AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING SULPHURET OF CARBON
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Otto Heyl, of Berlin, in the Kingdom of
Prussia, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF
AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING SULPHURET OF CARBON."
Sealed the 24th December 1867, and dated the 28th June 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Otto Heyl at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th Juno 1867.
I, CHARLES OTTO HEYL, of Berlin, in the Kingdom of Prussia, Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD
OP AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING SULPHURET OF CARBON," to be as follows:-
Instead of putting the sulphur into the vertical cylinders as hitherto I place
theso cylinders in connection with iron tanks or vessels in which I volatilize the
sulphur, and from whence I pass the volatilized sulphur to the vertical cylinders,
the refuse and ashes remaining in the tanks.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Otto Heyl in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th December 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
OTTO HEYL, of Berlin, in the Kingdom of Prussia, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Otto Heyl, Her special licence that I, the said Charles Otto Heyl,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles
Otto Heyl, 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 "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND
APPARATUS FOR MAKING SULPHURET OF CARBON," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Charles Otto Heyl, 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 Charles Otto Heyl, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Sheet of Drawing hereunto annexed,
and forming part of this my Specification, and to the figures and letters of
reference placed thereon, Figure 1 being a front elevation of a building suit-
ably constructed for the purposes of my Invention; Figure 2 a side elevation
of same; Figure 8, ground plan; Figure 4, a transverse section; Figure 5
shewing a cylinder with tank and cleansing tubes through which the refuse left
by the sulphuret and the carbon is removed; and Figure 6 one of the receivers
detached.
The two lower windows of the building (see Fig. 1) give light to the fire-
place, the three on the first floor to a chamber for the workmen, and the

page_text: three upper and smaller windows give light and air to the upper part of the
actual furnace room. This arrangement is still better shewn at Fig. 2, the
fire-place being to the left on the ground floor, (slightly sunken, as shewn in
plan, Fig. 3,) and the chamber for the workmen above. The furnace is
placed beneath the loftiest part of the building in order to give plenty of room
for tho ascent of the heat from the furnace, so that it may not become insup-
portable. The open shed partially encircling the furnace and leaning against
the chimney covers the refrigerating vessels or receivers made of wrought iron
and the connecting pipes which are of zinc. The chimnoy is 45 feet high, and
12 inches diameter (square or round.) The ground plan, Fig. 3, and the
transverse section, Fig. 4, show a square pit covered with wood, and intended
to contain the fuel. The fire-place is opened and closed by means of a hanging
sbutter composed of an iron frame of from 24 to 30 inches square, and filled
with clay and fire-bricks. The fire surrounds the cast-iron cylinders, which
are protected with fire-clay, and after rising to the top of the cylinders it
passes downwards to a back shutter made liko the one first mentioned, and
thenco through a flue to the chimney. The whole furnace is cased with strong
wrought iron to prevent expansion, and is entirely constructed of fire-proof
bricks, the cylinders and other cast-iron apparatuses exposed to the fire being
made of a mixture of Scottish and Silesian iron, this mixture being
admirably adapted both to withstand the fire and to resist the influence of the
sulphuret burning within the cylinders. The tops of the cylinders (G, Fig. 5,)
and their covers not being exposed to the fire may be of ordinary iron. At
the bottom of the cylinders there is a large 8-inch cast-iron pipe B (Fig. 5,)
closed by a scrow tightened cover, and through this pipe the mineral parts of
the carbon which do not combine with tho volatilized sulphuret are withdrawn
from the cylinder. The upright tube C conducts the sulphuret vapours from
the tanks D to the cylinders A; these tanks or vessels D are of the best
quality of Swedish cast iron, they being the most exposed to the fire, and are
divided by a cast-iron partition into two compartments, into one of which the
sulphur is introduced through the upper upright tube F, and there leaves every
part of tho mineral which it contains unvolatilized by the fire, the vapours
surmounting the partition (between which and the top of the tank is left a
space of two inches), and passing by the tube C to the cylinder A. The un-
volatilized parts of the sulphur are withdrawn through the tube E, also closed
by a screw tightened iron cap. The joints of the tubes and the cylinders aro
all luted with iron cement. The condensing apparatus consists of 5 receivers,
the first of which stands in a wooden chest lined with lead, and containing
two inches of water, the four succeeding wrought-iron receivers standing in

page_text: four cast-iron tanks filled to the sixth part with water. The receivers are
without bottoms (see Fig. 6), and each of them has at its top two holes, with
collars of from 8 to 4 inches high, and is further encircled at the top by a
rim also 3 to 4 inches in height in order that when the zinc tubes have been
passed through the holes (resting by their flanges on the collars as shewn,
Fig. 6,) the atmospheric air may be excluded by water (mixed in winter time
with glycerine) on the top of the receivers and below in their tanks. The
end of these zinc tubes furthest from the furnace is double cased, is longer
than the opposite end, and enters the receiver to a depth of about 12 inches.
From both of the last receivers a tube leads into a 6-inch open pipe or tube
of cast iron let into the flue leading to the chimney. The rail above the
furnace is only used for moving the cylinders and other parts. On the left of
the fire-place is a pit to hold the supply of sulphur.
The process is as follows:-The furnace being gradually heated until the
clay and iron assume a bright red colour (this being ascertained by inspection
through openings made for this purpose) a pound of sulphur is put into each
of the tubes every 8 to 5 minutes either by the workmen or by mechanical
means. This sulphur becomes volatilized in the tank or vessel D, and the
vapour passing over the partition of the tank descends in the large tube C,
from whence it passes to and rises in the cylinder A. The cylinders A are
filled every 6 hours (or are continuously supplied by mechanical means) with
dry carbon of wood or charcoal, which set on fire by the outer heat throws off
vapours
of carbon, which combining with the sulphur vapours arriving from the
tanks D produce sulphuret of carbon; this sulphuret of carbon rising in the
cylinders escapes through the long wrought-iron pipes H to the refrigerating
receivers, from which the quantity produced is daily removed.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which I carry the same into practical effect, I would have it distinctly under-
stood that I do not confine myself precisely to the dimensions of parts herein
given, as such may be varied to suit the circumstances of particular cases, and
various modifications may also be made in the construction and arrangement
of parts of my improved apparatus without departure from my Invention, and
that I claim as novel and secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent, the entire combination of apparatus herein set forth and illus-
trated on the annexed Sheet of Drawing, together with the process of manu-
facture herein set forth as forming "An Improved Method of and Apparatus
for Making Sulphuret of Carbon," the three main features of which are,-
1. The use of iron vessels or tanks for volatilizing the sulphur, thus preventing
thé incombustible mineral parts of the sulphur from entering the cylinders.

page_text: where they would impedo tho circulation of the volatilized sulphuret and cause
the cylinders to burn.
2. The employment of the tubes for clearing out the tanks and cylinders.
8. Tho burning of the sulphuretted hydrogen gas, the production of which
cannot be avoided (by reason of the humidity of the carbon and of the sulphur)
by leading it to the part of the flue of the chimney with as much atmospheric
air as will provent it from burning back through the receivers (thus avoiding
all danger of damage by explosion).
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Otto Heyl, have bereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord Ono thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.