IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING SULPHUR FROM PYRITES OR CERTAIN NATIVE SULPHURETS
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HARRISON
GREY DYAR, of 286, Regent Street, Oxford Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, and JOHN CHISHOLM, of Pomery Street, Old Kent Road, in the
County of Surrey, Manufacturing Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria,. by. Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Sixth day of June, in the second year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said Harrison
Grey Dyar and John Chisholm, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that we, the said Harrison Grey Dyar and John Chisholm, our
exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Harrison Grey
Dyar and John Chisholm, our exors, admors, 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.
and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,..our
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING SULPHUR FROM PYRITES OR CERTAIN
NATIVE SULPHURETS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that
we, the said Harrison Grey Dyar and John Chisholm, or one of us, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Harrison Grey Dyar and John Chisholm, do hereby declare the nature of
our Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon, that is to say:-
Our improvement consists, first, in a mode of roasting pyrites or metallic
sulphurets into the heated flue, or where the sulphurous acid passes from the
sulphuret contained in the furnace A, Fig. 1, we pass another flue b imme-
diately from the furnace B, where we have burning a column of coke; into
this column of coke, which is fed by a moderate supply of atmospheric air, we
pass in, at or near the centre of the column of burning coke, water or the vapour
of water or highly heated steam, so that the vapour of the water or steam will
diffuse itself amongst the coke, and passing through will be chiefly converted
into hydrogen and carbonic oxide; when at the junction of these two flues the
sulphurous acid from the roasting sulphuret and the hydrogen gas from the
furnace into which water or steam was passed will at the elevated temperature
so act as that the hydrogen will take the oxygen from the sulphurous acid and
leave the sulphur free, which passing along a closed flue c will enter the
chamber d, and be condensed therein, and may be removed from time to time,
there being a suitable opening in the chamber d for that purpose.
When we act upon the bisulphuret of iron we prefer, before submitting it to
this process, to expel from the bisulphuret as much of the sulphur as can be
drawn off by heat. Our mode of expelling this sulphur is by heating the
bisulphuret in the flue A of the furnace, shown at Fig. 2, there being a
chamber B in which we decompose the water; and we take the precaution of
having the column of fuel in this furnace so long or high that the air feeding
this furnace will be deprived of its free oxygen or carbonic acid before it
arrives amongst the bisulphuret of iron, and as an additional precaution to
prevent the burning of the sulphur we pass into the furnace in the same
manner as before described some water or vapour of water so as to generate
some free hydrogen, to decompose the sulphurous acid or to unite with any free
oxygen which may by chance have passed through the fuel. After having in
this manner distilled off that portion of the sulphur which is capable of being

page_text: expelled by heat in a furnace so arranged as to prevent the combustion of the
distilled sulphur, we take the remaining sulphuret of iron, and roast and treat
it as at first described.
We claim as our improvement the decomposing sulphurous acid from roasted
sulphurets by the agency of passing water or steam into a furnace so arranged
as to give free hydrogen, and in expelling that portion of the sulphur that may
be distilled by heat in a furnace so arranged as that the sulphur may be
distilled from the pyrites or bisulphuret of iron without the combustion of
the sulphur by the air feeding the furnace.
We claim also the mode of roasting and decomposing the sulphurous acid
from all sulphurets as above described, as well as the mode above described of
distilling off a portion of the sulphur from such sulphurets as will yield by this
process of distillation sufficient sulphur to render it expedient to distill off the
sulphur in the manner above described previous to the roasting process. We
also distill sulphur from the bisulphuret of iron by roasting them in retorts or
ovens excluding the atmosphere; these we form of fire tiles or fire bricks,
having them formed with grooves at the mouth so as to be closed by a fire
tile luted with clay, and made perfectly air tight; these retorts or ovens we
prefer to be about two feet broad, four feet long, and six inches deep; at one
end of each there is a pipe about four inches diameter, placed in a slanting
direction into a small brick chamber; through this pipe the sulphur will flow
in a liquid form, and may be removed from the receiving chamber from time
to time. The flues of the fire or furnace are so arranged that after traversing
the external surface of the retorts or ovens they pass over the exit pipe of the
retort or close oven before entering the chimney. If the flue did not pass
over these exit pipes, the vapour of sulphur would be condensed in passing
through so cold a medium, and choke up the passage, or if the flue was to
pass over it first, it would be so hot that the sulphur would pass into the
receiving chamber in a state of vapour. Retorts formed of earth, clay, or
other material, sufficiently refractory to withstand the necessary heat, and
embedded in clusters of 3, 5, or 7, in a reverberatory furnace, the retorts to be
set in a manner similar to that observed in the distillation of coal for the
manufacture of gas. We do not confine ourselves to any particular form for
the retorts or ovens.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Chisholm, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
JNO (L.S.) CHISHOLM.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of December, in the
year of our Lord 1839; the aforesaid John Chisholm came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, 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 Sixth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.