IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORATE OF POTASH AND OTHER CHLORATES.
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Weldon, of 29, The Cedars, Putney, in
the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF CHLORATE OF POTASH AND OTHER CHLORATES.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Weldon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th September 1871.
I, WALTER WELDON, of 29, The Cedars, Putney, in the County of
Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORATE OF POTASH, AND OTHER CHLORATES,"
to be as follows :-
+
The first part of this Invention consists in substituting either magnesia
or alumina for the lime which is at present employed in the manu-
facture of chlorate of potash, so as to obtain instead of the chloride of
calcium which is the residual product of that manufacture as at present

page_text: conducted, either chloride of magnesium or chloride of aluminium; and
in then decomposing by heat this new residual product so as to obtain
its chlorine in a useful form, and at the same time to obtain either
magnesia or alumina, either for use over again as before, or for other
application, as may be desired. Instead of magnesia or alumina alone,
a mixture of the two may be employed; and the decomposition of the
residual chloride, or mixture of chlorides, may be aided either by air or
by steam.
The second part of this Invention consists in combining with the said
first part of it the production of the chlorine employed therein by means
of oxides of manganese regenerated by means of magnesia, such regene-
ration being performed either by decomposing chloride or sulphate of
manganese by magnesia and then treating the resulting protoxide of
manganese with air either in the wet or in the dry way, or preferably
by boiling down to dryness a mixture of chloride of manganese and
chloride of magnesium, or else of sulphate of manganese and either
chloride of magnesium or magnesia, and heating the residue in contact
with air. In some cases, the mixture of peroxide of manganese and
magnesia thus obtained may be used for the performance of the first
part of this Invention, the magnesia forming chlorate, and the per-
oxide of manganese being afterwards employed for the generation of
chlorine.
To produce a ton of chlorate of potash by the method at present in use'
there are employed more than thirty tons of commercial hydrochloric
acid, five to six tons of commercial peroxide of manganese, and a
considerable quantity of lime. The manganese is now usually regenerated
and made to serve, again, but the acid and lime, serve only once. The
Invention above described enables the same acid to be used over and
over again continually, and substitutes for the lime an agent which
also it perpetually regenerates.
This Invention is of course applicable to the manufacture not, only of
chlorate of potash but of all other chlorates.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Walter Weldon in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 6th March 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WALTER
WELDON, of 29, The Cedars, Putney, in the County of Surrey, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-onc, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Walter Weldon, Her special licence that
I, the said Walter Weldon, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Walter Weldon, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF CHLORATE OF POTASH AND OTHER CHLORATES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Walter Weldon, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Walter Weldon, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :—
This Invention consists, firstly, in substituting magnesia for the
lime which is at present used in the manufacture of chlorates of potash,
so as to obtain instead of the solution of chloride of calcium, which is the
residual product of that manufacture as at present conducted, a residual
product consisting of solution of chloride of magnésium; and in then

page_text: what I claim as secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is, the improvements in the manufacture of chlorate of potash
and other chlorates, which are above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Weldon, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Fifth day of March One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-two.