CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SAL AMMONIAC
Year: 1807

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
ASTLEY, of Borrowstownness, in that part of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland called Scotland, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
in and by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Twenty-eighth day of July, in the forty-seventh year of His reign, for Himself,
His heirs and successors, did give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Astley,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Joseph Astley, my executors, administra-
tors, and assigns, by myself or themselves, or by my or their deputy or deputies,
servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Joseph Astley, my executors,
administrators, 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, my Invention for "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SAL AMMONIAC."

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in pursuance of a proviso in the said Letters
Patent contained, I, the said Joseph Astley, do hereby describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, as follows; that is to say :-
prepare the salt called muriat of magnesia or the muriat of alumine, or
one or other of the metallic muriats, or any of the combinations of the muriatic
acid from which the acid is capable of being disengaged by heat. What I
commonly employ is the muriat of magnesia, which may be procured in different
ways, and very easily and economically from the mother liquor of the salt
pans called bittern or salt oil, the other salts contained in this being separated
by evaporation and crystallization. I use the muriat of magnesia, prepared
by this or by any other process, or any of the other articles above mentioned,
cither in a liquid or solid form. In the former way, I cause animal substances of
all kinds, or such vegetable or mineral substances as afford ammonia or volatile
alkali by distillation, to be impregnated with liquor holding any of the said salts in
solution, which liquor I use in proportions, varying according to the particular
kind of salt employed, the degree of concentration of the liquor, and the nature
of the animal or other substances to be impregnated, the object being to
obtain the acid and alkali developed in the subsequent operations in propor-
tions approaching as nearly as possible to mutual saturation. I afterwards
dry the animal or other substances thus impregnated on a heated floor or
otherwise, and either distill them by the heat of the furnace in a retort or
still, with one or more receivers adapted to collect the product, or else burn
them in a kind of furnace or kiln (which may be variously constructed),
the products of the combustion being collected in chambers or receivers
adapted to the purpose, which chambers or receivers must have an opening or
rent to maintain the current of air necessary for the combustion. The
previous drying is not an essential part of the process, and in some cases,
may be dispensed with, tho' it will generally found expedient. Where I use
the salt in a solid form, that is, either crystallized or dryed by evaporation, the
process is merely to mix it in such state with the animal or other substances,
and proceed as above. But I find the object is effected more easily and
completely by using the salt in the state of solution, or, instead, impregnating
the animal or other substances themselves with any of the saline matters
above described. I cause substances of any description whatever (provided
there be nothing in their nature rendering them chemically or mechanically
unfit to serve as vehicles for such purpose) to be impregnated with such saline
matters, and treated as above described, along with the animal or other
substances, the fundamental object of all these processes being, to present the

page_text: acid and alkali to each other in their nascent state as they are respectively
developed from the said saline matters and the animal or other substances by
heat, by which means we obtain on the one hand a more complete decom-
position of the said salts, by help of the divellent affinity of the ammonia,
and we prevent in great measure, on the other hand, the destruction of the
alkali by combustion, which would otherwise occasion great loss in the burning
of the materials. In all the processes here described the product is the same,
being muriat of ammonia, or sal ammoniac, partly dry and partly in solution,
which is afterwards to be crystallized and sublimed according to the ordinary
processes, or which may be used for some purposes without undergoing these
subsequent operations.
It may be proper to state, that I do not lay claim to the exclusive
privilege of procuring muriatic acid from the salts above mentioned by
distillation, as it has been long known to chymists that several of them are
decomposable by heat. My mode is as to the mode of effecting this decom-
position as here explained, which will be found to possess, besides the
advantages already mentioned, that of avoiding the inconveniences with which
the operation of distilling the muriatic salts in question (particularly the
muriat of magnesia) by themselves is always attended.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Astley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-third day of November, in the forty-eighth
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the
grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
King, Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seven.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the
presence of
PETER REID,
J. ASTLEY. (LB.)
Physician.
Peter Reid, of the City of Edin', Physician, maketh oath and saith, that
he was present, and did see Joseph Astley, in the above written Deed Poll
or Instrument named, and sign and seal, and as his and deed in due form
of law deliver, the said above-written Deed Poll or Instrument, and saith
that the names or characters "J. Astley," set and subscribed opposite the
seal thereto affixed as the person executing the same and of this De-
ponent also, set and subscribed as the witness attesting the due execution

page_text: thereof by the said Joseph Astley, are of the respective proper handswriting
of the said Joseph Astley and this Deponent.
PETER REID.
Sworn at Edinburgh, this Twenty-fourth
day of November, 1807 years, in the
presence of
GEORGE WHITE,
Oue of the Magestrates of Edinburgh.
Inrolled the Twenty-seventh day of November, in the year above written.