IMPROVE- MENTS IN PURIFYING GAS, IN PREPARING MATERIALS USEFUL FOR PURIFYING GAS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN PURIFYING GAS AND DISINFECTING GAS LIQUORS OR WASHINGS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Laming, of Carlton Villas, Maida Vale,
Paddington, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PURIFYING GAS, IN PREPARING MATERIALS USEFUL FOR PURIFYING
GAS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN PURIFYING GAS AND DISINFECTING GAS
LIQUORS OR WASHINGS."
Sealed the 19th August 1856, and dated the 20th February 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Laming at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th
February 1856:
I, RICHARD LAMING, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for IMPROVEMENTS IN PURIFYING GAS, IN PREPARING MATERIALS USEFUL FOR
PURIFYING GAS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN PURIFYING GAS AND DISIN-
FECTING GAS LIQUORS OR WASHINGS, to be as follows:-
I purify gas from napthaline by more perfectly depriving it of moisture, on
which its capacity for holding napthaline partly depends; this I do by passing
the gas through unslaked lime, combined with some chloride of calcium or
other deliquescent material. I purify gas from ammonia and other impurities
soluble in water, by washing or scrubbing it with a portion of that fluid after
the gas leaves the gasholders, and then using the same portion of water to
wash or scrub gas on its way from the condensers or retorts, &c. to the gas-
holders, by which means I extract from gas certain impurities which it may

page_text: have taken up from the gasholder tanks, without using more water than can
be made into an ammoniacal liquor of marketable value, and therefore not
needing to be run off into the sewers or other water-courses, or evaporated
under the furnaces.
I
prepare materials useful for purifying gas by making revivifiable peroxide
of iron in one or other of the following ways:-I expose to a red heat, with
access of air, either lime or magnesia, or a carbonate of lime or magnesia
impregnated with common sulphate of iron, or other salt of iron not con-
taining peroxide or protoxide or sesquioxide of iron intimately mixed with
alumina, lime, or magnesia, or carbonate of lime or magnesia, by which
means I obtain peroxide of iron in so minute a state of division, as to be
susceptible of reconversion into peroxide by mere exposure to the air at
ordinary temperatures, after having been made into sulphuret of iron by
purifying foul gas.
I construct apparatus to be used in purifying gas as follows:-First, I
make pervious horizontal diaphragms for use in gas purifiers, of narrow strips
of unpierced metallic sheet or other suitable material, arranged side by side in
two distinct planes of equal area, one plane being over the other and almost
in contact with it, every two contiguous pieces in each plane having a small
longitudinal space between them, and no space in one plane coinciding verti-
cally with any space in the other plane, by which arrangement large orifices
are substituted for small holes, the purifying liquid on the diaphragms being
prevented from descending by the said orifices, by having first to travel in a
horizontal direction, and against the current of the gas between two flat
surfaces almost in contact; or each plane may be made of one or more plates
of metal pierced with holes, provided the holes in one plano do not coincide
vertically with those of the other plane of the same diaphragm. Secondly, I
make pervious and absorbent diaphragms, and arrange them vertically in gas
purifiers, in such manner, that while the purifying liquid descends by gravity
from top to bottom of the diaphragm, the gas in its ascent from the bottom to
the top of the vessel is made to pass horizontally backwards and forwards
through the diaphragm, and consequently through a film of the purifying
liquid several times in succession. By this arrangement there is small addi-
tion made to the back pressure, the quantity of purifying liquid is reduced to
a minimum, and only needs to be once raised; the gas is brought successively
into contact with the purifying liquid progressively less contaminated, while the
liquid itself progressively acquires increased value by coming successively into
contact with gas containing larger quantities of ammonia, &c.
I construct apparatus to be used in disinfecting gas liquors or washings as

page_text: follows, and I use it for heating the liquids as a preparatory step to their
treatment, and for cooling them after they have been deprived of their volatile
impurities. I divide a chest or trough vertically, by metallic plates, into
numerous narrow cells, so connected together by means of holes and stops
near the ends of the plates as to form two distinct passages, through one of
which the liquid passes and absorbs the heat given out by another portion.
of the liquid already treated, and which is passing away by the other passage.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Laming in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
20th August 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
LAMING, of Carlton Villas, Maida Hill, Paddington,, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Laming, Her special licence that I, the said Richard Laming, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard
Laming, 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 PURIFYING GAS,
IN PREPARING MATERIALS USEFUL FOR PURIFYING GAS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE
USED IN PURIFYING GAS AND DISENFECTING GAS LIQUORS OR WASHINGS, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Laming, 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 Richard Laming, 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:

page_text: My improvements in gas are as follow:-In gasworks troubled with
napthaline, I charge a dry lime purifier or other convenient vessel with un-
slaked lime, combined with five or other small per-centage of chloride of
calcium, chloride of sodium, or of some other deliquicent material, and I
pass through it the gas, which I prever should have been previously deprived
of its ammonia, carbonic acid, and sulphurretted hydrogen. The presence of
the deliquescent material facilitates the absorption of moisture, which then
combines with the lime in considerable quantity without its becoming too wet,
while the gas thus deprived of moisture loses some of its capacity for
napthaline, which may then be condensed out of it in any cool and suitable
receptacle prepared to receive it.
Purified gas is sometimes again contaminated with ammonia and sulphuretted
hydrogen, by being stored over the gasholder tanks, and a second time repuri-
fied by washing as it leaves the gasholders to be distributed for consumption.
In such cases, I bring one and the same portion of water, first, into contact
with the contaminated gas as it leaves the gasbolders, and, secondly, with the
unpurified gas before it reaches tho gasholders, thus securing pure gas for
delivery, and at the same time making all the washings into a strong
ammoniacal solution, and therefore not needing to be got rid of, either by
evaporation under the furnaces or by being let off into the public sewers or
waterways. This improvement may be practised in common scrubbers or
washing vessels, but I prefer to do it in one or other kind of diaphragm
scrubber herein-after described, as I thereby make a smaller quantity of water
suffice.
My improvements in preparing materials useful for purifying gas are as
follow I add two parts of some suitable carbonate of limo or of magnesia,
or of both, to three parts more or less of protosulphato of iron, avoiding the
presence of all materials of a combustible nature. I mix them together in
powder, or cause the earthy substance or substances to absorb repeated por-
tions of the metallic salt in concentrated solution, drying the mixture after
ench addition. I put the mixture thus made into a shallow pan or vessel,
heated red hot, and stir it until it has passed through a pasty condition into
one of dessication. The red heat promptly decomposes the mixture with the
formation of sulphate of the earth or earths and peroxide of iron, which
latter makes its presence known by exhibiting a red color. When the iron is
reddened, I remove the mixture from the fire and grind it with a little water
under edge runners, or by any other convenient mill; I collect the paste
which results into a heap to drain, and when it has become sufficiently dry
and hard I break it down for use, and sometimes pass it through sieves of

page_text: different degrees of fineness. Either or both of the earths may be used in a
caustic state, and then it is desirable to expose the resulting mixture to the
red heat as soon as made, or much of the iron will escape being peroxidized
at the red heat, the peroxidation in such cases going on at ordinary tempe-
ratures; but the peroxide so produced seems to be more combined with water
of hydration and less with an earthy base than is desirable. If other proto-
salts of iron, that do not give rise to a compound objectionably deliquescent,
can be obtained sufficiently cheap, they may be used instead of the sulphate.
Instead of making the peroxide of iron, as above described, by decomposing
salts of the metal, I sometimes mix the metal in a state of lower peroxidation
(obtained by precipitation from a soluble salt or other available source) with
about half its weight, more or less, of some earthy matters or matter, as lime,
magnesia, their carbonates, and hydrated alumina, and in the absence of all
combustible materials. I then heat the mixture in a shallow open pan or
vessel to low redness, to dissipate water of hydration, to peroxidize the iron,
and to combine it more intimately with the earthy matter, after which I
remove the mixture from the fire and wet, grind, and sift it, as already
described with respect to the mixture of peroxide made by decomposing a
protosalt of iron.
I sometimes make the above-described materials less liable to become
clogged up by moisture, or by sulphur deposited in it by the gas, by mixing
them respectively, while in a wet and pasty state, with small fragments of
brick or other forms of anhydrous alumina or with other suitable substances
of an incombustible nature. With the same intent I sometimes modify my
process, by soaking small fragments of brick or other porous and incom-
bustible materials with a strong solution of sulphate or other cheap salt of
protoxide of iron, and then having decomposed the iron salt by an alkali or
any effective re-agent, so as to precipitate in the pores or on the surfaces of
the fragments a protoxide of iron. I mix the material so made with any
small per-centage of lime, magnesia, carbonate of lime, or carbonate of
magnesia, or any two or more of them, or without first decomposing the salt
of iron by an alkali, I simply mix the soaked fragments with a small propor-
tion of one or more of the above-named earthy substances, and then peroxidize
the metal by exposure to the air at a red heat or otherwise.
In all cases I prefer to peroxidize at a red heat, only taking care that the
temperature never approaches to a white heat, which would approximate
the nature of the mixture to that of porcelain, and thus injure it; but a
greater or lesser amount of advantage may be obtained from my combinations
with the iron peroxidized at ordinary temperatures, and that even in the caso

page_text: of the carbonates of the carths, if sufficient time be allowed for the completion
the atmospheric action.
My incombustible peroxide materials may be used for purifying gas in any
ordinary way hitherto practised with the peroxide of iron mixed with com-
bustible materials, and they will effectually purify it from ammonia as well as
sulphuretted bydrogen, and in a very satisfactory manner from carbonic acid
likewise. They are susceptible of being revivified an indefinite number of
times with respect to all those impurities, even without removal from the
purifying vessels and without the danger of over-heating, which is characteristic
of hydrated peroxide of iron made into a porous material, by admixture with
sawdust and other combustibles; and when by long-continued use they have
absorbed so large a quantity of solid sulphur from the gas as to be incon-
veniently bulky, the sulphur may be burned off from them even to profitable
account in the making of oil of vitriol (owing to the absence of sawdust and
all other forms of combustible carbon), and the peroxide materials thereby
recovered for the purification of gas in the same manner and quite as effectively
as at first. The use of my materials, therefore, scems to be without limit as
to its duration.
The way in which I recommend my materials to be used is as follows:-
Let them be placed on matting spread on the sieves of two purifying vessels,
either in detached layers or in contiguous strata, each layer or stratum being
more finely granulated, as it is further from the source of the gas. The two
purifiers being so fitted with valves that they can be used separately and
alternately, turn the foul gas through one of them until it begins to foul, a
test either for sulphuretted bydrogen or ammonia; then turn the stream of gas
aside into the second purifier, and pass atmospheric air through the spent
material, conducting all that is not absorbed by it, together with all that is
liberated from it, into a leaden vessel containing oil of vitriol. Before the
second purifier is fouled, either by sulphurreted hydrogen or ammonia, the
material in the first will have become revivified, having deposited its sulphur
in a solid form, and giving off in a volatile state all its ammonia and carbonic
acid, the former to be fixed by the oil of vitriol and formed into sulphate of
ammonia, and the latter to be set free into the atmosphere. When the
second purifier begins to shew foul, submit it to the current of atmospheric
air, and turn aside the gas to be purified in the first vessel as before; thus let
the contents of each purifier in succession bo alternately used and revivified,
EO long as the deposited sulphur leaves a sufficiently free passage for the gas.
My materials, as thus used, combine several great advantages: in the first
place, they are effectual, and as a general rule, need no aid from any other

page_text: process or material; their durability makes the purification of gas almost
costless for materials, their revivification by a mere blowing machine, and
within the purifying vessels, supercedes almost entirely the cost of labour, as
well as the disagreeable task of discharging and recharging the purifiers; and
lastly, they convert the ammonia of all the bydrosulphate of ammonia in the
gas into a purifying material, by causing it to combine with and to fix carbonic
acid at the same time that it gives up its hydrosulphuric acid to the metallic
oxide. I need only add to this account, that if the gas be unusually moist
when admitted to my materials, it will be better to use them mixed with
fragments of brick, &c., as herein-before described.
The above is the purely chemical way of using my materials. I will now
describe another way of using them, which depends upon their catalytic action
upon a mixture of sulphuretted hydrogen and oxygen gases, both which gases
are of course present in impure coal gas, into which atmospheric air has been
introduced. This catalytic action of peroxide of iron was made a subject of
my Patent bearing date the Twelfth day of August One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-two. My improved materials may be used catalytically, as
follows:-Mix with the gas to be purified any small per-centage of oxygen
gas, not exceeding what is in quantity chemically equivalent to the hydrogen
of the sulphuretted hydrogen in the gas, and then continue to pass the
mixture through one or more purifiers, properly charged with the oxide
material, until either the quantity of sulphur deposited in it obstructs the
passage of the gas or until the gas shews foul for sulphuretted hydrogen by
reason of the oxygen gas having been admitted to it in inadequate quantity.
This mode of using my oxide materials must always be attended by one, if not
two evils; in the first place, it cannot purify the gas from much more than
its sulphurreted hydrogen, leaving its ammonia and carbonic acid to be
removed by some additional process; and, secondly, whenever the atmosphere
is used as the source of the oxygen, the gas by purification becomes adulterated
with about four volumes of nitrogen for each volume of oxygen admitted
into it.
My improvements in apparatus to be used in purifying gas relate to the con-
struction of horizontal and vertical diaphragms in apparatus for washing or
scrubbing gas from the whole or part of its volatile impurities. The horizontal
diaphragms are an improvement on an Invention for which a Patent was
granted to Alfred Vincent Newton and bearing date the Tenth day of March
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
In order that the following description of my improved horizontal dia-
phragms may be more easily understood, I will here explain that each of them

page_text: is for the purpose of maintaining on its upper surface an inch or so in depth
of water or other fluid, let into the vessel above the top diaphragm, and flowing
from one to another downward, to escape from the vessel below the under dia-
phragm, and at the same time of distributing the current of gas as it passes
upwards through the vessel, so as to make it ascend in a very divided manner
through the fluid supported on the diaphragms. Each diaphragm consists of
narrow plates of sheet iron, or other useful material, arranged side by side
in two planes of equal area, one plane being over the other and nearly in
contact with it, say one-sixteenth to ono-eighth of an inch apart, the distanco
being greater as the area is smaller, for any quantity of gas to be passed in a
given time. No two contiguous plates in either plano touch each other, but
aro so near as to leave only a small interval between them, and these intervals
or apertures in one plane are as far as possible from coinciding vertically with
those of the other plane. With this arrangement of parts, the gas in asconding
through each diaphragm has to pass between its two planes of plates in a hori-
zontal direction, thereby holding in check the little tendency which the fluid
has to pass horizontally in an opposite direction, and without which it cannot
unduly fall downward. The surplus fluid is allowed to pass as speedily as it is
admitted into the apparatus from one diaphragm to another, by overflowing
through pipes raised an inch or so above their top surface, and dipping into
cups of fluid standing on the diaphragms below; and the number of diaphragms
and the depth of fluid in each vessel may be regulated by the exigencies of the
case, and the power in the gas for overcoming resistance.
Instead of making the diaphragms of narrow plates, one or both planes of a
diaphragm may be made entire with round or longitudinal holes, to serve for
the upward passage of the gas in them, provided only that the two planes be
so put together as that their apertures do not vertically coincide, and it is an
improvement to surround the apertures in the lower plane of each diaphragm
with deep burrs or stand-up edges, so as to keep back a small head of fluid,
and thus more effectually expose a large surface of fluid to the passing gas
while between the planes.
I sometimes construct gas washers or scrubbers each with a vertical dia-
phragm of woollen or other pervious or capillary material, in such a way that
while a thin sheet of water or other purifying liquid is descending by gravity
from top to bottom of the diaphragm, the gas to be washed shall pass through
it backwards and forwards several times.
The following is one way of making and using such a scrubber, but the form
and construction of apparatus may be much modified without departing from
its character:-Let there be two open vessels made of iron, or other suit-

page_text: able material, each about one foot deep, six feet wide, and twelve feet long,
each vessel being divided by seven partitions into eight equal cells. If the two
vessels as thus constructed be placed on end, and then put together by their
edges, their sixteen cells will form eight close chambers, each measuring two
feet from back to front, eighteen inches high, and six feet wide, and these
chambers should communicate with one another by large holes made in alter-
nate partitions of each of the two open vessels, before putting them together.
Let the two vessels be bound firmly together with all their outward edges
made air-tight, a coarse flannel or other suitable diaphragm being interposed
between them, and also of course between the edges of their respective par-
titions, the Intter not pressing against the diaphragm sufficiently hard to
prevent the descent of purifying liquid. Each chamber will thus be divided
into two parts by a porous septum. Now let impure gas be admitted by an
opening made for that purpose into the bottom chamber of the apparatus, and
have free egress by a similar opening in its upper chamber. The gas will pass
through the vertical diaphragm eight times, in order to traverse the apparatus,
and the diaphragm being by any convenient means supplied with a small but
constant stream of water or other liquid all along its top, will subject it to
eight successive scrubbings each succeeding time with a portion of liquid of
increased efficacy.
My improvements in apparatus to be used in disinfecting gas liquors or
washings relates to a mode of heating one portion of these liquids, preparatory
to distilling off its volatile impurities and of simultaneously cooling another
that has been distilled, as a preparation for its discharge into the sewers or
other waterways. My improved apparatus is a chest or trough, capacious
enough to be divided into.numerous water-tight cells by vertical plates, say,
two feet wide and five or six feet long, of iron or other suitable metal, placed
about an inch apart, and being so pierced with holes and so fitted with stops
as to form two distinct and separate passages, one for cold liquid to become
progressively heated, and the other for hot liquid to become progressively,
cooled.
may
The following description will make the placing of the holes and stops
understood for an apparatus of eight cells, and the same construction be
extended to an apparatus of eighty or one hundred cells, between which num-
bers the apparatus will be very effective. Taking the cells in numerical order,
every successive pair will be stopped off left and right alternately one inch from
their respective ends, the stops reaching from the top to the bottom of the cells;
thus, if numbers one and two are stopped to the left hand, so will also be
numbers five and six, while numbers three and four and seven and eight will be

page_text: stopped to the right hand. Cold liquid entering behind the stop in cell number
one passes through holes made in the two plates, which separate numbers one,
two, and three; it then passes to the right along the cell number three, as far as
it can proceed for the stop fixed near its end, a little in front of which it turns
through holes in the plate which separates number three from cell number
four, returns to the left hand along number four, then turns aside through
holes which conduct it behind the stops of cells numbers five and six into the
cell number seven, next along number seven to the right as far as it can pro-
ceed for the stop fixed near its end, a little in front of which it turns through
holes in the plate which separates number seven from cell number eight,
returns to the left along number eight, which it quits at its termination. On
the other hand, hot liquor entering behind the stop in cell number eight passes
through holes made in the two plates which separate numbers eight, seven,
and six; it then passes to the left along the cell number six as far as it can
proceed for the stop fixed near its end, a little in front of which it turns
through holes in the plate which separates number six from cell number five,
returns to the right hand along number five, then turns aside through holes
which conduct it behind the stops of cells numbers four and three into the cell
number two, next along number two to the left, as far as it can proceed for
the stop fixed near its end, a little in front of which it turns through holes
in the plate which separates number two from cell number one, returns to the
right along number one, which it quits at its termination. I prefer to make
the chest or trough of strong wood, and to slide the plates into grooves
ploughed in its ends and bottom; the stops may be conveniently made of pieces
of wood about one inch square, well fitted and driven perpendicularly down
between the plates until they rest on the bottom of the vessel water-tight, and
cach plate may be prepared for establishing the two opposite currents of liquor
by having two rows of half-inch holes punched near one of its ends, the rows
being so far apart and such distance from the end of the plate as to come one
on either side of a stop.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and how it may be
practised, I wish it to be understood that I claim,—
First, the use of quicklime mixed with any deliquescent substance for
removing moisture and napthaline from gas.
Secondly, the use of one and the same portion of water, first, to wash
gas after it leaves a gasholder, and, secondly, to wash gas on its way to a gas-
holder.
Thirdly, the manufacture of materials useful for purifying gas by peroxidizing
either at a low red heat, or any lower and adequate temperature, a lower oxide

page_text: of iron artificially distributed either by itself or in combination with an acid in
earthy matter, or in a mixture of earthy matters, capable of neutralizing the
acid, if any be combined with the iron, the said materials not containing any
porous substance of a combustible nature.
Fourthly, the use of such perforated diaphragms in vessels for washing or
scrubbing gas as are constructed each of two horizontal planes, placed one a
little above the other, the perforations of the two planes not coinciding verti-
cally; also the use of gas washers or scrubbers, each acting by a vertical
and pervious diaphragm made of absorbent material, kept wetted by water,
diluted acid, or other purifying liquid, constantly descending from top to
bottom of the diaphragm, and through which the gas is made to pass on
its way upwards through the apparatus any number of times that may be
requisite.
Fifthly, the use of the apparatus described for disinfecting gas liquors or
washings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Laming, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
RICHARD LAMING