IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FUEL, ITS PREPARATION AND APPLICATIONS FOR THE REDUCTION OF ORES, FUSING AND REFINING METALS, CEMENTATION OR MAKING STEEL, AND TREATING SALTS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Gwynne and James Egleson Anderson
Gwynne, of Essex Wharf, Strand, Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FUEL, ITS PREPARATION
AND APPLICATIONS FOR THE REDUCTION OF ORES, FUSING AND REFINING
METALS, CEMENTATION OR MAKING STEEL, AND TREATING SALTS."-
Partly a communication.
Sealed the 21st April 1854, and dated the 3rd December 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Gwynne and
James Egleson Anderson Gwynne at the Office of the Commis-
sioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 3rd December 1858.
We, JoHN GWYNNE and JAMES EGLESON ANDERSON GWYNNE, of
Essex Wharf, Strand, Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FUEL, ITS
PREPARATIONS AND APPLICATIONS FOR THE REDUCTION OF ORES, FUSING AND
REFINING METALS, CEMENTATION OR MAKING STEEL, AND TREATING SALTS,"
to be as follows:-
First an improved mode of manufacturing peat into a hard and

page_text: valuable fuel. The peat, as it is at present air dried, or as may be
otherwise done, is passed between a pair of rollers with projections, or
by any convenient means reduced into such a size that it may be passed
freely into the compressing machinery, as described in the Patent taken
out by James E. A. Gwynne, dated 6th May 1853, where it is com-
pressed by descending rams into the size & forms required, or it may
be pressed through a conicaly formed tube, made either round, square,
oval, or other shape, by which means it may be compressed, and may
be cut into the lengths required as it passes from the tube or otherwise.
The descending rams and mould boxes or tubes are raised to a con-
siderable heat by any convenient means, and in that way a polished and
smooth surface is at once produced upon the blocks under treatment,
which tends to prevent absorption of moisture and attrition in carriage,
or the blocks or figures may be coated with a protective matter as it
comes from the tube, &c. Ornamental surfaces, figures, &c., may be
produced upon the surfaces by changing the form of the dies and
moulds.
Another mode or improvement in the manufacture of fuel from small
coal, coal dust, &c., consists in introducing pitch, coal tar, or other
bituminous matter, in the form of vapour or steam, into the dried dust
or small coal, &c., in sufficient quantity to cause the materials or
particles to adhere together after submitting it to pressure, or the peat,
coal, or coke may be combined together & pressed in one mass. The
peat coal, legnin, or other matters may be dried by blowing through
them a jet of very high pressure or surcharged steam, or hot or
cold air.
We also propose to introduce the following substances into the fuel,
&c., before compression, such as oxides, chlorides, nitrates, carbonates,
amoniurets, borates, or cyanides of metals, alkalies, & alkaline earths,
& their compounds, for the & reduction of ores, fusing and refining of
metals, cementation, or making steel, &c., or for annealing in such
quantitys and proportions as the ores, &c. to be reduced or otherwise
treated may require, such proportions being added to the fuel before it
is compressed. We further propose to make the fuel with the mixtures
in such relative proportions as that they may be used with or without

page_text: the hot or cold blast for such smelting and refining and reducing
process, introduced from the top, sides, or bottom of the charge. We
also propose to make coke from such compressed or compounded peat
where it may be so required. In the converting furnaces for the forming
of carbonates or carburets of metals & alkalies, we also propose the
use of the peat prepared for that purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Gwynne and James Egleson Anderson
Gwynne in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd June 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
JOHN GWYNNE and JAMES EGLESON ANDERSON GWYNNE, of Essex
Wharf, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Engineers, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said John Gwynne and James Egleson
Anderson Gwynne, Her especial licence that we, the said John Gwynne
and James Egleson Anderson Gwynne, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Gwynne and James
Egleson Anderson Gwynne, our 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 law-
fully 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 MANUFACTURE OF FUEL, ITS
PREPARATION AND APPLICATIONS FOR THE REDUCTION OF ORES, FUSING AND
REFINING METALS, CEMENTATION OR MAKING STEEL, AND TREATING SALTS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John Gwynne
and James Egleson Anderson Gwynne, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and scals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is

page_text: 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 we, the said John Gwynne and James
Egleson Anderson Gwynne, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
(that is to say)-
par-
We declare the same to consist in, and to be the manufacture and
preparation of, a new and improved fuel for the purpose of its direct
application to the reduction and treatment of metalic ores, salts, &c., in
the operations of smelting, refining, and purifying, and to the general
purposes of metallurgy, and for the conversion and chemical processes
now already practised in the metallurgical arts by the use of and modes
of applying the fuels in present and ordinary use, such fuel being new
in its constituent materials in their combination with each other, and in
the modes of treating such fuel by a further combination with the fluxes
or corrective matters and the ores to be operated upon and improved,
as regards its beneficial application to the purposes herein stated. We
hereby also declare that the mode which in practice we effect and carry
out our said Invention is fully described and ascertained in manner
following: The peat for its ordinary preparation for conversion into fuel
is taken as it is at present found, in the natural wet and spongy state;
in that condition the blocks or portions as they are cut from the bog
are subjected to the action of a series of pressing rollers, and are by
that operation reliever of a considerable quantity of the water they con-
tain, and they are thus passed through successive sets of pressing rollers
until the moisture is. sufficiently pressed out of them, or the moisture
may be removed by any other arrangement or process most convenient.
The cakes or slabs of partially dried peat thus produced are then passed
between cylinders revolving in opposite directions, or one revolving and
the other stationary, and having at equal distances along their outer
surfaces projections about equal to the thickness of the slabs of peat;
the result of this operation is, the reduction of the slabs or blocks into
pieces of a convenient form or size for ordinary use, or for further

page_text: preparatory treatment. Such portions of the peat are then subjected
to any of the ordinary and known modes of dessication, or it is from
that state converted into charcoal, and is then ready for use or further
treatment; and if peat fuel be adopted in the operations the usual
management of the fluxes or other corrective matters required in
smelting, &c., are followed. We then further reduce the peat, coal, or
charcoal of peat or coal, or their combinations, if requiring it, into
smaller pieces by any suitable mode of grinding or comminution, and in
such comminuted state we evaporate any remaining moisture by any
well known dessicating process. We then take of the mass of dessi-
cated and pulverized peat coal, or their charcoals or combinations so
produced, or, as they may be prepared in any other way, as much in
quantity as shall form the principal or staple ingredient in the mass of
acting fuel required for a given operation of smelting or reduction, and
to such quantity of the prepared peat or coal, or their combinations,
we add as much corrective or auxiliary matters of the following sub-
stances as, from the circumstances of the case in operation, may bo
determined necessary to govern and facilitate the operation. The sub-
stances to which we thus refer for such corrective or auxiliary purposes,
and the administration of the governing principle for the facilitation of
the process of smelting, fusing, and refining in the metals, with tho.
cementation or making steel, the reduction or manufacture of steel
direct from the ores, and the treating of salts with the addition of
others or their compounds, are potash, lime, magnesia, manganese,
soda, phosphoric acid, alkales, fluorine, fluoride of calccum, silcx,
or any of the combinations of lime, and we elect and choose from
such substances, or matters, or solutions, and add to the mass, or
materials, or charge to be operated upon, such of them and in such
quantities and such relative proportions of each as upon the ordinary
estimates, or the testing experiments to determine with precision the
proper working character for the charge of the furnace, it may from
time to time, and under the varying circumstances of practice be found
expedient to adapt, and thereupon we adjust and determine the
character and the quantities of such corrective and auxiliary materials
best suited for a favorable product. We then disintegrate such

page_text: materials or ingredients by pulverization or otherwise, in order to bring
them into the same mechanical condition as the peat or coal portion
of the fuel, as nearly as may be practicable and convenient; we then
take of the ore itself, in the form of oxides, chlorides, nitrates, borates,
carburets, sulphurets, carbonates, phosphurets, chromates, or in any
other form in which it is found in its unaltered state, the quantity
previously determined to operate upon, and to which the quantity of
corrective or auxiliary matter has been adjusted, and wo in like manner
lisintegrate and reduce to a comminuted state such quantity of the
ore so taken so as also to bring it into the same mechanical condition
with the before-mentioned peat or coal portion of the compound; and
the fluxes or corrective matter and the ore itself in its unaltered state
being equalized or rendered uniform in its effect upon each of those
compounds, as nearly as may be practicable, we make an intimate
mechanical mixture of the same, either in a dry state of pulverization
or disintegration, and by simply stirring together and commingling, or
with the addition of moisture or steam in cases whero the character
and conditions of the fuel, the corrective or auxiliary matters, and of
the oro under process, may severally or collectively be found to require
such addition. We evaporate the water or moisture contained in the
ores & fluxes, &c., in their natural state, if necessary, at this stage of
the process. After such adjustment of the charge of the furnace, and
the determination of the charactor of the load and of the due admix-
ture of the materials composing it, we take the compound so formed
and subject it to a degree of compression sufficient to give to the mass
a firm solidity. We give it this degree of compression in moulds of
suitable form and bulk. The form and dimensions of such moulds may
be varied at will or to suit any peculiarity of circumstance, but the form
which in practise we prefer is that of a ball or globe or sphere perfectly
round, or as near to a globular shape as it can be conveniently made,
as we find this form admits a larger amount of air, thereby effecting a
rapid combustibility and activity of action, burns freely and faster, and
assumes its proper position in the furnace. Where stowage is an
object of great importance we bring about as nearly as possible the
same result, by making the fuel hexagonal prisms, having one of their

page_text: extremities of convex figure, and the opposite extremity of concave
figure, each of such figures having the same radius of curviture, the
hexagonal figure of the prism being advantageous for an economical
and secure stowage of the blocks, and the convexity and concavity of
their extremities providing suitablo open spaces or interstices among
The
them when thrown into the furnace and through the mass.
dimensions of such blocks we vary, according to the service for which
they are intended; from two and a half to ten inches in diameter in the
round blocks, to two and a half inches in diameter and eight inches in
length in the prisms. The degree of compression we use is that
sufficient to give to the peat, coal, &c., the density required to com-
pose a furnace fuel of sufficient power for general purposes, and the
degree of compression we find best suited to the requirement wo thus
effect. The most effective pressure for the compounded fuel as ap-
plied generally with reference to the nature and condition of the
materials may be advantageously taken at about one hundred tons,
given by direct pressure or delivered by a percussive blow of the
same amount of force, and we administer such pressures or such
percussive blows by any of the well known means usually practised
by mechanics. It must be here observed that as the precise amount
of pressure proper to be used must necessarily be adjusted to meet
the variable character of the peat coal and the other component
materials under treatment, a fixed and unvariable degree of pressure
cannot be estimated, but upon the averages taken of peat and coal
and the other general constituents, the degree of compression pro-
duced by a range of from one hundred to one thousand tons may
be considered as a practical working pressure. We also compound
and make the said compounded fuel after the general manner as
aforesaid, giving the constituent materials such relative proportions
as shall render it of equal effect, either with the hot or cold blast
We also use
furnace, for such smelting and reducing process.
compressed air in the smelting furnaces, and introduce it at various
heights in the charge when so required; we also use the air of different
degrees of compression at various stages of the process. We further
apply the same said principles and modes of proceeding in the formation

page_text: of a peat or coal fuel, for the purpose of converting the same int
similarly compounded coke for the usual application of these fuels t
the operations of metallurgy. We also apply the same principles and
inodes of proceeding in the manufacture of the compounded fuel fo
the converting furnaces used in producing the carbonates or carburet
of the metals and alkalies. We also at times mix with the peat (wher
it has not sufficient carbon in itself) anthrucite or other coal containing
a large amount of carbon. We also use and apply the same process
or mode of treatment to all ores of whatever nature or kind, and not
confining ourselves to iron. We likewise apply and use tho. same
principle of manufacture as regards the intermixture of the peat, or
coal, or coke, of our compounded fuel with such correctivo and auxiliary
materials as a given smelting, purifying, or reducing process may require,
without the superaddition of pressure in the formation of the blocks of
the fuel; and this modification of the process of manufacture we make
by using an adhesive agglutinating or plastic material in order to
produce a certain amount of colicsion in the mass of materials in aid
of or in substitution, wholly or in part, of the mechanical pressure
herein-before described, and such said modifications we employ in cases
when the variable bituminous character of the peat or coal or coke
used may be found to require a greater or less degree of mechanical
pressure, with reference to the character of the corrective and auxiliary
mineral substances to be employed in the compound, as regards their
tractability in the action of the process. As some ores do not require
fluxes or other corrective materials we in such cases do not use any,
but simply mix together and compress the ore and fuel, as before
described; and as some ores require a large amount of fluxes and
corrective matter, where it is more convenient we introduce the flux, &c.
into the furnace in a pulverized or other state, having the ore pressed
into blocks with the fuel.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be carried
into effect, we would observe, in conclusion, that we do not confine or
restrict ourselves to the precise details or arrangements which we have
had occasion to.describe or refer to, as many variations may be.mado

page_text: therefrom without deviating from the principles or main features of our
Invention; but what we consider novel and original, and therefore claim
as the Invention secured to us by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent, is,―
First, the introduction of the ores, fluxes, or other corrective matter,
or any of them, singly or.separately, into the fuel used for the reduc-
tion of the said ores, &c., as before described, and that either with or
without the addition of agglutinating or plastic materials, or con-
cussive or direct pressure.
Second, the use of peat, prepared as described, for the cementation
or making of steel and treating of salts, combined with or without
fluxes or corrective matter.
Third, the manufacture of coke from such compounded fuels, as
described.
Fourth, the mixtures of the fuels to be used, as described, to increase
the amount of carbon any one of them may contain by the addition
of another having a larger amount of carbon than usual, or any
substitute for effecting that purpose.
Fifth, the mechanical form of the blocks, as before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Gwynne and James
Egleson Anderson Gwynne, have hereunto set our hands and
seals, this Third day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.