IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF COMPOUNDS OF SODA FROM CHLORIDE OF SODIUM, AND COMPOUNDS OF POTASSA FROM CHLORIDE OF POTASSIUM, AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Hargreaves at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th July
1867.
I, JAMES HARGREAVES, of Appleton-within-Widnes, in the County of
Lancaster, Analytical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF COMPOUNDS OF SODA FROM
CHLORIDE OF SODIUM, AND COMPOUNDS OF POTASSA FROM CHLORIDE OF POTASSIUM, AND
IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to produce silicate and aluminate of soda
and silicate and aluminate of potassa.
In carrying my said Invention into operation I make use of the combustion
of hydrogen, or of any mixture of hydrogen with other gases, or any gaseous
material containing or capable of evolving hydrogen, or the combustion of any
Buid or solid material containing or capable of evolving hydrogen, such, for
instance, as oil, pitch, resin, and bituminous coal, and which gaseous fluid or
solid material I, for brevity, call "bydrogenous agents;" I burn the said
hydrogenous agent or any of them with oxygen or any other gaseous fluid or
solid material containing and capable of evolving oxygen, such, for instance,
as atmospheric air, nitric acid, chloric acid, nitrates of soda and potassa, and
chlorates of soda and potassa, and which said gaseous fluid or solid material
I, for brevity, call "oxygenous agents.
The first part of my said Invention consists substantially in forcing the
aforesaid hydrogenous and oxygenous agents, or the products of their com-
bustion below the surface of fused chloride of sodium or chloride of potassium

page_text: mixed with silica or alumina. The water produced by the combination of the
hydrogen and oxygen contained in the said hydrogenous and oxygenous agents
along with the other products of combusion rises in bubbles through the said
fused chloride of sodium or chloride of potassium mixed with silica or alumina, as
above mentioned, and reacts chemically and converts the said chloride of sodium
into soda and bydrochloric acid, and the said chloride of potassa into potassa
and hydrochloric acid, and the said soda and potassa are at the instant of their
formation converted into silicate or aluminate of soda or potassa, according as
these are present in the mixture operated on; the hydrochloric acid is carried
off with the products of combustion and condensed, if required, by any
ordinary or suitable means. I prefer to use silica in the form of sand,
powdered feldspar, powdered sandstone, powdered granite, powdered quartz, or
in the amorphous condition such as is produced when soluble silicates are
decomposed by carbonic acid or other acid. And I prefer to use alumina in
the form of dried and powdered clay or in the amorphous condition such as
is produced when soluble aluminates are décomposed by carbonic acid or other
acid, or when alumina is precipitated from its soluble salts by soda, potassa,
or ammonia or their carbonates.
The second part of my said Invention, which relates to apparatus for
facilitating the operations mentioned in the said above first part, consists of a
vessel of any suitable shape formed of or lined with fire-bricks, silicious stone,
plumbago ware, or other suitable refractory substance, and which said vessel
I, for brevity, call the "converter. The said converter is made to contain
the fused chloride mixed with silica and alumina, or either of them. In or
alongside the said converter and communicating with it I form or place
another vessel, also made of refractory substances, closed at the top but open
at the bottom; this vessel, for brevity, I call the "combustion chamber.
I
introduce or admit into the said combustion chamber one or more of the said
hydrogenous agents, and also one or more of the said oxygenous agents; the
products of their combustion rise in bubbles through the said chlorides mixed
as aforesaid, and react chemically as mentioned under the above first part of
my Invention. I prefer to use as the hydrogenous agents gas produced by
distillation of coal, or gas produced by the combined' distillation and combus-
tion of coal, as in the well-known Siemens' regenerative furnaces; and as the
oxygenous agent I prefer to use atmospheric air; I also prefer that the said
gas or gases and air should be superheated by being forced through heated
pipes by means of blowing cylinders or otherwise.
The third part of my said Invention, which relates to another apparatus for
carrying out the first part of my said Invention, consists of a furnace or chamber

page_text: made or formed of any suitable shape of fire-brick, silicious stone, plumbago
ware, or other refractory substance. The fused chloride of sodium or potas-
sium and silica or alumina are placed in or prepared in the said furnace or
chamber, around the side or sides of which and just above the fused mixture
I arrange a row or rows of pipes or passages, each containing smaller pipes.
Through the annular spaces between the pipes I admit or supply the hydro-
genous agents, and through the small pipes I admit or supply the oxygenous
agents, or vice versa. The ends of the small pipes are formed with jet nozzles
slanting downwards so as to direct the oxygenous agents or the products of
combustion by their momentum below the surface of the fused mixture,
through which they rise in bubbles and react chemically as above mentioned.