A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS FOR MAKING SALT
Year: 1814

page_text: WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His-
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at.
Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of July, in the fifty-fourth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said WILLIAM JOHNSON, of the Parish of Heybridge and County of
Essex, Gentleman, His especial licence, that I, the said William Johnson, my
exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Johnson, my
exors, admors, or assigns, should appoint or at any time agree with, and no
other, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and might make, and lawfully use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention: of
"A NEW OR IMPROVED PROCESS FOR MAKING SALT;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Johnson,
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 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
William Johnson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained as follows, that is to say:
I do construct, make, and use a set or series of vessels in the manner
herein-after set forth, as for the purpose of making salt from sea water.

page_text: Firstly, one large vessel to be supplied with sea water or other saline solution,
in which the same may be skinned, evaporated, or in part improved or con-
verted into salt, as may be thought fit. Secondly, one vessel to be supplied
with improved sea water or saline solution from the first vessel. Thirdly, one
boiler to be charged with improved sea water or saline solution from the vessel
secondly herein mentioned, and the said, boiler is made of sufficient strength to
resist the elastic pressure of steam when raised as high as may ordinary be
requisite in steam engines, and is provided with pipes and cocks or fit means
for drawing off the brine or the steam, as occasions, herein-after described, may
require, and also with safety valve, manhole, and other such fittings up as are
commonly made in or about the boilers of steam engines. Fourthly, one
vessel into which brine from the boiler is to be drawn when nearly of sufficient
strength to afford chrystals of salt. Fifthly, one or more vessels or open
pans to receive strong brine when let off after settling in the vessel which was
formerly herein described, and which strong brine furnishes or affords the
granulated or chrystallized salt. Sixthly, certain receptacles or vessels sur-
rounding the lower part of each of the vessels herein-before described
(excepting the boiler, and so fixed or applied respectively unto the said vessels
as to afford spaces for receiving of confined steam when supplied from the
boiler even in case the said steam should be considerably stronger than the
atmosphère, and the use of such steam (which in preference I do apply to the
whole surface of each vessel which may be opposite to the surface in contact
with brine contained therein) is to give an uniform regulated and adjustifiable
heat to the said brine. And I do place or fix such vessels and the apparatus
needful or thereunto belonging in such situations with relation to each other
that the fluid contents of the vessel firstly herein mentioned shall, when let off,
flow into the second vessel, which I call the charger, and that the same when
let of from the second vessel or charger shall be pumped into the boiler, and
the same when improved in strength sufficiently to be let off from the boiler
shall flow into the vessel fourthly herein mentioned, in which the settling is
effected, which for that reason I call the settling vessel or clearer, and that the
same when let off at the settling vessel shall flow into the vessel fifthly herein
described, which I call the pans or chrystalizing pans.
And I do further declare that instead of making or constituting the series
of vessels, boiler, and other apparatus for the purpose aforesaid, of or by means
of one vessel or boiler, or thing of each kind or description, as herein-before
described, I do, as convenience or choice may require, use a part, or make or
apply more than one vessel or boiler or thing of the same kinds or descriptions
respectively to be used in order to produce the same effect or effects as one

page_text: vessel or boiler or thing might else have been used to produce. And further.
that I do find it convenient to raise the steam in the boiler to about to about
the temperature of two hundred and forty degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer,
varying as may be found necessary.
And lastly, in order that my said Invention may be most clearly apprehended
and understood. I have hereunto annexed a design agreeably to which the
same may be carried into effect, and of which the several parts may be varied
in conformity with the descriptions herein-before given, and the nature of the
subject itself as commonly known by persons conversant in works of this or
the like kind. The numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, denote vessels severally herein-before
described according to those respective numbers. No. 3 denotes the boiler. No. 6,
the spaces for steam beneath the several vessels. No. 7, steam communication
to salt pans and charger from the boiler. No. 8, a head and pipe for conveying
steam for the charger to the vessel beneath No. 1. No. 9, pipe for conveying
sea water or other saline solution from the vessel No. 1 to the charger No. 2.
No. 10, communication of brine from the boiler to the settling vessel No. 4.
No. 11, a pipe, through which the hot water afforded by the condensation of
the steam beneath the other vessel is conveyed and forced up beneath the
vessel No. 1, where it communicates heat, and whence the same may be drawn
off as required.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Johnson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of January, in the
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
year of