IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS FOR ILLUMINATION
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS FOR
ILLUMINATION."-A communication from the first and true Inventor.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st September 1855.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
GAS FOR ILLUMINATION" to be as follows:--
This Invention relates, first, to a novel combination of materials to be em-
ployed in producing carburetted hydrogen gas for illumination; and, secondly,
to improved arrangements of apparatus suitable for operating upon the above-
mentioned combinations.
The first part of this Invention relates to the conjoint or combined employ-
ment of certain materials not before used in conjunction for the manufacture of
commercial illuminative gas. These materials are, peat simply dried in the air
or artificially dried or compressed, and the bituminous substance known as
Trinidad pitch or Barbadoes pitch, and the solid bitumen found in quantity in
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and also boghead coal.

page_text: The peat is employed as the source of a large volume of highly combustible
but weak lighting gas, whereas the bituminous substances named above are
employed to produce a rich and highly illuminative gas, which, when it is
mixed in the proper proportion with the weak peat gas, gives rise to good gas
of medium quality, eminently fit for commercial lighting purposes.
When I make use of Trinidad pitch as the means of enriching the poor peat
gas, I simply mix the Trinidad pitch in proper quantity with dried or com-
pressed peat, and introduce the mixture into a common coal gas retort. The
gases from the two unite as they rise from the different materials, and pass off
in combination to the hydraulic main.
When I employ the bitumen of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, I use the
system of distillation and the kind of apparatus hereafter described, which
system I also use for the purpose of distilling peat and boghead coal conjointly,
the latter being employed as a source of rich gas wherewith the poor peat gas
may be enriched, for I find that it is not advisable to distil either of these
substances in simple admixture with the peat, but that the gas produced is
of better quality and the coke or residue more valuable when the process of
carbonization is carried on in the manner which I shall describe.
The second part of the Invention relates to a peculiar arrangement of retort
or retorts, which is found particularly suitable to the conjoint carbonization of
peat with substances which yield very rich gas, as already named. In my first
arrangement I make use of a system of three, five, or seven retorts, set in the
usual manner; for the sake of example, I shall suppose that three retorts are
employed. From the anterior part of the upper one rises a delivery pipe,
leading in the usual manner to the hydraulic main. The two lower retorts are
furnished respectively at the back part with a delivery pipe leading to a
common pipe, which enters at the back of the third or upper retort. These
pipes are each furnished with a valve, by which the communication of the lower
with the upper retort, or that between the lower retorts themselves, may be cut
off, if necessary.
The peat is distilled from the two lower retorts, and the Nova Scotia or New
Brunswick bitumen or the boghead coal from the upper retort, the charges
of each being so regulated that the gas may be brought to a proper standard of
illuminating power. Of course all the retorts are worked together, the system
being that of reciprocation, and from the description it will be seen that the
weak gas is all made to pass through the retort or retorts containing the source
of rich gas, by which means not only is the rich gas itself evolved under the
most favorable circumstances, but the vaporized tar and oily matter which is at
first carried off in the peat gas is subjected to the continued action of a
high

page_text: temperature, and is consequently more or less completely converted into
permanent gas. Or I make use of a single retort of at least twice the length
of those commonly used, which is open at both ends, and is supplied with but
one lead-off pipe. At some convenient point in its length a sort of diaphragm
or incomplete partition is placed, which leaves an open space near the roof of
the retort, so that gas can pass from one end to the other; both ends are
furnished with doors, in the usual manner. In charging the retort, the solid
bitumen or the boghead coal is introduced at that end which is furnished with
the pipe leading to the hydraulic main, and the peat is introduced at the
other end. The charging with the two materials is simultaneous. It will be
seen that when the retort is at work the poor gas from the peat will be
obliged to pass over the heated material, which is giving off the rich gas, as
in the first-named arrangement.
The manner and time of charging the retorts must be regulated according
to the time required to carbonize the particular material and the quality of the
gas which it produces.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS FOR ILLUMINATION," being a
communication from the first and true Inventor, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature

page_text: of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of illuminating|
gas, by substituting for coal and the other substances at present employed to
yield such gas, mixtures of peat with certain carbonaceous substances, or peat
distilled in conjunction with carbonaceous substances, as hereafter specified.
It is already well known that peat may be made to yield by destructive dis-
tillation a very large quantity of gas, but up to the present time the gas so
obtained is without any commercial value, at least for the purpose of illumina-
tion. This arises from the fact that the combustible gas obtained from peat is
a mixture of light carburetted hydrogen, carbonic oxide, and hydrogen gases,
all of which have but feeble illuminating properties. As peat is, however, a
substance abounding in many localities, and as it can easily be obtained at a
cheap rate, and as the gas yielded by peat is wholly (or very nearly so) free
from sulphur, it becomes a matter of importance to render it available in the
process of gas making. Although the gas yielded by peat is itself, as already
stated, very weak as an illuminative gas, it is not difficult to correct this
defect; it is only necessary that it should be charged with a given proportion
of some of the denser gaseous hydrocarbons, after which it can be advan-
tageously employed as an illuminative gas. This mixture of the gases is readily
effected in consequence of all gaseous bodies following with respect to the
mingling of their particles a constant law, whereby they have a tendency to
diffuse permanently one into the other.
In the process which forms the subject of the present Patent, my object is
to employ peat as the source of a large bulk of a highly combustible although
not illuminative gas, and by means of the substances hereafter specified to
charge this combustible but non-illuminative peat gas with a sufficient quantity
of rich carbonaceous gas, to render the whole mixture suitable for commercial
lighting purposes.
The substances which I employ as the source of rich gas in my process are
the bituminous material known as Trinidad or Barbadoes pitch, and the solid
bitumen found in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick (Prince Albert coal), also the
substance known as boghead coal.

page_text: The first part of the Invention relates to the employment of the above sub-
stances in conjunction with peat as a source of gas. When I make use of
Trinidad pitch in conjunction with peat, I simply mix the two materials
together in the proper proportion, and introduce them into a common coal gas
retort; the poor gas from the peat and the rich gas from the Trinidad bitu-
men are thus brought into contact in their nascent state, and mingling together
pass off in union in the hydraulic main, and thence by the usual course to the
gas holder. When I employ the solid bitumen of Nova Scotia or New Bruns-
wick, I use the system of distillation and the kind of apparatus hereafter
described, which system I also use for the purpose of distilling peat and bog-
head coal or schist conjointly, the latter substances being employed as a source
of rich gas wherewith the poor peat gas may be enriched; for I find that it is
not advisable to distil either of these substances in simple admixture with the
peat, but that the gas produced is of better quality and the coke or residue
more valuable when the process of carbonization is carried on in the manner
which I shall describe.
The second part of the Invention relates to the use of certain arrangements
of distillatory apparatus which I find most suitable to the carrying out of my
process.
In the accompanying Drawing, Figures 1, 2, and 3 represent respectively, in
plan, side, and end views, a system of three retorts which I employ, but instead
of three, five or seven retorts may be similarly arranged. For the sake of
example, I have supposed that a system of three is employed, and that the
substance used with the peat is boghead coal. Let A, B, and C represent
three retorts. From the anterior part of the upper one rises in the usual
manner the delivery pipe D, leading to the hydraulic main. The retorts A
and B are furnished respectively at the back part with a delivery pipe E and
F, leading to a common pipe G, which enters the back part of the retort C;
these pipes are each furnished with a valve H, I, K, by which the communi-
cation of the lower with the upper retort, or that between the lower retorts
themselves, may be cut off, if necessary. The following is the method of work-
ing the retorts-Let us suppose that one-third boghead coal and two-thirds of
peat are to be employed: the retorts A and B must be charged respectively
with, say, eighty pounds of dried peat (if compressed artificially the peat is all
the better for gas making), and the retort C with one hundred and sixty
pounds of boghead coal; as soon as the retorts are charged, the gas will begin
to come off from all three retorts, but with the greatest rapidity from retorts A
and B, and this gas from the peat will carry off in the state of vapor a large
quantity of condensible fluid carbonaceous matter capable of being decom-

page_text: posed into useful gas. The whole of this gas from the peat is conducted by
the delivery pipes at the back of the retorts A and B into the retort C con-
taining the boghead coal, which at the same time is giving off its gas. The
object in leading the peat gas through the upper retort is to subject the vapor
of the condensible hydrocarbons which it contains to the further decomposing
action of a high temperature before it passes off to the bydraulic main, (by
which means much of that matter which would otherwise be carried off in the
peat gas, to be afterwards condensed into fluid tar and oil, is converted into
gas,) and to effect a thorough commingling of the rich and poor gases. The
charge of peat in the lower retorts will be worked off in about half the time
of the boghead coal in the upper retort. When A and B are thus worked off
clear, their charges of coke must be drawn, and a re-charge of eighty pounds
of peat introduced into them respectively; this second charge of peat will be
finished almost as soon as the first charge of boghead coal. The three retorts
must then be emptied and re-charged with peat and boghead coal as at first,
and so on.
The coke from the different retorts must not be mixed indiscrimi-
nately when the charges are drawn from the retorts, as that from the peat
differs from the boghead coal coke, and is applicable to different purposes in
the arts and manufactures. In employing schist or schale of any kind, or
those bituminous matters which are infusible or but slightly fusible, a similar
system of working to that described may be conveniently followed, but of
course the proportions of the different substances must be regulated according
to the quantity of gas they yield, and also according to its quality.
With regard to passing the peat gas through the retort in which the car-
bonaceous matter is being worked off, it may be remarked, that the intention
is simply to expose the vaporized fluid matter contained in the peat gas to
a high temperature after it has passed out of the retort in which it was
generated; therefore an equivalent arrangement might render the passing of
the
gas through the second retort unnecessary.
For the purpose of effecting the conjoint distillation of peat and boghead
coal or the bitumen of Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, I sometimes employ a
peculiar arrangement of single retort, shewn in section at Fig. 4, by which
the object in view is perfectly well effected. This retort is at least twice the
length of those in general use, and is furnished with doors at both ends in
the usual manner; one end of the retort only is, however, furnished with a
lead-off pipe. At some convenient point in its length this retort is fitted with
a sort of diaphragm or incomplete partition, which leaves an open space near
the roof of the retort, so that gas can pass from one end to the other. In
charging the retort, the boghead coal is introduced at that end furnished with

page_text: the lead-off pipe which communicates with the hydraulic main, and the peat
is introduced at the other end, the charging with the two being simultaneous.
It will be seen, that when the retort is at work the poor gas from the peat
will be obliged to pass over the heated boghead coal or other material to
escape into the hydraulic main; in its passage it will mingle with the rich gas
from the more carbonaceous substance, and the two will pass off together
to the gas holder.
Instead of constructing the retort with a transverse partition or diaphragm,
it may be cast with a longitudinal division, as shewn at Fig. 5, extending from
the front to within a short distance of the posterior end of the retort, dividing
the latter into two longitudinal chambers; only one side of the partition is
furnished with a delivery pipe, and the bituminous material, whatever it may
be, is placed in the chambers furnished with the pipe, the peat being placed in
the other compartment. When this retort is at work, the gas from the peat
is obliged to pass through the opening in the partition near the back of the
retort, and then along the chamber containing the material which is giving off
the rich gas, and so away by the delivery pipe to the hydraulic main.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention communicated to me, and
explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be under-
stood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim,-
First, the manufacture of an economic illuminating gas from peat, distilled
either in mixture or conjointly with the carbonaceous substances above set
forth.
Secondly, the system of distillation above explained, whereby the poor and
rich gases are caused to combine before leaving the distillatory apparatus.
Thirdly, the use of the apparatus above described for effecting the distillation
and admixture of the gases.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the First day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)