IMPROVE. MENTS IN CONCENTRATING CAUSTIC ALKALIS, AND IN APPLYING A PRODUCT THERÉFROM TO THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER AND TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Dale, of Cornbrook, in Manchester; and County
of Lancaster, Manufacturing. Cheinist, for the Invention of.".IMPROVE.
MENTS IN CONCENTRATING CAUSTIC ALKALIS, AND IN APPLYING A PRODUCT
THERÉFROM TO THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER AND TO OTHER
PURPOSES"
Seaied the 19th August 1859, and dated the 24th February 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John. Dale at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th February
1859.
I, JOHN DALE, of Cornbrook, in Manchester, and County of Lancaster,
Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONCENTRATING CAUSTIC ALKALIS, AND IN APPLYING A
PRODUCT THEREFROM TO THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER AND TO OTHER
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
In the manufacture of caustic alkali from potash or soda it is, as is well
kuown,necessary to employ the solutions of those substances in a dilute-state,
which solutions have therefore to be considerablyevaporated in order to obtain
the alkali in a concentrated state, and this is necessarily: done.at much
expenditure of fuel. Now, the object of my Invention is to economise the
process in that respect, and this I accomplish by applying the steam which is
generated in the evaporating vessel to the purpose of evaporating another
quantity of solution in a second vessel, and so on through any other number.

page_text: which it may be convenient to combine in series; cr I economise the fuel by
employing the steam generated in the said vessel or vessels, for the purpose of
motive power, or for evaporating or other purposes, in which steam heat is
applicable.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Dale in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th
August 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
DALE, of Cornbrook, in Manchester, and County of Lancaster, Manufacturing
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of February, Que thousand
eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her reign, did
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Dale, Her special license that I, the said John Dale, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Dale, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CONCENTRATING CAUSTIC ALKALIS, AND IN APPLYING
A PRODUCT THEREFROM TO THE PURPOSE OF OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER AND TO
OTHER PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Dale, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should
particularly describe, and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, aud 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 John Dale, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):
My Invention consists in a method of economizing the evaporation of
solutions of caustic alkalis. This I accomplish by placing the fluid in a close
vessel, to which heat is applied by any ordinary means and the steam arising

page_text: therefrom I apply as a heating medium for evaporating another quantity of
solution, to effect which the said steam maybe caused to pass into a coil of piping
into a false bottom, or other ordinary evaporating apparatus. The vessel in
which this is performed may, if desired, be an open pan, or it may be a second
closed vessel, from whence the steam consequent upon the evaporation maybe
conveyed to a third vessel, and so on through a series of any practicable
number. It follows, however, that the working pressure of the steam must
be less in each succeeding vessel, and to regulate this, proper cocks to the
pipes or vessels are adapted, which can be opened at pleasure by the attendant..
An important application of my Invention is to the manufacture of caustic
alkalis from carbonates of potash or soda, the solutions thereof being, as is
well known, used in a comparatively weak state, and a concentrated solution
therefore is only to be obtained by expenditure of much fuel. Alkalis, however,
occur as by-products in manufactures, and these I recover or concentrate by
evaporating their solutions upon the principle above described; or, instead of
applying the steam as above, I use it for the purpose of obtaining motive
power, either by conducting it at ouce to an engine, or by applying it to
generate steari in a boiler, or it may be passed into a vessel, so as to constitute
a reservoir of steam, and, if desired, may there be superheated, or the steam
instead of being used to evaporate a second or any other number of vessels of
alkali, may in like manner be employed for the evaporation or concentration
of other fluids.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be under-
stood that I claim as secured to me, under the above in part récited Letters
Patent, the use of steam arising from the evaporation of solutions of alkalis
to the evaporation of alkalis or other fluids in another vessel or vessels, and
also to the purpose of obtaining motive power.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Dale, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.