PRECIPITATING THE MURIATE OF SODA MORE ECONOMICALLY THAN THE PROCESS NOW ADOPTED
Year: 1852

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Augustus Brackenbury at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 4th November 1852.
(Void by reason of notice to proceed not having been given within the
time prescribed by the Act.)
I, AUGUSTUS BRACKENDURY, of 49, Henry Street, Saint John's Wood,
Paddington, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "PRECIPITATING THE MURIATE OF SODA MORE
ECONOMICALLY THAN THE PROCESS NOW ADOPTED" to be as follows:-
The apparatus consists of a wooden vessel or pan fourteen feet square
and eighteen inches deep. Brine is put into it to the depth of twelve
inches. In the middle of the vessel or pan is a twelve inch square hole,
on the edges of which a wooden pipe is fastened, fourteen inches high
and twelve inches square, inside measure. The joint is water-tight.
On the surface of the brine is laid a wheel 10 feet in diameter and
three inches thick. A round hole is made in the centre, eighteen inches
in diameter; over this is a dome, eighteen inches in diameter, flat at the
top, and twelve inches high. It is fastened air-tight to the under sur-
face of the wheel by a rim one inch broad. It is made of zinc. The
wheel rotates, and is attached to a square sided sliding shaft, whereby
the wheel can adjust itself to the increase and decrease of the brine.
The boxes have square holes for the shaft to pass easily through. The

page_text: bearings for the boxes are fastened to a beam resting on the sides of the
wooden vessel or pan.
Four feet from the wooden vessel or pan stand two vessels, each four
feet square and four feet and a half high, including a false bottom six
inches deep. In the contro of the bottom of cach vessel is a twelve
inch square hole. On the edges of each square hole is fastened a pipe,
three feet long and twelve inches square, inside measure.
The joints
are watertight. Near the top of each pipe is a valve that opens to
admit air or gas into each of the false bottoms of the vessels, and shuts
to prevent its return. A metal pipe is fastened airtight to the outside
of each of the vessels, four feet square, communicating with each of
their false bottoms. The joints are air-tight. The opposite ends of
the iron pipes join and form one pipe, which passes under the wooden
vessel or pan and rises through it into the wooden pipe. There is a
rim on the end of the iron pipe one inch broad, which fastens to the
upper edges of the wooden pipe. The joint is watertight.
Water is put into each of the vessels four feet square to the depth of
three feet; on each surface of water an inverted vessel three feet square
and three feet deep is placed. On their tops are valves for the admission
of air or gas. The two inverted vessels are connected by a moveable
beam supported by iron work prefixed to the sides of the four feet
square vessels.
By depressing one of the inverted vessels the valves on the top close,
and the air or gas underneath the inverted vessel escapes through the
pipes and false bottoms, already mentioned as being connected with each
of the four feet square vessels, into the dome, and from thence to the
under surface of the wheel and the upper surface of the brine to the peri-
phery of the wheel, where it makes its escape, carrying with it a quantity
of vapour. The salt contained in the vapour precipitates. The wheel
rotates for the purpose of causing the air or gas that passes underneath
it to spread into a sheet. To aid this operation small pieces of wood are
nailed to the under side of the wheel.
When one of the inverted vessels is fully depressed the elevated one
is then depressed, and so on alternately.
The inverted vessels receive the air or gas externally through the
valves placed on their tops.

page_text: Underneath that part of the pipe extending from one vessel to the
other heat is applied, with a view of giving the air or gas that passes
through them an additional absorbing property. The air or gas before
it passes into the inverted vessels passes through muriate of lime, with
a view to obtain it as free as possible from moisture.
The gas preferred is carbonic acid gas; the air, the atmospheric air.