A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN ILLUMINATION, OR PRODUCING ARTIFICIAL LIGHT
Year: 1829

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
HEARD, of Devonshire Street, Vauxhall Road, in the Parish of Lambeth and
County of Surrey, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twelfth day of February, in the tenth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Edward Heard, His special licence that I, the said Edward Heard, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edward
Heard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN ILLUMINATION, OR
PRODUCING ARTIFICIAL LIGHT;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Edward Heard, by an instrument in writing
under my
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to
cause the same to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Heard, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained as follows (that is to say):
Illumination or artificial light being usually produced from the decompo-
sition of solid and fluid bodies, which are converted by the agency of heat into
a gaseous statė, and-on ignition afford light, I therefore takė, from the class of
those solid substances: which have not been heretofore used for making
inflammable gas for that purpose, a residuary matter obtained in the manu-
facture or preparation of tallow from raw fats, known in commerce by the
name of greaves or graves, as also the residuary matters from other species of
fats commonly called stuff. I likewise take the residuary or refuse substances
which are obtained in manufactories where horns, hoofs, bones, hides, skins,
leather, or other greasy or inflammable matters are employed, as also those left
after the expression of oils from the seeds, such as are known in commerce by
the names of linseed oil cake, rape seed oil cake, mustard seed cake, almond
oil cake, poppy oil seed cake, and all others so produced. I also use beach
nuts or mast; cocoa nuts; and all others abounding in oil which have not
hitherto been generally or publicly known to have been employed for this
purpose. I employ these solid bodies either separately or in combination, with
each other, and in such proportions as may be found most suitable for the
production of light of the best quality and with most economy. These sub-
stances, are to be placed in retorts or other proper, vessels, and exposed to the
requisite degrees of heat for eliminating or setting free their gaseous products,
.and which are afterwards to be collected and purified for the purposes of illu-
mination in any of the usual and well-known methods. From the class of fluid
inflammable bodies, as well as those of a butyraceous nature, I take coal tar,
the black oil obtained in the distillation of bones and other animal substances,
cocoa nut oil, palm oil, and other similar inflammable bodies, and mix two or
more of them together in those proportions which may be found most advanta-
geous for the production of a good light, and at the least possible expence, and
which, of course, must necessarily vary, according to the fluctuation of their
prices at different-periods of time, as well as the intentions of the operator.
This compound oily mixture is to be decomposed by the application of heat in
a similar manner, and by the employment of similar apparatus, to those
usually made use of in the production of oil gas in coal-gas works. The
period at which I would introduce the oily mixture above named. into the
usual retorts, employed for the production of coal gas would be that-in which
the coal has ceased to afford gas suitable for the purposes of illumination, and
...

page_text: is producing the light carburetted hydrogen gas, which possesses but little
illuminating power, the coke being then in a state of incondescence, which is
favorable to the immediate decomposition of this oily mixture, and for facili-
tating the formation of heavy carburetted hydrogen gas.
As candles are also used as a source of artificial light, so I hereby claim the
exclusive rights and privileges conferred by this Patent to the application of a
well-known substance discovered by a French chemist, and termed by him
"margarine," to the manufacture of candles, to be used either separately or in
combination with wax, spermaceti, tallow, or stearine, in any proportions of
one or more of these substances, as may be found most eligible to employ
with reference to the intended quality or price of the candles so manufactured
therewith.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Heard, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.
EDWARD (L.B.) HEARD.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twelfth day of August, in the
year of our Lord 1829, the aforesaid Edward Heard came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twelfth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine.