAIN IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE PURIFICATION AND APPLICATION OF AMMONIA TO OBTAIN CERTAIN
CHEMICAL PRODUCTS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Richard Laming, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be enrolled in Her 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
Richard Laming, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that is to say) :-
That part of my Invention which relates to improvements in the purification
of ammonia is for the purpose of obtaining ammonia sufficiently pure for
many purposes in the arts from gas water, by substituting for the mineral
acids usually employed a solution of muriate of lime, and is as follows:-I mix
gas water with a sufficient quantity of muriate of lime in solution to convert the.
carbonate of ammonia which is present into muriate of ammonia, and after
having separated the carbonate of lime which forms, I expose the remaining
solution for an hour to a boiling temperature. This solution, after having been
cooled, is first agitated with enough hydrated oxide of iron to combine with all
its sulphuretted hydrogen; and, secondly, with lime enough to saturate the
muriatic acid which is present. The solution is finally distilled. The ammonia
will be found in the water which comes over in a tolerably pure state.
I do not claim to have discovered the use of any of the chemical substances
nor to have invented any of the chemical processes above named individually;
but I do claim as my Invention that particular combination and order of pro-
cesses which I have described.
That part of my Invention which relates to improvements in the application
of ammonia is as follows:-Ferrocyanuret of potassium and ferrocyanuret of
sodium, known in commerce as prussiate of potash and prussiate of soda, are
usually made by burning animal matter in contact with a carbonated alkali
and with iron. The ammonia evolved from the animal matter is partly decom-
posed by the other substances, and helps to form with them a heterogeneous
mass, consisting principally of potassium or sodium (according to the kind of
alkali used), carbonated alkali, cyanogen, iron, and charcoal; this mass by
lixiviation and crystallization affords the ferrocyanuret.
The ferrocyanurets of potassium and sodium are the sources from which
hitherto has been derived, directly or indirectly, the cyanogen used in making
all the other ferrocyanurets, the cyanurets, and hydrocyanates known in
commerce.
Commercial prussic or hydrocyanic acid hitherto has been made by decom-
posing either the ferrocyanuret of potassium, the ferrocyanuret of sodium, or
some other ferrocyanuret, cyanuret, or hydrocyanate resulting directly or
indirectly from one or the other of them. It is evident from these facts that
prussic acid can never have been available for the reproduction of any of the
cyanurets, ferrocyanurets, or hydrocyanates sufficiently cheaper for the purposes

page_text: of commerce.
Now, by these improvements, ammonia is so applied to the
production of cyanogen as to make prussic or hydrocyanic acid the primary
result, and at a cost so low as to admit of its application to the economical
production of the cyanurets, ferrocyanurets, and hydrocyanates generally. The
process which I have used is as follows:-A cylindrical retort of cast iron,
eight feet long and eighteen inches internal diameter, lined with fire tiles fitted
to its shape, and set vertically in a furnace, is filled with pieces of charcoal
and brought to a red heat. Ammonia, more or less pure, in the form of gas,
or even combined in a state of vapor, with certain other substances which do
not prevent the desired result, is introduced by a pipe near one end of the
heated retort. In its passage the ammonia is deprived of part of its constituent
hydrogen, while the remaining part, together with its nitrogen, combine with
carbon to form prussic or hydrocyanic acid, which finally escapes from the
heated vessel in the form of vapor, accompanied by other elastic matters,
amongst which will be, if the admission of ammonia into the retort have been
too rapid, some of that substance in an undecomposed state. The prussic acid
vapor thus obtained may be condensed in water, or by other convenient means,
for subsequently making the compounds of cyanogen or other purposes, or it.
may be brought at once into communication with the several substances with
which it or its constituent, cyanogen, is to be combined; thus, for example, it
may be received into caustic solutions of the fixed alkalies, and with them
made to dissolve iron, giving rise in the first instance to solutions of hydro-
cyanates of potash and of soda, and afterwards to solutions of the ferroy-
cyanurets of potassium and of sodium, or it may be received into water
containing certain metallic oxides, with which it will make the corresponding
metallic cyanurets or hydrocyanates. The means for producing chemical
products by the saturation of acids with different bases are too well known to
chemists to render necessary any further detail of the means to be adopted
for obtaining hydrocyanates, cyanurets, or ferrocyanurets by the chemical
combination of hydrocyanic acid and the several bases.
I do not claim as a novelty any of the chemical substances named in this
Specification, nor do I claim to have invented any particular form or arrange-
ment of apparatus; but I claim, under the second head of my Invention, the
making of prussic or hydrocyanic acid on a scale of commercial magnitude by
the reaction at a red beat of any convenient form of carbon and ammonia
(either alone or combined with such other bodies as do not materially impair
its efficacy), by whatever apparatus or means the said reaction may be esta-
blished.
And I further clain, in connection with this second part of my Invention,

page_text: the use of prussic acid so made for saturating and dissolving bases, and thus
giving existence to cyanurets, ferrocyanurets, and hydrocyanates, and for all
other purposes to which prussic acid so made is or may be usefully applicable.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Laming, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand sight hundred and fanter foun