CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MASTA
JOSCELIN COOKE, of Gray's Inn Square, in the County of Middlesex, Solicitor.
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Second day of March, in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for Her-
self, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Masta Joscelin
Cooke, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Masta Joscelin Cooke, my exors,.
admors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Masta Joscelin Cooke, my
exors, adiñors, 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
that part of Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
ARTIFICIAL FUEL;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
that I, the said Masta Joscelin Cooke, shall cause a particular description of
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High
Court of Chancery, within six calendar months next and immediately after the

page_text: date of the said in part 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
Masta Joscelin Cooke, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
rion consists in treating and combining various known carbonaceous matters in
certain new modes for the purpose of manufacturing therefrom an artificial
fuel superior to any heretofore in use, and the first of these modes is as
follows:-
I take of pitch made from coal tar, and from which the petroleum or
naptha has been so thoroughly extracted by evaporation or distillation that
the pitch, when hot, is nearly hard, from three to five-twentieth parts of brown,
glance, cannel, stone, Welch, Newcastle, or any other description of coal, from
ten to fourteen-twentieth parts, and of coke or charcoal from three to four-
twentieth parts; I then grind the whole of these materials together in a mill or
other suitable apparatus to a powder of such a grain that it will pass through
a coarse sieve. To every ton of the materials so ground together, as aforesaid,
I add six pounds of fine powdered resin; I next stir the materials till they are
intimately blended together, and occasionally, when a fuel of better than the
average quality is wanted, I mix up the whole with three gallons of boiled
linseed oil; I then heat the mixture in an oven or furnace, raised to a tem-
perature of from two hundred and fifty to three hundred degrees, till, from
the melting of the particles of powdered pitch and resin, it attains a plastic or
stickey state, when it is shovelled out into iron moulds, having moveable sides
and ends strongly keyed or cottered together, in the manner of moulding
flasks. I use, in preference to any other, square moulds, from eight to ten
inches deep and of three yards in superficial area. These moulds are placed
on a solid level foundation, of iron or stone or other substance, having a sheet
of iron plate between the foundation and the mould, which plate must be
kept wet or covered with fine powdered coal to prevent the stuff sticking to it.
The materials being thrown as aforesaid in their plastic or stickey state into
the moulds, are, whilst hot, rammed down hard until the moulds are full. The
compost is then allowed to cool after which the moulds are unkeyed at the
ends, and the material in its hard state is taken out and cut up by any suitable
machine into blocks of any required form.
Secondly, instead of proceeding as last described, the material in its plastic
or stickey state may be at once shovelled hot into small iron moulds of the
required form or forms, having moveable sides and ends, as aforesaid, which
moulds are to be immediately carried to a fly or other press, armed with plates
or punches to fit the moulds, and the contents of the moulds, there subjected to

page_text: as high a pressure as is requisite to render them perfectly solid. By unkeying
the moulds after they come from the press the compressed blocks of fuel may
be readily taken out.
Thirdly, instead of either of the methods before described I sometimes adopt
the following:-The powder compounded as aforesaid, and with or without the
addition of the linseed oil, is thrown into a mill, similar to a plug mill, placed in
a chamber heated by fire in the same way as a boiler, and is there well mixed
and worked about until it becomes from the melting of the particles of pow-
dered pitch and resin in an adhesive or sticky state. It is then taken in this
state, and while quite hot thrown into a large mould or chest with a moveable
or shifting bottom, or into a chest or mould made to put together in the form
of a square, and wedged and keyed up and there strongly compressed by means
of hydraulic pressure (the more the better). The bottom of the chest is then
removed, and the compressed mass pushed through the bottom of the case or
chest on to a floor or truck, where it is allowed to cool. Or, the case or chest
may be taken in pieces when the material is cool, and placed on a floor or truck,
and there cut up, by saws or other suitable instruments or machinery, into
blocks for use.
Fourthly, instead of the compound mass being thrown into the chest and
compressed as last herein-before mentioned, it may be taken while in its hot
and adhesive state and passed through a machine similar to a brick-making
machine, which will deliver it compressed and made up in the shape of bricks.
In this case, however, the cloth round the cylinder of such machine should
have a stream of water constantly running on it, to keep it wet, and pre-
vent any of the composition sticking to the cloth.
And, fifthly, another method of forming the dry powder or composition into
solid blocks is as follows:-I moisten the powder with water until it is in a
state like wet sand; I then transfer the composition into cast-iron moulds of
a square or any other suitable form, first pressing it by hand and then em-
ploying a screw press or other suitable apparatus to compress it still further,
until the composition acquires a considerable degree of solidity; I afterwards
open the moulds and empty their contents gently upon an iron plate or plates,
which are placed in an oven heated to a temperature of from two hundred and
fifty to three hundred degrees. Here the composition is allowed to remain
about eight hours. The water which was used to make the composition is by
the heat of the oven speedily evaporated, while the particles of the powdered
pitch becoming melted are absorbed by the other materials, and the whole aro
amalgamated into one hard and coherent mass.
Instead of the whole of the ingredients before specified being used (which,

page_text: however, I consider best), an artificial fuel of more or less value may be formed
by combining the powdered pitch and resin with any two or more of the
carbonaceous ingredients before mentioned, or with any other ingredients of a
combustible nature, in a powdery state, taking care always to make the quantity
of powdered pitch more or less, according as there is more or less bituminous
matter, or matter productive of bitumen, contained in the other materials with
which it is combined. Instead also of the powdered pitch, any resinous sub-
stance of a mineral or vegetable nature may be used in the state of powder, such
resinous substance being also used in quantities larger or smaller, according as
there is more or less of resinous matters contained in the other substances with
which it is combined.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim as of my
Invention is, the manufacture of artificial fuel of the materials and according
to the modes before mentioned.