TREATING THE WASTE LIQUORS FROM BLEACHING POWDER STILLS IN ORDER TO OBTAIN HYDROCHLORIC ACID AND OTHER PRODUCTS THEREPROM
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Calvert Clapham, of Walker, in the County
of Northumberland, Analytical Chemist, for the Invention of "TREATING
THE WASTE LIQUORS FROM BLEACHING POWDER STILLS IN ORDER TO OBTAIN
HYDROCHLORIC ACID AND OTHER PRODUCTS THEREPROM."
Scaled the 9th October 1863, and dated the 17th April 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Calvert Clapham
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th April 1868.
I, ROBERT CALVERT CLAPHAM, of Walker, in the County of Northumberland,
Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the naturo of the said Invention for
TREATING THE WASTE LIQUORS FROM BLEACHING POWDER STILLS IN ORDER TO
OBTAIN HYDROCHLORIC ACID AND OTHER PRODUCTS THEREPROM," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of treating the waste liquors from bleaching powder
stills and obtaining therefrom hydrochloric acid or chlorine, as the case may
be, both applicable to the manufacture of bleaching powder, and the residue
of these liquors (after extracting the free hydrochloric acid or chlorine), which
consist of chlorides of manganese and of iron. I treat as hereafter described.
I proceed as follows:-The waste liquors aforesaid, which usually contain
about rd of the hydrochloric acid used in the manufacture of bleaching

page_text: powder, and in an uncombined form, are conducted into a furnace made of
brickwork or other suitable material, with heat directly applied or indirectly
applied, as in a blind furnace, or the solutions aforesaid may be distilled in
retorts; and in either case I pass the vapours or gases, which consist of
hydrochloric acid and steam, through pipes, which may be cooled by water,
or by the air, or otherwise; or I pass the gases or vapours through condensers
in the usual manner, as well known to manufacturers, and I obtain hydro-
chloric acid which generally averages about 15° T. The acid so obtained is
applied in the place of water for muriatic acid condensers, according to the
plan recommended for the use of weak muriatic acids in the Specification of
Letters Patent granted to me the 11th September 1860, No. 2198, and by
this means I obtain commercial muriatic acid suitable for the manufacture of
bleaching powder and for the other purposes; or I add ground manganese to
the solution in the furnaces or retorts above described, and after heating a
suitable time I obtain chlorine, which may be applied in the manufacture of
bleaching powder. The residue left in the furnace or retort, which consists
of chlorides of manganese and iron, may be applied as under,—
I. It can be used as a deodoriser to purify sewage, or for the separation of
sulphur from coal gas.
II. It may be decomposed with lime, magnesia, soda waste, or any of the
earths or alkalies, by which means oxide of manganese and chlorides of the
earths or alkalies are produced; and the soluble salts may be separated from
the oxide of manganese washing, and the latter applied as fettling in
puddling furnaces or for the extraction of the metals of manganese and iron
in a blast furnace, or the manganese may be further oxidized and used for the
same purposes. The chlorides, if consisting of chlorides of calcium and mag-
nesium, may be separated as above and used for different purposes.
chloride of magnesium may be decomposed by heat, and the hydrochloric acid
condensed, and the magnesia which remains may be digested with suphuric
acid to produce Epsom salts.
Or the
III. Or the residue from the furnaces or retorts as aforesaid may be mixed
with the earths or alkalies as above, and can be directly applied as fettling for
puddling furnaces without being previously washed; or for the extraction of
the metals of manganese and iron in a blast furnace or other suitable reducing
furnace or retort, in which process the chlorides present form a useful flux.
IV. Or the still liquors, either before or after separating a large proportion
of the free hydrochloric acid, may be mixed with burnt pyrites, by which
means the sulphur in the burnt pyrites or part thereof is expelled, and the
mixture may be also applied as above.

page_text: V. Or the said still liquors may be applied, either before or after being
treated for the separation of the free hydrochloric acid contained therein, to
soda waste or other sulphurets of calcium which have been previously exposed
sufficiently long to the atmosphere to convert the sulphuret into sulphite; and
for this purpose I most prefer to use the soda waste, after having passed
through the process known as Losh's Patent process, in making hyposulphite
of soda, either before or after further exposure to the atmosphere, and after
digesting it in suitable apparatus I obtain sulphurous acid suitable for com-
mercial purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Calvert Clapham in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th October 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
CALVERT CLAPHAM, of Walker, in the County of Northumberland, Analytical
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, tho
said Robert Calvert Clapham, Her special licence that I, the said Robert
Calvert Clapham, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Robert Calvert Clapham, 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 "TREATING
THE WASTE LIQUORS FROM BLEACHING POWDER STILLS IN ORDER TO OBTAIN HYDRO-
CHLORIC ACID AND OTHER PRODUCTS THEREPROM," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Robert Calvert Clapham, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 Robert Calvert Clapham, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is

page_text: to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of treating the waste liquors from bleaching powder
stills and obtaining therefrom hydrochloric acid or chlorine, as the case may
be, both applicable to the manufacture of bleaching powder and otherwise; the
residue of these liquors, after extracting the free hydrochloric acid or chlorine,
consists of chlorides of manganese and of iron.
I proceed as follows:-The waste liquors aforesaid, which usually contain
about one-third of the hydrochloric acid used in the manufacture of bleaching
powder, and in an uncombined form, are conducted into a furnace made of
brickwork or other suitable material, with heat directly applied or indirectly
applied, as in a blind furnace, or the solutions aforesaid may be distilled in
retorts; and in either case I pass the vapours or gases, which consist of hydro-
chloric acid and steam, through pipes, which may be cooled by water or by air
or otherwise; or I pass the gases or vapours through condensers in the usual
manner, as well known to manufacturers, and I obtain hydrochloric acid,
which generally averages about 15° Twaddle. The acid so obtained is applied
in the place of water for muriatic acid condensers, according to the plan
recommended for the use of weak muriatic acids in the Specification of
Letters Patent granted to me the 11th September 1860, No. 2198, and by
this means I obtain commercial hydrochloric acid suitable for the manufacture
of bleaching powder and for other purposes; or I add ground manganese to
the solution in the furnaces or retorts above described, and after heating a
suitable time I obtain chlorine. The residue in the furnace or retort, which
consists of chlorides of manganese and iron, may be applied as follows:-
I. It can be used as a deodorizer to purify sewage, or for the separation of
sulphur from coal gas.
II. It may be decomposed with lime, magnesia, soda waste, or any of the
earths or alkalies, by which means oxide of manganese and chlorides of the
earths or alkalies are produced; and the soluble salts may be separated from
the oxide of manganese by washing, and the latter applied as fettling in
puddling furnaces or for the extraction of the metals of manganese and iron
in a blast furnace; or the manganese may be further oxidized and used for
the same purposes. The chlorides, if consisting of chlorides of calcium and
magnesium, may be separated as above and used for different purposes.
the chloride of magnesium may be decomposed by heat and the hydrochloric
acid condensed, and the magnesia which remains may be digested with
sulphuric acid to. produce Epsom salts.
Or
III. Or the residue from the furnaces or retorts as aforesaid may be mixed

page_text: with the earths or alkalies as above, and can be directly applied as fettling for
puddling furnaces without being previously washed; or for the extraction of
the metals of manganese and iron in a blast furnace or other suitable reducing
furnace or retort, in which process the chlorides present form a useful flux.
IV. Or the still liquors, either before or after separating a large proportion
of the free hydrochloric acid, may be mixed with burnt pyrites, by which
means the sulphur in the burnt pyrites or part thereof is expelled, and the
mixture may be also applied as above.
V. Or the said still liquors may be applied, either before or after being
treated for the separation of the free hydrochloric acid contained therein, to
soda waste or other sulphurets of calcium, which have been previously exposed
sufficiently long to the atmosphere to convert the sulphuret into sulphite, and
for this purpose I most prefer to use the soda waste, after having passed
through the process known as Losh's Patent process, in making byposulphite
of soda, either before or after further exposure to the atmosphere, and after
digesting it in suitable apparatus I obtain sulphurous acid suitable for com-
mercial purposes.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, treating the
waste liquors from bleaching powder stills and obtaining hydrochloric acids
and other products herein-before mentioned therefrom, by the means and in
manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Calvert Clapham, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of October, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-three.
R. CALVERT CLAPHAM.
(L.8.)
R. CALVERT CLAPHAM. (L.8.)