A NEW AND IMPROVED PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SULPHUR ACIDS, AND OF SULPHITES, BI-SULPHITES, AND SULPHATES
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alfred Payne at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th August
1874.
I, ALFRED PAYNE, of Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford,
Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "A NEW AND IMPROVED PROCESS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SULPHUR
ACIDS, AND OF SULPHITES, BI-SULPHITES, AND SULPHATES," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to lessen the cost of manufacturing or
producing the said products. I attain this object by avoiding the use of
sulphuric acid, and the necessity for the large and costly chambers now
used in manufacturing sulphuric acid for the production of sulphites
and bi-sulphites.
:-
The process which forms the subject of this Invention is as follows:-
I burn sulphur or sulphur ores in a close kiln, and admit by suitable
valves or openings only sufficient air for the proper combustion of the
sulphur. I insert one or more pipes into the crown of the kiln, which
(after traversing suitable refrigerators) I attach to one or more force
pumps, by which the sulphurous acid fumes are drawn off from the kiln
+
.

page_text: as fast as generated therein by the combustion of the sulphur, and forced
or projected through one or more outlet pipes into the vessels containing
the material to be operated upon.
In the manufacture of simple liquid sulphurous acid, I place water in
a series of closed.vessels arranged like "Woulf's" bottles, and project
the sulphurous acid vapor through them (by means of the apparatus
above described) when it is rapidly absorbed by the water.
In producing sulphuric acid I oxidate the liquid sulphurous acid by
means of nitric or manganic acid, or by other suitable oxidating agents.
In producing bi-sulpbite of lime I also use vessels arranged like
"Woulf's" bottles. I provide each vessel with a suitable agitator. I
add lime or carbonate of lime to each vessel in such quantity that when
it is supersaturated with the sulphurous acid vapor injected by the
pumps as above described, the solution of bi-sulphite of lime will be of
the required density.
In producing bi-sulphite of soda I employ such vessels as are now
used for containing the soda, and I force into and through them sul-
phurous acid vapor generated and propelled in the manner aforesaid.
In the production of the sulphite of ammonia I saturate crude or
distilled ammoniacal liquor from whatever source derived with sulphurous
vapor generated and propelled in the manner aforesaid. Sulphite of
ammonia thus formed may be used with lime or carbonate of lime for
the production in the ordinary way of liquor ammoniæ or carbonate of
ammonia respectively; but no novelty is claimed for these products,
excepting so far as the process by which the sulphite of ammónia is
produced is novel.
In the production of other alkaline or earthy sulphites or bi-sulphites,
I subject the base to the action of sulphurous vapor generated and
propelled in the manner aforesaid, and in such vessels as shall be best
suited to their respective physical condition.
In working this Invention I prefer to cleanse the sulphurous acid
vapor by passing it through a wash bottle before conveying it to the
material to be operated upon.
In order to prevent and avoid waste of the sulphurous acid vapor I
prefer that a succession of vessels containing the material to be acted
upon should be used and provided with connecting pipes and valves or.

page_text: other known and suitable mechanical equivalent, arranged so that the
order of rotation in which the vapor enters can be altered as desired, so
that the vapor as it leaves the pumps will enter first into that vessel
in which the base or material to be operated upon is most nearly
saturated or finished, and after traversing the vessels containing material
in continually decreasing stages of saturation or completion pass away
by the one which contains the material most recently supplied.
In the production of sulphates I first form sulphites by the before-
mentioned process, and then oxidate by agitation with atmospheric air
or by the use of manganic acid or other suitable oxidating agents.