IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF AIR, GASES, LIQUIDS, AND FURNACE CHIMNEY PRODUCTS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF SEPARATING THE COMPONENT PARTS THEREOF, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Joseph Wilson and John Wycliffe Wilson, both of
Sheffield, in the County of York, Smelters, and Andrew French, of Lead
Hills, Lanarkshire, North Britain, Metallurgist, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF AIR, GASES, LIQUIDS, AND FURNACE CHIMNEY
PRODUCTS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF SEPARATING THE COMPONENT PARTS THEREOF,
AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Joseph Wilson, John
Wycliffe Wilson, and Andrew French at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents on the 21st December 1878.
HENRY JOSEPH WILSON and JOHN WYCLIFFE WILSON, both of Sheffield, in the
County of York, Smelters, and ANDREW FRENCH, of Lead Hills, Lanarkshire, North
Britain, Metallurgist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF AIR, GASES, LIQUIDS,
AND FURNACE CHIMNEY PRODUCTS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF SEPARATING THE COM-
PONENT PARTS THEREOF, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Our Invention has for its object the disintegrating, separating, and decomposing
of gases, furnace chimney products, and liquids, and more particularly the separation
of metals or other substances or gases from atmospheric air, smoke, gases, furnace
chimney products, and the like, for the purpose of retaining and saving such
valuable parts as are at present carried away, dispersed, and wasted. Our Invention
is also applicable to the purification of air or any other gas, the separation of its com-
ponent parts, or of those of any other gas, or fluid, or substance, in solution or
suspension, and it consists chiefly in passing such air, gas, fumes, smoke, or other
furnace chimney products under and through water or other suitable liquid or com-
bination of liquids, which may be either hot or cold, and through the interstices of
wire net or gauze of any suitable metal or metals, cloth of any suitable material
[Price 8d.]

page_text: or their equivalents, or porous layers or beds of any suitable substance, or plates of
any perforated material, or slender rods, wires, or strips of wood, metal, or other
suitable material, arranged so as to permit the passage of any fluid through their
interstices, the gauze or other material or substance having such interstices being
immersed in water or other liquid, and being either at rest or having motion
imparted to it by any suitable means for the purposes above described.
In applying our Invention (for example) to the treatment of metallic fumes for
the purpose of separating the metals therefrom, we find it convenient to employ
apparatus constructed and arranged in the following manner :-
We provide a box, which may be open or closed as desired, and which is filled to
the requisite height with water, either used alone or in conjunction with lime or
soda (for example). In this box at each end we fit a vertical partition, and between
the two partitions we arrange a horizontal partition with slotted openings, having
serrated vertical flanges, above which are placed a series of screens of wire gauze
(for example). The metallic fumes to be treated are introduced from above under
pressure or suction at the side of the vertical partitions, traversing the water, and
then rise through the slotted horizontal partition, and through the wire gauze
screens and the water in which they are immersed. We provide other vertical
partitions, channels, or tubes to facilitate the return of the water put in circulation
by the passage of the metallic fumes. The metal separated remains in the water,
whence it may be withdrawn through any convenient outlet. Tubes may be sub-
stituted for the passages formed by the vertical partitions, and means other than
the horizontal slotted partitions may be used for distributing and dividing the
entering fumes, and the details may be otherwise modified, it being however in all
cases preferable to provide a separate channel unimpeded with wire gauze for the
return of the circulation water.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Henry Joseph Wilson, John Wycliffe Wilson, and Andrew French in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st June 1879.
"
HENRY JOSEPH WILSON and JOHN WYCLIFFE WILSON, both of Sheffield, in the
County of York, Smelters, and ANDREW FRENCH, of Lead Hills, Lanarkshire, North
Britain, Metallurgist. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF AIR, GASES, LIQUIDS,
AND FURNACE CHIMNEY PRODUCTS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF SEPARATING THE COM-
PONENT PARTS THEREOF, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN."
Our said Invention has for its object the disintegrating, separating, and decom-
posing of gases, furnace chimney products, and liquids, and more particularly the
separation of metals or other substances or gases from atmospheric air, smoke, gases,
furnace chimney products, and the like, for the purpose of retaining and saving
valuable materials which are ordinarily carried away, dispersed, and wasted. Our
Invention is also advantageously applicable for purifying air or gases, or for the

page_text: separation therefrom of suspended matters or of components whose presence is
undesirable; also for treating different substances when intermingled in a smoke-
like condition for the purpose of separating them from each other, the solubility of
one or more of them in water or other liquid being in some cases availed of.
Heretofore objects the same as or similar to those we have in view have been
effected or attempted to be effected by causing gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters
to be brought into more or less intimate contact with water or other liquid, in order
that the soluble or suspended matters might be taken up by the liquid, and thereby
be separated from the permanently gaseous constituents of the mixture or current.
We also, in carrying out our Invention, employ water or other liquid for acting on
air, gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters; and in some cases we employ gases for
acting on liquids, but we adopt improved modifications of processes and apparatus,
which enable us to deal in a commercially satisfactory manner with certain gases,
fumes, or smoke-like matters, for operating on which no previously known process
or apparatus appears to have been practically available, whilst at the same time our
improved processes and apparatus will we believe yield better and more economical
results than such as are actually in use in some applications.
In carrying out our Invention we cause the air, gases, fumes, or smoke-like
matters to pass in a minutely subdivided state through water or other suitable
liquid contained in a suitable vessel or tank; and in one modification we employ, for
the purpose of effecting the subdivision, horizontal wire gauze screens, such screens
being submerged in the liquid, and being specially arranged so that the air, gases,
fumes, or smoke-like matters which are passed through the screens require to be
forced or drawn through only a small head of liquid, requiring a minimum of power.
The air, gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters are made to enter beneath the screens
in streams or films of considerable horizontal extent but small depth, and such
streams are divided before reaching the screens, so as to be equally distributed, and
so that a maximum quantity of air, gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters may be
effectively passed in a given time through apparatus of a given size. The water or
liquid carried up through the screens by the action of the air, gases, fumes, or smoke-
like matters has not to find its way back again through any part of the screens,
which part would be thereby rendered ineffective, but has one or more passages
provided for its unimpeded return downwards.
Whilst we prefer the screens to be of wire gauze, we do not restrict ourselves to
that material, as permeable layers or beds of tangled or matted wires, or of slender
rods or wires arranged side by side and crosswise may be used; also in some cases
we may use woven fabrics of any suitable material, or perforated plates, strips, or
boards of metal, or wood, or other suitable material, or rods, or strips, or thin plates
set edgeways of glass, wood, or other suitable material, or layers or beds of such
fibrous, granular, or other permeable materials as have interstices of suitable
dimensions.
The employment of glass for the permeable screens, such glass being in the form
of narrow plates set edgeways, or of small strips or rods, and in some cases with
two or more layers, with the plates, strips, or rods placed at right angles, is especially
advantageous for working with strongly corrosive acids, as, for example, when
dealing with the spent gases or vapors of sulphuric acid chambers for the purpose
of denitrating them and recovering nitric acid or other oxide of nitrogen, by passing
such gases through sulphuric acid in a suitable modification of our apparatus. In
this case the screens should be supported by frames made of or covered with lead,
or of earthenware, or other material not easily corroded by the acid.
The broad shallow streams of air, gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters may be
divided before reaching the screens by passing up through slots in horizontal plates
or partitions, such plates being made with serrated flanges or edges at the sides of
the slots; or the preliminary division may be effected by means of horizontal pipes
perforated along their upper parts, and by preference of a triangular section with
one angle directed downwards, such pipes receiving the air, gases, fumes, or smoke-
like matters either from a broad channel within the vessel or tank, or from an

page_text: external horizontal pipe at right angles to them, and to which they are extended
through the side of the vessel.
When the air, gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters are delivered from the
apparatus from which they are evolved, or when they are otherwise supplied to our
apparatus under a pressure which is insufficient for passing them at a suitable
speed through the liquid and through the screens, we employ fans, blowers, or other
apparatus of any suitable known kind for imparting the necessary pressure and
motion, arranging such apparatus to operate with a forcing or with an exhausting
action as may be more convenient in each case.
In order that our said Invention may be perfectly understood, we shall now
particularly describe certain modifications suitable for the treatinent of metallic
fumes, such as are evolved from furnaces used in smelting or refining gold, silver,
lead, or zinc, and in so doing, we shall refer to the several Figures on the accom-
panying three Sheets of explanatory Drawings, the same reference letters in which
indicate corresponding parts in all the Figures in which they occur. From these
examples of the application of our said Invention, persons skilled in the arts will
be enabled to apply it to any other of the various purposes for which it is suitable,
on making any modifications in the details that may be necessary to adapt it to the
exigencies of each particular case.
Figures 1 and 2, on Sheet 1 of the accompanying Drawings, are vertical sections
as at right angles to each other of apparatus constructed and arranged according to
and for the purposes of our Invention, and Figure 3, on Sheet 2, is a horizontal
section corresponding to Figures 1 and 2. Figures 4, 5, and 6, on Sheet 3, represent
modifications of certain details.
The parts of our improved apparatus are contained in a vessel or casing A, which
is constructed of wood, and is of a rectangular form at its upper part, whilst the
lower parts A' of its sides are inclined inwards so as to form an inverted pyramid.
The vessel A is constructed with an internal partition B at each end, cach partition
having its lower horizontal edge a certain distance below the intended level a of
the water or other liquid used in the apparatus, and forming a channel B¹ in each
case between the partition and the end of the vessel, which channel is closed to the
interior at the top, but open at the bottom, and is of the full width of the vessel.
The gases or fumes are admitted to the upper parts of the channels B¹, B¹, by inlet
pipes C, C, and depressing the liquid sufficiently, pass in thin broad streams or
films under the bottom edges of the partitions into the interior of the vessel. The
gases or fumes entering under the bottom edges of the partitions B, B, spread
under horizontal partitions D, D, fixed in the interior of the vessel at or slightly
above the level of the bottom edges of the vertical partitions B, B, by which
partitions they are partly supported. These horizontal partitions D, D, are formed
with slots b, extending from the end channels B', B¹, towards the middle of the
casing, and with serrated flanges c along the edges of the slots; and the gases or
fumes pass upwards through the slots, and are divided by them and the serrated
flanges into numerous comparatively small streams distributed with approximate
uniformity over the horizontal area above the partitions D, D. Above the
horizontal partitions D, D, there are fixed three screens E, E, E, of wire gauze
through which the gases or fumes pass upwards along with some of the water or
liquid which their motion causes to move with them. The uppermost screen E is
a little below the water level a, and the screens cause a very intimate intermingling
or contact between the gases or fumes and the water or liquid, the former being
well disintegrated or broken up into very small bubbles or streams, and very
complete contact being thereby insured between the suspended or soluble con-
stituents of the gases or fumes and the water or liquid, so that such constituents
are effectively washed out of the gases or retained by the water or liquid. The
washed gases become separated from the water or liquid, and collecting in the
upper part of the vessel A, pass off by an outlet pipe F. The vessel A may be
uncovered when the air or gases after being washed in the apparatus are not of a
noxious nature, or do not require to be conveyed to any particular apparatus or

page_text: locality. The water or liquid passing up through the screens E through the action
of the gaseous currents does not return downwards through any part of those
screens, so that their entire horizontal area is available for the effective upward
flow of the gaseous and liquid currents, separate open passages G₁ being provided
for the redescending water or liquid. These return passages G are formed across
the middle of the vessel between the two sets of screens E, by vertical partitions or
frame pieces G, G, which dip down sufficiently below the horizontal slotted par-
titions D, D, to prevent any part of the gases or fumes from getting up the middle
passages G without passing through the screens E. These partitions or frame
pieces G, G, whilst forming the walls of the return passages G' serve also for partly
supporting the horizontal partitions D, D, and the frames d of the screens E. The
liquid descending by the passages G¹ carries down with it whatever it may have
washed out of or retained from the gases or fumes whilst passing therewith up-
wards through the screens E, and suspended matters thus carried down subside to
the bottom of the vessel, the methodic circulation of the liquid without interference
between the downward and upward currents favoring the regular deposition of the
separated matters, and preventing the liquid from being already overcharged when
The matters
brought in contact with succeeding portions of the gases or fumes.
deposited at the bottom of the vessel can be periodically removed through a
discharge valve H, or by a sludge pump or other suitable means.
A removable cover I is fitted to the top of the vessel A to give access to the
interior for the purpose of examining, or cleaning, or changing the internal parts.
The various pipes, flues, or passages leading the gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters
to our apparatus must be fitted with doors at all the angles or bends, and at other
parts to admit of their interiors being conveniently and rapidly cleaned, as large
quantities of suspended or volatilised matters are often deposited in such pipes,
flues, or passages, particularly when they are of such material or extent as to cause
considerable cooling of the currents passing through them. And in many cases it
may be desirable to pass the gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters through iron pipes
or chambers on their way to our apparatus in order that they may not enter the
apparatus in a too highly heated state. Where blowing apparatus is employed to
force the gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters into our apparatus, and the action of
such blowing apparatus is at all irregular or intermittent a large receiver or cham-
ber should be interposed between it and our apparatus in order that the current
may be rendered more uniform and free from pulsation as our apparatus will work
in the most satisfactory manner when the gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters are
passed through it with a steady even flow. The apparatus is fitted with a glass
gauge K, Figure 2, for indicating the height of the liquid inside the vessel, and a
stopcock L is provided for supplying the water or liquid.
Figures 4 and 5, on Sheet 3 of the accompanying Drawings, are vertical sections
as at right angles to each other of a modification of our improved apparatus, in
which we substitute for the slotted partitions (D, D,) hereinbefore described certain
parts which we find to be preferable, at least in some applications, to such par-
titions. These parts consist of horizontal pipes M, having their outer open ends
passed through the partitions B, B, (extended downwards sufficiently for that
purpose), their inner closed ends being fixed to the partitions G, G. These hori-
zontal pipes M are by preference triangular in section, each with one angle directed
centrally downwards, and one side horizontal at the top, and they are perforated
along their top sides and along the top parts of the other sides. With this arrange-
ment the entering gases, fumes, or smoke-like matter passing in broad streams
down the end channels B1, B1, are first divided into a number of streams on entering
the horizontal pipes, and are next further divided and distributed on passing
through the perforations of those pipes. A few apertures S along the bottoms of
the pipes M prevent the lodgment of deposits therein. By a further modification
the partitions B, B, and channels B', B¹, inside the vessel may be dispensed with,
and the horizontal pipes may be passed through the end walls of the vessel, and be
made to communicate externally with larger horizontal pipes placed at right angles

page_text: to and immediately above them. This arrangement will be understood from
Figure 6. The ends of the horizontal pipes M are fitted with covers to admit of
their being easily cleaned; and the larger pipe N, which is also fitted with end
covers to facilitate cleaning, is connected to the pipes M without intermediate
branches, which might be difficult to clean.
When our apparatus is employed for dealing with gases or fumes of a corrosive
nature it is of great importance to construct the wire gauze screens E of a metal
or alloy which is not rapidly acted on by the particular gases or fumes present in
each case.
Thus when the gases or fumes are such as are evolved from furnaces
for smelting or refining gold, silver, lead, or zinc, and which contain sulphurous
oxide, we make the wire gauze screens E of copper, silver, silvered copper, platinum,
platinised iron, platinised copper, gold, gilded copper, aluminium, aluminium
bronze, or phosphor bronze; and we also use nails, bolts, or fastenings of copper, or
other of the said metals wherever such fastenings are subjected to the gases or
liquid inside of the vessel A. Similarly in the cases of gases or fumes containing
other corrosive constituents we make the wire gauze screens E and other internal
metallic parts of a metal not rapidly acted on by such corrosive constituent. For
example, where nitric acid or other oxide of nitrogen is present we use the above
named metals, excepting silver, copper, aluminium, aluminium bronze, and phosphor
bronze; and where hydrochloric acid is present we use platinum, or platinised iron,
or copper.
When employing three wire gauze screens E one over the other, as shown in the
accompanying Drawings, we prefer to place the lowest screen about 1 inches above
the horizontal slotted partition D, the middle screen 1 inch above the lowest, and
the top screen 1 inch above the middle one, and to have the water level a, when the
apparatus is at rest, 1 to 2 inches above the top screen. These arrangements
yield very good results, the total effective head of water to be overcome in forcing
the gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters through being only about 8 inches, and
requiring very moderate power, whilst a very thorough and complete washing action
is secured provided that the wire gauze is of a suitable mesh. The power required
may in some cases be still further reduced by placing the screens nearer to the
slotted partitions or perforated pipes, and nearer to each other when there are two
or more in height, and also by diminishing the height of the water above the
screens. We may here remark that gases or fumes cannot be effectively washed by
passing through water if they pass through in the form of bubbles of any consider-
able size, even when the water is several feet deep, and the power employed to
overcome the head of water great, as the water acts on the surface only of each
bubble, and as there is little change of position in the component parts of the buble
during the short time occupied in passing through the water. It is therefore neces-
sary if thorough action is to be economically obtained to disintegrate or break up
the bubbles into very small portions or fragments, and it is not sufficient to effect
such disintegration by the use of wire gauze or similar screens alone if the gases or
fumes approach such screens in large masses or bubbles, as in that case the fragments
produced will immediately reunite above the screens, the water not being sufficiently
intermixed with them to keep the fragments separate. We therefore employ the
horizontal slotted partitions D or the perforated horizontal pipes M so as to subject
the gases or fumes to a preliminary division and intermingling with the water or
liquid, in order that the subsequent minute subdivision by the wire gauze screens E
may be more effectual.
Our wire gauze or equivalent screens E are not intended to act as filters or
riddles, or, in other words, to keep back the particles composing the fume, or
suspended in the gases, in consequence of the interstices being smaller than such
particles. On the contrary, we prefer to have the interstices large enough for the
gases or fumes to pass completely through along with water or liquid, and so that
by their means the gases or fumes may be minutely subdivided and at the same
time forced into intimate contact with water or liquid. We have obtained very
good results with three screens of copper gauze of 16 to 18 meshes to the linear

page_text: inch, the wire being No. 18 size. Good results are also obtainable with four or five
screens of No. gauze (six meshes to the inch), but with about 14 inches total head
of water instead of 8. On the other hand, good results are also obtainable with
two or three screens of No. 26 or No. 30 gauze with a total head of only 5 or 6
inches; but such gauze is necessarily less durable, even when supported by cross
bars. The insterstices of the gauze should by preference in no case be wider than
one fifth of an inch.
In some cases instead of making the vessel or casing A of wood it will be better
or more convenient to employ a tank of brick or stone constructed partly or wholly
below the surface of the ground.
In some cases the gases or fumes evolved from metallurgical furnaces comprise
matters which are soluble in water or capable of combining with substances
dissolved in the water. As examples of such matters, compounds of arsenic and of
zine may be mentioned. In such cases our apparatus will not only separate almost
the whole of the soluble and suspended matters from the gases or fumes, but will
separate the soluble constituents from those which are insoluble; for which purpose
the liquid contents of the vessel when sufficiently saturated may be drawn off into
settling vessels, and after the insoluble parts have completely subsided the clear
solution may be run into other vessels to be treated with precipitants or other-
wise. Or the soluble and insoluble parts may be separated by filtration. Thus,
for example, when smelting lead ores containing arsenic in a blast furnace a
portion of the lead, in the form of oxide or other compound, and all the arsenic in
the form of oxide or other compound are volatilised, and if the mixed fumes or
gases are passed through our apparatus the lead and arsenic compounds will be
very completely separated, the former forming a slimy deposit, and the latter
being in solution.
Our improved process and apparatus may be used with good results in treating
zinc ores by a process which has not hitherto been very successful owing to loss of
zinc by volatilisation. In the said process the zinc ores are smelted in a blast
furnace with suitable fluxes so as to volatilise as much as possible of the zinc in the
form of oxide and sulphate, which can be subsequently easily reduced or otherwise
treated. By our process and apparatus the volatilised matters are very completely
recovered and loss prevented.
Our improved process and apparatus may also be advantageously used for collecting
sublimed sulphur, or arsenic, or compounds thereof when ores containing them are
being calcined or smelted.
In all cases in which air, gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters may for any useful
purpose be required to be brought in a state of minute subdivision into intimate
contact with water or other liquid our improved process and apparatus may be
advantageously used whether the purpose is to purify or separate matters from air
or gases, or to act on liquid with gases or fumes. And when very perfect washing
of air, gases, fumes, or smoke-like matters is desiderated we can pass them through
a second vessel fitted with our improved apparatus; it will however be prefer-
able and more economical in such cases to use a single vessel fitted with extra
screens and working with a greater depth of water.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be used or carried into effect, we would observe in con-
clusion that we do not restrict ourselves to the precise details herein before described
and shown in the accompanying Drawings, but what we consider to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to us by the hereinbefore in
part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The improved process for treating air, gases, liquids, and furnace chimney pro-
ducts for the purpose of separating the component parts thereof, in which process the
air, gases, or furnace chimney products are distributed in numerous streams beneath
wire gauze or other permeable screens, these screens causing the said streams to be
minutely subdivided and brought into intimate contact with water or other liquid
in which the screens are submerged, and the liquid passing up through the

page_text: screens returning down again through separate unimpeded passages, all substantially
as herein before described.
2. The combination in apparatus for treating air, gases, liquids, and furnace
chimney products of a horizontal slotted partition or equivalents with one or more
wire-gauze or other suitable permeable screens, and with a return passage for the
liquid in which the slotted partition or equivalents and screens are submerged, all
constructed, arranged, and operating substantially in the manner hereinbefore
described.
3. The using of permeable screens (E) of wire gauze made of the particular metals
in the particular cases herein before specified and referred to.
4. The combination of the 'submerged superposed permeable screens (E) by
which the gases, fumes, or smoke-like metals are minutely subdivided and inter-
mingled with the liquid, with slotted horizontal partitions (D) or equivalent
appliances placed beneath them in order to effect a preliminary division and
distribution of the gaseous or smoke-like streams, substantially as herein before
described.
5. The making of the channels (B¹) for the entrance of the gaseous or smoke-like
currents down beneath the surface of the water of the full width of the casing, or
nearly so, for the purpose of introducing the currents in a broad thin form, substan-
tially as herein before described.
6. The fitting of the apparatus with perforated horizontal inlet pipes (M) extending
under the screens (E), substantially as and for the purposes herein before described
with reference to Figures 4, 5, and 6 of the accompanying Drawings.
7. The providing of the apparatus with separate open return passages (G¹) for the-
liquid, substantially as and for the purposes herein before described.
8. The employing of permeable screens (E) having interstices sufficiently largo
not to obstruct the passage of the particles composing the fume, or suspended in the
gases, but not more than one fifth of an inch in width, as herein before described.
9. The employing of permeable screens made of plates, strips, or rods of glass in
our improved apparatus when working with highly corrosive acids, as hereinbefore
described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Henry Joseph Wilson, John Wycliffo
Wilson, and Andrew French, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Eighteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and soventy nine.
HENRY JOSEPH WILSON (L.S.)
J. WYCLIFFE WILSON.
ANDREW FRENCH.
(L.S.)
(L.S.)