IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF SULPHATE OF AMMONIA FROM THE NITROGEN OF PEAT, TURF, OR OTHER NITROGENOUS SUBSTANCES, AND APPARATUS THEREFOR
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Lloyd Wise, of 7, Whitehall Place, in the City of
Westminster, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF
SULPHATE OF AMMONIA FROM THE NITROGEN OF PEAT, TURF, OR OTHER
NITROGENOUS SUBSTANCES, AND APPARATUS THEREFOR." A communication
from abroad by Doctor Hubert Grouven, of Leipsig, Saxony, in the Empire
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Lloyd Wise at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st December 1880.
WILLIAM LLOYD WISE, of 7, Whitehall Place, in the City of Westminster.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF SULPHATE OF AMMONIA FROM THE
NITROGEN OF PEAT, TURF, OR OTHER NITROGENOUS SUBSTANCES, AND APPARATUS
THEREFOR." (A communication from abroad by Doctor Hubert Grouven, of
Leipsig, Saxony, in the Empire of Germany.)
"
This Invention of improvements in the production of sulphate of ammonia from
the nitrogen of peat, turf, or other nitrogenous substances, and apparatus therefor,
has reference to or comprises,―
1. The conversion into ash of moist peat or turf (bruchmoore oder grünlandmoore)
by means of glowing (glühend) steam, and by means of a furnace termed an
"incinerating furnace," the retorts of which lie horizontally, and are connected
together in a particular way.
2. A method or manner of causing the vapours evolved in the freshly filled
retorts to pass through all the other glowing retorts before they leave the
incinerating furnace and enter the ammonium furnace.
3. A method or manner of disconnecting each incinerating retort from the
system for the purpose of removing the ash and recharging, without thereby
disturbing the regularity of the gas circulation and of the process.
4. The renewal at regular intervals (say every quarter of an hour) of the upper
surface of the glowing peat or turf lying in each retort, and a method or manner in
which we effect this without the admission of air, and without disturbing the
process.

page_text: 5. In combination with the foregoing an arrangement of the upcast pipes,
throttle valves, annular pipes, stuffing boxes, which operate partly at the front,
partly at the back head wall of the incinerating furnace, and of a gas collecting
chest with plug closures.
6. The reduction into ash, and conversion of animal refuse rich in nitrogen into
carbonate of ammonia by means of the furnace system above referred to.
7. A process for producing, and the composition of, a contact substance that the
gases come in contact with.
8. The construction, arrangement, and management of an ammonium furnace
for the conversion of the organic vapours from the incinerating furnace into
carbonate of ammonia, carbonic acid, carbonic oxide gas, and hydrogen gas.
9. A construction and arrangement of retorts that enables each retort to be
completely isolated in turn for the purpose of regeneration, evacuation, and
recharging, without disturbing the other part of the process.
10. The application of three pyrometer grains for controlling the heating point,
which must be kept constant inside the incinerating retorts and ammonium
retorts.
The whole of the organic drying substance is burned by means of steam of from
400 to 700 degrees centigrade, so that nothing remains but the pure bog ash.
Such combustion is effected in glowing retorts and with absolute exclusion of
atmospheric air, and all organic nitrogen passes over, about 60 per cent. as carbonate
of ammonia, and about 40 per cent. in the form of alkaloidal nitrogenous vapours,
which upon condensation form tår. No nitrogen is found to escape in the form of
valueless nitrogen gas.
The consequently necessary complete reduction of the peat or turf into ash is
effected by the so-called incinerating furnace.
The conversion of the aforesaid unavoidable nitrogenous organic vapors into
carbonate of ammonia is the object of the so-called ammonium furnace.
By this latter not only are the whole nitrogenous contents of the bog obtained
in the form of carbonate of ammonia, but a gas product is also obtained which is
free from organic vapours and carburets of hydrogen, and consists only of carbonate
of ammonia, hydrogen, carbonic acid, and carbonic oxide, and that in definite
proportions.
Cooled with the surplus steam contained therein, these gases give a clear
colourless condensed product sufficiently pure to be neutralized with sulphuric acid
and evaporated, and this yields aulphate of ammonia containing 21 per cent. of
nitrogen, and therefore almost chemically pure.
The following are peculiar characteristics of the ammonium furnace :-
1. The temperature of the vapours and gases is maintained between the melting
points of the pyrometer grains Nos. 1 and 2 (as described in Specification of
Patent No. 113678).
2. A certain large excess of glowing steam.
3. The accompanying action of the contact substance of particular composition,
and of special manufacture, during an interval of at least thirteen seconds for
each volume of gas evolved.
4. Complete isolation from the atmospheric air.
5. Exclusion of all substances such as oxide of iron, gypsum, etcetera, which are
reducible in the glowing heat by organic matters.
6. Exclusion of all chlorides, such as common salts, etc.
The steam necessary for the conversion of the peat or turf into ash in the
incinerating retorts is given out by the peat or turf itself which is placed in
the retorts in a moist state.
The incinerating furnace may be constructed with any suitable number and size
of retorts, but for the purpose of this description I will take by way of example
an incinerating furnace with eight retorts having a length of seven metres exposed
to the action of the fire, and with a cross-section approximately twice as large a
cross-section in the clear as the ordinary illuminating gas furnace.

page_text: Providing the proper temperature be maintained within the retort, the process is
not affected by the retorts being made either of iron or fire clay.
The following are peculiarities of the incinerating furnace :-
1. All the retorts are in connection with each other and do not work separately,
as is the case with the retorts of illuminating gas works.
2. The steam escaping quickly from each freshly charged glowing retort must
pass through all the other equally glowing retorts before it leaves the furnace.
3. The steam attains in this course of from 60 to 70 metres, with relatively
slow circulation, a constantly increasing temperature, so that on its arrival at the
fourth retort it has already a temperature of 400 degrees C.; at which the water
commences to decompose the peat or turf. This temperature keeps on rising in
the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth retorts, and the quickness of the oxidation of
the peat or turf increases proportionately, by which the floors of all the retorts are
covered to a depth of about eighty millimetres with the non volatile products.
4. Each of the retorts may at any time be disconnected from the others simply
by the closing or opening of certain throttle valves without the regularity of the
circulation of the gases being disturbed.
5. In order that the incinerating furnace may work in the best manner it is not
only necessary that the retorts should be charged continuously in the same order,
with the constant interval of time of a quarter of an hour, but also that the
retort which has been longest charged, the peat or turf contents of which are
therefore completely reduced to ash, shall always receive the hottest steam, and
that then from this retort the stream of the gases and vapours shall flow direct
into the ammonium furnace until they are discharged. The particular arrangement
of the retorts referred to in paragraph 4 enables both of these important require-
ments to be satisfied.
6. From the moment a retort is isolated until it is again connected with the
series there is an interval of time during which such isolated retort may conveniently
be cleared of ash and again filled with fresh peat or turf.
7. In the back door of each retort is a hole through which a round iron bar
fitting exactly is passed and may be moved. To this is fastened a scraper by means
of which the bed of glowing peat or turf lying on the floor of the retort may be
scraped at intervals without admission of air, which is indispensably necessary for
the successful oxidation of the peat or turf.
8. The front end of each retort has a door so constructed that by a simple lever
pressure it may be quickly opened and quickly closed hermetically.
9. The temperature necessary in three retorts may at any time be easily and
surely controlled by the pyrometer grains already sufficiently described. For this
purpose it is only necessary to mix both the metallic grains No. 2 and No. 3 with
charcoal powder, and then fill it into an iron gaspipe, and after luting both its ends
with clay throw it into the bed of peat or turf in the retort.. After half an hour's
interval the No. 2 grain should be shewn to have melted, but not No. 3. If No. 2
should not be melted, then the temperature of the gas in the retort is too low and
must be increased; but if No. 3 is shewn to have melted then the heat is too great,
and therefore the temperature of the gas in the retort is to be lowered.
10. The heating apparatus of the incinerating furnace is so constructed that it
again takes up and burns in its fire place all gases produced in the retorts after
such gases have passed through the ammonium furnace and have completely left
all ammoniacal contents behind in other apparatus. The evaporation of water in
the incinerating furnace and the loss of heat from diffusion necessitates an addition
of coke; this coke is gasified in a generator in connection with the incinerating
furnace, and the carbonic oxide gas thereby produced is conducted with the retort
gases into the furnace.
11. By the arrangement of retorts referred to pieces and fragments of any
suitable size of leather, horn, hoofs, wool, hair, and all cheap animal refuse
generally, in which the nitrogen frequently rises to 15 per cent., may be gasified
equally as well and as quickly as the moist peat or turf lumps; by the aid of the

page_text: ammonium furnace their organic nitrogen goes over, also without loss, in the form
of carbonate of ammonia. Referring to the ammonium furnace, the stream of hot
vapours and gases coming from the incinerating furnace flows through an elliptic
pipe, then into a gas collecting chest situated in the lower part of the furnace and
closed throughout, thence through valve apertures to be distributed into upright
retorts hanging vertically; these, like the collecting chest, are of cast iron.
The retorts are charged with the porous contact composition which rests on an
iron gate, so arranged that it may readily fall out downward, and as easily be
again set in its place.
When the grate falls down the whole of the contents of the retort falls with it.
The doors by which each retort is hermetically closed at top and bottom, are
such as to readily allow of fresh charging.
Each retort is in communication with the gas collecting chest by means of a
conical metallic plug which is ground in.
When such plug is closed by pressure from the outside, the corresponding retort
is isolated from the others, but its complete isolation is only finally effected by at
the same time closing an upper conical metallic plug. Such isolation is necessary
every time the contact substance has to be removed and replaced by a fresh one,
which has to be performed after several days' use.
By this operation, which all the retorts undergo in rotation, no disturbance is
occasioned to the working of the furnace. As the discharge pipes are subject to
the evacuating action of an exhauster and condensation, manometers connected to
these pipes indicate if too much or too little gas is passing through a retort, which
would indicate that such retort had been provided with a too light or too dense a
contact substance, as the case might be, and this would have to be corrected by
adjusting the inlet valves.
The cylindrical exterior of this furnace is encircled with an equally impermeable
iron covering, inside which are the stone walls of the furnace proper, which may be
sufficiently isolated by concentric annular air spaces.
Instead of the retorts of this furnace being filled with the particular contact
substance already mentioned, they may be filled with other neutral refractory
minerals which present a large surface to the gases passing through them, for
example, pieces of burnt meadow chalk, burnt grey lime, burnt clay stone, pumice
stone, asbestos, meerschaum, &c. These substitutes however fulfil more or less
imperfectly the important object of changing the tarry and nitrogenously rich
vapours of the incinerating furnace into carbonate of ammonia. The burnt contact
substance is lighter than meerschaum.
The composition and method of producing this contact substance given in the
Specification of Patent, No. 113679, refers entirely to air dried materials, which so
far require to supplemented, as by chalk, cement, clay, and peat or turf in the
moist state which allows of a more intimate admixture, and one more mechanically
easy to carry out and therefore more suitable. It is found advisable in practice,
first, to mix chalk and clay very intimately in a plug mill, and then add the
voluminous moist peat or turf. In other respects no change is made in the above
mentioned composition, always considered as a drying substance.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said William Lloyd Wise in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th June 1881.
WILLIAM LLOYD WISE, of 7, Whitehall Place, in the City of Westminster.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF SULPHATE OF AMMONIA FROM THE
NITROGEN OF PEAT, TURF, OR OTHER NITROGENOUS SUBSTANCES, AND APPARATUS
THEREFOR" (A communication from abroad by Docter Hubert Grouven, of
Leipsig, Saxony, in the Empire of Germany.)
This Invention of improvements in the production of sulphate of ammonia from
the nitrogen of peat, turf, or other nitrogenous substances, and apparatus therefor
has reference to or comprises
1. The conversion into ash of moist peat or turf (bruchmoore oder grünlandmoore)
by means of glowing (glühend) steam, and by means of a furnace termed an
"incinerating furnace," the retorts of which lie horizontally and are connected
together in a particular way.
2. A method or manner of causing the vapours evolved in the freshly filled
retorts to pass through all the other glowing retorts before they leave the
incinerating furnace and enter the ammonium furnace.
3. A method or manner of disconnecting each incinerating retort from the
system, for the purpose of removing the ash and recharging, without thereby
disturbing the regularity of the gas circulation and of the process.
4. The renewal at regular intervals (say, every quarter of an hour) of the upper
surface of the glowing peat or turf lying in each retort, and a method or manner
in which this is effected without the admission of air and without disturbing the
process.
5. In combination with the foregoing, an arrangement of the upcast pipes,
throttle valves, annular pipes, stuffing boxes, which operate partly at the front,
partly at the back head wall of the incinerating furnace, and of a gas collecting
chest with plug closures.
6. The reduction into ash and conversion of animal refuse rich in nitrogen into
carbonate of ammonia, by means of the furnace system above referred to.
7. A process for producing, and the composition of, a contact substance that the
gases come in contact with.
8. The construction, arrangement, and management of an ammonium furnace for
the conversion of the organic vapours from the incinerating furnace into carbonate
of ammonia, carbonic acid, carbonic oxide gas, and hydrogen gas.
9. A construction and arrangement of retorts that enables each retort to be
completely isolated in turn for the purpose of regeneration, evacuation, and
recharging, without disturbing the other part of the process.
10. The application of three pyrometer grains for controlling the heating point
which must be kept constant inside the incinerating retorts and ammonium
retorts.
The whole of the organic drying substance is burned by means of steam of from
400 to 700 degrees centigrade, so that nothing remains but the pure bog ash.
Such combustion is effected in glowing retorts and with absolute exclusion of
atmospheric air, and all organic nitrogen passes over about 60 per cent. as
carbonate of ammonia and about 40 per cent. in the form of alkaloidal nitrogenous
vapours, which upon condensation form tar. No nitrogen is found to escape in
the form of valueless nitrogen gas.
The consequently necessary complete reduction of the peat or turf into ash is
effected by the so-called incinerating furnace. The conversion of the aforesaid
unavoidable nitrogenous organic vapours into carbonate of ammonia is the object of

page_text: the so-called ammonium furnace. By this latter not only are the whole nitrogenous
contents of the peat or turf obtained in the form of carbonate of ammonia; but a
gas product is also obtained which is free from organic vapours and carburets of
hydrogen, and consists only of carbonate of ammonia, hydrogen, carbonic acid and
carbonic oxide, and that in definite proportions. Cooled with the surplus steam
contained therein these gases give a clear colourless condensed product sufficiently
pure to be neutralized with sulphuric acid and evaporated, and this yields sulphate
of ammonia containing 21 per cent. of nitrogen, and therefore almost chemically
pure.
The following are peculiar characteristics of the ammonium furnace :-
1. The temperature of the vapours and gases is maintained between the melting
points of the pyrometer grains, Nos. 1 and 2 (as described in Specification of
Patent, No. 113678).
2. A certain large excess of glowing steam.
3. The accompanying action of the contact substance of particular composition,
and of special manufacture, during an interval of at least thirteen seconds for each
volume of gas evolved.
4. Complete isolation from the atmospheric air.
5. Exclusion of all substances, such as oxide of iron, gypsum, etcetera, which are
reducible in the glowing heat by organic matters.
6. Exclusion of all chlorides such as common salt, etcetera. The steam necessary
for the conversion of the peat or turf into ash in the incinerating retorts is given
out by the peat or turf itself, which is placed in the retorts in a moist state.
Referring to the accompanying three Sheets of Drawings, Fig. 1 shews a vertical
longitudinal sectional elevation of an incinerating furnace according to this
Invention with seven retorts, and Fig. 2, Sheet 2, shews a vertical transverse
sectional elevation of the same. The incinerating furnace may be constructed
with any suitable number and size of retorts, but for the purpose of this description
I have shewn it with seven retorts having a length of seven meters exposed to the
action of the fire, and with a cross section approximately twice as large in the
clear as the ordinary illuminating gas furnace. Providing the proper temperature
be maintained within the retort the process is not affected by the retorts being
made either of iron or fire clay.
The following are peculiarities of the incinerating furnace :-
1. All the retorts are in connection with each other and do not work separately,
as is the case with the retorts of illuminating gas works.
2. The steam escaping quickly from each freshly charged glowing retort must
pass through all the other equally glowing retorts before it leaves the furnace.
3. The steam attains in this course of from 60 to 70 metres with relatively slow
circulation a constantly increasing temperature, so that on its arrival at the fourth
retort it has already a temperature of 400 degrees C., at which the water vapours
commence to decompose, and the peat or turf to oxydise; this temperature keeps
on rising in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth retorts, and the quickness of the
oxidation of the peat or turf increases proportionately, by which the floors of all
the retorts are covered to a depth of about eighty millimetres with the non volatile
products.
4. Each of the retorts may at any time be disconnected from the others simply
by the closing or opening of certain throttle valves without the regularity of the
circulation of the gases being disturbed. The number, arrangement, and position
of these throttle valves may be seen from Sheets 1 and 2 of the Drawings. The
fourteen valves at the front of the furnace are in all respects similar to and named
correspondingly with the fourteen valves at the back.
For example, when the peat or turf contained in retort 1 has been deprived of
its gas and it is desired to remove the ash therein contained, and recharge it with
fresh peat or turf, then the throttle valves closed are:-
Front of the furnace A, H, K, M, O. - All others are open.

page_text: At the same time plug II. of the gas collecting chest R with which all the retorts
communicate by means of the metallic plugs I., VII., is opened, whilst all the others
are closed.
5. In order that the incinerating furnace may work in the best manner it is not
only necessary that the retorts should be charged continuously in the same order,
with the constant interval of time of a quarter of an hour, but also that the retort
which has been longest charged, the peat or turf contents of which are therefore
completely reduced to ash, shall always receive the hottest steam, and that then
from this retort the stream of the gases and vapours shall flow direct into the
ammonium furnace until they are discharged. The particular arrangement of the
retorts referred to in paragraph 4 enables both of these important requirements to
be satisfied.
6. From the moment a retort is isolated until it is again connected with the
series there is an interval of time during which such isolated retort may conveniently
be cleared of ash and again filled with fresh peat or turf.
7. In the back door of each retort is a hole a, through which a round iron bar
fitting exactly is passed, and may be moved.
To this is fastened a scraper, by
means of which the bed of glowing peat or turf lying on the floor of the retort. may
be scraped at intervals without admission of air, which is indispensably necessary
for the successful oxidation of the peat or turf.
8. The front end of each retort has a door 6 so constructed that by a simple
lever pressure it may be quickly opened and quickly closed hermetically."
9. The temperature necessary in these retorts may at any time be easily and
surely controlled by the pyrometer grains, already sufficiently described. For this
purpose it is only necessary to mix both the metallic grains, No. 2 and No. 3 with
charcoal powder, and then fill with the mixture an iron gas pipe, and after luting
both its ends with clay to throw it into the bed of peat or turf in the retort.
After half an hour's interval the No. 2 grain should be shewn to have melted, but
not No. 3. If No. 2 should not be melted then the temperature of the gas in the
retort is too low, and must be increased; but if No. 3 is shewn to have melted
then the heat is too great, and therefore the temperature of the gas in the retort is
to be lowered.
10. The heating apparatus of the incinerating furnace is so constructed that it
again takes up and burns in its fire place all gases produced in the retorts after
such gases have passed through the ammonium furnace, and have completely left
all ammoniacal contents behind in other apparatus. The evaporation of water in
the incinerating furnace, and the loss of heat from diffusion necessitates an addition
of coke; this coke is gasified in a generator in connection with the incinerating
furnace, and the carbonic oxide gas thereby produced is conducted with the retort
gases into the furnace.
11. By the arrangement of retorts referred to pieces and fragments of any
suitable size of leather, horn, hoofs, wool, hair, and all cheap animal refuse generally
in which the nitrogen frequently rises to 15 per cent, may be gasified equally as
well and as quickly as the moist peat or turf lumps; by the aid of the ammonium
furnace their organic nitrogen goes over, also without loss, in the form of carbonate
of ammonia.
Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the ammonium furnace according to this Invention;
Fig. 4, a plan; and Fig. 5, an inverted plan of the same.
The stream of hot vapours and gases coming from the incinerating furnace flows
through the elliptic pipe T, then into the gas collecting chest V situated in the
lower part of the furnace and closed throughout, thence through the nine valve
apertures to be distributed into nine upright retorts hanging vertically. These like
the collecting chest are of cast iron. The retorts are charged with the porous
contact composition which rests on an iron grate W, so arranged that it may
readily fall downward, and as easily be again set in its place. When the grate
falls down the whole of the contents of the retort falls with it. The doors by
which each retort is hermetically closed at top and bottom are such as to readily

page_text: allow of fresh charging. Each retort is in communication with the gas collecting
chest by means of a conical passage controlled by a metallic plug which is
ground in. When such plug is closed by pressure from the outside, the corre-
sponding retort is isolated from the others; but its complete isolation is only
finally effected by at the same time closing an upper conical metallic plug at X.
Such isolation is necessary every time the contact substance has to be removed and
replaced by a fresh one, which has to be performed after several days use. By the
aid of these plugs each retort can be isolated for the regeneration of the contact
substance, as explained in my previous Patent, No. 1136, of 1878.
By this operation which all the retorts undergo in rotation no disturbance is
occasioned to the working of the furnace. As the discharge pipes Y, Y, are subject
to the evacuating action of an exhaustor and condenser, manometers connected to
these pipes indicate if too much or too little gas is passing through a retort, which
would indicate that such retort had been provided with a too light or too dense a
contact substance, as the case might be, and this would have to be corrected by
adjusting the inlet valves at Z. The cylindrical exterior of this furnace is encircled
with an equally impermeable iron covering, inside which are the walls of the
furnace proper, which may be sufficiently isolated by concentric annular air spaces.
Instead of the retorts of this furnace being filled with the particular contact
substance already mentioned, they may be filled with other neutral refractory
minerals which present a large surface to the gases passing through them, for
example, pieces of burnt meadow chalk, burnt grey lime, burnt clay stone, pumice
stone, asbestos, meerschaum, etcetera. These substitutes however fulfil very imper-
fectly the important object of changing the tarry and nitrogenously rich vapours of
the incinerating furnace into carbonate of ammonia. The burnt contact substance
is lighter than meerschaum. The composition and method of producing this contact
substance given in the Specification of Patent No. 11367, refers entirely to air
dried materials, which so far require to be supplemented, as by chalk, cement, clay,
and peat, or turf in the moist state, which allows of a more intimate admixture,
and one more mechanically easy to carry out and therefore more suitable. It is
found advisable in practice first to mix chalk and clay very intimately in a pug mill,
and then add the voluminous moist peat or turf. In other respects no change is
made in the above mentioned composition, always considered as a drying
substance.
Having described the nature of the said Invention, and explained the manner in
which it is to be or may be performed or carried into practical effect, as communi-
cated to me as aforesaid, I would have it understood that what is claimed as
secured to me under the Letters Patent first herein before in part recited is, in the
production of sulphate of ammonia from the nitrogen of peat, turf, or other
nitrogenous substances,-
1. The method substantially as above described of treating moist peat or turf by
subjecting it to the action of glowing steam in an incinerating furnace with
horizontal retorts, for the purpose specified.
2. The method of causing the vapours evolved in the freshly filled retorts of the
incinerating furnace to pass through the other glowing retorts of the series before
leaving the said furnace and entering the ammonium furnace, substantially as
described.
3. Arranging the apparatus so that each incinerating retort may be disconnected
from the furnace for the purposes of removing the ash, and recharging without
disturbing the regularity and continuity of the gas circulation or of the process, all
substantially as described.
4. Renewing at intervals as above set forth the upper surface of the glowing
peat or turf, and the arrangements whereby the same is effected, substantially as
described.
5. In an incinerating furnace of the kind hereinabove mentioned for the
production of sulphate of ammonia, the combination of apparatus comprising the
upcast pipes, throttle valves, and stuffing boxes, operating partly at the front and

page_text: partly at the back wall of the furnace, and the gas collecting chest with its plug
closures, all substantially as described and shown.
6. The method substantially as described of reducing into ash and converting
into carbonate of ammonia animal refuse rich in nitrogen.
7. The improved process for producing and the improved composition of the
"contact substance that the gases come in contact with, substantially as
described.
8. The use for converting the organic vapours from the incinerating furnace into
carbonate of ammonia, carbonic acid, carbonic oxide gas and hydrogen gas of the
furnace, constructed, arranged, and operating as shewn in and described with
reference to Figs. 3, 4, and 5 of the Drawings.
9. The hereinabove described construction and arrangement of the ammonium
furnace that enables each retort to be completely isolated in turn for the purposes
of regeneration, evacuation, and recharge, without disturbing the regularity or
continuity of the process in the other retorts, as above set forth.
10. Determining the temperature in the incinerating furnace and ammonium
retorts above described, by the use therein of three " pyrometer grains," as
hereinabove explained.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Lloyd Wise, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty-one.
W. LLOYD WISE. (L.S.)