CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING SULPHATE OF SODA
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
PHILLIPS, late of New Kent Road, in the County of Surrey, but now of
Grove Lane Hill, Camberwell, in the said County, Lecturer on Chemistry at
St. Thomas's Hospital, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourth day of June, in the fifth year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Richard
Phillips, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Richard Phillips, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Richard Phillips, my exors, adñors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING
SULPHATE OF SODA;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that
I, the said Richard Phillips, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Phillips, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to
consist in the application of sulphate of iron in various forms (each different
form of application being an improvement on the present mode) to produce
sulphate of soda from common salt; and in further compliance with the said
proviso, I the said Richard Phillips, do hereby describe the manner in which
my said Invention is to be performed by the following statement thereof
(that is to say) :-
It is well known that when certain kinds of the persulphuret or bisulphuret
of iron, commonly called iron pyrites or martial pyrites, and sometimes merely
pyrites, are exposed to the action of the air and of moisture, the sulphur which
the pyrites contains is for the most part, by oxidizement, converted into
sulphuric acid, and the iron which the pyrites contains is also by oxidizement
converted into oxide of iron; and the sulphuric acid and oxide of iron thus
formed combining, they constitute, with water, a solution of sulphate of iron,
copperas, green copperas, or green vitriol, with an excess of sulphuric acid,
and the heaps of pyrites which are thus exposed to air and moisture for the
purpose of preparing sulphate of iron or green vitriol are called copperas or
pyrites beds. The liquor which is yielded by, the action of the air and
moisture upon the pyrites of these copperas beds is an aqueous solution of
sulphate of iron or green vitriol with excess of sulphuric acid; and this liquor I
call the intire liquor, meaning thereby that it contains the whole, or nearly
the whole, of the sulphuric acid formed by the action of the air and of moisture
on the sulphur of the pyrites in the copperas beds, as above described. The
use of this intire liquor (on account of the large quantity of sulphuric acid
which it contains) is one of my said improvements in the process of manufac-
turing sulphate of soda. For this purpose I take sixty parts (by weight) of
common salt, frequently called muriate of soda, and sometimes chloride of
sodium, and put it into a reverberatory furnace of the usual construction, and I
add to it such a quantity of the intire liquor before described as would, if
mixed with a sufficient quantity of an aqueous solution of acetate, nitrate, or
other convenient salt of lead, give a precipitate of sulphate of lead, which
would weigh, after proper washing and drying, about one hundred and sixty.
parts, these one hundred and sixty parts of sulphate of lead indicating the
presence of sulphuric acid, equal to about fifty parts by weight of concentrated
liquid, sulphuric acid, or oil of vitriol, and which are required for the decom-
position of sixty parts of common salt, so as to convert it into sulphate of soda.
I also take the specific gravity if the intire liquor, and on future occasions,
when its specific gravity is the same or nearly so, I determine the quantity of

page_text: it to be used; sixty parts of common salt by its specific gravity alone, and
without repeating the trial as to the quantity of sulphate of lead which is
yielded by a given portion of it. And I may here observe that the greater
the specific gravity of the liquor, the greater will be the advantage to the
manufacturer. The intire liquor and common salt being well mixed in the
reverberatory furnace, I heat the mixture as usually practised in the decom-
position of common salt by sulphuric acid, occasionally stirring it until acid
vapours cease to arise from it. The residue of this operation is a mixture of
oxide or peroxide of iron and sulphate of soda, and usually a small but unim-
portant quantity of common salt. I heat this residue in water to, or nearly
to, its boiling point in any convenient vessel, and when the water is nearly or
sufficiently saturated, I suffer the peroxide of iron to subside, and the clear
solution being conveyed to proper vessels, it yields by cooling crystals of
sulphate of soda.
Having now described what I consider to be the best process for obtaining
sulphate of soda by decomposing common salt with the intire liquor, I will
proceed to describe another of my said improvements, which consists in the use,
when circumstances render it eligible or convenient, of the crystallized sulphate
of iron, green copperas, or green vitriol obtained from the intire liquor (or in
any other mode) by the usual processes. For this purpose I reduce about one
hundred and fifty parts by weight of the crystallized sulphate of iron or green
vitriol to powder, and mix it with sixty parts by weight of common salt, and I
hent the mixture in a reverberatory furnace in the same manner as before
described, and I treat the residue in the same way as already described with
reference to the residue obtained when the intire liquor is used.
Another of my said improvements consists in the use of the solution remain-
ing after the separation of the crystals of sulphate of iron in the ordinary
process of making green vitriol, and which solution is termed the mother
waters. The strength of this solution, and the quantity of it to be used with
a given weight of common salt, I determine by means of the proportion of
sulphate of lead which it yields exactly in the same manner as described with
respect to the use of the intire liquor; I also take its specific gravity for the
reason already stated with respect to the intire liquor, and I treat the mixture and
residue as already mentioned with regard to those processes previously described.
Now whereas I claim as my Invention the use of sulphate of iron (in what-
ever mode produced) in the process of manufacturing sulphate of soda, and
whether applied in the form of crystals, mother water, or what I call intire
liquor, and such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge and belief
entirely new and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's

page_text: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion
of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby, declare this to be
my Specification of the same; and that I do verily, believe this my said
Specification doth comply in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise
with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
contained, wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and
privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Phillips, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Third day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.
RICHARD (L.s.) PHILLIPS.
RICHARD (L.S.) PHILLIPS.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1835, the aforesaid Richard Phillips came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.