IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF A BLACK POWDER FROM COAL, AND IN THE APPLICATIONS THEREOF TO. THE MANUFACTURE OF PAINTS, BLACKING, AND VARIOUS OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Gwynne, of Essex Wharf, Essex Street,
Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF A BLACK POWDER
FROM COAL, AND IN THE APPLICATIONS THEREOF TO. THE MANUFACTURE
OF PAINTS, BLACKING, AND VARIOUS OTHER PURPOSES."
Scaled the 18th February 1854, and dated the 13th August 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Gwynne at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 13th August 1853.
1, JOHN GWYNNE, of Essex Wharf, Essex Street, Strand, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF A BLACK
POWDER FROM COAL, AND IN THE APPLICATIONS THEREOF TO THE MANU-
PACTURE OF PAINTS, BLACKING, AND VARIOUS OTHER PURPOSES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in the reduction or pulverising coal into a
fine powder by, any convenient means, and applying this powder in
place of lamp black and other coloring substances now used in the
S

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said John Gwynne in the Great Scal
Patent Office on the 18th February 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN GWYNNE, of Essex Wharf, Essex Street, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Hor reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Gwynne, Her special licence,
that I, the said John Gwynne, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Gwynne, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE PREPARATION OF A BLACK POWDER FROM COAL, AND IN THE APPLICATIONS
THEREOF TO THE MANUFACTURE OF PAINTS, BLACKING, AND VARIOUS OTHER
PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Gwynne, by an instrument in writing under ny hand and seal, 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 1, the said John Gwynne, do hereby declare
the nature, object, and intention 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 (that is to say):

page_text: The general nature, object, and intention of my said Invention
consists in the preparation of a material from the substance or matter
commonly received and known under the general and ordinary term
coal in any of its varieties and modifications, and in the adaptation of
the same to the manufacture of pigments and paints; to the general
purposes of the substances commonly used and known under the
ordinary term blacking, such meaning and being the matter or sub-
stance applied to the cleansing and preservation of leather; and
further, in its applications to other useful ends which I class, and include
under and in the expression and words ("various other purposes")
which are inserted in and form part of the title of my said Patent,
(that is to say) the substance commonly used and known in the arts
under the general term printers ink and Frankfort black; to the
general purposes to to which charcoal of any description (animal char-
coal or other) have been applied in the manufacturing arts and trades,
as in the preparation of the pigments and dark coloring matters and
substances used in the ordinary processes of dyeing and staining. I also
apply the sanie to the processes of refining sugar; the modes of the
purification and clarifying of syrups; the cleansing, decoloration, and
refining of oils; the filtering and clearing of chemical preparations,
medicaments, and decoctions; the filtering and purification of water
for domestic uses on the smaller scales or on the larger for distribution;
the deodorisation of feculent matter, offensive odours, curative or
preventive; to the arrestation of decay, and decomposition of animal
and vegetable matters and substances in all cases and under all
circumstances as to and in which the charcoals of any description
have been hitherto applied and used. And I also apply and use such
material in the composition and manufacture of the gunpowder of
known and ordinary use in the manner in which the charcoals in
present use is applied and used in the manufacture of thic article of
such gunpowder. I perform the improvements in the preparation of
the aforesaid black powder from coal, stated as in part of the title of
my aforesaid Patent, as in manner following; (that is to say,) I per-
form the improvements in the preparation of the black powder from
coal herein-before stated, as entering into and forming part of my said

page_text: cesses.
Patent, by taking any and every known description and variety of coal,
or any carbonaceous matter so denominated, and after due carboniza-
tion thereof its treatment of minute or small fracture, by grinding in
mills or by manipulations of like and suitable nature. I then put the
material so far-prepared in such mode of treatment through the re-
quisite washings, and I give it the subsequent dryings by subjecting
it to a heat sufficient to drive off the moisture; and I then effect its
entire pulverization, or its reduction as nearly as practicable to a finely
pulverized condition, according to the known methods of such pro-
I have herein-before stated that I take in these processes
under my said Patent and for such ends any and every known kind
and variety of coal or substance falling within the range of such
denomination, and can and do fully carry into effect the intentions and
objects. so stated and particularized, and I now desire to state that in
all such my applications I find best, most convenient, and in practice
to be preferred, and I do therefore prefer, the coal or fuel known as
"Gwynne's Patent Solidified. Peat or Coal." I have further to declare,
that in producing the fine or impalpable powder from the coal or
similar substance employed I use two distinct modes of effecting such
purpose one which I denominate the dry method; another which I
distinguish from the first by terming the wet method. The first, or
dry method, I perform by placing the carbonaceous matters that are
ground to a fine powder by any of the usual modes inside of a
revolving churn or other suitable apparatus, which is made to revolve
by any convénient means, and shake out the powder through a textile
screen in sufficient volume and continuous quantity to float about.anil
fill the apartment in order to separate by gravity the fine from the
coarse particles. The revolving apparatus is constructed in the middle
of an octagonal or other formed chamber of about fifteen feet area,
and about fifteen feet high. The walls or sides of the said chamber
are fitted all round, full to the top, with a series of drawers one above
the other, open and converging towards the centre or middle of the
apartment, with a space of about eight inches left between each
octagonal row of drawers or shelves in the series to admit the impal-
pable atoms of powder which is floating about to find way into' and

page_text: settle in, each according to the degree of fineness, the finest in the
highest shelves, and coarse in the drawers placed lowest in the apart-
ment. The second, or wet process, I perform by the immersion of the
material in a closed vessel containing an abundant quantity of water,
(say of from six to eight times the quantity of water to that of the
material under treatment,) that is to say, about six or eight portions of
water by measurement to one portion of the material. The material
and the water containing it is then to be thoroughly and forcibly
agitated by any suitable mechanical means, until the grosser and larger
particles subside at a certain rate of rapidity by their gravity, whilst
the finer, lighter, and smaller particles descend or subside at a lesser
rapidity, and are intercepted in their descent or subsidence in the con-
taining vessel at that point of time, or of the place they occupy in the
containing vessel is found, and determined to be that determined on as
fittest for the state of division required. For the purpose of refining
sugar after "Gwynne's Patent Solidified Pent or Coal" has been
carbonized and reduced to powders of different degrees of fineness, I
add to those powders certain portions as required of phosphates,
sulphate and carbonate of lime, sulphate of soda ; also alkaline
carbonates, sulphate of alumina, sulphate of baryta or silicious sand.
Having thus described the nature and intention of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner which in general practice I prefer to organize
and carry the same into effect, I desire to have it understood that
although I have herein set forth particular examples of express organi-
zation in shewing and describing the same, and management more or
less in detail of the mode of treatment, machinery, and apparatus used
and applied by me in carrying out my said Invention, yet I say that
I present the same in this my Specification rather as a mode of eluci-
dating the manner of treatment, the principle of construction, and as
giving some positive mode of organization for such treatment and
principle of construction, (in accordance with the requisition to that
effect in the grant of my Letters Patent,) than as exclusively and
strictly confining myself to or giving them as the only definite and
positive mode of treatment or manner of construction in which my
said Invention can be carried out, but that I claim them generally in

page_text: the manner as they are herein stated in as far as at present they are
not in known and public use, but not confining myself to the minute
precision of such mode of treatment or organization, such combina-
tion, or such definite and fixed applications, provided that, and so far as
the peculiar character, or any or either part, of my said Invention, as
well as the entirety thereof in its general mode of treatment, principle
of construction, application and use, be retained or put in practice under
any minor change of form, configuration, any transposition of parts, or
any modification thereof whatsoever.
In witness whereof, J, the said John Gwynne, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this. Thirteenth day of February, One thou-
sand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
JOHN WALLER DUNCAN.
JOHN GWYNNE. (L.S.)