AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FUEL
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to François Rualem, of 29, Rue de Paris, à Belleville,
France, Milkman, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF FUEL."
Sealed the 23rd May 1856, and dated the 1st March 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said François Rualem at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st March 1856.
I, FRANÇOIS RUALEM, of 29, Rue de Paris, à Belleville, France, Milkman,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF FUEL," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in the manufacture of
fuel. Heretofore in the manufacture of moulded fuel, it has been usual to
combine the ingredients with bituminous or fluid matter so as to obtain plasti-
city, and then to shape the fuel by pressing the combined matters into moulds,
then to dry and carbonize the moulded masses in retorts or ovens. Now, my
Invention has for its object so to conduct the process of manufacture, that the
ingredients or substances used may be moulded into the desired forms, by
simply placing the mixed materials in the state of powder in the moulds, and
then by the process of carbonizing the fuel to obtain the coal in a moulded
state. For this purpose, it is preferred to employ angular moulds in rectangular
frames, in such manner as to produce triangular blocks; such moulds may be
made either of wrought or cast-iron, and by means of plates between the

page_text: frames of moulds, several frames may be placed one on the other in the oven
or retort. The materials used are, small coal, charcoal, coke, and sawdust,
though other materials may also be used, and rosin or dry bituminous matter
may be added. These ingredients, in the state of powder, and mixed in the
desired quantities, are placed in the dry state in the moulds, and the moulds
and their contents are subjected to heat so as to carbonize the fuel therein, by
which the fuel when complete will be moulded, without having first rendered
the ingredients into a plastic state, and without moulding previous to carbonizing
the fuel
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said François Rualem in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
30th August 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANÇOIS
RUALEN, of 29, Rue de Paris, à Bellevile, France, Milkman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
François Rualem, Her special licence that I, the said François Rualem,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
François Rualem, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FUEL," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said François Rualem, my exccutors or administrators, by an instru-
nient in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said François Rualem, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in the manufacture of

page_text: fuel. Heretofore in the manufacture of moulded fuel, it has been usual to
combine the ingredients with betuminous or fluid matter so as to obtain plasti-
city, and then to shape the fuel by pressing the combined matters into moulds,
then to dry and carbonize the moulded matters in retorts or ovens. Now, my
Invention has for its object so to conduct the process of manufacture, that the
ingredients or substances used may be moulded into the desired forms, by
simply placing the mixed materials in the state of powder in the moulds, and
then by the process of carbonizing the fuel to obtain the coal in a moulded
state. For this purpose, it is preferred to employ angular moulds in rectangular
frames, in such manner as to produce triangular blocks; such moulds may be
made either of wrought or cast-iron, and by means of plates between the
frames of moulds, several frames may be placed one on the other in the oven
or retort. The materials used arc, small coal, charcoal, coke, and sawdust,
though other materials may also be used, and rosin or dry bituminous matter
may be added. These ingredients in the state of powder and mixed in the
desired quantities, are placed in the dry state in the moulds, and the moulds
and their contents are subjected to heat so as to carbonize the fuel therein, by
which the fuel when complete will be moulded, without having first rendered
the ingredients into a plastic state, and without moulding previous to carbonizing
the fuel.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.
The matters which are to compose a fuel may be greatly varied in their
relative proportions, partly depending on the quality of coal employed;
good coking will admit of a larger proportion of the other materials; and
forms and construction of the moulds employed may be greatly varied. The
moulds I prefer to use are made of wrought-iron in the following manner:-
Figure 1 is a section, Figure 2 a plan, and Figure 8 a side view, of a mould,
and these moulds are placed one on the other, with a sheet or plate of iron
between them. The materials to form a fuel are mixed in their dry state, the
coal and coke being first reduced to powder, capable of passing through a like
sieve to that which the wood sawdust will pass through. The proportions of
materials which I prefer when using the dust of good coking coal, are,-coal,
one part by measure; coke, one part by measure; wood sawdust, one part by
measure; and when using charcoal dust, it may be used without wood saw-
dust, and a good compound for a fuel is,-coal, five parts by measure; charcoal,
three parts by measure. When using other coal which does not coke so well,
I increase the proportion of coal. Other matters may be used in compounding
a fuel, but I believe that the best ingredients are those above mentioned.

page_text: The matters being mixed, they are filled into the moulds in the following
manner: A set of moulds are placed on a sheet of iron on a suitable truck
or iron platform on wheels, and a quantity of the material is filled into all the
cells of the moulds; a plate or sheet of iron is placed thereon, and then
another set of moulds, which are to be filled in like manner; then a sheet of
iron, then another set of moulds, and so on, till the requisite quantity of
moulds are piled one on the other. The truck is then moved into an oven,
heated by a fire at the bottom to a red heat; the materials in lower moulds
will quickly give off gas through small notches made at the edges of tho
moulds, and the gas will ignite, and the mass in the moulds will become
heated to a red heat, and when all the moulds are so heated, and the materials
therein and the gas censes to come off in jets, the process will be completed;
the truck is then moved out with the moulds and fuel, and allowed to cool
either in a close chamber or in the open atmosphere. There is a flue to the
oven for the passage away of the products of combustion, and care is taken to
admit air at the bottom of the oven to support the combustion of the gas
evolved.
In witness whereof, I, the said François Rualem, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Twenty-eighth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
HY Hosci,
12, Old Jewry Chambers, City,
London.
JOHN B. GEARD,
Ipswich.
FRANCOIS RUALEM. (L.S.)