Preparation of oxalic acid unless carried on in closed-in vessels gives rise to injurious and troublesome fumes. If open pans are used, hoods and ducts in connection with a fan should be placed over them.
Grinding of ultramarine and alum requires to be done in closed-in mills, and any dust drawn away by locally applied ventilation and filtered. The gases given off in the burning process contain 3 per cent. of sulphur dioxide, which requires to be absorbed—a procedure most easily effected in towers where the upstreaming gas comes into contact with a dilute solution of lime or soda.
Chlorine, Bleaching Powder, Chlorine Compounds
(See also pp. [23-9] and [173])
What has been said as to imperviousness of apparatus, negative pressure maintained by the tall chimney stack or earthenware or fireclay fan, &c., applies equally here. The exhaust ventilation is also required to aspirate the gas into the bleaching chambers.
At the end of the system there must be either a tower packed with quicklime to absorb the last traces of chlorine or such a number of bleach chambers into which the gas can be led that no chlorine escapes. Production of chlorine gas electrolytically is to be preferred to other processes on hygienic grounds.
Careful cleanliness is the best prophylactic against occurrence of chlorine rash among persons employed in the electrolytic production of chlorine. In some factories attempt has been made to use other substances (magnetite) instead of carbon for the anode, and the success attending their adoption is further proof that the tar cement at the anode helped to cause the acne.
In the Weldon process care must be taken that the water lutes are intact, and the stills must not be opened before the chlorine has been drawn off. All processes in which manganese dust can arise (grinding of manganese dioxide and drying of Weldon deposit) should be done under locally applied exhaust. The bleaching powder chambers must be impervious and care taken that they are not entered before the chlorine has been absorbed. Usually the number of lime chambers connected up with each other is such that no chlorine escapes free into the air. Emptying of the finished product should not be done by hand, as considerable quantities of chlorine escape and make the work extremely irksome. Mechanical methods of emptying should be adopted in substitution for hand labour, and of these the Hasenclever closed-in apparatus is the best.