AN IMPROVED MODE OF SEPARATING CARBONIC ACID GAS FROM THE GASEOUS PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM THE DISTILLATION OF PEAT AND OTHER VEGETABLE MATTER
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas William Keates, of Chatham Place, Black-
friars, in the City of London, Consulting Chemist, for the Invention of
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas William Keates
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th June 1860.
I, THOMAS WILLIAM KEATES, of Chatham Place, Blackfriars, in the City
of London, Consulting Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF SEPARATING CARBONIC ACID GAS FROM
THE GASEOUS PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM THE DISTILLATION OF PEAT AND OTHER
VEGETABLE MATTER," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the abstraction of the carbonic acid gas derived
from the distillation of peat and other vegetable matter both for the purpose of
purifying the heating or illuminating gas derived therefrom, and for the utili-
zation of the carbonic acid gas thus obtained. The mixed gases as they pass
from the retort are first cooled in the usual way by being passed through some
form of condenser, and are then conducted to a purifier containing oxide of
iron for the purpose of separating therefrom the sulphuretted hydrogen and
the sulphides that may be contained therein. The mixed gases thus partially
purified are conducted into a vessel containing acetate or other soluble salt of
lead, which substance, having a strong affinity for carbonic acid, will absorb
that gas, and be itself converted into carbonate of lead (white lead), leaving
the heating or illuminating gas free of carbonic acid.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas William Keates in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th December 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WILLIAM KEATES, of Chatham Place, Blackfriars, in the City of London,
Consulting Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas William Keates, Her special license that I, the said
Thomas William Keates, my executors, administrators, and assigus, or such
others as I, the said Thomas William Keates, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter 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 "AN IMPROVED MODE OF SEPARATING CARBONIC ACID GAS FROM THE
GASEOUS PRODUCTS DERIVED FROM THE DISTILLATION OF PEAT AND OTHER VEGETABLE
MATTERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas
William Keates, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Thomas William Keates, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say)
This Invention relates to a mode of treating partially purified illuminating
gas derived from the destructive distillation of peat or other vegetable matter,
so as to complete the purification of the gas by the absorption of the carbonic
acid mixed therewith, and at the same time obtain a valuable product from
the action of the carbonic acid gas thus absorbed. To this end I operate upon
the mixed gases as they come over from the retort, by first cooling them by
passing them through some suitable form of condenser in the usual way. I
then conduct them to a purifier containing oxide of iron for the purpose of
separating therefrom the sulphuretted hydrogen and the sulphides that may be
contained therein. The mixed gases, thus partially purified, I next submit

page_text: to the process which forms the subject of the present Invention, the object of
which is not merely to complete the purification of the gas by removing
the carbonic acid, which, when present even as a very small per-centage,
materially affects (as is well known) the illuminating power of carburetted
hydrogen gas,, but also further to utilize the material which I employ in the
abstraction of the carbonic acid by the formation in the purifier of white lead.
The Invention therefore consists of, as it were, a compound process or
operation capable of yielding two distinct and important results; to this end I
provide a vessel or apparatus of any suitable form or arrangement, which will
permit either of my passing the gas through liquid, or of my submitting the
gas to a shower of the liquid; and this vessel I charge in the proper manner
with acetate or other soluble salt of lead. Into the purifying vessel thus
charged I conduct the partially purified gas, which in passing through the
liquid containing the acetate or other salt of lead, or in being subjected to a
shower of the same, will part with the carbonic acid diffused throughout the
volume of gas, the salt of lead taking it up, and forming therewith the chemical
combination known as carbonate of lead or white lead. The heating or illu-
minating gas will thus be rendered free of carbonic acid, and the white lead
as it accumulates in the purifier may be removed, and washed, and dried, after
which it will be ready for the market.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of an improved mode of
separating carbonic acid gas from the gaseous products derived from the dis-
tillation of peat and other vegetable matter, and having explained the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the
above in part recited Letters Patent, I claim extracting from the gaseous
products obtained from the distillation of peat and other vegetable matters
carbonic acid gas, and utilizing the same in the manner and for the purpose
above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas William Keates, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Eighteenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
T. W. KEATES. (L.s.)