Improvements in Fuel.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Dec., 1897-Accepted, 29th Jan., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Fuel.
(A communication by THE COMPRESSED COAL COMPANY, of 319, East 22nd Street,
"New York, in the County and State of New York, United States of America.)
1, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both
in the County of Lancaster, 118, New Street, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, and 322, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
The object of this invention is to produce an agglomerate fuel, which will be
impervious to water, which will not break up in handling and transportation,
which will not fall asunder, in mass, while burning, and which will burn freely
and be practically smokeless.
The point is to make, with finely-divided coal, briquettes or masses, in which
the material employed as the bond to hold the coal together shall be non-absorbent
of moisture and, at once, while the product is burning, act adjunctively, in part,
as fuel and to supply some oxygen, as requisite, that is to say, as the fire reaches
it and the particles of coal in juxtaposition with it, to insure complete combustion.
This impervious and firm bond, which, however, yields, progressively, on com-
bustion, and progressively facilitates combustion, may be a mixture (in the coal-
dust or fine coal) of lime partially slaked with a sulfate of iron solution, and of
liquid saccharine matter, or be chromatized gelatin.
To carry the invention into effect with lime, iron-sulfate and saccharine matter,
the following procedure will avail :-
so on,
Place freshly-burnt lime in a revolving screen and sprinkle it, while in motion,
with a hot solution of iron-sulfate of the proportion of about 0'45 kilos of the salt
to 454 litres of water, whereupon, as fast as the lime takes the solution, it fails
away, in fine particles, from the mass, leaving the remainder to be sprinkled, and
until the whole is in powder, just enough of the solution being used, from
time to time, to reduce the lime to a fine powder. The powdered lime is, then,
in a semi-hydrated condition. To every one hundred parts of coal-dust, or finely-
divided coal, eight parts of this lime are added, and eight parts of the saccharine
matter, such as refuse molasses, the refuse of beet-sugar factories, etc., and the
whole mass is thoroughly mixed together in a suitable apparatus, under a tempera-
ture of about 45° to 50° C., after which the mixture is taken out and immediately
compressed into pieces or blocks of any desirable form or size.
The water in the saccharine matter is taken up by the lime and effects its
perfect hydration, forming a compound impervious to water, without destroying
the binding quality of the saccharine matter, but actually protecting this. In
addition to rendering the briquette impervious to water, the mixture of lime and
sulfate of iron causes the briquette to harden under water, so that it will be

page_text: unnecessary to store
disintegration.
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To carry the invention into effect with chromatized gelatin, the following pro-
cedure will avail:-
2
Dissolve, for about each one thousand kilos of coal-dust, culm, or coal-screenings, 5
three to five kilos of gelatin, taking care that its adhésive properties be not
destroyed by the employment of too much water. Then, for each one thousand
kilos of the coal, dissolve about 050 kilos of bichromate of potash in from five to
fourteen litres of hot water,, the quantity of water depending upon the amount of
water in the coal, or the amount it may hold, due to having been exposed to the i
weather, as the quantity and strength of the bichromate solution must correspond
to the quantity of gelatin présent in the coal: "In making the mixture, the gelatin
solution is first added to the coal, and then the bichromate solution; and, if it is
desired at once to bring about the chemical action between the gelatin and the
bichromate, the mixed mass should be brought to a temperature from 65° to 68° C. ;,1
but, if the mixture, as in briquettes, is to be stored for a short time, or is to be
transported some distance, the admixture may be performed while the mass is in
a cold state, when the chemical change will take place between the gelatin and the
bichromate in two or three days., Instead of bichromate of potash, chrome-alum
may be employed as an equivalent. It has been found that this mixture will
answer for any kind of coal-dust, either anthracite, bituminous, or lignite, the
bituminous and lignite series requiring an increased percentage of the chromatized
gelatin to render it smokeless, as is readily determinable. The chromatized gelatin
presents a binder, insoluble in water, and affording some oxygen to the coal in
burning, causing free burning, without smoke, both from the fact of the supply of
oxygen to the gelatin. from the oxydizing agent, and from the fact that a small
percentage of the bichromate will be left, as such.
If the coal should have a tendency to form clinker, lime should be added. For
this purpose, about 36 to 38 kilos of slaked lime (prepared by reducing stone lime
by sprinkling just enough.hot water over it to reduce it to a fine powder, and
sifting it free from lumps), or more, according to the condition of the coal, are
employed to each thousand kilos of coal. Where the lime is employed, this is
first mixed with the coal, and, after a thorough incorporation, the gelatin solution
is added, and, lastly, the bichromate solution.
With or without the lime, the mixture is preferably to be pressed into form, as
in molds.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is:-
1. An agglomerate fuel comprising finely-divided coal and a binder impervious
to water, substantially as described.
2. An agglomerate fuel comprising finely-divided coal and a binder impervious
to moisture and, at once, adjunctive to the coal in combustion, substantially as
described.
3. A composition of matter for artificial fuel consisting of finely-divided coal,
lime treated with a solution of sulfate of iron and saccharine matter, substantially
as described.
4. A composition of matter for artificial fuel; composed, by weight, of the
following ingredients, in about the proportions specified, viz., finely-divided coal
one hundred parts, lime, partially slaked by a hot solution of sulfate of iron, eight
parts, and saccharine matter, such as molasses, the refuse of beet-sugar factories,
or the like, eight parts, the whole being mixed together and pressed into pieces
of desired form and size, substantially as described.
5. The process of making an artificial fuel, which consists in partially slaking
lime with a solution of sulfate of iron, and then mixing coal with this and liquid
saccharine matter, substantially as described.

page_text: 6. A composition of matter for artificial fuel, comprising finely-divided coal and
chromatized gelatin, substantially as described.
7. An artificial fuel composed of finely-divided coal, slaked lime, a solution of
gelatin, and a solution of bichromate of potash, in about the proportions specified,
substantially as described.
8. An artificial fuel composed of the following ingredients, by weight, in about
the proportions named:-finely-divided coal, one thousand parts; slaked lime,
thirty-six to thirty-eight parts; gelatin, three to five parts; bichromate of potash,
one-half part, substantially as described.
9. The process of making an agglomerate fuel, which consists in adding to
finely-divided coal, a solution of gelatin, and, then, a solution of bichromate of
potash, substantially as described.
10. The process of making an agglomerate fuel, which consists in adding to
finely-divided coal, slaked lime, a solution of gelatin, and, then, a solution of
bichromate of potash, substantially as described.
11. The process of making an agglomerate fuel, which consists in adding to
finely-divided coal, a solution of gelatin, then a solution of bichromate of potash,
and then heating the mass to sixty-five and five-tenths degrees centigrade, more or
less, substantially as described.
12. The process of making an agglomerate fuel, which consists in adding to
finely-divided coal, slaked lime, a solution of gelatin, then a solution of bichromate
of potash, and then heating the mass to sixty-five and five-tenths degrees centi-
grade, more or less, substantially as described.
Dated this 13th day of December 1897
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.