Sodium sulphate is used in the manufacture of glass, ultramarine, &c.
Further, the sulphate is converted into Glauber’s salts by dissolving the
anhydrous sulphate obtained in the muffle furnace, purifying with lime,
and allowing the clear salt solution to crystallise out in pans.
A further use of the sulphate is the preparation of sodium sulphide,
which is effected (as in the first part of the Leblanc soda process) by
melting together sulphate and coal in a reverberatory furnace. If the
acid sulphate (bisulphate) or sulphate containing bisulphate is used much
sulphur dioxide gas comes off.
The mass is then lixiviated in the usual soda liquor vats and the lye
either treated so as to obtain crystals or evaporated to strong sodium
sulphide which is poured like caustic soda into metal drums where it
solidifies.
In _Solvay’s ammonia soda process_ ammonia recovered from the waste
produced in the industry is led into a solution of salt until saturation
is complete. This is effected generally in column apparatus such as is
used in distillation of spirit. The solution is then driven automatically
by compressed air to the carbonising apparatus in which the solution
is saturated with carbonic acid; this apparatus is a cylindrical tower
somewhat similar to the series of vessels used for saturating purposes in
sugar factories through which carbonic acid gas passes. In this process
crystalline bi-carbonate of soda is first formed, which is separated
from the ammoniacal mother liquor by filtration, centrifugalisation,
and washing. The carbonate is then obtained by heating (calcining in
pans), during which carbonic acid gas escapes, and this, together with
the carbonic acid produced in the lime kilns, is utilised for further
carbonisation again. The lime formed during the production of carbonic
acid in the lime kilns serves to drive the ammonia out of the ammoniacal
mother liquor, so that the ammonia necessary for the process is recovered
and used over and over again. The waste which results from the action of
the lime on the ammonium chloride liquor is harmless—calcium chloride
liquor.
The _electrolytic_ manufacture of soda from salt requires mention, in
which chlorine (at the anode) and caustic soda (at the cathode) are
formed; the latter is treated with carbonic acid to make soda.
EFFECTS ON HEALTH.—Leymann’s observations show that in the department
concerned with the Leblanc soda process and production of sodium
sulphide, relatively more sickness is noted than, for example, in the
manufacture of sulphuric and nitric acids.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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