IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE DISTILLATION OF ORGANIC SUBSTANCES, AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREFROM
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Chisholm, of Holloway, in the County
of Middlesex, Practical Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE DISTILLATION OF ORGANIC SUBSTANCES, AND IN OBTAINING
PRODUCTS THEREFROM."
Sealed the 6th February 1854, and dated the 9th December 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Chisholm
at the Offico of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 9th December 1858.
I, JOHN CHISHOLM, of Holloway, in the County of Middlesex,
Practical Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention'
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DISTILLATION OF ORGANIC SUBSTANCES, AND IN
OBTAINING PRODUCTS THEREPROM," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in distilling animal and vegetable bodies,
mixed with salts of lime, potassa, or soda, so as to obtain cyanogen
compounds. For this purpose I make use of close vessels, such as

page_text: retorts (now used in the manufacture of coal gas), or a furnace so
constructed that a stream of atmospheric air, highly heated and
deprived of its oxygen, is made to pass through one or more chambers
charged with organic bodies (such as fish or animal offal) so mixed,
or I place organic bodies, mixed with any of the requisite alkaline
substances aforesaid, in a retort, and pass through it steam at so
high a temperature that it will decompose and carbonize the organic
bodies.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Chisholm in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th June 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN CHISHOLM, of Holloway, in the County of Middlesex, Practical
Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS 1er most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing dato the Ninth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Chisholm, Her special licence,
that I, the said John Chisholm, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Chisholm, 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
Chanuel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE DISTILLATION OF ORGANIC SUBSTANCES, AND IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS
THEREPROM," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Chisholm, 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

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Chisholm, 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 :-
.
My Invention in distilling animal and vegetable bodies, mixed with
salt of lime, potassa, or soda, so as to obtain cyanogen compounds.
For this purpose I make use of close vessels, such as retorts now used
in the manufacture of coal gas, or a furnace so constructed that a
stream of atmospheric air, highly heated and deprived of its oxigen, is
made to pass through one or more chambers charged with organic
bodies, such as fish or animal offal so mixed, or I place organic bodies
mixed with any of the requisite alkalino substances aforesaid, in a
retort, and pass through it steam at so high a temperaturo that it will
decompose and carbonize the organic bodies. Example: tako one
hundred pounds weight of blood, and mix with it five pounds weight
of potassa (commercial potash), evaporato to dryness in an iron vessel;
the dry mass is then to be placed in a retort and submitted to destruc-
tive distillation; in connexion with the retort, an apparatus is to be
attached, similar to that now in use for the manufacture of from
gas
coal. The gases escaping from the retort will be made to pass through
one or more vessels, called purifiers; such vessels must be charged with
any of the well-known chemicals in use for arresting ammonia, such
as chloride of calcium or sulphate of lime, or solutions of sulphuric or
hydrochloric acid, or bones finely ground that have been mixed with
half their weight of sulphuric acid. During the distillation, nitrogen
and hydrogen will be given off, forming ammonia, and in its passage
through the purifying vessel, such ammonia will be arrested and fixed;
the gas, after being deprived of its ammonia, will possess considerable
heating and illuminating power, and may be conducted to and burned
in the furnaces or received in a gas-holder for the purpose of light.
One fire will do for five retorts, and each charge will take about four
hours in working off. The carbonaceous mass must be removed from
the retort into a vessel, and excluded from the air until cold; tho

page_text: retorts while hot are again charged with another batch of blood and
potash; indeed, it will be obvious, that when once the retort oven is
heated it would be a waste of fuel to allow it to get cold; the operation
therefore should be a continuous one, charging about every four hours
night and day. The mass that has been removed from the retorts is to
be placed, when cold, in an iron pan and mixed with water and brought
near the boiling point, stirring the mass well, so as to dissolvo out of it all
the soluble salts; it is then to be placed upon a filter, the carbon being
well washed with the water, so as to obtain all the salt from it. The
solution is now to be treated in the usual way, so as to obtain crystal-
lised ferrocyanide of potassium. The insoluble carbon may be dried
and granulated, and sold to the sugar refiners as a decolorator, or it
may at once be mixed with half its weight of sulphuric acid, and used
in the purifier for arresting the ammonia, when it will become a valu-
able manure. Instead of making use of an open furnace for heating
the retorts, steam at a very high pressure may be used and passed
directly through the mass in the retort. In a Patent which I obtained
for "Improvements in the Production of Artificial Manures," dated
the Fourth day of June, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, I
have described and lodged Drawings of a furnace which, under certain
circumstances, may be more economically used than retorts. Such a
furnace is equally applicable to the present manufacture, and as I
have given a detailed account of such furnace in my Specification to
the Patent dated the Fourth June, One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-three, it is unnecessary to describe it here, but I propose to use it
in this process, and with such a mixture as I have described. When-
ever the mass of materials is too bulky for a retort, or when fuel is
very expensive, or when the materials to be operated upon are poor in
nitrogen, I, of course, use animal substances of every description, such
as hoofs, horn, hair, fish, and all animal offal. I also frequently mix
such animal substances with peat or sea-weed, or both; the proportion
of the vegetablo may vary; I prefer half the weight of the peat or
sca-weed to the animal matter. Moreover, I vary the saline ingre-
dients of the mixture according to the object sought to be obtained;
thus when cyanogen compounds are desired, I use potash as described;

page_text: but when ammonia is wanted, I employ lime instead of potash, such
lime being either the common or chalk lime, or that obtained from the
silica strata of the lower chalk, or, lastly, that from the magnesian
lime-stone formation, or an admixture of these; or I use soda in
place of potash for cyanogen and lime, and soda instead of lime and
potash.
What I claim is, the distillation of organic substances by the
methods described, mixed with the saline or earthy substances indicated,
so as to obtain simultaneously and by one operation compounds of
ammonia and cyanogen or of ammonia only.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Chisholm, have hereunto
affixed my hand and seal, this Fifth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
5 Witness,
EDWARD WATSON GEDGE,
Charles Street,
Somers Town.
JNO. CHISHOLM. (L.B.)