APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1865

page_text: APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Adolf Gurlt at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th
August 1865.
I. ADOLF GURLT. of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Metallur
gical Engineer. do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CONDENSING AND UTILIZING SULPHUROUS SMOKES AND VAPOURS.
AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE," to be as follows:
My Invention has reference to the condensation and utilization of such
sulphurous smakes and vapours as are generally generated in chemical works
and certain smelting works, such as copper and lead works. Many attempts
have been made to condense these vapours by passing them through rain
chambers or lead chambers, so as to condense the sulphurous vapours in a
liquid form by dissolving them in water.
By my improvements the sulphurous vapours are decomposed and reduced
to a solid form. and utilized as free sulphur or flowers of sulphur. My
Invention is based upon the well-known chemical fact that vapours of
sulphurons and sulphuric acids, when passed through a stratum of burning
Price Sd.1

page_text: fuel, such as coal or coke. are deoxidized and reduced to free sulphur in
vapour, which vapour may be condensed and collected in the form of flowers
of sulphur.
The apparatus which I employ in carrying my Invention into effect consists
of three parts, which I call the consumer. the cooler, and the collector.
respectively. The consumer is a furnace having an inclined fire-grate of large
area, and supplied with a continuous supply of fuel from a hopper. The
fuel, whilst burning, slides slowly down the inclined grate, at the bottom of
which the ashes collect, and from whence they are withdrawn through passages
and doors into small waggons to be removed. The sulphurous smoke or
vapour to be operated upon is passed through the consumer, entering at the
bars of the inclined grate: the atmospheric air contained in the said vapour
being sufficient to carry on the combustion of the fuel. The sulphurous
vapours are deoxidized in their passage through the consumer, and are con
veyed from the said consumer by means of a flue to the collector. When it
is not wished to catch or collect the sulphur which is reduced in the consumer
the vapour from the consumer may be allowed to escape into the air, as the
free sulphur contained in the vapour is perfectly harmless to animal and
vegetable life. When the sulphur is to be utilized or collected the sulphurous
vapours are conducted from the consumer to the cooler, which consists of a
series of iron pipes surrounded by water, by which they are cooled.
The
vapours are drawn from the consumer through the cooler by means of fans.
pumps, or other exhausting apparatus, and are forced thereby into the
collector. The said collector consists of a series of horizontal tubes or sacks
of canvas or other porous substance kept distended by means of rings or
hoops. The horizontal tubes. or sacks are crossed by smaller vertical tubes or
sacks. The vapour from the cooler in passing through the collector move
very slowly in consequence of the great capacity or area of the collector. The
solid particles of sulphur collect in the canvas tubes or sacks while the
permanent gases escape through the canvas into the air.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Adolf Gurlt in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 23rd
February 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ADOLF
GURLT. of Birmingham. in the County of Warwick. Metallurgical Engineer.
send greeting.

page_text: Gurls
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria. by Her Letters
Patent. bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself. Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me. the said Adolf Gurlt. Her special licence that I. the said
Adolf Gurlt. my executors. administrators. and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Adolpf Gurlt. my executors, administrators, and 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 Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man. an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONDENSING AND UTILIZING SULPHUROUS
SMOKES AND VAPOURS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I. the said Adolf Gurl, my executors 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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Adolf Gurlt, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
My said Invention his reference to the condensation and utilization of
such sulphurous smokes and vapours as are generated in alkali or chemical
works, or in certain smelting works, such as copper, spelter, ur lead, and other
works.
While many attempts have hitherto been made to utilize sulphurous smokes
and vapours in the wet way, my process on the contrary consists in utilizing
the said smokes and vapours in the dry way.
My Invention is based upon the chemical facts that vapours of sulphurous
and sulphuric acids brought in contact with carhon or with carbonic oxide.
sulphuretted and carburetted hydrogen. and hydrogen gases at a high tempe-
rature are immediately decomposed, thus producing vapours of free sulphur.
while the oxygen of hoth acids combines with the carbon and hydrogen of the
other substances. The vapours of sulphur are then condensed and collected
in a finely divided state. known as flowers of sulphur. In order to carry out
this process I use different apparatus for the consumption, condensation. and
collection of the sulphur, which are herein-after described, although I do not

page_text: restrict myself to the exact particulars, the principles of my Invention being
capable of various applications. These principles are. first, the most intimate
contact of the smokes or vapours with ignited carbonaceous substances upon
an inclined fire-grate, and subsequent intimate mixture of the gases thus pro-
duced in a large flue chamber: second. the perfect condensation of the
vapours of sulphur and refrigeration of the gases by means of a proper con-
densing and cooling apparatus; third, the suction of the said gases and
condensed vapours of sulphur through an exhauster, ventilator, fan, or other
machine by means of a mechanical power: fourth, the filtration of these gases
and collection of the flowers of sulphur which they carry with them by means
of an air filter. consisting of systems of pipes, tubes, bags, or sacks made of
permeable substance, such as cloth, canvas, flannel, wire, or horsehair, gauze,
or any other suitable substance which will allow an easy exit to the said
gases, whilst they retain the flowers of sulphur, and may be made either
moveable, rotary, or stationary.
Having explained the nature of my Invention I will proceed to describe. with
reference to the accompanying Drawings, the manner in which the same is to
he performed. The consumer is represented in cross section in Figure 1. and
longitudinal section in Figure 2.
The said consumer. Figures 1 and 2, is a furnace provided with an inclined
fire-grate of a large area, which may be constructed either of solid or hollow
wrought or cast iron, and either cooled by air. or water. or not, or it may be
made of fire-bricks or plates or any other suitable material. This fire-grate
is provided at the top with a feeder or hopper a. and at bottom with trap-
doors for the removal of ashes into waggons e. The smoke or vapour which
is to be consumed enters through a flue or culvert A into the chambers B.
passes through the inclined fire-grate into the chamber C. and goes off
through a wide culvert or flue D to the next apparatus, the cooler.
The cooler is represented in longitudinal section in Figure 3. and consists
of the flue a, by which the consumed or reduced smoke and vapours arrive
from the consumer in the chambers b. b. in which they deposit and free
themselves from any impurities which they carry mechanically with them:
they then enter through a large box of ironstone or other suitable material
into a series of iron pipes d. which are surrounded by water. and thus offer a
large cooling surface to the hot passing gases. The form and section of these
pipes may vary according to circumstances. The gases which are cooled
during their passage through these pipe d. and now carry the condensed
vapours of sulphur in the shape of flowers of sulphur with them, enter another
box or chamber e, made of any suitable material, and are inhaled or sucked

page_text: in by a revolving fan. exhauster, or ventilater f, and forced or driven forward
by the same through the culvert or flue g into the collector.
The collector is represented in transverse section in Figure 4, side elevation
in Figure 5, and plan in Figure 6, and consists of a light building or shed,
which contains suspended a series of horizontal and vertical bags or sacks,
marked a, b, made of cloth. horsehair, wire, gauze, or other convenient sub-
stance, constituting the air filter, in which the gases leave all the solid sulphur
which they had carried along from the consumer and escape through the sides
of these bags or sacks, (which may be replaced by revolving cylinders. drums,
or other suitable apparatus,, in a cold state into the air. or if convenient into
a chimney, whilst the flowers of sulphur collected inside this or any other
air filter are from time to time removed.
Having described the apparatus which I usually employ I wish it to be
understood that I do not confine myself to the details of these apparatus, as
their shape, size, and particular construction may be modified according to
circumstances, but I claim as my Invention the condensation and utilization
of sulphurous smokes and vapours by the use of a consumer, consisting of
inclined fire-grates for the reduction of the said smokes and vapours by means
of ignited carbonaceous substances in combination with a large chamber for the
action of the undecomposed gases upon each other; also combining with the
said consumer a suitable cooling and condensing apparatus, and an exhauster,
fan, or ventilator, driven by mechanical power; also combining with the said
consumer and condenser an air filter of any suitable size and construction,
which will allow of the separation of the flowers of sulphur from the cooled
gases or vapours.
In witness whereof, 1. the said Adolph Gurlt. have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witnesses,
GEORGE NANCARROH,
JNO. LEFEAUX,
Swansea.
Swansea
ADOLF GURLT. (L.S.)