IMPROVEMENTS OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Isham Baggs, of High Holborn, in the County of
Middlesex, Practical Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER."
IN
Sealed the 30th July 1867, and dated the 1st February 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Isham Baggs at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
February 1867.
I, ISHAM BAGGS, of High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Practical
Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWEв," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in obtaining and applying motive power by means
of the generation and expansion of hydrochloric acid gas, which is evolved
from a solution thereof upon the same being brought into contact with
sulphuric acid, when the water associated with the former will be wholly or
partially taken up or absorbed by the latter, and the gas thereby liberated.
Other acids possessing properties more or less analogous to those of the acids
before mentioned (which latter are preferred) may be employed; but in the
following description of the nature of this Invention hydrochloric and sulphuric
acids will be assumed as being used. The sulphuric and hydrochloric acids
Price 8.1

page_text: are placed in separate vessels or receptacles, each of which communicates by
means of suitable pipes or channels with a mixing chamber, into which they
pass through a perforated diaphragm. Upon the sulphuric acid being added
to or brought into contact with the hydrochloric acid the water associated with
the latter is wholly or partially absorbed or taken up by the former and
hydrochloric acid gas evolved; the latter is then caused to pass either direct
or through an intermediate reservoir to the cylinder of the machine which is
to be worked, and in which it actuates a piston in the same way as steam or
any other expansive and elastic fluid; or it may be caused by other well
known arrangements to actuate any other mechanical contrivances for
obtaining and conveying motion. The gas after it has performed its work is
condensed by passing it into a receiver containing water or other condensing
and suitable substance. The residuum may be subsequently recovered and
used over and over again for the before-mentioned purposes by subjecting it
to evaporation or concentration at a high temperature, as well understood.
The recovery of the acid is, by preference, effected by surface evaporation and
concentration in the following manner: Hot air, or preferably the products
of combustion supplied from a coke or other furnace and freed from adven-
titious impurities, is or are passed by means of blowing apparatus through
screens of wire gauze or perforated plates, or tiles, and blown upon or brought
into contact with the surface of the diluted acid to be evaporated or concen-
trated until the desired degree of concentration is obtained, when it can be
preserved in any convenient and known method.
It is desirable to employ the solution of hydrochloric acid for the purposes
of this Invention in as concentrated a form as possible, and such acid may be
so concentrated and prepared most advantageously according to a process
invented by me, and for which I have applied for Letters Patent and have
obtained Provisional Protection, bearing date the 13th day of December
1866, No. 3269. The force obtained in the manner before described is appli-
cable as a motive power to every variety of engine, such engines requiring no
special construction except in the particulars herein-after mentioned. It is
desirable that those parts of the apparatus which are liable to be corroded
should be constructed of or coated with glass, enamel, adamas, or other sub-
stance or material capable of resisting the action of the acids employed; and
in order to prevent explosion or the consequences which might result from an
escape of gas those parts of the apparatus from which such an escape might
possibly take place should be surrounded with water, charcoal, lime, or chalk,
or some other absorbent and condenser of the gas. Especial care must be
taken that all the joints of the several parts of the apparatus employed are

page_text: properly sealed, so as to prevent any escape of gas; and it is also of great
importance that the piston rod or other analogous mechanism for conveying.
motion should work in a perfectly gas-tight manner, a result which may be
conveniently obtained by the use of vulcanised india-rubber packing or
covering.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Isham Baggs in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 31st
July 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ISHAM
BAGGS, of High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Practical Chemist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Isham Baggs, Her special licence that I, the said Isham
Baggs, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as 1,
the said. Isham Baggs, 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 "IMPRCVE-
XENTS IN OBTAINING AND APPLYING MOTIVE POWER," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Isham Baggs, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and scals, 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 Isham Baggs, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and, ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
My said Invention consists in obtaining and applying motive power by
means of the generation and expansion of hydrochloric acid gas, which is

page_text: evolved from a solution thereof upon the same being brought into contact with
sulphuric acid, when the water associated with the former will be wholly or
partially taken up or absorbed by the latter, and the gas thereby liberated.
Other acids possessing properties more or less analogous to those of the acids
before mentioned (which latter are preferred) may be employed, but in the
following description of my said Invention hydrochloric and sulphuric acids
will be assumed as being used. The sulphuric and hydrochloric acids are
placed in separate vessels or receptacles, each of which communicates by
means of suitable pipes or channels with a mixing chamber, into which they
pass through a perforated diaphragm. Upon the sulphuric acid being added
to or brought into contact with the hydrochloric acid the water associated
with the latter is wholly or partially absorbed or taken up by the former and
hydrochloric acid gas evolved. The latter is then caused to pass either direct or
through an intermediate reservoir to the cylinder of the machine which is to
be worked, and in which it actuates a piston in the same way as steam or any
other expansive and elastic fluid, or it may be caused by other well-known
arrangements to actuate any other mechanical contrivances for obtaining and
applying motion. The gas after it has performed its work is condensed by
passing it into a receiver containing water or other condensing and suitable
substance. The sulphuric or fixed acid residuum may be subsequently reco-
vered, and used over and over again for the before-mentioned purposes by
subjecting it to evaporation or concentration at a high temperature as well
understood. The recovery of the acid is, by preference, effected by surface
evaporation and condensation in the following manner-Hot air, or preferably,
the products of combustion supplied from a coke or other furnace, and freed
from adventitious impurities is or are passed by means of blowing apparatus
through screens of wire gauze, or perforated plates or tiles, and blown upon
or brought into contact with the surface of the diluted acid to be evaporated
or concentrated until the desired degree of concentration is obtained, when it
can be preserved in any convenient and known method.
It is desirable to employ the solution of hydrochloric acid for the purposes
of this Invention in as concentrated a form as possible. and such acid
may be so concentrated and prepared most advantageously according to a
process invented by me, and for which Letters Patent have been granted
to me, bearing date the Thirteenth day of December One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-six, No. 3269. The hydrochloric acid resulting from
condensation is afterwards concentrated (preferably under the last-mentioned
Patent) for subsequent use in the engine again and again as often as may
be desired.
The force obtained in the manner before described is applicable

page_text: as a motive power to every variety of engine, such engines requiring no
special construction except in the particulars herein-after mentioned. It
is desirable that those parts of the apparatus which are liable to be corroded
should be constructed of or coated with glass, enamel, adamus, granite, or
other substance or material capable of resisting the action of the acids
employed; and in order to prevent explosion or the consequences which
might result from an escape of gas those parts of the apparatus from which
such an escape might possibly take place should be surrounded with water,
charcoal, lime, or chalk, or some other absorbent and condenser of the gas.
Especial care must be taken that all the joints of the several parts of the
apparatus employed are properly sealed, so as to prevent any escape of gas;
and it is also of great importance that the piston rod or other analogous
mechanism for conveying motion should work in a perfectly gas-tight manner,
a result which may be conveniently obtained by the use of vulcanised india-
rubber packing or covering.
I will now proceed to refer to the annexed Drawings, and from which the
mode of performning my said Invention will be more clearly understood.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of a machine to which my said Invention has
been applied; Figure 2 is a side elevation; and Figure 3 a plan view of
the same.
The holder A is filled with strong sulphuric acid, and the other holder A'
with strong hydrochloric acid; the tubes c, e, communicate with these respec-
tively, one to each, and they are each subject to regulation by the handle g.
A regulated quantity is pumped by each stroke of the engine into the gene-
rator B, in which the hydrochloric acid gas is instantly evolved by contact and
mixture. The gas by its expansive power works the piston in the cylinder D
in the usual manner, and after thus doing its duty escapes into the receiver E
containing water, in which it is absorbed and condensed as well understood.
The resulting mixture of sulphuric acid, water, and a little residual hydro-
chloric acid passes off continuously by the cock from the vessel B the generator
into the receiver F; from this latter vessel F a side pipe conveys the small
quantity of free hydrochloric acid gas into E, in which it is absorbed by the
The ultimate contents
water in common with the gas from the cylinder D.
of E and F are restored to their original state by treatment similar to that
already described, and thus utilised again and again.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I would observe in
conclusion that what I consider novel and original, and therefore claim as
constituting the Invention secured to me by the said herein-before in part

page_text: recited Letters Patent is, the combination and arrangement of mechanism
and processes herein-before substantially described and set forth, or any mere
modifications' 'thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said Isham Baggs, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
Witness,
R. S. MORDAUNT VAUGHAN,
54, Chancery Lane.
ISHAM BAGGS.
(E:S.)