IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING MATERIALS FOR AND IN PURIFYING COAL GAS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur Warner, of 31, Threadneedle Street, in
the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PREPARING
MATERIALS FOR AND IN PURIFYING COAL GAS."
Sealed the 30th December 1862, and dated the 5th July 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Arthur Warner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 5th
July 1862.
I, ARTHUR WARNER, of 31, Threadneedle Street, in the City of London,
do bereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRE-
PARING MATERIALS FOR AND IN PURIFYING COAL GAS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing materials for
and in purifying coal gas. According to my Invention I employ in the puri-
fication of coal gas the cinders or oxide of iron obtained from puddling,
reheating, and refining furnaces used in the manufacture of iron. And in
order to prepare these materials to render them suitable for the purification of
coal
gas,
such oxide materials or cinders are ground or stamped to reduce
them so that they will pass through a sieve, and I prefer they should be passed
through a sieve with holes of an eighth of an inch square. These oxides are
then used in what are known as dry lime purifiers, or those wherein oxides of.
iron, otherwise obtained, have been heretofore used. The ground oxides above
mentioned are, when about to be used, damped throughout with water, after
these oxides of iron have been in use for a time and their powers of purifying

page_text: gas have become no longer sufficient for the purpose they are to be removed
from the purifying apparatus and placed in a heap in the outer atmosphere
till they have become thoroughly heated, when they are to be spread out in
the open atmosphere for six or seven days, when they will, when moistened,
be again fit for use as before, or in place of making these oxides into heaps,
when they come from the purifying apparatus they may be placed in ovens or
furnaces, and raised to a red heat and again used in a damp state as before
explained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Arthur Warner in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd
January 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARTHUR
WARNER, of 31, Threadneedle Street, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Arthur Warner, Her special licence that I, the said Arthur Warner, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Arthur
Warner, 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
PREPARING MATERIALS FOR AND IN PURIFYING COAL GAS," upon the condition
(amongst others), that I, the said Arthur Warner, my executors or admi-
nistrators, 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 of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Arthur Warner, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is, to be per-.
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following:
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in preparing materials for:

page_text: and in purifying coal gas. For these purposes I employ the cinders or oxide
of iron obtained from puddling, reheating, and refining furnaces used in the
manufacture of iron, which cinders or oxide of iron I prepare and use as here-
after described in place of or in combination with other preparations of oxides
of iron heretofore employed for like purposes. Heretofore the hydrated oxides
of iron which have been used for purifying coal gas have been peculiarly
useful in separating sulphuretted hydrogen from coal gas, but I have ascer-:
tained by extensive experiments that by the use of the cinders or oxide of iron
above mentioned; when properly prepared and used as hereafter explained, not
I only is the sulphuretted hydrogen removed, but coal gas is also deprived of the
carbonic acid and ammonia, and consequently the purification of coal gas from
its impurities is effected more fully and advantageously than when using the
bydrated oxides heretofore employed. The cinders or oxide of iron obtained.
from the furnaces of iron works as above mentioned are first ground or stamped
and sifted through sieves with holes, by preference, of about one-eighth to one-
sixth of an inch square. If the cinders or oxides above mentioned bave much
dirt or impurities mixed therewith it is desirable that the same should be
washed out before the cinders are used. The sifted oxide is used in what are
called dry lime purifiers or those wherein other oxides of iron are used and in
like manner thereto, and such cinder or oxide is generally used in a damped
state, but this is not essential. I would state that it is found that when the
cinder or oxide of iron obtained from the furnaces of iron works as above
mentioned is used for the first time to purify coal gas, the sulphuretted hydrogen
is not so fully and effectually acted on as when using hydrated oxide of iron,
such as is now very largely employed, and it is only when the cinder or oxide
from the furnaces of iron works has been further prepared that it fully and
effectually acts on the sulphuretted hydrogen of the coal gas which is being
purified thereby; hence it is desirable when using a quantity of such cinder or
oxide for the first time to combine it with a quantity of other like cinder or
oxide which has been before used and has been subsequently further prepared
by the action of atmospheric air. After the cinder or oxide above mentioned
has been used for a time, and the power of purifying gas has become no longer
sufficient for the purpose, the cinder or oxide is removed from the purifiers and
made up into heaps in the open air till the same becomes heated, when the
cinder or oxide is to be spread and turned over from time to time, till it
becomes again suitable for use, which will generally be the case in a few days,
depending on the state of the atmosphere.
I would remark that I make no claim separately to this system of revivi-
fying oxides of iron by atmospheric air, after they have been used to purify

page_text: coal gas as the same is well known when treating other oxides, but it is new
thus to treat cinders or oxides of iron from the furnaces of iron works, and
thus to prepare such cinders d oxides of iron for the purification of coal gas.
The cinders or oxides, of iron obtained from the furnaces of iron works, thus
prepared not only retain the property of removing carbonic acid and ammonia
which they are found to possess when used in the first instance, but they are
rendered more effective in removing also the sulphuretted hydrogen from coal
gas.
In witness whereof, I, the said Arthur Warner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
ARTHUR WARNER. (L.S.)