CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF LIQUID AMMONIA, BY WHICH THE SAME MAY BE MADE APPLICABLE TO THE PURPOSES OF DYEING, SCOURING, AND OTHER MANUFACTURING PURPOSES
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WATSON, junior, of Leeds, in the County of York, Manufacturing Chemist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twentieth day of November, in the second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Watson, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Watson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
and such others as I, the said William Watson, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should agree with, and no other, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF LIQUID AMMONIA, BY WHICH THE SAME MAY BE MADE APPLICABLE TO THE
PURPOSES OF DYEING, SCOURING, AND OTHER MANUFACTURING PURPOSES;" in which
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said William Watson, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Watson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be. performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in the following explanation thereof, that is to say:-
My improvements in the manufacture of liquid ammonia, by which the
same may be made applicable to the purposes of dyeing, scouring, and other
manufacturing processes, consist in a more economical method of manu-
facturing it; but although I do not profess to make a pure solution of
ammonia, I do make it pure enough for the purposes of dyeing, scouring, and
other manufacturing processes; and again, although it is impure, it is entirely
and distinctly a different thing from the impure solutions before used, and
which are commonly called ammonia liquor, or gas liquor, or gas water, and
also from such partially purified solutions of ammonia as are made from these,
for the purpose of making cudbear or archill, which, however applicable to such
purposes, have not hitherto been used in the processes of dyeing and scouring.
But in order to specify distinctly the process or method which I have invented
for the manufacture of liquid ammonia, or what is commonly called ammonia,
it. may be needful to state that the impure solutions of ammonia are obtained
froin the distillation of bones, and, other animal matter, and also from coal in
the making of coal gas, but in this state it is connected with so many other.
substances, such as.oil, tar, carbonic acid, &c., as to render it quite inapplicable
to any useful purpose. In order, therefore, to separate the ammonia from its
impurities, it has hitherto generally been the practice to combine it with sul-
phuric or muriatic acid; which by evaporation produces à salts of sulphate or
muriate of ammonia, and, the salts are still further purified by exposure to heat,
or by re-chrystalization. The impurities being tlius removed, the ammoniacal
salt is put into a retort or boiler along with fresh slaked lime, and from this
mixture is expelled a gaseous ammonia, which being passed into.water is absorbed
and forms the liquid ammonia. In this process which I have invented, I.
manufacturer the liquid ainmonia from gas water, and I dispense entirely with
the use of sulphuric or muriatic acid, and of course with the evaporation and.
chrystalization. I make it in the following manner: The gas liquor or gas
water collected at coal gas works, I put into a retort or any other suitable.
vessel along with. fresh slaked lime, the quantity of which is to be determined
by the quality of the water, and by the application of heat a tolerably pure
ammoniacal gas is disengaged, which being passed into water forms a solution
of ammonia.. When this distillation has been carried so far that a considerable
portion of steam or the vapour of water proceeds from the retort. along with
the ammonia, the ammoniacal solution already formed is to be removed; this
I call the first portion, and what is collected afterwards by a continuation of
the process I call the second portion, and being very impure it is put back

page_text: into the retort with the next charge of gas water. The first portion must be
again submitted to distillation with or without a small quantity of lime, and
the same precaution must be observed as before; that is, so long as the
principal part of what proceeds from the retort or boiler is ammoniacal gas,
it must be passed into water, and when this ceases to be the case, as by
continuing the heat, the water as well as the ammonia will evaporate, which
may be known by the pipes or worm that are connected with the retort, and
through which the steam passes, becoming heated by the condensation of it,
the solution of ammonia already formed must be removed. This may be
called the first portion of the second distillation. The process may be
continued then until all or nearly all of the ammonia is distilled. This
second portion is to be returned, as before, to the retort. The first portion of
this second distillation is a solution of ammonia sufficiently pure for common
purposes, but it may be still further purified by distilling it a third time in the
same manner as before, preserving for use or sale that portion only which
is made by the absorption of the ammoniacal gas (or what is principally
ammoniacal gas) in water, and returning to the retort the latter portions
of the process, which consist of ammonia and water that has been distilled
from the retort, and brought along with them a considerable quantity of
impurities.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Watson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine
WILLIAM (L.S.) WATSON, JUN³.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of May, in the
second year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said William
Watson came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained
and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of
the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Twentieth day of Max One thousand eight hundred and