IMPROVE- MONG THE MANUFACTURE OF COR" THE IMMANIDAGTIL
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Hough Watson, of Bolton-le-Moors, in the
County of Lancaster, Analytical Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MONG THE MANUFACTURE OF COR"
MAXNG THE IMMANIDAGTILDE AD
CORR
Sealed the 30th October 1855, and dated the 3rd August 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Hough Watson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd August 1855.
I, HENRY HOUGH WATSON, of Bolton-le-Moors, in the County of Lancaster,
5 Analytical Chemist. do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE" to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in subjecting coal to the action of hydrochloric, other-
wise muriatic acid, in a gaseous or liquid state, and afterwards burning into
coke the coal so treated.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Hough Watson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 31st January 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
HOUGH WATSON, of Bolton-le-Moors, in the County of Lancaster, Analytical
Chemist,-send-greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of August, 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 Henry Hough Watson, Her special licence that I, the said Henry
Hough Watson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as 1,
the said Henry Hough Watson, 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 "Iμ-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Henry Hough Watson, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument 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
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Hough Watson, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
My Invention consists in subjecting coal to the action of hydrochloric, other-
wise muriatic acid, and afterwards burning into coke the coal so treated. This
may be effected with coal either in lumps or in a small or ground state, though
it is best done with small or coarsely ground coal. The acid may be diffused
or allowed to permeate amongst the coal whilst lying in a heap, or the coal
may be immersed in the acid in a cistern, pit, or other suitable receptacle
capable of holding liquid, using materials for the construction of the cistern or
receptacle (where such be used) which shall be least liable to the corrosive
action of the acid.
The mixture or contact of the coal and acid should be continued till it is

page_text: found that the carbonates of lime and magnesia and other earthy impurity con-
tained in the coal, and capable of being dissolved by the acid, have been well
and sufficiently acted upon thereby. This may be known by the effervescence
or evolution of gas having ceased, and not being resumed by the further
addition of acid to the coal; or by finding that such effervescence having
ceased, some of the liquid drawn off from the coal causes effervescence when
poured on chalk or other carbonate of lime.
Either pure hydrochloric or muriatic acid, or the impure and refuse acid
produced at soda ash and other manufactories by the action of sulphuric acid
on chloride of sodium or common salt, (and which refuse acid is frequently
sold at a very low price, and often allowed to run away to be got rid of,) may
be used for the purpose of carrying my Invention into effect; other acidulous
liquids may be used which contain so much hydrochloric or muriatic acid in
excess, or in a free or uncombined state, as to cause effervescence when added
to carbonate of lime.
I do not confine myself to any degree of purity, nor to any particular strength
of the acid employed, nor to any precise mode of applying the same to the coal;
observing, however, that my object is to get all chlorides formed by the action
of the acid removed from the coal before it is subjected to the action of fire
when afterwards burned into coke.
My Invention may be well carried into effect as follows:-Ordinary small
or ground coking coal is mixed or immersed in a cistern or pit with or in so
much muriatic acid as will saturate or cover the coal to be operated on. The
period during which the coal should be subjected to the action of the acid will
vary with the quantity of impurity contained in the coal and the strength of
acid employed.
If dilute acid of the specific gravity of 1.045 be applied cold, the coal should
be submitted to the action of the acid for nearly twenty-four hours, but if the
acid be 1-09 in specific gravity about six hours will suffice; and where muriatic
acid of the specific gravity of 115 can be procured cheaply, so as to be used
with commercial advantage for this purpose, the time may be reduced to a
period of from one to two hours. The operator in all these cases will find out
by experiment when the action has been sufficiently carried on. The coal is
afterwards removed from the cistern by any convenient means, or the liquid
may be drained off, taking care, as a matter of economy, to use utensils or
apparatus as little liable as possible to the corrosive action of the acid.
Where a cistern is used for the purpose it may be of stone or wood, and it
will be convenient to have the coal in large boxes, having the bottom and sides
perforated with small holes for draining from the coal the acid and saline solu-

page_text: tions formed by the action of the acid. The coal and box can, by means of a
crane, be immersed together in the cistern containing the necessary quantity of
acid, and removed when requisite. The coal, after having been thus operated
on, should be washed with water to remove the solutions formed by the action
of the acid, and thus prevent the lime, magnesia, and other earth contained
in such solutions from being subjected to the action of the fire, when the coal
is afterwards-burnt-into-coke in any of the ordinary modes of manufacture.
If the coal be placed in the cistern in a heap without using a box to immerse
or remove it, there should be a false bottom perforated with small holes in the
cistern eight or ten inches above the real one, and the tap or taps for drawing
off the spent acid and washings may be fixed in the cistern below the false
bottom, as otherwise the drainage of the acid from the coal and also the wash-
ings could not be so easily effected.
By means of this my Invention, the coke produced from any given descrip-
tion of coal containing lime, magnesia, alumina, and silica, or some of them,
will be improved in quality, inasmuch as such coke will have much less
liability than it otherwise would have to produce clinkers or slag in the furnaces
in which it may be afterwards consumed, such clinkers being objectionable in
all furnaces, but more especially so in those of locomotive engines. The coke
also so manufactured is not only less liable to make clinkers, but contains more
heating power in a given weight than without such previous operation.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and one mode of carry-
ing the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit myself
thereto; but I claim as my Invention the improvement in the manufacture of
coke, by subjecting coal intended to be so manufactured to the action of hydro-
chloric, otherwise muriatic acid, and burning into coke the coal so treated after
having removed therefrom the products resulting from the action of such acid,
as before mentioned.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Hough Watson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
HENRY HOUGH WAISUN. (L.S.)