IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING, ROASTING, CARBONIZING, AND CALCINING VEGETABLE, MINERAL, AND ANIMAL SUBSTANCES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Longbottom, of Leeds, in the County of York,
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRYING,
ROASTING, CARBONIZING, AND CALCINING VEGETABLE, MINERAL, AND ANIMAL
SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 29th May 1857, and dated the 2nd December 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Longbottom at the
Office of tho Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd December 1856.
I, JOHN LONGBOTTOM, of Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
DRYING, ROASTING, CARBONIZING, AND CALCINING VEGETABLE, MINERAL, AND ANIMAL
SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a pecular construction and arrangement of
apparatus for drying, roasting, carbonizing, and calcining vegetable, mineral,
and animal substances, whereby a greater and more reliable heat is obtained in
less time and with greater economy of fuel than by the ordinary drying or
roasting apparatus at present in use.
The improvements consist in the employment of a chamber constructed of
iron or brickwork, and of any convenient shape, the sides and top of which are
made double, so as to admit of the chamber being heated with facility from
a suitable furnace or fire-place for that purpose, the heated air and flame
circulating freely through the space left in the top and sides. The bottom of
the chamber is heated by a series of hot water pipes, which may either be
heated by the same furnace that heats the top and sides of the chamber, or a

page_text: separate smaller fire may be used, which latter arrangement I prefer, as the
larger furnace may be allowed to die out after the chamber has been once
thoroughly heated, and the heat kept up by the hot water pipes alone. When
I use two furnaces or fire-places, I place them at opposite ends of the
apparatus. The substances to be treated are introduced into the chamber in
closed cases carried on a carriage or truck, which is run in and out with
facility, the chamber being furnished with doors at each end for that purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Longbottom in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd June 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
LONGBOTTOM, of Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria,. by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Longbottom, Her special license that I, the said John Longbottom,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Longbottom, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time.
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term 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
APPARATUS FOR DRYING, ROASTING, CARBONIZING, AND CALCINING VEGETABLE AND
ANIMAL SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Jolin Longbottom, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 bo filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Longbottom, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of

page_text: apparatus for drying, roasting, carbonizing, and calcining vegetable, mineral,
and animal substances, whereby a greater and more reliable heat is obtained in
less time and with greater economy of fuel than by the ordinary drying or
roasting apparatus at present in use.
The improvements consist in the employment of a chamber constructed of
iron or brickwork, and of any convenient shape, the sides and top of which are
made double, so as to admit of the chamber being heated with facility from
a suitable furnace or fire-place for that purpose, the heated air and flame
circulating freely through the space left in the top and sides. The bottom of
the chamber is heated by a series of hot water pipes, which may either be
heated by the same furnace that heats the top and sides of the chamber, or a
separate smaller fire may be used, which latter arrangement I prefer, as the
larger furnace may be allowed to die out after theo chamber has been once
thoroughly heated, and the heat kept up by the hot water pipes alone. When
I use two furnaces or fire-places I place them at opposite ends of the apparatus.
The substance to be treated may be introduced into the chamber in closed
cases carried on a carriage or truck, which could be run in and out with
facility, the chamber being furnished with doors at each end for that purpose.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents a longitudinal vertical section of onc
arrangement of my apparatus, adapted for treating peat, bog, or other vegetable
substances, and carbonizing it to make charcoal or cake, the apparatus being
worked on the principle of a sugar vacuum pan; Figure 2 is a transverse
section of the same; Figure 3 is a similar section of the vessel, fitted with
shelves for carrying the vegetable substances; and Figure 4 is a sectional plan
of the steam superheating chamber, with the hot water pipes contained therein.
A is the vacuum carbonizing vessel, pan, or boiler, fitted with shelves a, a,
(Figure 3), for laying the substances upon; B, hot-water heating tubes,
enclosed in a chamber C, above the furnace, for surcharging steam. These pipes
are continued also in the form of coils at the top of the vessel A, as shown at
D, D, for the purpose of surcharging the steam emitted from the substances
under treatment. Fis a thin perforated sheet metal cylinder (shewn at Figure 5).
placed inside the vessel A, close to the heating pipes B, so as to prevent
the pipes from touching the substances required to be dried or carbonized;
G,G, are taps for shutting off the vapour arising from the vegetable substances;

page_text: and H, H, are taps for drawing off the water therefrom; I is the furnace,
fitted with hot-water heating tubes B; and K is the chimney.
In using this apparatus for pickling peat bog, or other vegetable substances,
and carbonizing it to make charcoal or coke, on the principle of a sugar vacuum
pan, the peat is put in the carbonizing vessel, pan, or boiler A, which is thus
filled with peat, or waste tan, sawdust, chips of wood, or other vegetable
substancos; the vessel is then closed and made air-tight, and the air and water
which is contained in the vegetable substances is pumped out by any well-
known process until a partial vacuum is formed in the carbonizing vessel. In
this state sulphuric acid is pumped in, which fills all the pores of the vegetable
substances, thereby rendering it fit for carbonizing, which is effected by steam
passing from a common boiler mounted or not on wheels. This steam passes
into the superheating chamber C, where the pipes B are heated by the cir-
culation of hot water from the pipes in the furnace I, and thus superheat the
steam before it enters the vessel A. These circulating pipes are placed below
and above the vacuum or carbonizing pan or vessel, for the purpose of super-
heating all the steam and vapour arising from the vegetablo substances, thereby
keeping up the temperature required for drying, roasting, carbonizing, and
caleining vegetable, mineral, and animal substances; or this may be effected by
passing air through or over pipes in the furnace (as herein-after described with
reference to Figure 6). The steam may be generated in a common boiler, or
by any known process.
These carbonizing vessels or boilers may be fixed on carriages with wheels,
as shewn in the Drawing, or otherwise, so that they may be moved on a tram
railway to the place where the peat is cut, and thus save time and labour.
Various forms of apparatus may obviously be adopted. The moisture and
the sulphuric acid is allowed to escape by passing through pipes to a con-
denser. It will be seen that the apparatus may be applied for drying, roasting,
and carbonizing by heated air (as shewn at Figure 6) passing over pipes B,
heated by the circulation of hot water in the small furnace I, containing worms
or coils of pipes, such heated air being forced by the fan L along the air pipes
M into the carbonizing vessel A, and amongst the vegetable or other substances
contained therein.
The steam, when used, may be generated in any form of boiler, at a pressure
therein of from ton pounds to fifteen pounds, and is then highly superheated by
the great heat of the hot water pipes arranged in the inside of the drying,
roasting, and carbonizing apparatus.
The boiler for generating steam may be fixed on wheels, so as to run on
tram-rails along with the carbonizing apparatus.

page_text: The steam, thus highly heated or surcharged, is permitted to pass into
the large vessel A containing the vegetable substances; the effect of its
contact therewith is rapidly to expel the moisture in the state of steam from
the peat or turf, or other vegetable substance, which steam is permitted to
escape from the peat or turf, and is again superheated by coming in contact
with the pipes arranged at the top of the vessel A, and highly heated by the
circulation of hot water confined in such pipes. After this drying process has
gone on till the peat or turf has parted with all its moisture, it begins to be
charred or carbonized by the highly superheated steam admitted into the
carbonizing vessel, and reheated by the pipes in the vessel itself, thereby keep-
ing up a high temperature of steam heat. The process of passing this hot
steam through the peat or turf is thus continued until the whole of the peat or
turf is found to be a black substance, retaining the forms nearly of the original
nasses, but now a perfect vegetable charcoal or coke; in this state it may be
left to cool in the carbonizing vessel (kept from common air), or allowed
to fall therefrom into an iron box mounted on wheels, and covered closely, until
it is quite cold.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion
to describe or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of the said Invention; but what
I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is, the
application and use of hot water circulating pipes, for the purpose of drying,
roasting, carbonizing, and calcining vegetable, mineral, and animal substances,
as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this First
day of June. One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven..
JOHN LONGBOTTOM. (L.B.)