Improvements in the Manufacture of Phosphorus in Sticks or Blocks.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 18th Feb., 1891-Accepted, 18th Apr., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Phosphorus in Sticks
or Blocks.
A communication from abroad by LA SOCIÉTÉ COIGNET ET CIE., of 31, Rue de
l'Hôtel-de-Ville, Lyons, in the Republic of France, Chemical Manufacturers.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both
in the County of Lancaster, and 323, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
Up to.the present, phosphorus, as used commercially, has been made exclusively
in the form of cylindrical or prismatic sticks having a triangular or pentagonal base,
or in cakes in the shape of a wedge.
The drawback arising from the sticks of phosphorus being made in these shapes
exists in the large amount of water that it is necessary to make use of in order to
allow of its being forwarded.
The regulations, in fact, require that the phosphorus shall be placed in vases or
receptacles of tin plate soldered up and filled with water; these receptacles are then
placed in a wooden box, and the space existing between the tins and the wood side
is filled with sawdust.
It will at once be seen that, if it were possible to reduce the quantity of water
to be placed in the receptacle, a considerable advantage would be gained, which
would allow of phosphorus being conveyed whilst only using a very small amount of
water, and consequently the tare would be reduced very considerably.
My correspondents have the idea of giving their sticks and blocks the form of
rectangular or square parallelopipeds, so that they will fit one on the other or side
by side in the packages, according to their lateral faces, from this it results that,
theoretically, and if the surfaces were absolutely smooth, there would be no interstices
between these surfaces and that, consequently, the amount of water existing between
them would be nil.
In practice this is never the case and by reason of the flexibility of phosphorus,
the concavities or convexities existing in the phosphorus cannot be entirely avoided,
and consequently there will always be small interstices which will be filled with
the water, further there is necessarily some play between the phosphorus and the
tin box, which is requisite for the filling of the box and the soldering of the cover,
and this space is also filled with water; but there is no possible comparison with
the amount of water necessitated by the old shapes in use, by the interstices
existing between surfaces only in contact wholly or partially at their edges and not
on their whole surface.
My correspondents estimate the saving of water at of the weight formerly
employed which is, as already stated above, an important industrial result in view
of the transport of this product.
Further the parallelopiped shape of the cakes or sticks allows of the tin cases
being made of the same shape and consequently the wood box which is necessarily
of a parallelopiped form covers exactly the tin box, and the sawdust used as packing
as well as the wood of the case are reduced in a notable proportion.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is :-
As an improved article of manufacture, the sticks or blocks of phosphorus made

page_text: in the form of square or rectangular parallelopipeds, substantially as and for the
purposes described.
Dated this 17th day of February 1891
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.