science · 02 February 1817 · 207 years ago
birth
Born 2 Feb 1817; died 1 May 1902 at age 85.
English chemist who developed the Glover Tower in 1859 to reclaim useful chemicals during the manufacture of sulphuric acid, the most important industrial chemical. The previous Lead-Chamber Method (1749) used sulphur dioxide, a nitrate, air and water, but lost the nitrate in the form of nitric oxide to the atmosphere. This was expensive since the replacement nitrate had to be imported from Chile. Glover introduced a mass transfer tower to recover some of this lost nitrate. In his tower, sulphuric acid (still containing nitrates) was trickled downward against upward flowing burner gases. The flowing gas absorbed some of the previously lost nitric oxide. By recycling these gases into the lead chamber the nitric oxide was re-used. He did not patent the process, but gave it freely to benefit the industry.
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