IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF DUFF COAL PIT WASTE SHALE AND SIMILAR MATTERS
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Jameson of Akenside Hill in the City and County
of Newcastle upon Tyne, Consulting Engineer for an Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF DUFF COAL PIT WASTE SHALE AND SIMILAR
MATTERS
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Jameson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th November 1882.
JOHN JAMESON of Akenside Hill in the City and County of Newcastle upon
Tyne, Consulting Engineer.-IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF DUFF COAL,
PIT WASTE, SHALE, AND SIMILAR MATTERS.
My Invention of improvements in the treatment of Duff Coal, Pit Waste, Shale,
and similar matters, consists in passing through the mass of shale or other material
to be operated upon highly heated and burned air and products of combustion.―I
burn and heat the air by passing it through the fuel of a close furnace and I force
the gasses generated in, or passing through this furnace through the mass of matter
to be operated upon contained also in a close receptacle or I may (altho' I prefer
pressure) cause them to pass through it by suction, whereby the volatile and
condensible matters of the material operated upon are extracted from it and may
be recovered by condensation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John Jameson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 18th May
1883.
JOHN JAMESON of Akenside Hill in the City and County of Newcastle-on-
Tyne, Consulting Engineer IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF DUFF Coal,
PIT WASTE, SHALE AND SIMILAR MATTERS.
My Invention of improvements in the treatment of duff coal, pit waste, shale
and similar matters, consists in passing through the mass of shale or other material
to be operated upon highly heated and burned air and products of combustion.-I
burn and heat the air by passing it through the fuel of a close furnace, and I force
the gasses generated in, or passing through this furnace through the mass of matter
to be operated upon contained also in a close receptacle or I may (altho' I prefer
pressure) cause them to pass through it by suction, whereby the volatile and
condensible matters of the material operated upon are extracted from it and may
be recovered by condensation.
Having thus described the nature of my invention I will proceed more
particularly to describe the manner in which the same' is to be performed.-There
are many operations in which for the purpose of accomplishing other objects it
incidentally happens that burned air or heated gasses are passed through a mass of
coal or similar matter and volatile products are thereby disengaged, and there are
cases in which the incidental passage of this air and disengagement of volatile
products is taken advantage of for the recovery more or less perfectly of the volatile
products. Now my Invention consists in the passage of efficiently burned air or
heated gasses of suitable character through a mass of Duff coal, pit waste, shale or
similar matters with the direct object of disengaging, distilling and recovering the
volatile products whereby I am enabled to regulate the temperature of distillation
and the quantity of the gasses and their condition so as to control the results
obtained, I am also enabled to avoid the necessary cooling of any more than the
quantity of such gasses requisite for the disengagenient of the volatile products, and
to avoid any considerable destruction of the distillate by intermixture with gasses
with which chemical action might arise, and thus I can cheaply recover products
from material of little value for any other purpose or otherwise at present utterly
valueless. An essential point being that instead of passing the heat requisite for
distillation through the walls of a retort or containing structure I pass it directly
amongst the mass to be dealt with and thus economise both fuel and apparatus.-In
the carrying out of my Invention I prefer to employ an apparatus somewhat
resembling a close lime kiln (but of any convenient form) with an arrangement of
doors at or near the top and bottom for charging and discharging which may be closed
up so as to be approximately air tight and capable of bearing a slight pressure
and with a close furnace attached to it also constructed to bear slight pressure
(or instead of pressure mutatis mutandis I may use suction) and I cause a passage
of air by means of adequate pressure produced by a fan or blower to take place
through the furnace and thence, after being therein beated and burned to enter at
the lower part of and pass upwards through the lime kiln like structure I have
before referred to, in which has been placed a charge of the materials to be treated
or to enter at the upper part and pass downwards, so as that the heat of the gasses
shall be imparted to the material to be treated and distillation shall be effected.―
The products of combustion in the furnace and the products of distillation in the
structure referred to, are then led through a range of cooling pipes whereby what

page_text: is easily condensible is condensed and the incondensible gas may then be used if
sufficiently rich to burn by itself for any purpose for which heat may be required.-
My invention may also be used in connection with the manufacture, from Duff coal
or other suitable material of an inferior description of cinder for fuel, that is to say
a carbonaceous residue in a more or less spongy form may be obtained resulting
from the vaporization of the volatile products of the material treated and this fuel
may be used for alimentation of the distilling furnace or for other purposes, or if
pit waste or carbonaceous shale be distilled so as that after the extraction of the
volatile products sufficient carbonaceous residue to give the desired heat remains in
the mass which has been treated it may be used without removal from the
structure in which it was distilled, so as to develope heat and give off heated gasses
for the distillation of a new portion of shale or waste in a second receptacle a
current of air being passed through the spent and heated mass for the purpose of
burning its carbonaceous residue and giving off the heated products of combustion.-
For convenience in use I may employ one furnace to several material-containing
structures so as that when one of the latter is being charged or drawn the gas from
the furnace may be passed through another and I may also for convenience and to
facilitate the operation cause the gasses after passing through one charge to pass
through one or more other recently charged structures so as both to cool the gasses
and to heat the material to be distilled and I may also for facility in manipulation
enclose both furnace and the distilling structures within an approximately air tight
building with double doors and valves to facilitate ingress and egress as is well
understood and by means of the fan or blower before described I may maintain
an adequate pressure within such building with an arrangement of escaping pipes.
or flues, so as that the pressed air within the building, shall tend by its own
pressure to pass in the directions required in order to escape by the pipes or flues
referred to by which means I am thus enabled to work with an open instead of a
close furnace and so that any leakage in the furnace or distilling vessels may be to
within the vessels instead of to without. The advantage of this latter arrangement
is that there is increased facility in firing and preserving the contents of the
furnace in the right condition, or the furnace alone may be within the building and
the distilling structures without.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner in which the
same is or may be performed I claim the passage of highly heated or burned air
and products of combustion through a mass of duff coal, pit waste shale, or similar
matters for the express purpose of distilling the same substantially as described.
In Witness whereof I the said John Jameson have hereunto set my hand and
seal this sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight
hundred and eighty three.
Witnesses
JOHN BOWMER
Clerk
Forest Hall
WILLIAM MOORE
20 Copeland Terrace,
Shieldfield
Newcastle-on-Tyne,
JOHN JAMESON (L.S.)