IMPROVE- MENTS IN PREPARING ZIRCONIA, AND THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE SAME TO DEVELOP THE LIGHT OF OXYHYDROGEN FLAME
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, of the Firm of
Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the
City of London, Patent Agents, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PREPARING ZIRCONIA, AND THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE SAME TO
DEVELOP THE LIGHT OF OXYHYDROGEN FLAME."-A communication from
abroad by the Company or Society Oyprien Tessié du Motay and
Company," of Paris, France.
Sealed the 17th October 1868, and dated the 8th May 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Clinton Edgcumbe
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 8th May 1868.
I, CLINTON EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman,
and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN PREPARING ZIRCONIA, AND THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE SAME TO
DEVELOP THE LIGHT OF OXYHYDROGEN FLAME," to be as follows:-

page_text: Zirconia or oxide of zirconium in whatever manner it may be extracted
from its ores can be agglomerated by compression, for example, into
sticks, discs, cylinders, or other forms suitable for being exposed to
the flame of mixtures of oxygen and hydrogen without undergoing
fusion or other alteration. Of all the known terrous oxides it is the
only one which remains entirely unaltered when submitted to the action
of a blow pipe fed by oxygen and hydrogen or mixtures of oxygen with
gaseous or liquid carbonated hydrogens. Zirconia is also of all the
terrous oxides that which when introduced into an oxyhydrogen flame
develops the most intense and the most fixed light. To obtain zirconia
in a commercial state I extract it from its native ores by transforming
by the action of chlorine in the presence of coal or charcoal the silicate
of zirconium into double chloride of zirconium and of silicium. The
chloride of silicium, which is more volatile than the chloride of
zirconium, is separated from the latter by the action of heat; the
chloride of zirconium remaining is afterwards converted to the state of
oxide by any of the methods now used in chemistry. The zirconia
thus obtained is first calcined, then moistened, and submitted in moulds
to the action of a press with or without the intervention of agglutinant
substances, such as borax, boracic acid, or clay. The sticks, cylinders,
discs, or other forms thus agglomerated are brought to a high temperature,
and thus receive a kind of tempering or preparing, the effect of which
is to increase their density and molecular compactness.
I can also compress in moulds shaped for the purpose a small
quantity of zirconium capable of forming a cylinder or piece of little
thickness, which may be united by compression in the same mould to
other refractory earths, such as magnesia and clay. In this manner I
obtain sticks or pieces of which only the part exposed to the action
of the flame is of pure zirconia, while the remaining portion which
serves as a support to it is composed of a cheap material.
The property possessed by zirconia of being at once the most infusible,
the most unalterable, and the most luminous of all the chemical sub-
stances at present known when it is exposed to the action of an
oxyhydrogen flame has never before been discovered, nor has its
property of being capable of agglomeration and moulding either a
separately or mixed with a small portion of an agglutinant sub-
stance.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 21st October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CLINTON
EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, Her
special licence that I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns; or such others as I, the said Clinton
Edgcumbe Brooman, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING ZIRCONIA, AND THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE SAME
TO DEVELOP THE LIGHT OF OXYHYDROGEN FLAME," (communicated to me from
I abroad by the Company or Society Cyprien Tessié du Motay and
Company," of Paris, France,) upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 per-
formed, 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 Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
Zirconia or oxide of zirconium in whatever manner it may be extracted
from its ores can be agglomerated by compression, for example, into

page_text: .
sticks, discs, cylinders, or other forms suitable for being exposed to the
flame of mixtures of oxygen and hydrogen without undergoing fusion
or other alteration. Of all the known terrous oxides it is the only one
which remains entirely unaltered when submitted to the action of a
blow pipe fed by oxygen and hydrogen or mixtures of oxygen with
gaseous or liquid carbonated hydrogens. Zirconia is also of all the
terrous oxides that which when introduced into an oxyhydrogen flame
developes the most intense and the most fixed light. To obtain zirconia
in a commercial state I extract it from its native ores by transforming
by the action of chlorine in the presence of coal or charcoal the silicate
of zirconium into double chloride of zirconium and of silicium. The
chloride of silicium, which is more volatile than the chloride of zirconium,
is separated from the latter by the action of heat; the chloride of
zirconium remaining is afterwards converted to the state of oxide by
any of the methods now used in chemistry. The zirconia thus obtained
is first calcined, then moistened, and submitted in moulds to the action
of a press with or without the intervention of agglutinant substances,
such as borax, boracic acid, clay, magnesia, chlorides of zirconium
and of magnesium. The sticks, cylinders, discs, or other forms thus
agglomerated are brought to a high temperature, and thus receive a kind
of tempering or preparing, the effect of which is to increase their density
and molecular compactness.
I can also compress in moulds shaped for the purpose a small quantity
of oxide of zirconium capable of forming a cylinder or piece of little.
thickness, which may be united by compression in the same mould to
other refractory earths, such as magnesia and clay. In this manner I
obtain sticks or pieces, of which only the part exposed to the action
of the flame is of pure zirconia, while the remaining portion which
serves as a support to it is composed of a cheap material.
The property possessed by zirconia of being at once the most in-
fusible, the most unalterable, and the most luminous of all the chemical
substances at present known when it is exposed to the action of
an oxyhydrogen flame has never before been discovered, nor has its
property of being capable of agglomeration and moulding either
separately or mixed with a small portion of an agglutinant substance.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-

page_text: First. The preparation of zirconia in the form of sticks, discs,
cylinders, or other suitable form substantially in the manner herein-
before described, and the employment of the same when so prepared
to develop the light of oxhydrogen flame as herein-before explained.
Second. The modes and means substantially as herein-before described
of extracting, manufacturing, and agglomerating zirconia in order to
produce sticks, discs, cylinders, or other required form.
Third. The uniting by compression of a stick, disc, or cylinder of
zirconia with a cylinder or stick of an inexpensive refractory earth in
order to produce a cheap stick or cylinder as and for the purpose herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of October,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.