A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF CONDENSING VAPOURS AND SMOKE
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, of 32, Essex
Street, Strand, London, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED
METHOD OF CONDENSING VAPOURS AND SMOKE."-A communication from
Professor Frederic Kuhlmann, of Lille France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
Bellford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 18th July 1855.
I, AUGUSTE EDOUARD LORADOUX BELLFORD, of 32, Essex Street, Strand,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF CONDENSING VAPOURS
AND SMOKE," a communication from Professor Frederic Kuhlmann, of Lille,
France, to be as follows, viz. :-
This Invention consists mainly in the application of chemical agents, com-
bined in most cases with mechanical agency, for the purpose of condensing
any gases and vapours that are lost in the air in chemical and other works,
thus interfering with the surrounding vegetation and public health. As an
instance of the method, I cause the acid gases that escape in chemical works
from the lead chambers and soda works to be absorbed by natural carbonate
of baryta, which is either in pieces or in powder, and is suspended in water,
thus producing different barytic salts, and hence also caustic baryta, all of
which may most usefully be employed. As another instance, I fix the

page_text: ammonia and the various blacks arising from the calcination of bones or the
combustion of coal in any kind of furnace, by causing the same to pass through
a fine shower or thin strata of dilute sulphuric or muriatic acid; also of chloride
of manganese, as resulting from the manufacture of chloride; and also of any
other absorptive liquid, and even water. By these means I obtain ammoniacal
products and smoke black, either mixed together or separately, which may
directly be employed to making very efficient manure, or to any other suitable
nurnose
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 15th January 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTE
EDOUARD LORADOUX BELLFORD, of 32, Essex Street, Strand, London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the 18th day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, Her special licence that I, the said
Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, my exe-
cutors, 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF CONDENSING
VAPOURS AND SMOKE," (a communication,) upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, 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, 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 Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-

page_text: This Invention consists mainly in the application of chemical agents, com-
bined in most cases with mechanical agency, for the purpose of condensing
any gases and vapours that are lost in the air in chemical & other works,
thus interfering with the surrounding vegetation & public health.
For condensing acids, I use natural carbonate of baryta, brought in contact
with acid vapours, slightly moistened with barytic salt, whether the said contact
be caused by the natural ascension of the vapours up the chimney flue, or the
contact of vapours be accelerated by carbonate suspended in water by means
of mechanical agitation.
Thus, the various parts of muriatic acid which escape in the air through the
chimney flues of our sulphate of soda works, or the nitrous vapours which
escape from our lead chambers, are condensed, and the condensing work is
completed by letting in some steam in the last parts of the condensing appa-
ratus. I use the muriate of baryta thus obtained inmediately after its
crystallization and dessication for various purposes, chiefly for preventing the
adherence of any sediments in the boilers, by the use of selenitic waters, which
practice I used to commend some fifteen years ago, as I was called to state
the best mode of condensing acids in our chemical works, for the purpose of
obtaining better produce, and preventing all interference of the gases and
vapours with surrounding vegetation. The most part of this muriate in my
works is converted into sulphate of artificial baryta, the use of which will be the
more important, as by applying my Invention its production will prove cheaper.
For condensing nitrous vapours this must be taken into consideration, that
the said vapours on escaping from the chambers will carry along with them
vapours of sulphuric acid. If, therefore, some carbonate of baryta moistened
with the said vapours is brought in contact, sulphate of baryta will be thereby
exclusively produced in the first condensing apparatus, and a little farther
the nitrous vapours will be condensed. From this circumstance I was led to
make use of the apparatus for sulphuric acid as an apparatus for manufac-
turing sulphate of pure baryta. For this purpose, instead of using in the first
condensers carbonate of natural or impure baryta, which would produce sul-
phate soiled by the foreign bodies mixed with carbonate, I introduce very pure
carbonate, or a dissolution of muriate of baryta, or, still rather, nitrate of baryta
from the other condensers, and in this last case the liquid is to be mechanically
stirred whilst being in contact with the evolving acid vapours. Thus I obtain
through the whole process on one hand sulphate of artificial baryta, which may
be made use of, and on the other hand nitrate, with which I can produce
caustic baryta by calcining the nitrate in grit or cast-iron vessels; the hypo-
nitric and oxygen evolved fly back again into the lead chambers.

page_text: My condensing process thus being applicable to the work of the lead
chambers, gives, as final results, artificial sulphate of baryta, nitrate of baryta,
& caustic baryta. The same condensing system being applied to furnaces
for calcining bones, requires for ammoniacal condensing the use of either weak
sulphuric or muriatic acid; or, rather, muriate of manganese, which forms a
residue often pernicious in our chemical works. Here, at the same time that
ammoniacal vapours are condensing, a layer of smoke black will be deposited.
This will require some particular arrangements in the apparatus for the
drawing off of not only muriate & sulphate of ammonia, but of the settled
oxyd and sulphuret of manganese, mixed with smoke black, or else of the
layers of pure smoke black.
The most efficient means of preventing the escape of smoke and vapours is to
wash the gases of the furnace by causing them to pass in very thin dash through
a small film of water by means of a lift and force pump; but instead of that I
prefer substituting brick ducts, at the bottom of which are agitators, consisting of
a shaft armed all over with brushes or bundles of horsehair, whalebones, or any
suitable material. By means of a leather or gutta percha strap a sufficient
motion is given to the agitators, which raise a small quantity of the condensing
liquid and cause the ammoniacal vapours to pass through a regalar condensing
shower. From this working will result suphate or muriate of ammonia and
carbonaceous residues, pure or mixed with oxyd and sulphuret of manganese,
which with the addition of ammoniacal salts will produce a very efficient
manure.
By using, instead of muriate of manganese, water pure or slightly saturated
with salt of manganese, or acidulated by sulphuric or muriated acids, I apply
this last system of work to condensing smokes of all common fire-places. If
to this day the utmost contrivances of our constructors have been to burn the
smoke as completely as possible, I intend going a step farther beyond them,
and completely condense all carbonaceous and volatile matters that escape
combustion with the least expense of motive power, and to get smoke black
and ammoniacal liquid, which will prove all useful products even when only
used for manure. Such is the quantity of ammonia resulting from the com-
bustion of coal, that a general use of my process would be productive of very
good results for agriculture, and by a good application of it public salubrity
would be much improved in industrial cities and towns. In most occasions a
special machinery may be required to set the agitators in motion, or to drive
the smoke or vapours through the thin film of water, whether this shower-
like mill or apparatus is used, such as I have described, or ventilators, as in
ceruse or white lead works, by the process called of Clichy; whether the smoko

page_text: is washed by means of water snails, as in foundries, or by such pumps as used
by Brame Chevalier for evaporating sugared liquids, or any other mechanical
means is employed. But in all those various circumstances the motive power
required will not be very considerable, and the products obtained, either in
condensed chemical agents or in smoke black and ammoniacal water, will largely
repay the expenses, and thereby the construction of those monumental chimney
flues will be avoided, which at a given time may prove fatal to the life of men.
I shall further add, that in all the various attempts for washing smoke, which
have been unsuccessfully made with a view of saving work, the condensing
of ammonia was completely overlooked, the value of which, however, is likely
to insure the success of the work. In conclusion, my Invention has essentially
a double purpose; the use of some products which were lost up to this day,
and the hygienic improvement of such places in which are concentrated works
of all nature requiring motive power.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be carried into effect, I wish it to be distinctly under-
stood that what I claim as novel, and being secured to be by the herein-before
in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, condensing certain parts of muriatic, sulphuric, or nitric acid, which
were often lost in the manufacturing of sulphate of soda and sulphuric
acid, by making use of the said acids for manufacturing baryta and barytic
salts.
Second, condensing ammoniacal vapours in manufactures of aniinal black,
& washing coal smokes for producing ammoniacal salts & smoke blacks or
manure.
Third, extending my condensing system to the hot air that escapes from
furnaces in which are treated lead, ashes, cobalt, mine, and like products,
from which escape unwholesome emanations, and the expenses of which
operation will be partly, if not wholly, compensated by the condensed inatters
obtained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford;
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of January, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
A. E. LORADOUX BELLFORD. (L.S.)