IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Deacon, of Appleton House, Widnes, in
the County of Lancaster, Alkali Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Deacon at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 11th March 1875.
I, HENRY DEACON, of Appleton House, Widnes, in the County of
Lancaster, Alkali Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of my
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHLORINE,” to be
as follows:-
This Invention consists in using a mixture of common salt or other
similar chloride with a compound or salt of coppers or with other so-
called chemically active salt, such as is now employed in what is known
as Deacon's process for making chlorine from hydrochloric acid gas and
air previously mixed and heated in combination with a separate source

page_text: of hydrochloric acid
which may
gas,
be from the well-known manufacture
of sulphate of soda by reacting on common salt with sulphuric acid, or
otherwise obtained.
The common salt used in carrying out this Invention may be in
grains, which may either be moistened with a solution of the so-called
chemically active salt or salts, which may, for example, be sulphate of
copper, or the common salt and sulphate of copper may be in solution,
and this solution may be used to impregnate pieces of burnt clay or
other porous materials therewith, the mixture or impregnated material
being subsequently dried; or salt mixed with copper ore, such, for
example, as the sulphurets, or the oxides, or with other natural or
artificially produced insoluble compounds of copper may in a fine state
of division be employed in lieu thereof, or in conjunction with the
soluble salts of copper before referred to..
The appartus in which the mixtures as described may be used in
combination with a separate source of hydrochloric acid may be a
column or tower, or a number of columns or towers connected together,
and made of iron or brickwork, or both, as more fully described in the
Specification of a Patent granted to me on the 13 September 1870,
No. 2469.
During the manufacture of chlorine by this Invention chloride of
copper is volatilized, and it is by this Invention obtained in a dry state
from the gases issuing from the apparatus by passing them through a
suitable column or tower made of stone or other suitable material, and
partly filled with pieces of burnt clay or other similar material, the
whole arrangement acting as a "scrubber" of the gases, and being kept
at any temperature between that at which aqueous hydrochloric acid gas
condenses and that at which chloride of copper sublimes, say, about
between 300 degrees Fahrenheit and 600 degrees Fahrenheit. The
chloride of copper condenses in this apparatus in a state much like wool,
and may be removed from time to time and utilized, and this method of
separating chloride of copper from gases containing it may be employed
whenever these gases containing it are obtained in the manufacture of
chlorine by any other process than the process described herein.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by tho said Henry Deacon in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 19th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
DEACON, of Appleton House, Widnes, in the County of Lancaster, Alkali
Manufacturer, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of March, in the year.
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
cighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
givo and grant unto me, the said Henry Deacon, Her special license
that I, the said Henry Deacon, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Deacon, my executors,
administrators, or 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 CHLORINE," upon the condition (amongst others).
that I, the said Henry Deacon, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Henry Deacon, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to bo
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say :-
The said Invention consists in using a mixture of common salt or
other similar chloride with a compound or salt of copper, or with other
so-called chemically active salt, such as is now employed in what is
known as Deacon's process for making chlorine from hydrochloric acid
gas and air previously mixed and heated in combination with a separate
source of hydrochloric acid gas, which may be from the well-known

page_text: manufacture of sulphate of soda by reacting on common salt with
sulphuric acid, or otherwise obtained.
The common salt used in carrying out this Invention may be in
grains, which may either be moistened with a solution of the so-called
chemically active salt or salts, which may, for example, be sulphate of
copper, or the common salt and sulphate of copper may be in solution,
and this solution may be used to impregnate pieces of burnt clay or
other porous materials therewith, the mixture or impregnated material:
being subsequently dried; or salt mixed with copper ore, such, for
example, as the sulphurets or the oxides, or with other natural or
artificially produced insoluble compounds of copper may in a fine state
of division be employed in lieu thereof, or in conjunction with the soluble
salts of copper before referred to.
The apparatus in which the mixtures as described may be used in
combination with a separate source of hydrochloric acid, may be a
column or tower, or a number of columns or towers connected together,
and made of iron or brickwork, or both, as more fully described in the
Specification of a Patent granted to me on the 13th September 1870,
No. 2409.
During the manufacture of chlorine by this Invention chloride of
copper is volatilized, and it is by this Invention obtained in a dry state
from the gases issuing from the apparatus by passing them through a
suitable column or tower made of stone or other suitable material, and
partly filled with picces of burnt clay or other similar material, the
whole arrangement acting as a "scrubber" of the gases, and being kept
at any temperature between that at which aqueous hydrochloric acid gas
condenses and that at which chloride of copper sublimes, say, about
between 300° Fahrenheit and 600° Fahrenheit. The chloride of copper
condenses in this apparatus in a state much like wool, and may be
removed from time to time and utilized, and this method of separating
chloride of copper from gases containing it may be employed whenever
these gases containing it are obtained in the manufacture of chlorine by
any other process than the process described herein.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to
be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to

page_text: mo by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the use in the
production of chlorine by what is known as Deacon's process of ä
mixture of common salt or other similar chloride, together with a salt or
compound of copper or other chemically active salt or compound in con-
junction with air and with hydrochloric acid; the same being obtained
from a separate source, substantially as hercin-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Deacon, have to this my
Specification set my hand and scal, the Thirteenth day of August,
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.