A METHOD OF DISTILLING CERTAIN ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, AND MINERAL SUBSTANCES, AND OF MANUFACTURING CERTAIN. OF THE PRODUCTS THEREOF
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
WARBURTON, of Lower Cadogan Place, Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said Henry Warburton, did, by my petition, humbly
represent to His present most Excellent Majesty, that in consequence of a
communication made to me by a certain foreigner, residing abroad, I had
become possessed of a certain Invention of "A METHOD OF DISTILLING CERTAIN
ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, AND MINERAL SUBSTANCES, AND OF MANUFACTURING CERTAIN.
OF THE PRODUCTS THEREOF," which I conceived would be of great public utility,
and that the same had not been practised by any other person or persons
within His Majesty's dominions, to the best of my knowledge and belief, and I
humbly prayed His said Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, His Royal Letters Patent under His Great Seal of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, for the sole use, benefit, and
advantage of the said Invention, within that part of His said Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all His Colonies and
Plantations abroad, for the term of fourteen years pursuant to the Statute in
that case made and provided, and His said Majesty being willing to give
encouragement to all arts and inventions that might be for the public good,
was graciously pleased to condescend to my request, and therefore by His
Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day

page_text: of July, in the fifty-sixth year of His reign, of His especial grace, certain know-
ledge, and mere motion, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Henry Warburton, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority that I,
the said Henry Warburton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
every of them, by myself and themselves, and such other persons as I, the said
Henry Warburton, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend the said Invention within that part of His said Majesty's said United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and all His Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, in such manner as to me, the said Henry Warburtor, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should in my or their
discretion seem meet, and that I, the said Henry Warburtor, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole
profits, benefits, and advantage, from time to time, coming, growing, accruing,
and arising by reason of the said Invention, for and during the term of years
therein mentioned, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said license, powers,
privileges, and advantages therein granted, or mentioned to be granted unto
me, the said Henry Warburton; my executors, administrators, and assigns, for
and during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date of
the said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, according to the
Statute in such case made and provided; in which said Letters Patent is 'con-
tained a proviso, that if I, the said Henry Warburton, should not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what-manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within four calendar months next immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent, then that the said Letters Patent," "and
all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease;
determine, and become void, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation
being thereunto had, may more fully appear.
...
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Warburton, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
in manner following (that is to say):-
The (certain) animal, vegetable, and mineral substances for the distillation
of each of which the before in part recited Letters Patent have been obtained

page_text: are bone, horn, animal offal, wood, and peat, and such coal as is capable, on
being heated and submitted to distillation, of yielding such a quantity of inflam-
mable gas as will suffice for the operations herein-after mentioned, and I do
use and apply the inflammable gas yielded by the aforesaid substances when
heated and submitted to distillation by burning such gas as the sole or
principal fuel or combustible requisite to heat the aforesaid substances and to
separate, by distillation, the fixed and volatile products thereof from one
another. And I hereby declare that the different kinds of apparatus now
commonly used for submitting to distillation animal, vegetable, and mineral
substances, and for separating the fixed and volatile products thereof from one
another, may, many of them, be altered so as to carry this Invention into effect,
provided the following description of the means to be adopted, and of the prin
ciples to be observed in such alterations, be attended to (that is to say)
provided the aperture or apertures, tubes or tubes, through which the volatilo
products of the substance to be distilled are intended to escape be made to
proceed from very near the bottom or lowest side of the distilling vessel, and
provided proper tubes, channels, and flues be constructed for conveying the
inflammable gas, in case the volatile condensible products are intended to bo
collected, first through a condenser of some known and usual construction, and
afterwards into a furnace situated beneath the distilling vessel; but in case the
volatile condensible products are not intended to be collected for conveying the
inflammable gas directly (and without passing through a condenser) into the
furnace, which furnace, in either case, is to contain scarcely any or no fuel
or combustible other than the inflammable gas, and provided the inflam-
mable gas
be mixed within the furnace with such a quantity of atmospheric
air as to be therein inflamed; and provided the flame and heated vapour
arising therefrom be made to circulate through a narrow interval or channel
contained between the exterior of the distilling vessel on one side, and a mass
of brickwork or masonry surrounding the distilling vessel on the other side;
and provided. the distilling vessel present an extensive surface to the action of
such frame and heated vapour; and provided the instrument commonly called
and known by the name of a gazometer be connected with the tubes through
which the inflammable gas is conveyed, so as that a portion of inflammable
gas which is yielded during one distillation may be reserved, and applied to
heat the distilling vessel at the commencement of a subsequent distillation by
being forced out of the gazometer through proper tubes, channels, and flues,
into the furnace, and therein to be burnt, as aforesaid, or where more than one
furnace and distilling vessel is employed; provided the furnaces and distilling
véssels are so placed as to be contiguous to one another, so that when the

page_text: escape of inflammable gas from either of the distilling vessels is at its height,
or nearly so, the inflammable gas may, besides that portion of it which is burnt
beneath the distilling vessel, from whence it proceeds, have its other portion
applied to and burnt under another contiguous distilling vessel, and thereby
heat the same, and cause the process of distillation to commence in
that substance wherewith such other vessel has been charged; and by this
latter arrangement I find that the use of the gasometer may, when there are
more distilling vessels than one, be dispensed with. I recommend also that
the known contrivance be adopted of having the distilling vessels capable of
being moved, so that when the substance contained within one distilling vessel
has given off as much of the volatile products as suits the particular purpose
for which it was distilled, such vessel may be removed from the furnace, and
another distilling vessel of the same form and dimensions, newly charged with
the substance to be distilled, be put in its place. And I hereby further declare
that the above means and principles which I have described, proper to be
adopted and observed in altering a distilling apparatus (such as is now used),
-so as to carry this Invention into effect, are the same, or nearly so, as I should
adopt and observe in constructing a new distilling apparatus for the purposes
aforesaid; but in order to render the application of the above means and
principles still more easy, I here add an account, accompanied by Drawings
and Plans, of a convenient apparatus and machinery for carrying this Invention
into effect.
In the Drawings annexed, which are all made to an uniform scale of half
an inch, or thereabouts, in the Drawings to a foot in the apparatus and
machinery thereby intended to be represented, Fig. 1 represents the ground
plan of the apparatus and machinery; Fig. 2 represents a perpendicular
section of the same, supposed to be made in the direction marked A, C, in the
ground plan; and Fig. 3 represents another perpendicular section of the same,
supposed to be made in the direction marked H, K, in the ground plan.
In Fig. 1, A, B, C, D, denote the masonry or brickwork, in which the appa-
ratus and machinery is fixed. The two circles E & e denote two cylindrical
distilling vessels, standing within two cylindrical hollow spaces G, H, I, K,
and g, h, i, k, left in the masonry or brickwork, which hollow spaces are
somewhat greater in their diameters than the cylindrical distilling vessels, so
that there is a narrow empty annular space extending round the cylindrical
distilling vessels, between them and the masonry or brickwork.
In Fig. 2 the two cylindrical distilling vessels are represented standing
within the two cylindrical hollow spaces whereof the sides rise somewhat
higher than the tops of the distilling vessels. The two cylindrical vessels

page_text: rest at their bases, which are flat upon level floors of masonry or brick-
work, represented in Figs. 2 & 3, and these two floors are immediately con-
tiguous to the masonry or brickwork of the two domes of the two furnaces
denoted in Fig. 2 by F & f, within which furnaces the inflammable gas is
burnt; but I substitute plates of cast-iron for the floors of brickwork or
masonry, which plates then fill the upper parts of the furnaces F & f, without
any intervention of brickwork or masonry belonging to the domes; but I, by
preference, construct the floors and domes of brickwork or masonry, as afore-
said, since iron plates are liable to be injured by the intensity of the heat
within the furnaces. The cylindrical distilling vessels are open at top for the
purpose of being filled with the substance to be submitted to distillation, and
closed at bottom. I construct them, in preference, of sheet iron, well and
firmly rivetted at the joints, and when filled with the substance to be submitted
to distillation; I close them up with covers of the same material, carefully
joined by luting to the tops of the distilling vessels. When either of the two
cylindrical distilling vessels (whereof one is denoted by E, in Fig. 3), is heated,
the volatile matters cannot find vent and escape, except by the orifice L, of
the metallic tube L, M, N, O, which tube, for the better equalising of the
temperature within the distilling vessel, penetrates nearly to the bottom thereof.
A part of the tube without the brickwork is then conducted through a con-
denser of any known construction, where such of the volatile products as are
condensible are chiefly condensed, and are partly collected therein, and partly
pass out at the opening O of the continuation of the tube; but the condensing
apparatus, in order to simplify the Drawings, has not been represented therein.
The tube L, M, N, O, which may be of any convenient length, is, by pre
ference, conducted at its extremity O, below the surface of the ground denoted
by Y, Z, and enters immediately into a close and well compacted channel O, P, Q,
constructed, by preference, of brickwork or masonry. In order to collect
such of the volatile, condensible, and liquid products as escape from the
tube L, M, N, O, at the extremity thereof O, or as are condensed (after
escaping from the tube) in passing through the channel O, P, Q, I give an
inclination to the channel by sinking it deeper underground towards the
point O than towards the point Q; and I fix a pipe at X, which passes from
thence into the bottom of a tub or vessel sunk considerably below the surface
of the ground, so that the condensed liquid products flow out by the pipe X into.
the tub; but the incondensible and inflammable gas which issues from the
extremity of the tube L, M, N, O, at O passes along the channel O, P, Q,
to find vent at the opening of such channel at Q, at which opening I fix a
register, so as at any time to allow, regulate, or prevent the escape of the

page_text: inflanimable gas, and to cause, at pleasure, the whole or a portion of such gas
to be diverted from the channel O, P, Q, and to pass by the opening P, Fig. 3,
into the channel P, p, Fig. 1 & 2, which conducts to the other or second
distilling, vessel, and is, by preference, constructed of the same materials as the
channel O, P, Q; and, by means of such register, one of which I apply to each
distilling vessel, I can at any time heat one distilling vessel with the gas
disengaged from the other, and by thus diverting a portion of the inflammable
gas issuing from one distilling vessel when its escape is at its height, or nearly
so, so as to heat the other, I cause distillation to commence in that substance
wherewith that other or second distilling vessel has been charged, and I am
thus able to effect, with scarcely any or no other fuel or combustible than the
said inflammable gas, a continued, series of distillations, ad infinitum. And I
place the end or opening Q. of the channel, from which the inflammable gas
escapes, in front of the hemispherical dome F, Fig. 2 & 3, which serves for
a furnace, within which the inflammable gas is burnt; and in front of the
opening Q, at R, I construct a passage or flue leading from the external air
to the opening Q, and thence into the dome or furnace F, at the opening into
which I recommend the introduction of a small piece of wood, there to be
kindled so as to prevent the possible extinction of the inflammable gas; and at
the mouth of the passage at R I fix, a door or register, sliding up and down,
so that the quantity of air may be regulated that is to be admitted into the
dome or furnace, by passing underneath the door or register; and I construct
a similar, but smaller, passage or flue for the admission of atmospheric air;.
and similar but smaller door or register at S, on the side of the dome or
furnace, opposite to R; and the dome or furnace F being heated, and the
inflammable air escaping from the opening Q into the dome or furnace, and
the atmospheric air entering at the same time, by the passages R & S, into the
dome or furnace, an inflammation takes place, and the dome or furnace
becomes filled with flame and incandescent vapour; and I make such dome or
furnace, by preference, of an hemispherical form, and of the same diameter, or
thereabouts, as the cylindrical distilling vessel, and I construct it, by pre-
ference, of brickwork or masonry, and I cause several holes or perforations.
as G, H, I, K, circularly placed, to be made communicating from the bottom
of the above mentioned annular space into the upper part of the dome or
furnace; and the flame which fills the dome or furnace heats the brickwork
or masonry in the upper part thereof, and communicates thereby an equal and
well-regulated temperature to the distilling vessel, and the flame passes through
the holes or perforations, and circulating through the annular space surrounding
the distilling vessel, communicates beat to the sides of that vessel; and with a

page_text: view to confine the heat, and to cause the flame to play over the top of the
distilling vessel, I cover the cylindrical hollow space, including the distilling
vessel, with a cupola T, made, by preference, of wrought iron, and I suffer the
burnt and rarified air to escape either by a hole made in the cupola, or by
introducing a wedge or wedges under the edges of the cupola, so as somewhat
to incline and raise the same, and when the substance contained in the distilling
vessel has given off as much of its volatile products as suits the particular
purpose for which it was distilled, I remove or take off the cupola, and I
disengage the distilling vessel from that part of the pipe L, M, N, O, which lies
without such vessel, either by loosing a part M, N, of the pipe, which is made
to slide backwards, and when brought forward is made to fit by being well
turned at the joints, or by other convenient contrivance, and I then raise the dis-
tilling vessel, together with its contents, from out of the cylindrical hollow space,
by means of a crane or other fit instrument, and by the assistance of iron hooks,
which may be attached to handles made in the distilling, vessel; and having
thus removed and taken out one distilling vessel, I immediately introduce
another in its place, previously prepared by, charging it with the substance to
be distilled, and having fitted to it the moveable part of the tube and returned
the cupola to its former place, I divert and turn into the dome or furnace a
portion of the gas proceeding from the contiguous distilling vessel, and partly
from the heat, thus obtained, and partly from the heat which the whole
surrounding mass of masonry or. brickwork had previously attained, the
distillation almost immediately commences, and thenceforward continues
uninterruptedly until finished.
But I hereby declare that, the Invention for which the Patent is obtained,
in so far as it regards the distillation of the animal, vegetable, and mineral
substances aforesaid does principally consist in the use or application of the
inflammable gas yielded by such substances on being submitted to distillation
as aforesaid, and in the burning of the same as the sole or principal fuel or
combustible requisite to heat such substances, and to separate the fixed volatile
products thereof from one another. And I do hereby further declare that, the
particular description of the Drawings and Figures hereunto annexed, as well
as the more general description of the Invention herein given without reference
to any Figure, are given by me for the better understanding and illustrating
the same; for the machinery used in carrying the Invention into effect may
be varied indefinitely according to circumstances. And I hereby further
declare that, the only products which I claim an exclusive right to manufac
ture, under the before in part recited Letters Patent, in the manner herein
after set forth, are the pyroligneous acid, however distilled from wood or peat,

page_text: and the ammonia however distilled from bone, horn, animal offal, or coal.
And, first, in the distillation of wood or peat, I collect the volatile and
condensible products, when condensed in any convenient reservoir, which
products are known, in the case of wood, to consist of a empyreumatic acid,
and of heavy and light oils, nearly of the nature of tar, and in the case of
peat to consist of the same empyreumatic acid and of heavy and light oils,
more or less impregnated with or allied to bitumen, and in both these cases,
by the known effect of repose, I separate the uncombined oils from the acid,
which being to found to occupy the intermediate space between the heavy and
light oils, I draw off by any well-known and convenient method; and I proceed
to saturate the acid by mixing therewith to the point of neutralization a
compound well-known to chemists to result from the decomposition of the salt
called sulphate of soda, by calcining or heating the same with any phlogistic
or disoxigenating matter, and I find it convenient and economical to prepare
the saturating compound by mixing the oils (fluid, or inspissated by evapora-
ion,) with the salt or sulphate of soda, and by igniting and burning the
mixture of the oils and salt in a furnace, of which the construction may be
varied almost at pleasure, but which I construct, by preference, in a way that
will be best understood by the annexed Drawings.
In Fig. 4 A, B, C, D, E, represent the ground plan of the furnace; Fig. 5,
a perpendicular section of the same, in the direction marked C, G, on the
ground plan: Fig. 6, another perpendicular section of the same, in the
direction marked B, D, on the ground plan. The furnace is constructed of
brickwork or masonry, which incloses it on all sides, except at the aperture
A, E, (Figs. 4 & 6), and G, K, (Fig. 5), and except at the chimney F,
(Figs.4, 5, 6), which is placed almost immediately over the aperture. The
atmospheric air enters into the furnace by the aperture, and the mixture to be
calcined is introduced by the same aperture; and when the furnace has pre-
viously been heated, the mixture, falling into the hollow base II, is there
inflamed, and constantly stirred by long iron rods, crooked at the end, which
pass into the furnace through the same aperture, until, on being examined by
known methods, it is found to be decomposed, and the heat which is extricated
by burning the mixture in the furnace, I find it convenient to apply to save
fuel in the other manufacturing operations. And when I proceed to saturate
the empyreumatic acid with the neutralizing compound, I, by preference,
enclose the acid in a vessel to which a cover can be adapted, which cover
I recommend to have a perforation made in it, and a tube fitted into such
perforation, and I inclose, by preference, the compound in a sieve or basket,
which I suspend near the top of the vessel, and when the saturation takes

page_text: place the empyreumatic acid unites with the alkali contained in the compound,
and the oils partly unite with the sulphur contained in the compound, and are
precipitated, and the air which is extricated will pass through the perforation,
and thence into the tube which passes into and terminates in some fire or
furnace, in which the air thus extricated is consumed; and when I have
ascertained, by any well-known chemical test, that the acid is neutralized by
the saturating compound, I proceed to evaporate the resulting liquid, and,
during the evaporation, as well as during every other stage of the manufacture,
I take every opportunity to avail myself of the known methods of separating
insoluable matters by subsidence, by skimming, and by filtration: and I con-
tinue to evaporate the liquid until its specific gravity at the 212th degree of
Farenheit's thermometer is to that of water at the 60th degree of the same, as
123 is to 100. And I then either clarify the liquid by mixing therewith (as
is known to be done in the refining of sugar) a small portion of the white of
egg or of bullock's blood, and then transfer the lipuid into a pan to be
crystallized, or, without previously clarifying the same, I immediately transfer
it into a pan to be crystallized, and thus I obtain the crystallized salt called
the pyrolignate of soda, of the colour of good musovado sugar; and I take
pyrolignate of soda (by whatever manufacturing process the same may have
been obtained), crystallized or in solution, and I subject it, or not, to either or
both of the above-mentioned processes of clarifying and crystallizing, according
to its degree of colour and purity, but, by preference, to both those processes,
and I proceed to obtain from it the salt commonly called acetate of soda,
crystallized or in solution, by adopting some one of the following processes.
But I hereby declare that the several parts of such processes may be variously
combined one with another, according to the choice of the operator, so as to
produce the same results. By one process, which, for distinction merely,
I denominate the first process: I introduce pyrolignate of soda into a pan
made, by preference, of cast-iron, and therein heat the same by a fire so
regulated that the temperature of the pyrolignate may not exceed 600° degrees
of Farenheit's thermometer, and caused it to be stirred almost without
intermission until it becomes liquid by igneous fusion, and when I perceive, by
the ceasing of all ebullition, that the oily matters are either all sublimed or
converted into charcoal, I pour enough water into the pan to dissolve the
pyrolignate of soda, and I transfer the solution into another vessel, and having
added as much more water as will make the specific gravity of the solution at
the 100th degree of Farenheit's thermometer to that of water at the 60th
degree of the same, as 1,114 to 1,000, I suffer the insoluble matters to
subside by repose, and I transfer into another vessel the clear solution. By

page_text: another process, which, for the reason aforesaid, I denominate the second
process: I take a solution of pyrolignate of soda in water, whose specific
gravity is to that of water as 1,114 to 1,000, and I add thereto for every one
hundred parts, by weight, of crystallized pyrolignate of soda contained in the
solution, six parts, by preference, of the calx or oxide of tin, such as is
obtained by the spontaneous decomposition of the solution of tin made in
weak and cold nitrous acid, or by adding to a solution of the salts called the
nitrate nitromuriate or muriate of tin, a caustic or subcarbonated alkali or
caustic alkaline earth; or I sometimes, in this second process, proceed as
follows: Having previously mixed with the solution of pyrolignate of soda a
small quantity of caustic or subcarbonated potash or soda, by preference, in a
liquid state, I then add to the solution a small quantity of a concentrated
solution of tin, and, by preference, such as has been made with the nitric,
nitromuriatic, muriatic, sulphuric, or acetic acid. By another process, which,
for the reason aforesaid, I denominate the third process: I take a solution
of pyrolignate of soda, whose specific gravity is, by preference, such as I
have recommended in the second process, and I add thereto, for every hundred
parts, by weight of crystalized 'pyrolignate of soda contained in the solution,
three parts, by preference, of alumina, newly precipitated, according to known
methods, from a solution of alum or other aluminous salt, by a caustic alkali or
alkaline earth, or I sometimes, in this third process, proceed as follows:-Having
previously mixed with the solution of pyrolignate of soda a small quantity of
caustic potash or soda, by preference, in a liquid state, I then add to the solu-
tion a small quantity of concentrated solution of alumina, and, by preference,.
such as has been made with the nitric, muriatic, sulphuric, or acetic acid, and
in these second and third processes, after having added the compounds of tin
or alumina, I cause the solution of pyrolignate of soda to be stirred, and then
to be boiled, and when I perceive that a precipitate composed of the metallic
oxide, or of the earth, united or mixed with the oily matters, ceases to be formed,
I withdraw the heat and suffer the precipitate to subside, and I transfer into
another vessel the clear solution. By another process, which, for the reason
aforesaid, I denominate the fourth process: I take a solution of pyrolignate of
soda, of the same specific gravity, by preference, as is recommended in the
second and third processes, and for every five hundred parts of the solution I
add, by preference, one part of a solution of subacetate of lead, which may be
made by boiling together one hundred parts of sugar of lead, sixty-five parts of
litharge, and four hundred of water, and, having made this addition, I boil the
solution, and when the precipitate which is formed has in some degree sub-
sided, I add to the solution such a quantity of some liquid precipitant of lead,.

page_text: and, by preference, of the sulphate or sulphuret of soda, as I have ascertained
by previous trial to be somewhat more than sufficient to precipitate the whole
of the lead from the quantity of the subacetate of lead added to the solution,
or in lieu of the subacctate of lead, I add, to every five hundred parts of the
solution of pyrolignate of soda two parts, by preference, of the oxide of lead
newly precipitated from its solutions by preference, in the nitric or acetic acid
by a caustic alkali or alkaline earth, and having stirred the solution, I after-
wards add thereto a small portion of sulphate of soda, or of some sulphuric,
sulphurous, or sulphuretted compound, so as to precipitate any small quantity
of lead that may remain in solution; and having suffered the new precipitate to
subside, I transfer into another vessel the clear solution; but I recommend this
fourth process to be used only in those cases where the acetate of soda, finally
to be obtained, is intended for common and manufacturing purposes, and not in
those cases where it is intended directly or indirectly to be used as a drug, on
account of the nicety requisite in order to remove every minute particle of
lead. By another process, which, for the reason aforesaid, I denominate the
fifth process: I take a solution of pyrolignate of soda, of the same specific
gravity by preference, as is recommended in the second, third, and fourth pro-
cesses, and if the same is clear and tolerably free from impurities, I add not
more (by preference) than fifteen parts of well burnt and powdered animal
charcoal, and which is known to have been applied to precipitate the colouring
matters contained in some other substances; to every one hundred parts of.
crystallized pyrolignate of soda contained in the solution, and, by preference, I.
avoid heating the solution, and I frequently stir the same; and after the solu-
tion and the charcoal have remained, and have been frequently stirred together
in the same vessel during twenty-four hours, by preference, or upwards, I
separate the solution from the charcoal by one of the known methods of subsi-
dence or filtration, and by the foregoing process severally, or by the combina-
tions aforesaid, the whole or greater part of the oily matters will be separated
and a clear solution of acetate of soda obtained; and when the clear solution
of acetate of soda has been obtained, I proceed to evaporate the same by pre-
ference in a copper vessel, until the specific gravity of the solution, at the 212th
degree of Farenheit's thermometer, is to that of water at the 60th degree of the
same, as 122 is to 100, and I then transfer the solution, while hot, into pans,
which, after some hours repose, yields a pure and white crystallized acetate of
soda. But, by whatsoever refining process acetate of soda has been produced
from pyrolignate of soda, in order to obtain there from pure acetic, and I take
one hundred parts of acetate of soda, and I add thereto, by preference, thirty-
six parts, or thereabouts, of oil of vitriol of the specific gravity, by preference,

page_text: of 1.85, and after an hour or more, I, by preference, separate the salt which is
formed in the resulting mixture from the supernatant liquid and the liquid which
consists of strong acetic acid, holding in solution about five parts of sulphate
of soda to every one hundred of the liquid, I either reserve for use, where great
purity is not required, or I proceed to distill at a heat not exceeding, by pre-
ference, 260° of Farenheit's thermometer; and the salt, from which the impure
acetic acid was separated, and which consists of dry sulphate of soda, mixed
with a certain portion of acetic acid: I also submit to distillation in a separate
vessel, and by preference, at a heat somewhat greater than 260° of Farenheit's
thermometer; and from both these portions of the mixture when thus distilled
I obtain a pure acetic acid. And in order to obtain the salt called crystallized
verdigrease, either from the pyrolignate of soda or from the acetate obtained
therefrom, I take a hot concentrated solution of about thirteen parts of pyro-
lignate or acetrate, and I also take a hot concentrated solution of about twelve
parts of the salt called sulphate of copper, and I mix together these two solu-
tions in any convenient vessel, and I then immediately either remove the
precipitate which has been thereby formed, or decant the supernatant liquid
therefrom and wash the precipitate with a small portion of water, by preference
cold; and I then dry the precipitate, by preference, at a gentle heat, which then
partakes of the same chemical nature, and is applicable to the same chemical
purposes as the salt called crystallized verdigrease. And, in the manufacture
of the ammonia, arising from the distillation of bone, horn, animal offal, or
coal, I proceed to separate the solid or liquid ammoniacal salt, as the case may
be, from its impurities, by the known effects of repose, and of one or more
subsequent gentle distillations, as the operator may find necessary; and I then
add to the ammoniacal salt, if liquid, or to its solution, in four times its weight
of water if solid, small successive portions of the alumina, prepared as aforesaid;
and used in the aforesaid second process, for the purification of the pyrolignate
of soda, which portions I continue adding, until the earth, as it falls in the
liquor, ceases to be discoloured, and I then, by any well-known means, pour off
the liquor which contains the ammoniacal salt, and I hereby lastly declare that
the Invention, for which this Patent is obtained, taken collectively, consists in
the application and use of the several particulars aforesaid, by which certain
principles or general facts, in part new and in part well-known, are brought
into combination, practice, and effect, and that the said Invention and the
several parts, manipulations, or proceedings thereof, may be carried into effect
and practised, either wholly or separately, without conjunction, or in conjunction
with processes already in use, and that the management thereof, the several
proportions of materials or ingredients, the furnaces, vessels, or apparatus to be

page_text: used, and the needful attentions to local and other circumstances, are all
susceptible of variation according to the exigencies of the respective works or
operations, but that the same are either well known, or may, with facility, be
made or adopted from the instructions contained in these Presents, by any
competent workman or other person or persons acquainted with the general
course and nature of chemical manufacturing works.
In witness, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fifth day of
November, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Henry Warburton
came before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.