IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS AND PROCESSES FOR GENERATING AND PROMOTING ELECTRIC AND CHEMICAL ACTION, AND PRODUCING VARIOUS PRODUCTS OF SUCH ACTION, AND OF ELECTROLYSIS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Jacob Wallace at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th April 1883.
SAMUEL JACOB WALLACE, of Keokuk, in the State of Iowa, United States of
America "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS AND PROCESSES FOR GENERATING
AND PROMOTING ELECTRIC AND CHEMICAL ACTION, AND PRODUCING VARIOUS
PRODUCTS OF SUCH ACTION, AND OF ELECTROLYSIS,"
"1
My invention consists in improved apparatus and processes for generating and
promoting electric and chemical action by electro-chemical means, and for producing
various products of such action and of electrolysis, in which I use several features
known in the arts and patents, and especially in "gas" and other "batteries," electro
chemical, gas, and chemical apparatus and processes, together with others which
are new.
I use a generator for electro-chemical action and products, capable of enduring
usage, chemicals, and heat, with internal gaseous pressure, provided with pipes,
passages, valves, and means for closing, and for regulating continuous circulation
from gas, air, and fluid holders through it.
It has an enclosing chamber with a porous diaphragm, pervious to fluid but so
that air introduced will not pass from one side to the other, to separate it into two
element cells, positive and negative; and has corresponding electrodes in the cells,
each connected by a conductor into a circuit.
In this generator I use electro-positive gases, coke, coal, organic or other carbon-
aceous matter, or sulphides, as positive element, to go into chemical union: the solid
non-conducting substances being pulverized, and the soluble being in solution, if
preferred. In the negative cell I use air, or oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic or other
acids, oxides of manganese, or other negative substance.
I mount the generator on trunnions or in some other suitable way, and rotate,
vibrate, or otherwise move it to intermix the gas or air and the fluid on or through
the electrode mass to promote electro-chemical union. When suitable, I make the
electrode of porous carbon or metallized carbon, with passages and intricate
interstices throughout, to assist this purpose.
I heat and subject to much pressure the contact of fluid and gases or air in the
[Price 2d1

page_text: generator, to promote their electro-chemical union. I especially do this to cause
the free oxidation of carbonic oxide (CO), and some other compounds which show
little activity at low temperatures. Sometimes I use an alkaline or carbonate
solution to assist its union.
I use lead oxide, or a chlorate, hydrochlorate, cyanide, cyanate, hydrate,
carbonate, oxide or other compound of an alkaline metal or earth, or a mixture
containing any one or more of these which will meet suitably, in a fluid state, or
a strong oxidizing electrolytic solution, in a highly heated condition, as electrolytic
fluid, with coke, coal, or other carbonaceous substance, or a sulphide, solid or in
pulverized state, as positive, and air as negative element; when practising chemical
processes, or using gaseous matter, or organic or other substance in solution to be
acted on I use electrolytic fluid and electrodes to suit the circumstances.
I use the electric generator as a gas scrubber for gas works to purify and
improve the gas, while using or taking out portions of its contents, such as
ammonia, hydrogen, carbonic oxides, and sulphur compounds.
I use gases containing hydrogen and a sulphur compound as positive element, to
form water and sulphuric acid, as an electrolytic fluid for the apparatus, and other
uses.
In electrolysis, and forming complex compounds, I sometimes divide one or both
element cells so as to hold separately different gases to act in series one after the
other on one of the element parts of the decomposition; and by means of the gases
I decompose various substances and recombine their parts with the gaseous matters
to make new compounds.