AN IMPROVED MODE OF REMOVING THE CARBONACEOUS INCRUSTATION FROM THE INTERIOR SURFACES OF RETORTS EMPLOYED IN THE PROCESS OF DISTILLING COAL FOR GENERATING GAS
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
KIRKHAM, of Aldenham Terrace, St. Pancras Road, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His late most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of June, in the seventh year
of His reign, and in the year-of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-seven, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Kirkham, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said John Kirkham, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said John Kirkham, my executors, admini-
strators, 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 mentioned, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED
MODE OF REMOVING THE CARBONACEOUS INCRUSTATION FROM THE INTERIOR SURFACES
OF RETORTS EMPLOYED IN THE PROCESS OF DISTILLING COAL FOR GENERATING GAS;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
John Kirkham, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, par-
ticularly 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
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters

page_text: fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Kirkham, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say) :-
My improved mode of removing the carbonaceous incrustation from the
internal surfaces of retorts employed in the process of distilling coal for gene-
rating gas, consists in the employment of a jet or jets of heated atmospheric air
or other airs or gases containing oxygen, which jet or jets of air I direct
and impel with force into the interior of such retorts as have become incrusted
with carbonaceous and other matters from the continued process of distilling
coal, the retort remaining in the same situation mounted in the furnace
which it occupied when employed in distilling; the coal is to be rendered
thoroughly red hot, and to be kept in that state during the action of the jet or
jets of air. An iron pipe constructed with several union joints, that is screw
joints, and leading from a blowing machine, is bent in such contorted forms as
to admit of its exit end being introduced into the mouth of the retort,
and directed to any part thereof. The blowing machine is then put into
operation by means of a steam engine or other power, and a strong blast of air
is forced through the pipe, which air in its passage is to be very considerably
heated, either by one of the bends of the pipe through which the air passes
being introduced into another heated retort, or by a sufficient length of the
pipe lying along the heated retort under operation. By these means a strong
current of atmospheric or other air in a heated state may be forced through a
pipe or pipes, and by the joints of the pipe directed to any part of the interior
of the incrusted retort, and the air being heated in its course by the above
described method, or by any other convenient contrivance, the effect will be
that the jet of heated air will so act upon the carbonaceous incrustation as to
cause parts of it rapidly to burn away, and so to loosen the whole mass of the
incrusting matter from the internal surface of the retort as to enable it to be
readily removed therefrom by the assistance of a crow-bar and tongs or other
convenient apparatus.
And in order that the manner of carrying my Invention into effect may be
better understood, I have hereunto annexed a sectional diagram of a cast-iron
retort, and one method of obtaining the desired object of my Invention shewn
therein.

page_text: a, a, is the retort set in brickwork, and heated in the usual manner; b, b,
represents the incrustation adhering to the inside of the same; c, c, is the hot-
air pipe, which in this instance is coiled in order to obtain greater extent
of heating surface when placed within the retort, and has but one exit
aperture at d opposite the greater portion of the incrustation; but in case
the incrustation should be thicker at the sides than at the end, I should
lengthen the hot-air pipe and apply other exit apertures at the sides thereof
for the exit of the jets of hot air against the other parts of the incrustation as
well as at the end of the retort.
Lastly, I desire it to be understood that the subject matter of my Invention
or discovery, and that which I claim the exclusive right of under the above
recited Letters Patent is, the application of heated air forced in a powerful jet
or jets into incrusted retorts, for the purpose of removing the carbonaceous
matters formed and adhering to the interior of such retorts as have been
employed in the distillation of coal for generating gas.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Kirkham, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.
(L.B.)
АНАМ,
) AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of December, in
the first year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said John
Kirkham came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the instrument aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of
the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.