AN ART OF EXTRACTING OR PRODUCING MINERAL ALKALI AND FIXED VEGETABLE ALKALI
Year: 1781

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BRYAN
HIGGINS, of the Parish of Saint Ann, in the County of Middlesex, Doctor of
Physick, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Thirty-first day of July, in the twenty-first year of His reign, give and grant
unto me, the said Bryan Higgins, His especial license, that I, the said
Bryan Higgins, during the term of years therein expressed, should and law-
fully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, my Invention of " AN ART OF EXTRACTING OR PRODUCING MINERAL
ALKALI AND FIXED VEGETABLE ALKALI;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a provisoe obliging me, the said Bryan Higgins, under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and how the same is to be practiced and prepared, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar months after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation
being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, I, the said
Bryan Higgins, do hereby declare that my said Invention of An Art of
Extracting or Producing Mineral Alkali and fixed Vegetable Alkali, is
described in the manner following. (that is to say) :-

page_text: Evaporate sea water, or any water containing sea salt or an equivalent
salt, until four parts of the saline liquor contain one part, or thereabout, of
sea salt, or salt otherwise named and equivalent to sea salt; to the said saline
liquor add as much oil of vitriol as amounts in weight to half the weight of
the said sea salt or equivalent salt in the furnace herein-after described and
called the furnace No. 1. This mixture, or any mixture otherwise made,
and consisting chiefly or wholly of sea salt or an equivalent salt, of vitriolic
acid and water, in the aforesaid proportions, or any others which may be used
without injury to the product I call the charge of the furnace No. 1 aforesaid;
the said charge of the said furnace may also be made with sea salt, rock salt,
sal gem, bay salt, pit salt, or any salt equivalent to either of them, and with
a quantity of water which need not exceed in weight twice the weight of the
salt, and with a quantity of oil of vitriol nearly amounting to half the weight
of the salt. In the place of oil of vitriol may be used an equivalent quantity
of unconcentrated vitriolic acid, or of diluted vitriolic acid. The furnace afore-
said called No. 1, being charged, raise a brisk fire in it, and evaporate the
well-mixed charge to dryness, and, breaking the residuary mass as fast as it
clots, heat it almost to redness. Then rake it out, and you have exsiccated
Glauber's salt prepared according to my Invention and art aforesaid. So
far as there is a demand for the acid of sea salt, so far or in that quantity I
prepare my exsiccated Glauber's salt in the following manner (that is to say):-
In the furnace herein-after described or named or marked No. 2, I put the
charge aforesaid, or an equivalent charge consisting of the aforesaid salt water
and vitriolic acid, and I work the said furnace No.. 2 in the manner herein-
after described, so as to obtain exsiccated Glauber's salt similar or equivalent
to my aforesaid exsiccated Glauber's salt, and so as to save and retain the
marine acid of the sea salt, or other equivalent salt employed in this process.
Now take eight parts of the aforesaid exsiccated Glauber's salt, and one part or
more of charcoal, powder them and mix them well and heat them in the furnace
herein-after described and named or marked No. 3, until the ignited mass melts
and forms mineral alkaline liver of sulphur. In the place of the aforesaid exsic-
cated Glauber's salt, or mixed with it, you may use Glauber's salt, or any saline
body equivalent to Glauber's salt, and prepared in divers other methods or ways;
but take care to make allowance for the water contained in crystalized
Glauber's salt. In the place of my exsiccated Glauber's salt, you may also use
an equivalent quantity of any body or mixture containing mineral alkali and
vitriolic acid and nothing else in considerable quantity, and capable of pre-
venting the formation of mineral alkaline liver of sulphur. In the place of
the charcoal aforesaid may be used peat, sea coal, fossile coal, fossile wood,

page_text: coak wood, vegetable matter; any kind of fuel, or any body that is sufficiently
impregnated with the inflammable principle or phlogiston, but that is not too
volatile or sulphureous, provided the body substituted for charcoal be used in
equivalent and due quantity. Instead of making the mineral alkaline liver of
sulphur aforesaid in the reverberatory furnace aforesaid, named and marked
No. 3, you may make my said liver of sulphur in such melting pots and
furnaces as are used by the brass makers, or in such pots and furnaces as are
used commonly by the glass makers; and you may make it in divers other
ways accomodated to local circumstances. Now, when the aforesaid mineral
alkaline liver of sulphur is in the aforesaid furnace called and marked No. 3,
or in any other furnace or vessel fit for the purpose, and is moreover red hot,
and in a state of fusion, throw into the said fused hepar of sulphur twice its
weight of lead, and when the lead is melted agitate them well together with
an iron rabble or raker, until the lead drinks in the sulphur from the mineral
alkaline liver of sulphur, and until the mineral alkali thus desulphurated
floats distinct over the sulphurated lead, then tap the furnace so as to receive
your mineral alkali in the vessel for this purpose affixed to the furnace No. 3,
and berein-after to be described, and rake out your sulphurated lead thro' the
door of the said furnace No. 3. You may rake out the sulphurated lead
before you tap for the mineral alkali, and if any lead or sulphurated lead
accompanies the mineral alkali thro' the tap-hole, it is to be separated by a
hammer, or otherwise, from the mineral alkali after it is cooled. In the afore-
said operation for drawing away the sulphur from my liver of sulphur, if the
mineral alkali is found on cooling a little bit of it to be black, or very dark
coloured, it is sometimes expedient to mix with it whilst it is in fusion a small
quantity of any calx of lead, in order to draw from the said mineral alkali, the
superfluous phlogistic or inflammable matter. Thus I obtain or prepare a
mass consisting chiefly of mineral alkali, and applicable to divers uses to
which barilla has been applied. In order to draw the sulphur from the
aforesaid liver of sulphur, you may use melting pots, or other furnaces
different from my aforesaid furnace No. 3. In the place of lead you may use
other metallic bodies (for example, iron and tin), and divers bodies which are
known or will be found to attract sulphur strongly, and to draw the sulphur,
or the greater part thereof, from the alkali of the aforesaid liver of sulphur.
When the foregoing devices, processes, operations, and Inventions are once
announced to an expert chemist, and especially when he hears that lead may
be successfully employed to the ends and in the methods aforesaid, he, the
said chemist, or others, may easily produce the intended or specified effects by
divers other ways and processes which need not to be specified herein more

page_text: fully than by my saying, that whether you melt the mineral alkaline liver of
sulphur in a pot, vessel, or reverberatory furnace, with lead, or any body or
bodies which strongly attract sulphur, so as to cause the sulphur to be
attracted or drawn out of the said liver of sulphur, and to leave or procure the
mineral alkaline part of the said liver of sulphur free, or nearly freed, from
the sulphur, you do in all such cases work according to the principles and
the art and Invention which I do endeavour herein to specify candidly. And
let it be especially observed, that in working in the aforesaid furnace No. 3
with the lead and other ingredients aforesaid in order to prepare mineral
alkali, it is not absolutely necessary to make a previous provision or prepara-
tion of mineral alkaline liver of sulphur, because the presence or admixture of
lead or other bodies which attract sulphur will not hinder the described and
proper charge of the said furnace No. 3 from making or forming mineral
alkaline liver of sulphur with which the said lead, or other body attractive of
sulphur, will blend by agitation, and from which liver of sulphur it will
then draw the sulphur in great quantity, if not totally, so as to leave the
akaline part of the said liver of sulphur fit to be used as mineral alkali or as
barilla in divers arts. But when you use in the place of the lead herein
prescribed, any calx of lead, or any calciform, metallic, or metallizable body
in any mixture fit for making mineral alkaline liver of sulphur, and previous
to the ignition and fusion herein-before prescribed of such mixture, you ought,
in such case, to use more charcoal than is herein-before prescribed, and you
ought to use such a quantity of charcoal, or of another equivalent inflammable
substance as will be sufficient to reduce the metallic calx to a metal, and to
prevent it from preying on that part of the charcoal or other inflammable
body herein-before prescribed as necessary or expedient to be mixed and
melted with the Glauber's salt in order to make mineral alkaline liver of
sulphur.
My said art and Invention of extracting or producing mineral alkali also
comprehends another method of separating the sulphur of the aforesaid liver
of sulphur, and of procuring the alkaline part thereof free from sulphur.
This method is described in the manner following (that is to say):-With a
strong solution of the aforesaid mineral alkaline liver of sulphur, mix as much
argol as will dissolve therein, then mix with every hundred gallons of this
solution a pound of powdered chalk, then separate the saline liquor of the
aforesaid mixture from the dregs and sulphur by subsidence and filtration;
evaporate this saline liquor to dryness, and calcine the dry residuary mass
until it becomes a grey pungent alkaline mass or heap, which is chiefly
mineral alkali, and which I call British barilla or patent mineral alkali. In

page_text: the place of chalk you may use any calcareous body powdered. In the place
of argol you may use tartar, or crystals of tartar, lees and dregs of old wine
or of any aged, fermented, vinous liquor, or vinigar, or acetous acid of any
kind, or any sour vegetable, dregs, juice, salt, or substance fit for decomposing
liver of sulphur, and in the quantity necessary for precipitating the sulphur
totally, and for expelling the sulphureous gas of the liver of sulphur.
.
My aforesaid Invention and art of extracting or producing fixed vegetable
alkali is described in the manner following (that is to say):-Take vitriolated
tartar or any saline body consisting chiefly of vitriolic acid and fixed vegetable
alkali, treat,, use, and apply the said vitriolated tartar, or equivalent saline
body, consisting chiefly of vitriolic acid, and fixed vegetable alkali, in the
method according to the processes, operations, and art herein-before described,
directed, and specified for and concerning the aforesaid Glauber's salt, and so
you will extract, produce, or obtain the fixed vegetable alkali of the aforesaid
vitriolated tartar, or equivalent salt, freed and seperated from the vitriolic acid
thereof; and the fixed vegetable alkali so extracted, produced, or obtained, is
my patent fixed vegetable alkali.
My aforesaid furnace, which I name and mark No. 1, is described in
the manner following (that is to say):-Build and brace a reverberatory
furnace similar to that kind of reverberatory furnace which is commonly
used in England and Wales for smelting copper or lead ore, except in
the following particulars and variations, viz.:-Let the bed of this furnace
No. 1, form or be an oval bason, over and on which the fire is to act by
reverberation in the direction of the longest diameter of the said bason.
Let the said oval bason be formed in an iron pan of similar figure, and let
the oval bason so formed in the iron pan consist of fire bricks well jointed
with apyrous clay mixed with sand in equal parts. Let the bed of the iron
pan and the sides and rooff and flue of this furnace on the interior side
which is exposed to the charge, be formed of fire bricks and apyrous clay
mixed with sand. Let two door or apertures be made to open into the
aforesaid bason, so that the charge therein may be conveniently agitated.or
raked out, and let these apertures be fashioned as is usual, so that they may
be conveniently stopped up with stone or brick, and luted with clay. In the
rooff of this furnace leave a circular hole thro' which the charge may be
introduced. The hole in the rooff of this furnace and the aforesaid doors or
apertures are to be closed when the charge of this furnace is to be evaporated,
and the doors or apertures are to be opened only when it is necessary..to
charge or to agitate the charge, or to rake it out.
My aforesaid furnace, which I name and mark No. 2, is described in the

page_text: manner following (that is to say) :-Build a large reverberatory furnace with
fire bricks and the aforesaid cement, and brace it well with iron bars. Let the
rooff of this furnace be arched or flat, as is consistent with strength, and let it
not exceed half a brick in thickness. Let this rooff be the bottom of a bason,
which is to be made by continuing the border of the said rooff upwards to meet
and join the massive walls of the furnace. Over the said bason you are to
build a flat arched dome, in which two doors are to be left, thro' which the
charge of this bason or furnace may be introduced or stired up or raked out.
The fireplace at one extremity of this furnace is to be constructed so that
the flame shall act advantageously under and against the said rooff, so as to
heat thoroughly the large bason of which the said rooff forms the bottom, and
also to heat the charge put into the said bason. The space under the said
rooff (extending from the bridge of the fireplace to the flue) is to be formed
into a shallow bed or receptacle, into which anything that lakes from the
bason aforesaid may drop and may be evaporated and dryed by the flame and
fire, which passes thro' and acts directly in and on this receptacle. The
said dome of this furnace is to communicate by lateral openings or tubes
with water so placed that the said tubes may convey into the water all the
acid vapour or matter as fast as it issues from the charge put into the said
bason. The shallow bed or receptacle of this furnace is to have doors
directly or nearly under the aforesaid doors of the dome. The charge of this
furnace, after being distilled almost to dryness in the bason aforesaid, whose
doors are to be closed during the distillation, is to be raked out before it sets,
and thrown into the said shallow bed or receptacle, therein to be well dried
and heated almost to redness, when it is fit to be used as my exsiccated
Glauber's salt herein-before specified. This furnace ought to be well dried
before it is used; the cracks are to be filled with fine sand and then the
bason is to be well soaked with Glauber's salt and then dried before it is used.
The subsequent leaks which do not point into the said receptacle are to be
stoped with fat lute.
.
My aforesaid furnace, which I mark and name No. 3, is described in
the manner following (that is to say) :-It is a reverberatory furnace, the
flue of which is at the extremity farthest from the fireplace. It has but
one door, which stands, nine inches above the bed, and also stands directly
under the flue. The bottom or bed of this furnace is flat, inclining with
a small descent towards the tap-hole, which is made in the side of this
furnace, and which conducts the melted charge of this furnace into a large
iron pan. Wet sand is the. material with which I stop the tap-hole when a
new charge is to be made. The furnace is to be made red hot before the

page_text: charge is put in, and the charge is to be turned over and stirred whilst it is
melting. All the parts of this furnace which are exposed to the fire or the
charge are to be formed of fire bricks well jointed with apyrous clay mixed
with sand in equal quantities.
exposed
charge are to be formed of fire bricks well jointed with apyrous clay mixed
with sand in equal quantities.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bryan Higgins, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this 29th day of November, 1781.
BRYAN HIGGINS. (LS.)
AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the Twenty-ninth day of November,
in the twenty-second year of the reign of His Majesty King George the
Third, the said Bryan Higgins came before the said Lord the King in Ilis
Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every
thing therein contained, and specified in form .above written. And also the
said Instrument was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made
in the sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen William and Mary
of England, and so forth, and also in the seventeenth year of the reign of
King George the Third.
Inrolled the Thirtieth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-one.