NEW-INVENTED MINERAL LAMP BLACK
Year: 1798

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
Row, of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Merchant, do send
greeting..
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of July, in the thirty-eighth year of His
reign, did give and grant unto me, the said William Row, my exors, adiñors,
and assigns, His special licence that I, the said William Row, my exors,
adiñiors, and assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully. might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and all His Majesty's Colonies and Plan-
tations abroad, my "NEW-INVENTED MINERAL LAMP BLACK;" in which Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Row,
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as
in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Row, do hereby declare that my Invention consists in obtaining a
black colouring matter, which I call mineral lamp black, from pit coal, or.
any kind of mineral or fossil coal, by preserving the blackest particles of the

page_text: smoke arising from it when in a state ignition, which black colouring matter
is obtained in the following or in any other manner by which such smoke
can be preserved :-
A furnace with a door is to be erected, of any size or dimentions thought
proper, with an upright flue or chimney, and the bottom of the furnace to
consist of a grate open beneath. At the distance of a few yards from the
furnace, a house of any form, with an arched roof or not, at the option of the
parties interested, and of a size proportionable to the quantity of lamp black
intended to be collected at any one time, is also to be erected. This house
(which, from its forming a recipient for my lamp black, I call a blacking house,)
has a communication with the upright chimney before mentioned, by means
of an horizontal tube or flue opening into such upright chimney a few feet
above the fire in the furnace. On the top of the upright flue or chimney, and
fixed thereto by hinges, is placed a thin iron stop plate or damper, of a size
sufficient to cover the aperture, and which can be opened and shut at pleasure
by means of a handle suspended from that side of the plate which is oposite
to the hinges. In the horizontal tube or, flue is placed transverselly.another
stop plate or damper, which can be drawn out and pushed in at pleasure, and
by which the communication between the upright chimney and the blacking
house can be opened and shut, and, at one end, of the roof of the blacking
house is a small aperture, or chimney. Now the, fire.(which is to be made
of pit coal or any other kind of mineral, or fossil coal) being,, kindled in
the furnace; the person who attends it every time he throws,in fresh, coals
immediately shuts the stop.plate or damper, close upon the top, of the upright
flue or, chimney, and draws out the stopplate or damper in the horizontal
tube, or flue, by which means the communication between., the upright flue.,.or
chimney, and ithe, blacking house' is left open, and in conséquence the smoke
which is prevented;from 'ascending through the. upright flue-by the: stop.plate
on the, top being shut, is forced tlirough the..horizontal tube or flue into the
blacking house, where the blackest particles, subside or attach themselves.to
the roof and walls, and the more subtilo. fly off through the small aperture or
chimneys at the end of the roof, and through which the rarefied: air.. also
escapes. Care must be taken to keep the communication between the upright
flue or chimney, and the blacking, house no longer than is necessary to receive
the blackest particles of the smoke into the blacking house, otherwise the
lamp black will.not be. of so pure. a quality, as a part. of tho. white ash arising
from the fire in its. more advanced state of ignition will pass into the blacking
houses with it: As, soon therefore, as the operator perceives that the blackest
particles.of.the, smoke are thrown into the blacking house, the stop plate or

page_text: damper in the horizontal tube or flue must be pushed in or closed, and that
on the top of the upright flue remain until fresh coals are thrown into the
furnace, which is done by the operator at his discretion. The lamp black
is taken out of the blacking house at the end of every six or eight days, and
after being dried in a drying house is packed up for sale.