Improvements in and relating to a Process or Mode of Manufacturing Fuel, and in and to the Product Obtained by said Process.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Oct., 1890-Accepted, 29th Nov., 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to a Process or Mode of Manufacturing
Fuel, and in and to the Product Obtained by said Process.
I, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FIELD, of No. 147 Rookery Building, Adams Street, in
the City of Chicago, County of Cook, and State of Illinois, one of the United States
of America Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this 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 relates to a new and useful artificial fuel and the process of
manufacturing the same, which will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.
It has long been a great desideratum among city coal-dealers and others to advan-
tageously dispose of or utilize that portion of anthracite and other coals which is
known to the trade as "screenings." which is produced by handling and friction after
the coal has been shipped from the mines, which is separated from the lump coal as
fine or
dnst coal," as it is sometimes called, by sifting or screening, and which has
been a source of waste, loss, nuisance and expense to dispose of. Hence, seeing the
necessity for some way of saving and utilizing to advantage and profit this great
amount of wasted coal dust, which, while it is good, pure coal, is so fine that it has
hitherto been found impossible to burn the same in any of the ways in which lump
coal is consumed, I have discovered a new process for converting the same into a new,
superior and artificial fuel, which can be easily transported and handled for sale,
delivery and use, and thereby made a source of usefulness and profit, instead of a
cause of serious inconvenience, expense and loss, as heretofore.
This dust coal as a product of the coal-yards is different from the waste which is
produced in such large quantities during the mining of coal, which is mixed with
slate, shale and earthy matter to such an extent as to render it necessary to eliminate
the same from the coal before it would be suitable for the production of
fuel or the use of the process for manufacturing the same.
my artificial
Numerous attempts have been made in this country and other countries to utilize
the waste coal at the mines by mixing or compounding with it various combustible
and glutinous substances in varied proportions, such, for instance, as pitch, coal tar.
mineral tar, resin, and even, such expensive materials as beeswax, lard and gum-
arabic, and, also, flour in the form of paste has been used; but none of them have
accomplished the object for which they were incorporated with a small portion, only,
of this waste coal, cis-the complete burning of the coal-which, as is obvious, has
been due to the fact that the just-named, mixed and highly-inflammable substances:
were so quickly consumed that the slow-burning particles of coal, particularly those
of anthracite coal, were only partially consumed, since, being no longer held together
or combined by the glutinous character of some of the substances named, they fell
into the ash-pits or other receptacles, ceased to burn and became mere waste.
Seeing these evils or defects in former, artificial fuels and in the processes of
manufacturing the same as stated, which have existed for so many years, and especially
desiring to avoid the waste of the good coal existing in the screenings or fine dust
produced in the coal-yards of cities, caused me to conceive the idea of my present
remedy, which, while my first efforts to accomplish it were not successful, but
required patient and long-continued experiments to perfect it, I have finally
completed.
In the manufacture of my new and improved fuel, I first take a proper quantity of
peat, which is found in marshes and other damp and low locations in nearly all
countries, and which always contains more or less water in suspension in the roots
and fibres of which it is composed, and subject the same to pressure and straining for
the removal of a portion of the water therefrom. I next intermix with the peat, in

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this prepared condition, a proper quantity of fine coal, the proportion depending upon
the capacity of the peat to retain said fine coal commingled therewith, but the pro-
portion, by weight, which I have generally used, found satisfactory and
recommend is from one-third to one-half fine coal and the remainder peat. Then, or
after this commingling or uniting of the peat and fine coal has taken place, the
product is moulded or formed into any desired shape and size and, finally, is
subjected to a sufficient degree of heat, preferably natural heat, as costing nothing,
for drying the same and thus holding the coal in place until it can be thoroughly
consumed.
It results from thus manufacturing my fuel that the coal is held combined with the
peat until it is all consumed, as the peat, as I have found by actual experience,
contains enough glutinous substance to allow of its being so contracted upon the
coal during the drying operation as to dispense with the use of any of the artificial
and expensive glutinous materials hitherto employed as their holding or combining
agents; besides, these agents are really detrimental, for the reason that all of the
cements and glutinous substances hitherto used, and relied upon to hold the fine
particles of coal in place, dry so quickly and so much faster than the peat that they
interfere with, and in fact, prevent the contraction of the peat, which, if given
sufficient time to dry, I have found to be all that is required to hold the coal in place,
and the peat, not being so combustible as the various inflammable substances hitherto
used for this purpose, performs its office far better alone; also my new artificial fuel
can be produced and sold at a nominal cost, as compared with the prices of anthracite
and other lump coals; also, as it is composed wholly of natural elements, such as
can be obtained in abundance and at trifling expense, its manufacture is not liable
to be soon discontinued or even curtailed for want of sufficient materials for its
production, as is likely to occur in any commodity depending for its existence upon
manufactured or artificial articles, such as most of the substances hitherto used for
combining the ingredients of artificial fuels, which make such fuels too expensive for
competition with the natural coals sold in the markets.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is:
1. An artificial fuel composed of peat and the screenings or fine particles of coal
mixed or combined without other ingredients and in the proportions, by weight, of
from one-third to one-half of said fine particles of coal and the remainder of said peat,
substantially as described.
2. The herein described process of manufacturing artificial fuel composed of peat
and screenings or fine particles of coal, the same consisting, first, of subjecting the
peat to pressure and straining for the removal therefrom of a portion of the water,
then mixing the same with the said screened or fine particles of coal, then forming the
mixture into suitable shape and size, and then drying the same for use, substantially
as described.
Deted this 27th day of On
1000
MAD
JENSEN & SON,
77, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Patent Agents.