IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF CARBONATE OF AMMONIA
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
LAMING, of Gower Street, Bedford Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Surgeon, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Royal Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of March, in the fourth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs, and successors, givo and grant
unto me, the said Richard Laming, Her especial license, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Laming, my executors,
admors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Richard Laming,
my executors, administrators, 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
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF CARBONATE OF AMMONIA ; in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Richard Laming,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled 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
Richard Laming, 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 and by the following description, thereof (that is to say) :-
--
To obtain the salt, which in commerce is called carbonate of ammonia, either
animal matters are subjected to destructive distillation, or a mixture of car-
bonate of lime and some ammoniacal salt is exposed to a high temperature;
the carbonate of ammonia is by this means volatilized, and it is usually passed
into condensing vessels or chambers, in which it accumulates either in a
concrete state: or more or less dissolved in water. Now, by my improved
process, instead of distilling an ammoniacal carbonate direct from any substance
or mixture capable of supplying it, I obtain the salt either in a solid state or
dissolved more or less in water, by mixing together its separate acid and
alkaline constituents; and these are the-improvements which I claim as my
Invention.
One of the processes which I use for this manufacture is to cause ammonia
gas and carbonic acid gas (obtained separately from any convenient sources,)
to traverse a succession of leaden chambers, maintained at as cool a temperaturo
as may be conveniently practible, and so contrived as to favor the admixture of
the dissimilar gases. In this process it is not essential that the two gases
be present in their combining proportions; it is preferable that the carbonic
acid be in greater abundance than-will-combine with the ammonia which
is present. Sometimes I place in one or more of the chambers a stratum of
water, or of water impregnated with ammonia, and then introduce. to it
carbonic acid and ammonia gases or carbonic acid gas, in which cases I am
enabled to obtain in the resulting salt or saline solution a larger proportion
of carbonic acid gas than when only the hygrometric moisture of the aeriform
fluids is present.
I do not restrict my claim to any particular forms or construction of- ap-
paratus, but I claim the Invention of making carbonate of ammonia by mixing
its acid and alkaline constituents in any convenient apparatus, in all cases in
which those constituents are obtained by different processes or supplied from
different vessels, and whether they be pure, or more or less mixed with air or
other gases or matters. When carbonate of ammonia, which has been
mixed with other substances for any purpose in the arts, is to be recovered by
exposing the mixture to a high temperature, it may be thought to save
ammonia by condensing the salt in a chamber or vessel containing carbonic
acid gas, I, therefore, disclaim as any part of my Invention the use of carbonic
acid gas for the purpose either of.recovering or preventing the loss of carbonate
of ammonia, my Invention having for its end only the first production of
carbonate of ammonia. When carbonate of ammonia is made by the ordinary

page_text: processes of distilling animal matters, or a mixture containing an ammoniacal
salt, it may be thought to conduce to a greater product to maintain the con-
densing chambers full of carbonic acid gas; but I do not claim as any part of
my Invention the use of carbonic acid gas for increasing the quantity of
carbonate of ammonia to be obtained by any of the ordinary processes of dis-
tillation. The carbonate of ammonia usually met with in commerce is called
by chemists sesquicarbonate of ammonia; besides this there is a second variety
containing a lesser proportion of carbonic acid, called by chemists carbonate of
ammonia; and also a third, which contains a larger proportion of carbonic
acid, and which chemists name the bicarbonate of ammonia. Now, I do not
claim as any part of my Invention the conversion of the carbonate of ammonia
into the sesquicarbonate or the bicarbonate, nor the conversion of the sesqui-
carbonate into the bicarbonate, by exposing the carbonate or the sesquicarbonate
in solution to carbonic acid gas; but I claim as my Invention the formation
of these several salts or varieties of salt, or any mixture of them, by the
exposure of carbonic acid gas to ammonia in solution, either alone or mixed
with one or more of the carbonates of ammonia.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Laming, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of September, in the year of our
T
(L.S.) RICHARD LAMING.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of September, in
the fifth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Richard
Laming 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 Ilis late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of September One thousand eight hundred
and forty-one