AN IMPROVED METHOD OF COMBINING AND APPLYING CERTAIN KINDS OF FUEL
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, THOMAS
HARPER, of Tamworth, in the County of Stafford, Merchant, sends greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, in and
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
dat at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of February last, for Himself,
His heirs and successors, did give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Harper, together with John Christie, of Mark Lane, in the City of London,
Merchant, our exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that we, our exors, admors, and assigns, and
every of them, by ourselves, or by deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or
such others as we, the said John Christie and Thomas Harper, our exors,
admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time, and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF COMBINING AND APPLYING CERTAIN KINDS OF FUEL;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging us, the said John Christie
and Thomas Harper, or one of us, by an instrument in writing under our
hands and seals, or the hand and seal of one of us, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said

page_text: Thomas Harper, do hereby declare that the nature of our Invention, and
the manner in which the same is performed, consist―
In combining and applying, for the general purposes of fuel, the common
bituminous coal with stone coal, culm, or anthracyte, in proportions varying
from one fifth to one third bituminous coal, and the remainder stone coal, culm,
or anthracyte, the object being to use only so much of the bituminous coal as
may be found necessary to keep up fires suitable to the purpose required,
without producing the nuisance of smoke; such proportions will be found to
vary according to the qualities of the coals, which vary in different situations,
and according as the stove grate or furnace in use has more or less capacity of
draft or windage; but these will be easily ascertained by trial. We have gene-
rally found one fourth of bituminous coal to be a good proportion where the
bars of the grate are not more than an inch wide and are half an inch asunder.
The stone coal may be either applied in the usual form of such coal, or mixed
with the small or culm thereof in proportions which we recommend to be
about one half of each such proportions, however varying as before, according
to the draft or windage. By this combination the heat and combustion of the
fire is easily kept up, and the fires of steam engines and other large stoves and
furnaces of almost every sort may be maintained in large towns without any
annoyance from smoke; hot air stoves for heating buildings may be also
supplied in the same manner; and by a combination of the small or culm of
the stone coal with the usual breze and ashes they may be very advantageously
used in the manufacturing and burning of bricks.
In witness whercof, I, the said Thomas Harper, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of August, One thousand eight
hundred and twenty-four