IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF ARTIFICIAL COALACTURING ANDESTICPURPO
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Harcourt Brown, of Pine Lodge, Lower
Teddington Road, Hampton Wick, in the County of Middlesex, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF ARTIFICIAL COAL
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Harcourt Brown
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 28th April 1873.
$6
I, JOHN HARCOURT BROWN, of Pine Lodge, Lower Teddington Road,
Hampton Wick, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF
ARTIFICIAL COAL FOR MANUFACTURING AND DOMESTIC PURPOSES," to be as
follows:
•
This Invention has for its object the production of a bituminised coal"
by the combination of certain inflammable and non-inflammable
materials, such as chalk, chalk marl, small or dust, or refuse coal, and
other similar materials, either mineral or vegetable, mixed with coal

page_text: or other tar, pitch, asphalte, resin, petroleum, and their distilates and
products, or some of them.
These materials, or some of them, are combined in certain proportions
varying according to the intended uses of the improved bituminised coal,
after being ground or otherwise reduced by mechanical means, and the
bituminous matters melted by steam heat or other suitable and efficient
means. The said materials are then properly levigated, and compounded,
and formed into blocks in iron pans or moulds of convenient size and
shape, as required, wherein the said prepared materials are baked by
steam heat or other suitable and efficient means. When cold the
process is completed, and the blocks of artificial coal are turned out of
the pans or moulds in which they have been formed, and either stored-
entire or broken into pieces suitable for consumption in fire-grates,
furnacės, kilns, or other like places.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Harcourt Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th October 1873.
· TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HARCOURT BROWN, of Pine Lodge, Lower Teddington Road, Hampton.
Wick, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Harcourt Brown, Her special
licence that I, the said John Harcourt Brown, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Harcourt Brown, 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 a
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF ARTIFICIAL COAL FOR Manu-
FACTURING AND DOMESTIC PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that

page_text: I, the said John Harcourt Brown, 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 to the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Harcourt Brown, 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 the production, of a bituminised
coal by the combination of certain inflammable and non-inflammable:
materials, such as chalk, chalk marl, small or dust, or refuse coal, and:
other similar materials, either mineral or vegetable, mixed with tar,
pitch, asphalte, resin, petroleum, and their distillates and products, or.
some of them.
I now proceed to explain the means by which I propose to attain the
said object of my present Invention :-
.
:
I mix seven and a quarter tons of chalk, half a ton of coal dust or .
refuse coal, and a quarter of a ton of ordinary charcoal together, and
pulverise the whole whilst in a dry state, by means of crushing rollers
or other suitable appliances, and, if necessary, pass the whole through-
fine wire sieves, in order that the said ingredients may be more
intimately incorporated. This compound is now placed in a pug mill,"
surrounded by a steam jacket, or other suitable machine or apparatus,
and heated by steam, or otherwise. I then gradually introduce into the
mill two tons each of mineral tar and pitch, previously melted together,
and intimately mix and work the whole until it becomes a plastic mass,"
when it is forced from the pug mill into large iron pans or moulds,
surrounded by steam jackets, and heated to from 150 to 200 degrees of
Fahrenheit's scale, in order to bake or harden the said plastic compound
into coal. From half an hour to three-fourths of an hour will generally
suffice for this operation. When the coal presents a bright or glossy_
appearance it is allowed to cool.
The surface of the improved coal may be rendered smooth when
desired by the oneration of rollers themoon.

page_text: sale.
Breeze, such as is used by brick makers, may be substituted for the
coal dust in the proportion of one ton of the former in the place of half
a ton of the latter, or double the quantity.
When it is desired to produce a harder or firmer coal I use the same
quantity of natural asphalte instead of the pitch. Resin or any other
suitable bituminous materials may be substituted for the pitch, or be
used as adjuncts to the compound..
5
In some cases, as for the furnaces of steam boilers and the like-1
purposes, three gallons of crude petroleum may be intermixed and
combined with each ton of the said dry powdered compound, but when
asphalte is used in the place of pitch, two gallons of the petroleum will
suffice for each ton of the said compound.
My improved artificial coal whilst in the plastic state may be moulded 1
into blocks of any suitable form or size, according to the purposes for
which it is intended, or for convenience of stowage or transport.
The quantity and relative proportions of the several materials herein-
specified may be varied according to the quality of coal intended to be
produced, or to the uses to which it is to be applied.
'
Although I prefer to use the said several materials in the relative
proportions herein-before specified for the formation or manufacture of
my improved artificial coal, I wish it to be understood that I do not
confine myself to such proportions, as they may be considerably varied
to form or produce coal of different qualities and suited to various
purposes, but I claim as my Invention, and desire to secure by the
before mentioned in part recited Letters Patent, the method of manu-
facturing artificial coal, substantially as herein described.
·
In witness whereof, I, the said John Harcourt Brown, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of October, in the 3
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
J. H. BROWN. (L.S.)