IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street, in
the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL."-A communication.
Sealed the 16th January, 1857, and dated the 2nd August 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Pe-
tition, on the 2nd August 1856.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL," (communicated to
me by a foreigner residing abroad), to be as follows:-
This Invention consists, first, in manufacturing coke or fuel from anthracite,
from anthracitous or poor coal, lignites, turf, wood, and ligneous remains, by
incorporating therewith supplementary rich or fatty substances, and mixing all
these matters ultimately in a state of powder, or dust or small particles,
before being burned or converted into coke; second, in manufacturing an
improved coke by adding the above-named substances, or some of them, in
a state of powder, or in small particles, to coal, also reduced to small particles
before being burned or converted into coke.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 31st January 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of August, in the year of our Lord, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said- Richard-
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL," (communicated to
me by a foreigner residing abroad,) upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hand 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 of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 :-
Whereas certain vegetable and mineral combustible substances possess
properties of a different and (sometimes) contrary nature, which render them
more or less adapted, as. the case may be, for general or special employment for
fuel. Now, by means of the present Invention, the favorable qualities of one kind
may be turned to account to make up for what may be undesirable in another
kind, and the Invention consists in taking two or more different descriptions
of fuel, reducing each sort separately to a state of impalpable powder or small
particles, and then mixing them together in the desired proportions, the
mixture being afterwards baked or burnt into fuel; the distinctive feature

page_text: being to reduce the materials to a powder before mixing them, instead of first
combining them and then reducing them to powder, which has been hitherto
practised, but which plan has been found not to answer for all kinds of fuel,
as some are more readily reducible than others.
In the compound fuel, manufactured according to the present Invention,
what may be deficient in density, richness of carbon, or porosity in one is
supplied by the presence of such qualities in others, and vice versa.
In the case of ligneous matters they are not to be reduced to powder, but
may be left in pieces combined in that state with mineral combustible
materials.
In carrying the Invention into effect, the combustible substances which it is
intended to combine together must first be each separately reduced to a state
of powder by pounding or otherwise. Proper proportions of each, according
to the quality and character of fuel desired, are then taken, and the ingredients
well and intimately mixed together by any mechanical means. Pieces of
wood may,
if desired, be added, and the whole carried to the furnace to be
baked, burnt, or converted into fuel.
The inventors do not confine themselves to any particular form or kind of
apparatus or machinery for performing the pounding, proportioning, and
mixing operations, but such furnaces are preferred as are the most capable of
developing and maintaining a great amount of heat.
Anthracite may by this Invention be mixed with ordinary coal for the
production of a fuel of mixed qualities. This material has not hitherto been
combined with such coal, nor used in the manufacture of coke. Now,
anthracite is perhaps the richest in carbon of all combustibles, loses the
least when calcined, has the least alloy of sulphur, and large masses are to be
found in countries not well provided with other combustible materials.
Artificial coke may be manufactured according to this Invention by
combining poor coal, anthracite, lignite, and turf, or other ligneous matters
in greater or smaller particles. Also an artificial fuel, having poor coal,.
anthracite, wood charcoal interposed in the mass, and in which considerable
heating property is united to readiness of ignition, whereby it is well adapted
for locomotives. The fuel may be baked in kilns or made in moulds, in which
it may be placed in alternate layers of wood or other ligneous matter, such as
wood, chopped straw, &c., either singly or combined, having been previously
reduced to powder, and the whole carbonised in a close chamber. The pro-
portions of anthracite and ordinary coal will vary according to the properties
and richness of such ordinary coal.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, the manufacture
of fuel in the state of coke, by reducing anthracite or anthracitous coal to
powder, and thoroughly mixing the. same with ordinary coal, also reduced-
to powder, and then carbonizing the same in a manner similar to that followed
in converting ordinary coal into coke.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.B.)