IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Lodge, of Whitecroft, near Lydney, in the
County of Gloucester, Machinist, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL.”
Sealed the 26th March 1872, and dated the 13th October 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Lodge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th October 1871.
I, JOSEPH LODGE, of Whitecroft, near Lydney, in the County of
Gloucester, Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL,"
to be as follows:-
-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
artificial fuel. For this purpose I mix together small coal, coke; peat or
similar substance, with coal or gas tar, or wood tar, either separately or
together, and with mucilage made of farina, rice, flour or like sub-

page_text: stances, and together in some cases with small proportions of soda,
potass, ammonia, or like substance. I make good fuel by the admixture
of ten gallons of tar from wood or mineral, and ten gallons of mucilago
made from farina, rice, or any other well known similar substance for
making paste, and mixing together before distributing, and afterwards
well mixing over and with coal, coke, peat, or any similar substance.
The mixture is then mado into bricks, or any convenient shape by any
of the well known machinery, and is subsequently dried in ovens, kilns,
or stoves at a heat of about 300 degrees more or less.
The proportions of mucilage and tar should be varied according to the 1
quality of the coal, adding more tar and less mucilage or more of the
mucilage and less tar, as the bituminous or non-bituminous dry or wet
nature of the coal, coke, peat or similar, substances may require.
Some coals, coke, peat or similar substance may advantageously be
made into blocks of artificial fuel without the addition of any mucilage, 1
by mixing with them tar only in the proportion of about 20 gallons,
and subsequently pressing such mixture into blocks of any required
shape, which are afterwards to be dried in ovens, kilns, or stoves heated
up to or about 300 degrees.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 2
filed by the said Joseph Lodge in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 13th April 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
'LODGE, of Whitecroft, near Lydney, in the County of Gloucester,
Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Joseph Lodge, Her special license a
that I, the said Joseph Lodge, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph Lodge, 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

page_text: 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
THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Joseph Lodge, my executors, or administrators, 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Lodge, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, 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 the manufacture of
artificial fuel.
In the Specification of a former Patent granted to me and dated the
9th day of March 1871, No. 632, I have described a process for the
production of artificial fuel, consisting in combining together and
moulding into blocks ground or small coal and pitch, asphalte or such
like bituminous substance and mucilage or paste made from farina or
other like substance, and subsequently exposing such blocks to heat, the
heat employed not being sufficient to produce decomposition. I have since
discovered that similar fuel may be prepared more economically by the
use of tar in lieu of pitch, asphalte, or such like bituminous substance.
I employ by preference wood tar, but I have also successfully employed
gas tar. Gȧs tar however varies much in quality, the quality being
dependent I believe on the description of coal employed in its production,
and all descriptions of gas tar are made more suitable by the admixture
of one moiety of wood tar, and I sometimes prefer to take only half the
quantity of tar named and add in the place thereof same quantity of
powdered or ground pitch.
I prefer to conduct the manufacture in the following manner :—I take
ten gallons of tar and a mucilago made from 5 lbs. of potato or other
farina and a suitable quantity of water. The average quantity of water
which I employ in preparing this mucilage is ten gallons, but I vary this
according to the state of the coal; if the coal is wet I use less water and

page_text: if very dry a larger quantity. I mix the tar and the mucilago with the
coal so that they may be equally diffused; this is best donc in a pug mill
or mixer. The coal should be dust, small or finely screened, or ground
coal. The quantity of mucilago referred to above is sufficient on the
average for 20 cwt. of coal, but for a very bituminous coal less may 5
be employed, and for a non-bituminous coal a greater quantity should
be employed.
It is simple in practico to make a few trial blocks with each new
sample of coal and to proportion the mixture of mucilage and tar or tar
and pitch so as to give the desired firmness to the blocks. After the 1
mucilage has been added to the coal the mixture is moulded by pressure
in an artificial fuel machine of any ordinary construction, and the blocks'
are then transferred to an oven heated to from 300° to 350° Farenheit,
where they remain usually for 4 to 6 hours according to the size of the
block or brick. This heat is not sufficient to decompose the materials, 1
but it serves to weld them as it were together, and the blocks are not
afterwards liable to decay or injury by moisture. In this way firm
waterproof blocks of excellent fuel are produced.
In place of coal I sometimes employ small coke or dry peat. I add
usually one-fourth part or more of the mixtures to each two of the coke ?
or peat.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that what I
claim as my improvements in the manufacture of artificial fuel is, the
combining together and moulding into blocks small coal, coke, or peat a
and vegetable or mineral tar and mucilage, or pasto made from farina or
other such like substance, with or without the addition of pitch in a
powdered or dry state, and subsequently exposing such blocks to heat
substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Lodge, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of March, in the year of our