Improvements in Means or Apparatus for the Manufacture of a Mixture of Hydrochloric Acid Gas and Air.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date claimed for Patent under Sect. 103 of Act,
being date of first Foreign Application (in 28th Nov., 1891
France),
Date of Application (in United Kingdom), 2nd May, 1892
Complete Specification Left, 2nd Aug., 1892-Accepted, 24th Sept., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Means or Apparatus for the Manufacture of a
Mixture of Hydrochloric Acid Gas and Air.
We, LA SOCIÉTÉ A. R. PECHINEY & CIE., of Salindres, Gard, in the
Republic of France, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
It is known that when an aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid is poured into
eulphuric acid or when the sulphuric acid is poured into the solution of hydrochloric
acid, gaseous hydrochloric acid is generated. This method which has been
employed for a long time in laboratories for the purpose of preparing or obtaining
hydrochloric acid gas and also in manufacturing pure hydrochloric acid on a small
scale from the ordinary commercial acid has recently been employed on a large
scale in the manufacture of chlorine by the Deacon process and in other like
processes which require hydrochloric acid in the gaseous state mixed with a certain
quantity of air.
This mixture is usually obtained by adding air to the gas which is generated in
the furnaces in which the decomposition of the salt by the sulphuric acid is effected
but in certain cases it is advantageous to prepare this gaseous mixture by taking
liquid hydrochloric acid to begin with.
*The present invention relates to apparatus which enables this process to be
practiced with economy on a large scale as hereinafter explained.
This apparatus is composed of two distinct parts, namely-
A mixing vessel or chamber in which the mixture of the two acids is effected
being the operation which immediately causes the generation of the greater portion
of the gas; and a large column or tower in which the said generation is completed
and in which the said gas is mixed with the requisite quantity of air.
These two chambers are constructed of materials (stone or brick) proof against
the action of the acids and are moreover covered externally with a lead sheathing
in order to provent leakage.
The small chamber is divided by a vertical partition into two unequal compart-
ments one of which namely the narrower of the two is provided with several small
cups or troughs arranged bafflewise and one above the other and communicates
with the larger compartment through openings formed at the top and at the bottom
of the partition. This latter compartment is in its turn placed in communication
by a pipe with the upper part of the tower or column. This column is filled up to
a suitable level with silicious flints or bricks in the same way as a Glover tower or
column. Over this filling is placed a stone slab perforated with holes and destined
to distribute the liquid with approximate uniformity over the whole of the upper
surface of the filling.
The acids are introduced separately into the small compartments of the chamber
and fall into the first or uppermost trough. Their respective volumes are regulated
in a constant manner. From the first trough they fall into the second trough and
so on to the other troughs and thus become completely mixed. They afterwards

page_text: pass into the larger compartment through the openings in the partition and flow
thence through the connecting pipe on to the plate in the tower or column and pass
through the latter from the top to the bottom. At the same time the tower is
traversed in the opposite direction that is to say from the lower to the upper part
by a current of air the movement of which is produced and the volume of which is
regulated by the action of the exhausting apparatus placed at the end of the series
of apparatus whose combination constitutes a Deacon apparatus or analogous
apparatus constructed with the same object that is to say effecting the decomposition
of hydrochloric acid by means of oxygen in order to obtain chlorine in the free
condition. This air which freely enters the tower through openings at the lower
part draws with it the hydrochloric acid gas and the mixture of the two gases
passes through a pipe leading to the decomposer.
The diluted sulphuric acid discharged at the bottom of the tower being almost
completely freed from hydrochloric acid must be concentrated in order to be
employed over again. We have found that the most practical and economical
means for effecting this concentration is to employ a tower in all respects similar to
a Glover tower but the hot gases which flow upwards in the tower as arranged
according to the present invention, in place of consisting of sulphurous gases from
the Glover tower are composed either of hot gases from a furnace supplied either
with coal or coke or producer gas or any other suitable fuel, or of hot waste gaseous
products.
Dated this 2nd day of May 1800
J. H. JOHNSON & Co.,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, Agents for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Means or Apparatus for the Manufacture of a
Mixture of Hydrochloric Acid Gas and Air.
We LA SOCIÉTÉ A. R. PECHINEY & CIE. of Salindres Gard in the Republic
of France 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 :-
The present invention relates to means or apparatus for the manufacture of a
mixture of air with hydrochloric acid gas obtained from hydrochloric acid in
solution and enables the operation to be performed with economy and on a large
scale as hereinafter explained.
It is known that when an aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid is poured into
sulphuric acid or when the sulphuric acid is poured into the solution of hydrochloric
acid, gaseous hydrochloric acid is generated. This method which has been
employed for a long time in laboratories for the purpose of preparing or obtaining
hydrochloric acid gas and also in manufacturing pure bydrochloric acid on a small
scale from the ordinary commercial acid has recently been employed on a large
scale in the manufacture of chlorine by the Deacon process and in other like
processes involving the employment of hydrochloric acid in the gaseous state mixed
with a certain quantity of atmospheric air.
This mixture has usually been obtained by adding air to the gas which is
generated in the furnaces in which the decomposition of the salt by the sulphuric
acid is effected but in certain cases it is desirable to prepare this gaseous mixture
by the employment of hydrochloric acid in a liquid form to begin with.
According to this invention a mixture of hydrochloric acid gas and air such as
is necessary for the manufacture of chlorine by the Deacon process or other similar
processes is manufactured from an aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid by the
employment of a tower filled with materials proof against the action of the acids
and at the upper part of which tower aqueous hydrochloric acid and concentrated
sulphuric acid are introduced. These two acids may be supplied through separate