IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE AND CHARCOAL AND IN THE OVENS EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Humphrey Chamberlain at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th
December 1866..
I, HUMPHREY CHAMBERLAIN, of Wakefield, in the County of York,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE AND CHARCOAL AND IN THE OVENS EMPLOYED
THEREIN," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates more especially to the manufacture or preparation
of coke from what is known as anthracite coal, although it is also applicable
to the coking of ordinary coal and to the preparation of charcoal from peat
and wood.
The essential feature of this Invention consists in gradually heating up
the anthracite or other substance under treatment and gradually cooling down
the same after it has attained the proper temperature, such process being
carried on in a continuous manner. The ovens which it is proposed to employ
in this system of coking are made of any continuous form, such, for example,
as an annular or oval form, the annular or oval chamber or space being sub-
divided by moveable doors or diaphragms into compartments, each of which
communicates by a radial flue of its own with a central chimney, to which
all the flues converge. These flues are each provided with dampers, whereby
any one of them may be opened to the chimney whilst the others remain
closed. The anthracite or other substance to be treated may be introduced
into retorts or close chambers, constructed within the annular or continuous

page_text: chamber through holes in the top or sides thereof, and such chamber may be
provided with vertical retorts discharging through the floor into a chamber
beneath for removal.
The process of working is as follows:-Supposing the entire space to be
filled with anthracite, for example, in retorts or closed fire-clay constructions,
round which the flames of the furnace can have free play in their onward
passage, one of the compartments is fired, the diaphragm in the rear of such
compartment being closed and all the rest opened; the products of combustion
or otherwise waste heat will then circulate entirely round the annular oven
and gradually beat up the retorts filled with anthracite contained therein, and
finally escape into the chimney through the flue immediately in the rear of
the closed diaphragm, that flue being the only one left open for the time
being. When the charge in the first compartment is sufficiently burnt that
in the second compartment is fired whilst the first charge is gradually cooling;
the third compartment is then fired whilst the second in gradually cooling, and
so on throughout the entire series. So soon as the charges which have been
burnt have become sufficiently cool they are withdrawn, and a fresh charge of
anthracite introduced, after which the diaphragm in the rear is opened, and
that in advance of the new charge is shut, thus bringing the new charge
within the range of the series of compartments being heated up preparatory
to burning; the damper in the flue last in operation must of course be shut,
and that in the flue in connection with the newly charged compartment
opened. It will thus be seen that the operations of gradually heating up,
firing, and gradually cooling the contents of the retorts in the oven, and the
withdrawal and replacing of the charges, are all carried on in a continuous
manner.