NEW METHODS OF MANUFACTURING AND PROCURING CERTAIN NEUTRAL SALTS, SUBSTANCES, AND THINGS, AND OF APPLYING THOSE AND OTHER NEUTRAL SALTS TO VALUABLE PURPOSES
Year: 1798

page_text: THE EARL OF DUNDONALD'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, the Right
Honorable ARCHIBALD Earl of DUNDONALD, send greeting..
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing dater the
Twenty-fifth day of January, in the thirty-eighth year of His reign, did give and
grant unto me, the said Archibald Earl of Dundonald, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole priviledge, and
authority, that I, . the said Archibald Earl of Dundonald, during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also
in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my "NEW METHODS OF
MANUFACTURING AND PROCURING CERTAIN NEUTRAL SALTS, SUBSTANCES, AND
THINGS, AND OF APPLYING THOSE AND OTHER NEUTRAL SALTS TO VALUABLE
PURPOSES;" in which said. Letters
in which said. Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Archibald Earl of Dundonald, under my hand and seal,
to 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 Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within four calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance. with the said proviso, I, the said
Archibald Earl of Dundonald, do hereby declare that the Methods or Inven-
tions used by me of Manufacturing and Procuring certain Neutral Salts,
Substances, and Things, and of Applying those and other Neutral Salts to
Valuable Purposes, are as follows, namely:

page_text: First, process for obtaining the neutral salt called sulphate of magnesia.
Take muriat of magnesia, or its solution, or salts, or solutions containing it.
Let it be mixed with a due proportion of sulphat of iron or sulphat of
alumine, or with saline materials or their solutions containing either or both
of these salts. Let the aquious parts be evaporated, and the materials be
either mixt or..not. mixed, in any stage of the process as may be thought
necessary, with a portion of clay. The materials are then to be dried,
levigated, or ground to a powder, and submitted to the action of heat in
a reverbatory or other furnace; the muriatic acid of the muriat of mag-
nesia is thereby expelled, while the sulphuric acid of the sulphats of iron
or of alumine combines with the magnesia and forms sulphat of magnesia.
This last object is, on the same principle, to be obtained by mixing muriat of
magnesia, or its solutions or substances containing it, with pyrites, or iron
mineralized by sulphur, the pyrites being previously ground to a fine powder.
The materials are to be submitted to the action of heat in a reverberatory or
other furnace. The calcined materials of this and the before-described process
are to be lixiviated, the liquor boiled to the pitch of crystallization, and the
salts crystallized or boiled to a dry state, as may be required. The earthy
matter, after lixiviation, consists of the earth of iron, with a greater or less
proportion of clay.
Secondly, method of procuring sulphate of magnesia.-Take allum slám, or
the refuse salts or materials of the allum works, dissolve it or them in water,
let the dregs subside and the clear ley be boiled to the pitch of crystallization
and set to crystallize. Sulphat of magnesia will be obtained by cooling. The
salt is contaminated with a proportion of the muriat or sulphat of iron, from
whence it is to be freed by solution and second crystallization, with or without
the use of a proportion of alkaline salts, lime, chalk, or magnesia, to
decompose the salts with basis of iron. Sulphat of magnesia is likewise to
be obtained by mixing and boiling down the liquor of the alum works, or
solutions containing sulphats of magnesia for sulphats of iron and sulphats of
alumine, with a due proportion of magnesia or calcanious matter to decom-
pose the sulphat of iron and of alumine and to precipitate their earths; or
the salts contained in the aluminous, magnesian, and perriginous liquors may
be mix'd with a proportion of magnesia or lime, and submitted to the action
of heat, in a reverberatory or other furnace.
In the two last-mentioned processes the salt which remains dissolved in the
liquor is sulphat of magnesia, and is to be procured by boiling down and
crystallization, or by boiling to dryness.
. Thirdly, process for applying sulphat of magnesia for the preparation
of the neutral salt called sulphat of potash.-Take sulphat of magnesia

page_text: or any saline matter or solution containing it, such as allum, slam allum, raw or
boiled liquor, bittern, or refuse salt from saltworks, salt brine, muriat of soda;
(i. e.), sea salt, or sea water. Let these salts, or their solutions, be mixed
with muriat of potash, or it's solution, or with salts containing it, in the
proportions that shall be found requisite, a due proportion of water being
employed to dissolve the salts. Let the liquor be concentrated to the pitch of
crystallization, and set to crystallize in proper vessels. The salt which first
crystallizes is the sulphat of potash, the sulphuric acid of the sulphat of
magnesia combining with the potash or vegetable, alkali, while the muriatic
acid of the muriat of potash combines with the magnesia, and forms muriat of
magnesia, a salt which does not impede the distinct crystallization of the
sulphat of potash.
Fourthly, process for making the salt called sulphat of potash, and at the
same time of improving the process of making alum by substituting an article
preferable to the kelp and soapers' pot or black ashes at present employed in.
that manufacture.-Take muriat of potash, or its solution; let it be added, in
the proportion that shall be found. necessary, to alum, raw, boiled, or boiling
liquor, the liquor to be properly boiled and concentrated for the crystallization
of the alum, and run off, as is usually done, into proper settlers or coolers,
there to cool, that the less soluble salts may crystallize or be precipitated. The
saline matter at the bottom of the settler, when the supernatant alum liquor
has been run off, assumes as it cools a solid form, and is what is commonly
called slam, containing sulphat of potash mixed with other salts. The
preceding process, as it regards the manufacture of alum, is an important one,
the muriat of potash performing, in a circuitous way, the effect of a vegetable
alkaline salt, by neutralizing or freeing the alum liquor from the super-
abundant sulphuric acid, or by decomposing the salts with earthy bases
contained in the liquor, and forming new combinations less injurious to the
distinct crystallization of the alum.
Fifthly, process for procuring muriat of ammoniac or salammoniac.-Take
sulphat of ammoniac, or its solution; mix it with muriat of potash or its solu-
tion; let the liquor be concentrated and set to crystallize, there will be.
formed sulphat of potash. This is to be separated from the solution of the
muriat of ammoniac by cooling and crystallization.
Sixthly, process for preparing the nitrate of potash or saltpetre.-Take
muriat of potash, or its solution, and apply it to materials containing nitrate of
lime, or nitrate of magnesia. By lyxiviation, boiling, and crystillization, there
will be obtained nitrate of potash, or saltpetre, in the same manner as if a
pure vegetable alkali had been employed.
Seventhly, process for procuring muriat of potash.-Take soapers' salts,

page_text: being the salts obtained by boiling down soapers' spent leys to a dry state.
Let the salts be calcined in a reverberatory or other furnace, to destroy and
burn to a coal the animal or other oil contained in the salts, the materials
being constantly stirred while in the furnace, and the process so managed that
the materials do not come to fusion, or produce an hepatic or sulphurous salt,
as is contained in soapers pot or black ashes. The calcined materials are
then to be drawn from the furnace, cooled, dissolved in water; filtrated to keep
back the carbonacious matter, the clear ley to be boiled to the pitch of
crystallization, and set to crystallize. The salt to be obtained on cooling is
inuriat of potash. This process of boiling and crystallization is to be repeated
twice, or oftener, if necessary, to separate completely the muriat of potash.
"
Eighthly, process for obtaining carbonat of soda, sebat of soda, phospat of
soda, and muriat of soda, from the saline liquor of soapers' salt, after that the
muriat of potash has been separated.--Take the saline liquor of the last-
described process, boil it to the pitch requisite for separating by crystallization
the different salts; or boil down the salts when mixed to a dry state.
Ninthly, process for decomposing the sebats and phospats of soda, either
when by themselves or when mixed with other salts, particularly the salts
procured by the last-described process. Take salts containing the sebats and
phospats of soda; let them, or their solutions, be mixed with sawdust or
vegetable matter, and submitted to the action of heat in a reverberatory or
other furnace, stirring the materials frequently, and regulating the heat so that
the materials shall not come into fusion until the latter part of the process, at
which time it may be proper to add more sawdust or vegetable matter to the
inaterials in the furnace, stirring and mixing them properly at the same time.
It is better to use an over than an under proportion of sawdust or vegetable
matter, for thereby the sebacious and phosporic acids will be the more com-
pletely disengaged or destroyed.
:.
÷
Lastly, the materials are to be raked or got out of the furnace, to be allowed
to coal, to be broke into moderate sized pieces, and exposed for some little
time to the action of air under covered sheds or houses, before the salt
are used for soap boiling or other purposes. By lixiviation, boiling, and
crystallization, or by boiling the leys to dryness, there will be procured carbonat
of soda, mixed according to circumstances and the materials employed with
more or less of the neutral salts, particularly of muriat of soda.
In witness whereof, I, the said Archibald Earl of Dundonald, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight.
DUNDONALD. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fifth day of May,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Archibald Earl of Dundonald came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Twenty-fifth day of May, in the year above written.