IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR DEVELOPING BROMINE
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Simon at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 19th December 1877. A communication from
abroad by Dr. Adolf Frank, of Charlottenburg, in the German Empire.
HENRY SIMON, of No. 7, St. Peter's Square, Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR DEVELOPING
BROMINE." [A communication from abroad by Dr. Adolf Frank, of Charlottenburg,
in the German Empire.]
The process for developing bromine as at present employed is an intermittent
one, the vessels being discharged after each operation, and the residue of distillation
containing still some bromine and chlorine mixed with the substances that were
employed to develop chlorine as manganese salt, chromium compounds, &c.
According to the present Invention bromine is produced in a continuous manner
by the following process and apparatus:-The distilling vessels are arranged one
above the other in terrace form, being connected by means of pipes with cocks.
Into the top vessel is introduced the liquor for the production of bromine, namely,
that containing bromine compounds, while into the lowest vessel is introduced
chlorine gas and steam, these being first separately developed in special generators
of known construction and then brought together through suitable pipes, the
introduction being effected by means of injectors, ejectors, or aspirators, which draw
out and propel the chlorine gas, this being distributed by the steam into the bromine
liquor in the lowest vessel.
The temperature of the liquor is raised either by the steam alone, or by preference
by heating the vessels in addition from the outside. The gases disengage the
bromine from its combinations and drive it partly as pure bromine, partly as
chloride of bromine, and mixed with any free chlorine into the next vessel above
which contains fresher liquor. In this manner the process proceeds step by step,
the vapour being driven off from each vessel into the next above, until at last the
bromine vapour mixed with steam passes off from the top vessel into the condenser.
In the above process the bromine compounds contained in the original bromine
liquor are separated by means of the free chlorine and also of the chlorine in the
chloride of bromine. The number of distilling vessels depends on the amount of

page_text: bromine compounds contained in the liquor. When the bromine liquor in the
lowest vessel is sufficiently exhausted it is run off through pipes provided with
cocks into a lower vessel to be dechlorinised. By admitting steam into this vessel
the chlorine and bromine still contained in the debrominised liquor is carried back
through a pipe into the lowest vessel of the terrace, or into any other vessel of the
series that may have had its contents discharged into the dechlorinising vessel, and
was then filled with the bromine liquor from the vessel next above. By this means
all particles of chlorine and bromine are utilised, thus preventing all waste in the
process. The liquor from the dechlorinising vessel is practically free from chlorine
and also from other combinations, more particularly manganese salts. It is also
free from all those disagreable properties which in the existing process render the
working of the residues of the bromine process difficult.
The charging and discharging of the several vessels of the terrace or series in
combination with the dechlorinising vessel can, with suitable regulation of the
supply of chlorine vapour and steam, be so arranged that the process is either
continuous or intermittently continuous.
In order to obtain a proper regulation for the development of the chlorine, and to
render more effective the vessels for the development of chlorine, which are expensive
and difficult to make, a second pipe with stop-cock is made to lead from this vessel
to a series of vessels containing cold bromine liquor. These vessels are so connected
with each other that the chlorine which is not taken up by the liquor in the first
vessel, passes into the next one, and so on. The number of these vessels should be
Buch that the entire absorption of the chlorine gas is effected therein. The liquor
being saturated with chlorine, so that the bromine is liberated from its combinations
and forms chloride of bromine, it is passed by pipes into the lowest or other vessel
of the before-described terrace, and the row of regulating vessels is charged again
with fresh bromine liquor from the liquor reservoir.