CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN PRODUCING OR MAKING THE SUBSTANCE COMMONLY CALLED OR KNOWN BY THE NAME OF CARBONATE OF BARYTA OR CARBONATE OF BABYTES
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
WOOLRICH, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Professor of Chemistry
in the Royal School of Medicine at Birmingham, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did, by petition, represent unto His most Excellent Majesty
King William the Fourth that I had invented "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
PRODUCING OR MAKING THE SUBSTANCE COMMONLY CALLED OR KNOWN BY THE NAME
OF CARBONATE OF BARYTA OR CARBONATE OF BABYTES;" and whereas His said
Majesty, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing at Westminster, the Second day of June, in the sixth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Woolrich, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial license, that
I, the said John Woolrich, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said John Woolrich, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend my said Invention within England and Wales and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed; in which said Invention is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said John Woolrich, particularly to describe and ascertain the

page_text: nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and to cause
the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said 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
John Woolrich, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention to
consist in producing or making the substance commonly called or known
by the name of carbonate of baryta or carbonate of barytes, by applying the
gas produced by heating to a red heat in a retort a mixture of the substance
commonly called sulphate of baryta and charcoal or coke, or by applying
carbonic acid gas obtained by any process to a solution in water of the
substance commonly called or known by the name of sulphuret of barium,
and thereby forming a precipitate; this precipitate taken from the liquor, and
washed, dried, and heated upon a stove, is the said carbonate of baryta or
carbonate of barytes. And in further compliance with the said proviso, I do
hereby particularly describe and ascertain in what manner the said Invention
is to be performed by the following description, that is to say:-
I take any convenient quantity of the substance commonly called or known
by the name of sulphate of baryta, finely powdered, say one hundred pounds,
and mix it with about one-fifth of its weight of finely powdered charcoal or of
finely powdered coke, so that the mixture consists of about five-sixth parts of
finely powdered sulphate of baryta and one-sixth part of finely-powdered
charcoal or of finely powdered coke; it is not essential to preserve this pro-
portion, but I find it generally the cheapest and most convenient; I then put
the mixture into a retort and heat it to a red heat, and keep it of that heat for
about two hours; the gas formed from the mixture during the heating process
is not confined in the retort. It is not essential to keep the mixture to a red
heat for about two hours, or to discontinue the heating process at the expiration
of that time, but about two hours is the time I generally prefer and 'adopt for
keeping the mixture of a red heat. As soon as convenient, the particular'time
not being of importance, I remove the contents of the retort, which contents
consist principally of the substance now generally known by the name of
sulphuret of barium, and which sulphuret of barium is soluble in water, and I
put such contents into á sufficient quantity of water to dissolve the said
sulphuret of barium, and the contents of the retort are kept in the water
until the sulphuret of barium is dissolved: If cold water be used, about ten

page_text: times its weight of cold water will dissolve the said sulphuret of barium in the
course of a few hours; if hot water be used, a less quantity and a shorter time
will be sufficient; an excess of water is immaterial; when the sulphuret of
barium is dossolved I draw off the clear solution into another vessel. Into the
vessel containing the said clear solution I pass, by means of a pipe connected
with and going from the retort used in heating the previously described
mixture of sulphate of baryta and charcoal or coke, the gas which is
gradually formed from the said mixture during the entire previously mentioned
heating process of a mixture formed as previously described, and of which the
aggregate weight is the same or nearly the same as the weight of the mixture
from which the solution of sulphuret of barium has been obtained. Carbonic
acid gas obtained by any process may be substituted for and applied in the
same manner as the gas procured in the manner herein-before described, but
I prefer the gas procured in the mauner herein-before described, as being
more economical. As the gas procured in the manner herein-before described,
or as the carbonic acid gas in whatever manner procured, enters the vessel
containing the said clear solution a substance is formed and precipitates.
When this precipitate has subsided I separate it from the liquor in the usual
way, and then I wash, dry, and heat the precipitate upon a hot stove for about
an hour; the said precipitate so washed, dried, and heated is the substance
commonly called or known by the name of carbonate of baryta or carbonate
of barytes.
Now, whereas I do not claim the making or producing, or the mode of
making or producing the substance herein-before mentioned, and now
generally known by the name of sulphuret of barium, or the producing or
making, or the mode of producing or making the solution of sulphuret of
barium in water; but I do claim as my Invention the following improvements,
that is to say, the producing or making the substance commonly called or
known by the name of carbonate of baryta or carbonate of barytes, by applying
to a solution of sulphuret of barium, in water, the gas produced in the manner
herein-before described, or by applying to such solution carbonic acid gas
obtained by any process. And such Invention being to the best of knowledge
and belief entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
His said Majesty's Dominion of Wales, or the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do
verily believe that this my Specification doth comply in all respects fully and
without reserve or disguise with the said proviso in the said herein-before in

page_text: part recited Letters Patent contained, wherefore I do hereby claim and main-
tain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand and seal, the Sixth day
of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-six.
SPURRIER, Extra.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of September, in
the year of our Lord 1836, the aforesaid John Woolrich came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.