IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SULPHATE OF SODA
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NEALE CLAY, of West Bromwich, in the County of Stafford, Manufacturing
Chemist, 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 Twenty-eighth day of September, in the seventh year
of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Neale Clay, His especial license, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said William Neale Clay, my exors, admors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Neale Clay, my exors,
adiñors, 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 " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SULPHATE OF SODA;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said William Neale Clay, 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
William Neale Clay, do hereby declare that my said improvements consist
in condensing the whole or greater part of the muriatic acid disengaged by
the composition of common salt with sulphuric acid in open or reverberatory
furnaces, whereby the nuisances arising from the escape of the gas into the
atmosphere are obviated, while the sulphate of soda produced is of the quality
to which preference is given by the consumer under the name of "furnace salt
cake;" and in further compliance with the said proviso, I do hereby describe
the process and means by which I accomplish the said condensation, in the
Drawings annexed and following description thereof :-
First, I use a reverberatory furnace of the common and well-known con-
struction, the outlet of which is marked A in the annexed plan. This outlet
I then carry into a longitudinal flue of customary size and sufficient length,
say ninety feet. This flue, marked B, will be most conveniently constructed
underground, and must be puddled so as to retain water or other liquid. I
construct it of well burnt or glazed brick, sandstone, or other suitable material.
I carry the end of this flue furthest from the furnace A by an opening C into
the chamber E, for the purpose of collecting the soot therein. This chamber
I construct above ground, for the more ready cleaning of it from time to
time, as this description of chamber is well known to manufacturers of lamp
black and others; I erect it on the common principle of causing the deposition
of the soot by a number of eddies in the current. Descending from this soot
chamber E, in like manner as the flue B ascends into it, I construct another
flue D, which for convenience may run parallel to the flue B, and for the
purpose of condensing as much of the gas as possible I build this flue D of
not less than thirty yards, although this length may not be required. This flue
should be higher at the bottom than the flue B, and I open a communication
between these flues at the bottom of D, so as to carry off any liquid into the
deeper flue B, that it may be collected into the flue D.
For our decomposing furnace I construct a flue D, whose cross section
contains an area of fifteen square feet, and for every additional furnace I
increase the area of the cross section by an addition of ten square feet. This
flue D I fill with lumps of granite, glass, pebbles, flints, cokes, clinkers, other
scoriæ, or any other suitable material not acted upon by muriatic acid; these
lumps must be of sufficient size not to obstruct the draught of the furnace.
Or I place rows of well-burnt or glazed bricks across the flue D, at convenient
intervals, say of six inches, the rows to be laid in the spaces of six inches, or
thereabouts, between each brick, as represented in the accompanying plan in
the cross section and ground plan. Over the materials with which the flue D

page_text: is fitted I carry a pipe of lead or other suitable material, one inch and a
quarter internal diameter, or thereabouts, the whole length of the flue, and at
a distance of a few inches from the crown of the arch which covers it. This
pipe I perforate with very small holes, six inches apart or thereabouts, all of
which holes I make in the upper part of the pipe. This pipe is to have a
stopcock, and when water is supplied from an elevation of a few feet, it
forcibly jets out against the crown of the arch, and returns in a shower spread
over the greater part of the materials in the flue, by which means I obtain
the condensation of the gas. The end of this flue D communicates with the
chimney.
Now in these my improvements I do not claim any part of the process
for decomposing common salt by means of sulphuric acid in open or rever-
beratory furnaces; nor the passing of the muriatic acid gas over water or
other liquid contained in a flue; nor the deposition of the soot in a chamber
constructed for that purpose. But I do claim the condensation of the gas
from open or reverberatory furnaces (after it has in some degree cooled over
water after the hot air has converted part of that water into steam and
deposited the soot with which it is intermixed) by passing it through a
horizontal flue containing bricks, cokes, or other materials, as before described,
over which water is constantly playing by the means named, or any modi-
fication thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Neale Clay, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of March, in the
year of our Lord 1837, the aforesaid William Neale Clay 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 Twenty-eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.