CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPARATUS OR MEANS USED FOR EVAPORATING WATER FROM SALINE SOLU- TIONS, AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STOVES FOR DRYING SALTS
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GOSSAGE, of Stoke Prior, in the County of Worcester, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Second day of June, in the sixth year of His reign,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Gossage, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Gossage, any executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said William Gossage, my executors, administrators,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to tiine
and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE APPARATUS OR MEANS USED FOR EVAPORATING WATER FROM SALINE SOLU-
TIONS, AND IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF STOVES FOR DRYING SALTS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Gossage,

page_text: by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His
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 thereto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Gossage, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
My improvements in the apparatus or means used for evaporating water
from saline solutions apply to that particular modé or method of facilitating
the evaporation of water from such solutions by the application of currents of
air introduced therein, and consist in certain improved apparatus for applying
such currents of air either at common temperatures, or at temperatures arti-
ficially raised, to accelerate the evaporation of water from saline solutions, the
peculiar or novel feature of which is, that the said currents of air are intro-
duced into the said solutions under operation" by means of inverted air vessels
having notches or indentations formed on their lower edges for admitting the
passage of such currents of air into the said saline solutions; and I will
proceed to describe such constructions and arrangements of apparatus aś I
have found particularly suitable to carry my Invention into effect, as applied
to the making of comnion salt, the same being also applicable to the prepará-
tion of some other kinds of salts, and I will then point out what I consider to
be my Invention. First, I make use of a' current or currents of air caused to
act on the saline solution by being either forced or drawn through it by nieans
of an air pump of suitable construction.. A, Figs. 1, 2, 4, and 5; is the pan,
to be set on brickwork and heated .in.the usual manner. B, B, Figs. 1 and 2,
are two air vessels inverted.in: the. solution, one of which is shewn detached
in perspective at Fig. 3. The form of these air vessels may be the section
of a cylinder, as shewn in the: Drawings, or they may be of a triangular,
conical, or other shape. At one of the longitudinal edges of these air vessels
I cause a number of notches or indentations to be formed, as shewn in
Fig. 3, for the purpose of dividing the current of air. These vessels are sus-
pended by cords passed over pullies E, E, and counterbalanced by weights F,
so as to admit of their being raised with. facility out of the solution; but

page_text: when the operation is going on these vessels are supported by feet resting on
the bottom of the pan. D is the main supply pipe leading from the air
pump, from which the branches C, C, descend, and are passed under the edge
of the air vessels B, B, so as to deliver the air into the said vessels. The
air pump, by its action, drives a current of air from the vessels B, and this
being divided by passing through. the notches G, G, it rises through the solu-
tion in bubbles and carries off with it a great quantity of watery vapour. It
has hitherto been found extremely difficult to make use of small currents of
air to accelerate the evaporation of such saline solutions as deposit salts
during evaporation, this difficulty being occasioned by the salt or salts when
formed stopping up the apertures of the apparatus through which the air was
caused to pass. In the arrangement of apparatus I have described the aper-
tures are merely notches, and not circular or other shaped openings or holes,
and therefore do not present so complete an attachment for the newly-formed
salt as when tubes or circular or other shaped opening or holes are used for
delivering the air; it will also be seen that the air vessels are so placed that a
workman may readily clear away any salt adhering to the notches or the
lower part of the air vessels. The branch. pipes C, C, may be attached to the
air vessels B, B, but I prefer such an arrangement as I have described, as it
admits of the air vessels being drawn up out of the way when it is desirable
to have ready access to the evaporating pan. It will be obvious that the air,
before it reaches the pipe D, may be caused to pass over a stove or cockle,
or to pass through tubes placed in a furnace so as to raise its temperature.
The construction of apparatus suitable for this purpose I need not describe, as
it forms no part of my present improvements.
Fig. 4 exhibits another arrangement of apparatus with my improvements
applied thereto, in which the air is caused to be drawn through the solution
by the action of the pump. B, B, are the air vessels, with notches or
indentations formed along one edge of each of them. D is a main pipe con-
nected with the exhausting action of an air pump, and C, C, are branch pipes
extending into the upper parts of the air vessels B, B. When the pump is set
to work a partial vacuum will be formed in the vessels, and the quantity of
solution in the evaporating pan A must be so regulated that it will admit of
a certain portion of solution being drawn up into the air vessels. B, B, before
the level of the solution in the pan will be sufficiently reduced to uncover
the notches and allow the external air to pass through them. In this way a
certain column of solution is held up in the air vessels, and the external air,
after passing through the notches, rises through this column in bubbles, when
it becomes charged with aqueous vapour and passes off through the branch

page_text: pipes C, C, and the main pipe D to the air pump. To enable the workman
to ascertain the proper quantity of solution in the evaporating pan, I make
use of a guage consisting of a glass tube H connected with the air vessels, as
shewn in Fig. 4, by means of a pipe J, the glass tube being inserted in
a vessel I containing a portion of the same solution. As the exhaustion in
this tube will correspond with that in the air vessel, the height of the column
of solution in H will be a sufficient indication of the height of the column
in B, and, when necessary, the degree of exhaustion in each vessel may be
regulated by means of throttle valves in the pipes C, C. The air vessels B, B,
Fig. 4, exhibit the construction I make use of when I apply air drawn
directly from the atmosphere without being previously heated, and the Draw-
ing will sufficiently explain its action when I state that one edge of the
vessel is rather lower in the solution than the other, that is, than the notched
edge; and it will be seen that the workman has ready access to clear away
any incrustation of salt formed on the edge of the air vessel or in the notches..
Fig. 5 shews the arrangement I employ to cause heated air to pass through
the solution by means of the exhausting air pump. The vessels B, B, are
constructed the same as those in Fig. 4, except that they have chambers K, K,
extending their whole length, and which I call the hot-air chambers. These
chambers communicate by means of the pipes L, M, with a hot-air stove
or heating apparatus, through which they are supplied with heated air.
On examining this Figure it will be seen that the highest edges of the air
vessels being those which are inclosed by the hot-air chambers K, K, and
these being also the notched or indented edges, the exhausting action of the
pump will determine the passage of the currents of air through these notches.
As these hot-air chambers K, K, prevent such ready access by the workman
to clear away any incrustation of salt from the edge of the air vessels, it will
be necessary to provide a bent tool or instrument by which the workman may
remove these incrustations. The air vessels B, B, are suspended as in Fig. 1,
and supported by feet in the same manner. When these air vessels are
applied to the evaporation of solutions of common salt they are most conve-
niently made of plates of iron joined together, but when used for the evapora-
tion of other saline solutions they may be made of lead or other suitable
material. In both cases the form of the vessels may be varied, so long as the
notched edge of the air vessels is preserved, and is so placed that the air shall
be caused to pass through these notches when drawn or forced by the pump.
These vessels may also be placed in different parts of the evaporating pan to
those which I have described, but I give a preference to the arrangement
shewn in the Drawings, as this admits of the workman having ready access to

page_text: the air vessels; also it provides for the greatest part of the salt or salts being
deposited in that portion of the pan which is the most convenient for the
workman to take it from. When I make use of air heated to high degree
to be drawn through the saline solution, the mixture of air and vapour comes
off at such a temperature that it may be applied either to communicate heat
to stoves for drying salt or to pans for evaporation. For the first application,
I cause the pipes conducting from the air vessels B, B, Fig. 5, to the exhaust-
ing pump to be carried through the stoves requiring to be heated, and the
temperature of these apartments is thereby increased. For the second appli-
cation, I cause the hot air and vapours to pass through pipes laid in solutions
to be evaporated, or I prefer causing this hot air and vapours to pass through
a chamber formed under the bottom of an evaporating pan before reaching
the exhausting pump. This arrangement is shown in Fig. 6. In all cases I
find it desirable to provide for the discharge of such water as becomes con-
densed before the air and vapour reaches the exhausting pump.
I will now proceed to describe my improvements in the construction of
stoves for drying salts, and I state these as being intended to apply to such
stoves as are heated by flues conveying, smoke or heated air arising from
combustion of fuel, my object being to deprive this smoke or air of its heat
and transfer it to the atmosphere of the stove more completely than has
hitherto been effected; also to create certain currents and movements of the
air in the stove, which I find will accelerate the process of drying. Instead of
constructing a single flue, as is generally done for such purpose, I construct
a double flue, or two flues, one placed over the other, and separated by two
rows of iron plates, with a space between them. Fig. 7 is a vertical section
of these flues, and Fig. 8 a sectional plan, in which A is the lower flue, and B
the upper one. C and D are two iron plates, one forming the bottom of the
flue B, and the other the top of the flue A. A space is left between these
two plates for the transmission of air. The walls E, E, of the flues may be
formed of brickwork or of iron plates. In order to determine such a current
of air as will tend to abstract the heat from the passing smoke or heated air,
I connect a series of metallic tubes F with the 'space between the two plates
C and D, and I carry these tubes down the lower flue and conduct their
lower ends through the walls E of the flue, and these ends are left open to the
atmosphere of the stove. The air contained within the tubes F becoming
heated rises into the space or vacancy between the plates C and D; and as the
walls of the flue are made tight to prevent the air escaping near the part
where the tubes are joined to this space, this heated air is caused to traverse

page_text: between the two plates, and thus acquire a further portion of heat before it
escapes into the stove. I divide the space between the two plates C and D
into a series of compartments by cross partitions G, G, and I connect the
tubes F with these compartments alternately at one side and other side of the
flues, for the sake of causing the circulation of air to be spread more uniformly
through the atmosphere of the stoves.
With regard to my improvements in apparatus or means for evaporating
water from saline solutions, I claim as my Invention, applicable to the
evaporation of such solutions,-
First, the peculiar apertures through which air is caused to pass into the
solution undergoing evaporation, the shape or form of which apertures may be
varied so long as they preserve the essential character of a notch or indenta-
tion cut out from the edge of a plate, and do not become cylindrical or other
shaped holes perforated through a plate.
I also claim the employment or use of these said apertures in conjunction
with such inverted air vessels as I have described, or with such other air
vessels as may admit of the use of such apertures.
.
I also claim the construction and application of a hot-air chamber, such as
that shewn in Fig. 5, and described in this Specification, in conjunction with
an air vessel constructed with my said peculiar apertures for the passage of s
the heated air.
I also claim the application of the heated air and vapours obtained when I
supply the apparatus described in Fig. 5 with air previously heated, such
application being made to the purpose of communicating heat to drying stoves
or to evaporating pans, as shewn in Fig. 6. .
With regard to my improvements in the construction of stoves for drying
salts,―
I claim as my Invention the peculiar construction of flues, as exhibited in
the annexed Drawings, and described in this Specification.
In conclusion, I would remark, that I have herein described the best means s
with which I am acquainted for carrying into effect my several improvements.
At the same time I wish it to be understood that I do not intend to confine
myself to the precise forms of apparatus for. such purpose herein described, as
the same may be varied as before stated.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Gossage, have hereunto set my 3
hand and seal, this Second day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
WILLIAM (L.S.) GOSSAGE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Second day of December, in the
seventh year of the reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth, the said
William Gossage came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Second day of December, One thousand eight hundred and