A CERTAIN IMPROVED METHOD OF OPERATING FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONVERTING PEAT MOSS AND PEAT TURF OR BOG INTO Price 8
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
LINNING, of Number Twenty-two, Hill Street, in the City of Edinburgh, in
North Britain, Clerk to Her Majesty's Signet, at present residing at Chryston
Cottage, in the Parish of Calder, County of Lanark, send greeting.
WHEREAS His late most Excellent King William the Fourth, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Sixth day of February, in the seventh year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Michael Linning,. my exors, adñiors, and assignees, His special licence,
that I, the said Michael Linning, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Michael Linning, my exors, adiñors, or assigns,should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed,and also in all His said Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, my Invention of "A CERTAIN IMPROVED METHOD OF OPERATING
FOR THE PURPOSE OF CONVERTING PEAT MOSS AND PEAT TURF OR BOG INTO
Price 8d1

page_text: FUEL, AND OBTAINING FROM IT TAB, GAS, AND OTHER CERTAIN SUBSTANCES OR
MATTERS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Michael Linning, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to
be enrolled in His said 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 thereunto had, will more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Michael Linning, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention of
certain improvements in converting mosses into fuel, by preparing and drying
said mosses so as to render them suitable as fuel for various economical and
useful purposes, and for producing from said mosses or prepared fuel certain
colouring matters and paints, and also for the production of gas, ammonia,
tar, oil, varnish, and a solid combustible of which candles, may be made, pitch
and coke from the same, is described in manner following, that is to
say-
I in the first place reduce the mosses to a homogeneous pulpy mass,nearly
in the same manner as brick makers reduce their plastic material to a uniform
state, namely, by passing it through what they call a puggy mill, but which I
fit with longer and sharper knives somewhat obliqued; or I effect the same
object by means of the vertical rollers also used by brick makers and by
colour grinders, or by any other grinding or crushing apparatus, whereby
the moss is subjected to the process of cutting, milling, kneading, or
pressing, whereupon it presents or exhibits a smooth, oily, or glutinous
appearance on the surface. I then convey the moss so prepared to and place it
on a table,platform, or floor, to be cut or moulded like bricks, into any size or
shape, either by the hand or by mechanical means; or if desirable, and for
particular purposes, coke prepared from the moss itself may be mixed and
incorporated with the moss pulp before the same is cut or moulded into
blocks. These blocks or pieces are then exposed or subjected to more or
less pressure by means of levers, screws, hydraulic presses, or other com-
pressing power or apparatus, and transferred to and arranged in a close
chamber heated by flues, or a stove or to a kiln, in order that they may
dry or consolidate from the evaporation of the moisture they contain.
Exposure in this manner to an artificial heat produced by or obtained from
the substance itself, and raised from seventy to one hundred and twenty
degrees or higher for a period of twenty-four hours will probably be sufficient

page_text: to dry the manufactured article completely, as will be easily descernible, and
which is obtained in a very hard and dense state, and may be used for the
saime purposes as pit coal, with the advantage that it is free, at least generally
so, from sulphur; and besides, in the spring, summer, and autumual months I
dry said fuel in sheds and tents, and in frames either of wood or iron
wire, in the open air; said frames to have a tent or canopy roof so constructed
as completely to throw off the rain and protect the fuel in the shelves under-
neath from the rain and from nocturnal dews and frosts; and for the better
preservation of such frames I paint them with the tarextracted from the fuel in
the process of coking. I moreover obtain residuary matters from furnaces,
fireplaces, and stove flues in which the above fuel is buint, which, after being
grinded either in water or oil, and freed from all impurities, may advantageously
be employed as colouring matters, and as substitutes for ivory black and for
Roman ochre or English umber and similar pigments. I likewise prepare
coke from the same fuel, in coking kilns similar in construction to those used
for coking coal, but in which the draft is smaller and the access of external air
still more restricted, or in retorts. I also produce tar in making the coke,
which may be used as a substitute for foreign tar in smearing sheep, for
making pitch, and other purposes. By heating the fuel in a close vessel or
retort, or proper distillatory apparatus, such as is well known to chemists and
persons coversant in these matters, gas, ammonia, oil, and materials of
which candles maybe made, and which may be used as a varnish,are produced,
besides the coke and tar. Again, by the admixture of this fuel, either in a
high dried state or in its coke, with its own tar, I also obtain a totally new
and different modification of it, which will be found a powerful and fertile
generative of steam or gas, giving out an intense heat and bright flame. For
the immediate and economical supply of my fires and furnaces for my stoves,
kilns, and retorts, I either by an expeditiously and simply applied compression,
and evaporation, or both, or in ovens, or on hot hearths, reduce the substance
directly as it comes either from the moss field or the mill into a fuel sufficiently
adapted for the above temporary and subservient purposes, namely, of feeding
my fires and furnaces.
Having now described my said Invention in such a manner as to enable
competent persons to practice the same, I will point out what I claim as my
said Invention. And whereas the different mechanical and other apparatus,
such as mills and presses, kilns and stoves, which I have described or referred
to in describing how to convert peat moss, peat turf, or bog into fuel, according
to my improved method, as well as the different processes which I have

page_text: referred to of making tar gas for illumination, and ammoniacal gas, are not
any of them new in themselves, And whereas the processes of coking peat
prepared for fuel in the ordinary way, and the processes of obtaining gas and
other substances from it, have been practised, or are or may be known
to chemists, I wish it to be clearly understood that I make no claim of
Invention to the said apparatus or processes as such, nor do I in particular
claim generally to discover how to obtain from peat the substances tar,
gas, oil, ammonia, varnish, and spirit obtainable from it; all I claim as
my Invention, in so far as regards these particular substances, is their appli-
cation to useful and practical purposes. But I wish it to be clearly understood
that I specially, primarily, and exclusively claim as my Invention the par-
ticular method of operating which I have described, and of preparing,
working, milling, and drying peat moss, peat turf or bog, so as to produce
great and total change upon its qualities and properties, whereby I amenabled
to convert said peat moss, peat turf or bog, into an highly useful and
extremely valuable fuel, assimilating it in some degree to coal, and rendering
it subservient to various public and profitable purposes. And I moreover
claim as my discovery or Invention, that the coke, the residuum of said fuel,
may, by being ground either in water or oil, be employed as a pigment and
used as a substitute either for ivory black or blackening, and for several other
purposes, and that the ashes obtained from said fuel may by the simple
process of boiling in pure water, and by being freed from all impurities, and
by being in like manner ground in water or oil, be employed as a pigment and
used as a substitute either for Roman ochre or English umber. The con-
version, then, of peat moss, peat turf or bog, into a fuel equal to coal
for some, and superior to it for several purposes, by the particular method of
operating which I have described, and the extraction of the two several
pigments I have specified, are the inventions and discoveries which I espe-
cially claim, and which constitute the foundation principles and elements of
the Patent which I have obtained, conferring upon me the exclusive right,
privilege, and benefit of the same, and under and in virtue of which I claim
protection accordingly in principle and in practice, whatever may be the
modes, devices. or means which others may contrive or resort to in order to
effectuate the same purposes and obtain the same or similar results. And
such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge and belief entirely new,
and never before used within that part of ller Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said dominions of Wales, or
town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, nor within any of Her Majesty's Colonies or

page_text: Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the
ame, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doeth comply in
Il respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in the
aid herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I do
ereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Linning, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-seven years (two words in the sixth line and four-
teen words in the seventh line from the top hereof being detete, and,
one word in the seventh line being interlined).
MICHAEL LINNING. (L.s.)
Thomas Deans, of Fludyer St., in the City of Westminster, Gentleman,
maketh oath and saith, that he knows and is well acquainted withthemannerof
hand writing of James Oswald, Esquire, one of Her Majesty's Justices of the
Peace for the County of Lanark, at Glasgow, before whom the Specification
or Paper Writing hereunto annexed hath been acknowledged, this Deponent
having frequently seen him write, and that the name or subscription "James
Oswald," with the addition thereto, "One of Her Majesty's Justices of Peace