IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING THE WASTE LIQUOR OBTAINED IN THE PREPARATION OF ESPARTO GRASS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Richardson, of the Town and County of.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Chemist, and Robert Irvine, of Musselburgh,
in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britain, Manufacturing Chemist,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING THE WASTE LIQUOR
OBTAINED IN THE PREPARATION OF ESPARTO GRASS."
Sealed the 24th November 1863, and dated the 28th May 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Richardson
and Robert Irvine at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 28th May 1863.
We, THOMAS RICHARDSON, of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, Chemist, and ROBERT IRVINE, of Musselburgh, in the County of Mid
Lothian, North Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature
of our said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING THE WASTE LIQUOR OBTAINED
IN THE PREPARATION OF ESPARTO GRASS," to be as follows:-
These improvements consist in boiling down the waste liquor obtained in the
preparation of esparto grass with carbonate of lime or magnesia in any
metallic oxide to dryness, and in balling the residue as practised in alkali
works.
These improvements further consist in lixiviating the black balls so obtained
in the usual way and in employing the liquor for treating fresh quantities of
esparto grass in the place of fresh alkali.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Richardson and Robert Irvine in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 28th November 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
RICHARDSON, of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Chemist, and
ROBERT IRVINE, of Musselburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britain,
Manufacturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Thomas Richardson and Robert Irvine, Her special license that we, the said
Thomas Richardson and Robert Irvine, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas Richardson and Robert
Irvine, our executors, administrators, or 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING
THE WASTE LIQUOR OBTAINED IN THE PREPARATION OF ESPARTO GRASS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas Richardson and Robert
Irvine, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, should particu-
larly 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 we, the said Thomas Richardson and Robert
Irvine, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, that is to say:-
Our said Invention consists in boiling down the waste liquor obtained in the
usual mode of preparing esparto grass with carbonate of lime or magnesia or
any metallic oxide to dryness, and in balling the residue as practised in alkali
works.
Our Invention further consists in lixiviating the black balls, obtained as above
described, in the usual way and in employing the resulting liquor for treating
fresh quantities of esparto grass in lieu of using fresh alkali.

page_text: The waste liquor which results from the treatment of esparto grass with
soda or some of its compounds, contains a quantity of organic matter in combina-
tion with the alkali, and the object of our Invention is to recover this soda in
a form suitable for further use.
In practically carrying out our said Invention we run this hitherto useless
liquor into pans or boiling down furnaces, heated by the waste heat of our
balling furnace, steam boiler fires or coke ovens, or by fires attached to the
furnaces, and we prefer to employ surface heat to economise fuel.
We ascertain by analysis the quantity of soda present in the waste liquor, and
then add an equivalent quantity of lime, magnesia, or their carbonates, or an
equivalent quantity of any suitable metallic oxide, such as oxide of iron, zinc,
copper or lead, and continue the evaporation until the contents of the pan or
furnace assume a pasty consistence or become quite dry. This pasty or dry
mass is then transferred to a reverberatory furnace, similar in construction to
the balling furnaces used in alkali works. The mass is now worked in the
same way as the black ball mixture, the organic matter from the esparto grass
supplying the place of the coal, and when the evolution of combustible gases
has ceased, the mass is withdrawn from the furnaces and allowed to cool. The
resulting compound is lixiviated in the usual manner, and the alkaline solution
which is obtained is used in the same way as and instead of a solution of fresh
alkali.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, we would observe in conclusion that what we consider to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to us by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is the balling of the solid contents of the
waste liquors above described, with an alkaline earth or a metallic oxide, and
the use of the solution obtained by lixiviating the product of this balling
process in lieu of fresh alkali.
In witness whereof, I the said Thomas Richardson, on behalf of myself
and the said Robert Irvine, have hereunto set my hand and seal,
this Twenty-fifth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three.
THOMAS RICHARDSON. (L.S.)