IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PHOSPHORUS AND AMORPHOUS PHOSPHORUS, AND IN FURNACES AND APPA- RATUS EMPLOYED FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 20, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
PHOSPHORUS AND AMORPHOUS PHOSPHORUS, AND IN FURNACES AND APPA-
RATUS EMPLOYED FOR THAT PURPOSE."-A communication from abroad
by Claude Brison of Châlons-sur-Saône in the Empire of France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th November 1868.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton
of No. 20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF PHOSPHORUS AND AMORPHOUS PHOSPHORUS, AND IN FURNACES AND
APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR THAT PURPOSE," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists principally in the application of a description
of blast furnace to the manufacture of phosphorus and amorphous

page_text: phosphorus in place of the chemical apparatus, such as retorts, hitherto
employed for that purpose. For this purpose a furnace is constructed,
similar to an ordinary blast furnace, having at the top a hopper closed
with a valve, through which the materials are charged in; at the lower
end a chamber is formed for receiving the fused materials, which
chamber is provided, firstly, with blast pipes for the introduction of air
under pressure, and secondly, at the upper part of the chamber side
openings are formed leading to external pipes through which the
vapours of phosphorus or amorphous phosphorus are conveyed into
recipients and condensing chambers, of which in the case of ordinary
phosphorus, several may be employed, connected together by pipes.
The brickwork of the furnace is encased in iron. Below the fusing
chamber is formed a recess in which are collected the residues and
cinders from the fusing chamber. In operating with this furnace it is
first filled up to a short distance from the upper orifice with coke or
charcoal, and after this is brought to a bright red heat by the introduction
of the air blast, a charge of phosphate of lime, produced either from
the black residues from sugar manufactories, or from steamed bones,
or even from fossil phosphates, is introduced at the top, having mixed
therewith a quantity of broken glass, soda, or other flux capable of
facilitating its fusion. The process is then carried on by introducing
alternately charges of the phosphate of lime and of coke or charcoal
The blast of air introduced below effects the fusion of the materials, and
forces the carbonaceous gases together with the vapours of phosphorus
through the side openings into the recipients or condensers before-
mentioned, where the phosphorus is retained and condensed. In these
recipients it is preferred to pass the gases into a bath of sulphide of
carbon or other substance that absorbs phosphorus with avidity.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent 30
Office on the 15th May 1869.
TO WHOM MUST DOESENTS SHALL COME I CHIDING
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Cirug
DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Charles Denton Abel, Her special
licence that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Denton
Abel, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF PHOSPHORUS AND AMORPHUS
PHOSPHORUS, AND IN FURNACES AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR THAT PURPOSE,"
a communication to me from abroad by Claude Brison, of Châlons-sur-
Saône, in the Empire of France, upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my executors or administrators,
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 performed, 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 Charles Denton Abel, 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, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawing, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is
to say:
This Invention consists mainly in the treatment of materials intended
to produce phosphorus directly in the presence of the fuel inside a blast
furnace in which the combustion is accelerated by the application of an
air blast.
This new application of blast furnaces in combination with blowing
machinery to the manufacture of phosphorus constitutes the essential
feature of this Invention, the principal advantage of which consists in
substituting for the laboratory apparatus employed heretofore for this
purpose an industrial apparatus, namely, the blast furnace, of simple

page_text: construction and operation, thus really rendering the manufacture of
phosphorus an industrial operation capable of being carried on
large scale.
on a
This apparatus may be employed with equal advantage for producing
both varieties of phosphorus, namely, the ordinary phosphorus and
the amorphus phosphorus.
The apparatus employed, shown in section on the accompanying
Drawing, consists of a furnace of fire-brick enclosed in a sheet-iron
casing, at the top of which is a cast-iron hopper A, for receiving the
materials which is closed by means of a valve B, capable of being raised
by the lever C. The materials to be acted upon together with the fuel
are filled into the chamber D of the furnace, where they are heated to a
high red heat, the combustion being intensified by the action of a
blowing engine. They attain their highest temperature when they
arrive at the tuyeres G, G, the gaseous products" of combustion and the
vapours of phosphorns escape at the exit pipes H, H, while the slag or
cinder collects in the space E, from which it is run off through the
passage F capable of being closed.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-After having brought
the chamber 1) to a red heat by the use of fuel only (coke or charcoal),
it is filled with fuel to about the height of the pipes H, from which
point it is filled with alternate layers of fuel and of the mixture intended
to produce the phosphorus. The valve B is then closed and a blast is
forced in of sufficient pressure to force the liberated gases through the
water of the condensing vessels (not shown on the Drawing). The blast
is continued as long as alternate layers of the carbonaceous and other
materials are introduced into the furnace. The mixture employed by
preference for producing the phosphorus consists of phosphate of lime,
silica, and carbonate of soda, the whole thoroughly dessicated.
addition of the soda has for its object to form the double silicate of soda
and lime, which is more fusible than the silicate of lime alone. When
the mixture arrives at the part I of the furnace, where it attains its
highest temperature, the silica liberates the phosphoric acid from its
combination with the lime, and this acid is reduced by the excess of
carbon. If any part should escape reduction it would soon become
decomposed in passing through the carbonaceous layers in the upper
part of the furnace in the presence of an atmosphere surcharged with
carbonic oxide. The phosphorus escapes through the pipes H, H,
The

page_text: which convey it to the condensers. In this process therefore the
phosphate of lime is attacked by the silica, producing silicate of lime,
the phosphoric acid is in its turn reduced by the carbonic oxide, which
in taking up the oxygen from the phosphoric acid is converted into
carbonic acid and liberates the phosphorus.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, what I claim is,--
First. The manufacture of phosphorus by means of a blast furnace
combined with a blowing engine.
Second. The direct admixture in the blast furnace of the fuel with
the materials for producing the phosphorus.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
.
CHA. D. ADEL. (L.S.)