Sulphuric acid Britain

On the industrial scale it is produced in large quantities for the manufacture of sulphuric acid and the production methods are dealt with later. It was once estimated that more than 4 000 000 tons of sulphur dioxide a year entered the atmosphere of Britain from the burning of coal and oil. 

The action of sulphuric acid alone upon acetone cyanohydrin affords a-methylacrylic acid. The methyl methacrylate polymers are the nearest approach to an organic glass so far developed, and are marketed as Perspex (sheet or rod) or Dialcon (powder) in Great Britain and as Plexiglass and Luciie in the U.S.A. They are readily depolymerised to the monomers upon distillation. The constitution of methyl methacrylate polymer has been given as ... 

Manufacture.—The world s annual output of sulphuric aeid is approximately 10 million tons, and this huge amount is supplied almost entirely by the lead chamber and contact processes. The dry distillation of green vitriol as a technical operation has now been abandoned. In Great Britain and Northern Ireland the output for the year 1928 in terms of 100 per cent, sulphuric acid and including oleum was 928,000 tons. ... 

Historical.—This process had its origin in the early preparation of sulphuric acid by the oxidation of sulphur dioxide with nitric acid, for which operation lead chambers were first introduced in 1746 by Roebuck of Birmingham. In 1793 Clement and Desormes showed that under proper conditions the nitric acid aids the oxidation, which is in the main effected by atmospheric oxygen, and the injection of steam having already been introduced in 1774 by de la Follie, the basal chemical process was much the same as to-day. Gay-Lussac s tower was first suggested by that chemist in 1827 and was first used in 1835, being introduced into Britain in 1844. J. Glover constructed his first tower at Newcastle in 1861. 

Of the total output of sulphuric acid in Great Britain and Northern Ireland during 1928 (see above), 49 per cent, was produced from pyrites,... 

The Lead Chamber process for the manufacture of sulphuric acid was developed in the 1740s by John Roebuck, then based in Birmingham. Production of this key commodity rose steadily. By the 1820s, British annual production had reached 10,000 tons of 100% acid. By 1900, Britain was producing one quarter of the world s output with an annual production approaching one million tons. 

Much of the sulphur dioxide present in beer is in a bound form, for example, as the acetaldehyde bisulphite compound. The classical (Monier-Williams) method for the estimation of sulphur dioxide, adopted by the Institute of Brewing, involves the removal of SO2 from acidified beer in a stream of carbon dioxide and nitrogen at 100 C. The gas is absorbed in hydrogen peroxide and the sulphuric acid formed titrated. In Britain sulphur dioxide is a permitted preservative in beers ( > 70 ppm), ciders, and wines ( > 150 ppm) and the Monier-Williams method is official. The EBC-ASBC adopt a more sensitive colorimetric method in which the colour restored to acid-decolourized rosaniline hydrochloride is measured. 

A. Philips, The modem sulphuric acid process. Chemistry in Britain, 13, 471, 1977. 

Other trades, with the exception of the manure manufacturers, strongly opposed moves by government to extend inspection to their operations. In the event, the 1881 Act brought many other chemical trades under the jurisdiction of the Alkali Inspectorate sulphuric acid works, chemical manure works, gas liquor works, nitric acid works, sulphate of ammonia works, chlorine works, salt works and cement works. By 1890 the number of works included under the Act in Britain and Ireland totalled 1,034 of which only 13 per cent were alkali works. ... 

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