Waste products and undeveloped substances : a synopsis of progress made in their economic utilisation during the last quarter of a century at home and abroad / by P.L. Simmonds.

Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Waste products and undeveloped substances : a synopsis of progress made in their economic utilisation during the last quarter of a century at home and abroad / by P.L. Simmonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    appear that the total quantity of salt decomposed for the manufacture of soda in the Lancashire district in 1869 exceeded by 31 per cent, the total quantity decomposed in the Newcastle district during the same year. In the ten years previous to 1861 the increase in the amount of salt decomposed was 300 per cent.—that is to say, in the year 1852 there were 38,600 tons, while in 1861 the quantity was 135,000. In a new process fur obtaining sulphur from sulphu- retted hydrogen, the sulphuretted hydrogen is caused to - react upon oxide of iron, or of manganese, by injection into water holding the metallic oxide in suspension; and at- mospheric air is then injected, whereby a mixture of metallic oxide with free sulphur is produced. Into this mixture more sulphuretted hydrogen is sent, and the pro- duct is then treated with air as before. These alternate treatments are repeated until the mixture contains a very large proportion of free sulphur, which can be separated in a variety of ways. Soda and potash are manufactured by forming sulphides of sodium or potassium, decomposing these by carbonic acid, and treating the resulting sulphu- retted hydrogen as above described. 'Alkali waste' is also decomposed by any suitable acid or by steam, and the resulphuretted hydrogen treated as aforesaid. The inven- tion is also applied to nascent sulphuretted hydrogen. In the year 1850, Mr. Gossage showed that the copper, amounting to about 1 per cent., in Irish pyrites, could be extracted, and this is still more practicable in the case of Spanish pyrites, which contain about 3 per cent., and, after roasting, from 5 to 6 per cent. The extraction of copper is, however, rarely carried out by the sulphuric acid manu- facturer. In England the co]3per is obtained in the dry way by successive meltings. In Prance the roasted mine- ral is exposed to the action of the air, the copper sulphate thus produced is extracted by water, and the metal preci- pitated by iron. More recently the copper has been ex- tracted as chloride, by melting the roasted mineral Avith sodium chloride. The method patented by Mr. Henderson is worked at Mostyn with the pyrites residues from Messrs. Muspratt's works, and works have been erected near Glasgow for treating the residues from Messrs. Tennent's works.