IMPROVE- MENTS IN CONDENSING THE GAS OR GASES PRODUCED BY THE DECOMPOSITION OF MURIATE OF SODA AND OTHER SUBSTANCES, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1829

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WRIGHT, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Soap Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the tenth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Wright, His special licence that I, the said James Wright,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Wright,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN CONDENSING THE GAS OR GASES PRODUCED BY THE DECOMPOSITION OF
MURIATE OF SODA AND OTHER SUBSTANCES, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS MAY ALSO BE
APPLIED TO OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso, obliging me, the said James Wright, 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 enrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the asid
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
"

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, the nature of my. Invention and the mode of operation
is as follows:-
I build a circular wall of from four to six feet in height, and of what
diameter may be deemed necessary for the extent of the manufacture; this
I cover with a roof or dome having but one outlet in the centre. The bottom
of this circular chamber A I line with lead (or other substance impervious
to water) to about one foot high. On the wall around this chamber I place as
many decomposing furnaces and driers B as can conveniently be wrought or
managed, the flues from each terminating in the inside of said chamber, so
that the gases from each and every meet as in a common receptacle. Into
this chamber I. keep constantly throwing horizontally, by means of 'a force
pump, through a perforated hose, as much water in which a portion of lime
has been dissolved as can conveniently be obtained. The force pump is con-
nected with the bottom of the chamber by a pipe, so that the same water is
constantly presented to the gas untill all the lime be completely saturated;
this attracts a great portion of the gas; the stratum of lime water constantly
in the bottom of the chamber greedily absorbs the gas; it also cools and
moistens that portion of gas not condensed, rendering it more fit for the
second operation. This gas makes its escape from the chamber by the
horizontal flue from the centre C, which may be continued any length,
terminating in a circular cast-iron pipe the size of the flue; a similar pipe
connects it with the chimney. These pipes may be at any distance from
each other that may be deemed most expedient, being connected together
by a cylinder D (made of wood and lined with thin lead), which turns upon
the flue pipes as upon an axis. This cylinder has a number of shelves
(running paralel with its axis); attached to the inside of its rim (see open
end of first cylinder in the sketch). Betwixt each shelf is an opening in the
rim, with a cover to fit, by which opening is introduced a quantity of slacked
lime; the cylinder is then made to revolve by the same power that works
the force pumps; the shelves are thus constantly lifting up the lime to the
highest part of the rim and pouring it down again, thus keeping an atmosphere
within the cylinder constantly loaded with lime in a most minute state of
division, through which the atoms of gas must pass; and by the strong affinity
that exisis betwixt this gas and lime, the former is so completely absorbed
by the latter that (vegetable blue) test paper held over the top of the chimney
remains unchanged. I recommend two or more cylinders (as per sketch) on the
same flue, as it renders the success of the operation more certain, and allows
an opportunity of changing the saturated lime in one while the other continues
in operation. The resulting muriate of lime is an article of considerablo

page_text: importance in the arts, and may be sold at such a price as will nearly cover
the expence of the operation.
What I lay claim to as my Invention is the application of lime for the
absorbing of muriatic gas, and this particular mode of applying it.
The other objects to which my Invention is applicable are, first, the
absorbing the sulphurated hydrogen driven off from the reverberating furnaces
in which the soapmaker calcines his neutral salts, technically called black
ash making, a process so offensive as to be usually carried on out of towns.
These furnaces may be substituted for one placed alongside of the decomposing
furnaces and driers in the sketch, and the same result will follow, thus
enabling the soapmaker to carry on, all his operations on the same premises,
though these may be situated in the centre of a town or city.
Secondly, the more perfect purification of coal gas; the gases as they come
from the retort being passed through lime in so complete a state of division,
and presenting such a constant succession of surfaces, the whole of the sul-
phuretted hydrogen is absorbed, leaving the carburetted hydrogen in a state
of great purity. As the gasometer in this case supplies the place of the
chimney in the other, it is necessary it be balanced with a weight somewhat
greater than its own.
And, lastly, the application of my cylinders alone to the manufacture of
chlorate of lime is productive of great advantages. I decompose the muriate
of soda in one set of retorts, and drive off by means of heat alone the oxygen
from the black oxide of manganese in another set, the pipes from each
terminating in a horizontal main or general receiving pipe, on both ends of
which (they being closed, of course,) I place any number of cylinders charged
with fine lime, which is by this method completely saturated; the residuum
of my retorts is in one set sulphate of soda, without any admixture of sulphate
of manganese, and in the other set manganese deprived of a part of its
oxygen; this manganese upon being exposed for a time in thin stratums to
a circulation of atmospheric air (or put repeatedly through a machine similar
to the farmers' fanners) speedily recovers the oxygen it had lost, and becomes
fit for future operation (of course the manganese must be used in excess).
The saving of the manganese, and also of the sulphuric acid usually consumed
in decomposing it, is very considerable, and the chlorate of lime produced of
a much superior quality.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Wright, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.
JAMES (L.s.) WRIGHT.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on, the Twenty-sixth day of October,
in the year of our Lord 1829, the aforesaid James Wright came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form.
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.