IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURE OF FUEL
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Andrew Spottiswoode, of New Street, St. Bride's,
in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MANUFACTURE OF FUEL."
Sealed the 17th August 1854, and dated the 5th June 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Andrew Spottiswoode at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
5th June 1854.
I, ANDREW SPOTTISWOODE, of New Street, St. Bride's, in the City of London,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF FUEL" to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the machinery described
in the Specification of a Patent granted to Mr. Bessemer, in which I have an
interest, and the Invention consists in the introduction of two rollers, so as,
together with the mould, to form the bottom of the receiver into which the
coal falls from the retort. These two rollers are set at a distance apart of
nearly the width of the mould, and are made to revolve slowly towards each
other. The effect is, that the rollers not only assist in expelling the gas and
consolidating the coal, but they prevent its caking and hanging back in the
receiver. By their revolution the rollers leave no fixed bottom on which the
coal can rest, and they move the fuel by a gentle motion into the mould, which
is placed conveniently below.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Andrew Spottiswoode in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th November 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANDREW
SPOTTISWOODE, of New Street, St. Bride's, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her, most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Andrew Spottiswoode, Her special licence that I, the said Andrew
Spottiswoode, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
tho said Andrew Spottiswoode, 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 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FUEL," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Andrew Spottiswoode, 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 be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Andrew Spottiswoode, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to bo
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say) :—
My said Invention consists in the use of rollers to compress and to convey
coal to the mould when brought into a state fit to be. pressed into blocks.
Coal when in a state suitable for compression becomes expansive and adhesive,
so that it will not move freely in a confined space even in a perpendicular
direction, and will not by its own weight always fall in equal or sufficient
quantities into the moulds. The result is, an uncertainty and inequality in the
blocks, injurious to their mercantile value. Unless a regular and continuous
supply of heated coal can be kept up, the whole of its products cannot be
secured, and the rate of compression becomes so slow as materially to increase
the expense of the process. My Invention is intended to obviate this serious

page_text: drawback. To accomplish this desirable end, I place above the mould two or
more rollers with rough surfaces, working towards each other with a gentle
motion, set so far apart and driven at such a rate as to allow the required
quantity of coal to pass between them; whereby, not only is the coal conveyed
into the mould, but it is subjected to a partial pressure, which divests it of
much gas and prepares it for final compression, so that the blocks are rendered
more compact and uniform.
The mode of application may be modified; but this occurs to me as the best
suited to the object.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and what appears to me
to bo the best way of carrying it out, I hereby declare that I claim as my
Invention, the use of rollers in the preparation of fuel for the purpose of con-
veying heated coal into moulds.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Spottiswoode, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
ANDREW SPOTTISWOODE. (L.S.)