A NEW OR IMPROVED FUEL FOR METALLURGICAL AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Gordon do Luna Byron,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 8th August 1874.-A communication from abroad by C.
Edwards Lester, of New York, in the United States of America.
I, GEORGE GORDON DE LUNA BYRON, of New York, in the United
States of America, but at present of 89, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Colonel in the United States Army, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED FUEL FOR
METALLURGICAL AND OTHER PURPOSES," (a communication to me from
abroad by C. Edwards Lester, of New York, in the United States of
America,) to be as follows:-
3 Seal men the following ads.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Gordon do Luna Byron,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 8th August 1874.-A communication from abroad by C.
Edwards Lester, of New York, in the United States of America.
I, GEORGE GORDON DE LUNA BYRON, of New York, in the United
States of America, but at present of 89, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Colonel in the United States Army, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED FUEL FOR
METALLURGICAL AND OTHER PURPOSES," (a communication to me from
abroad by C. Edwards Lester, of New York, in the United States of
America,) to be as follows:-
-
This new or improved fuel possesses the following advantages over all
others in use for general or specific metallurgic purposes :—
First. Of superlative heating power.
Second. Free from sulphurets, phosphates, and other substances
noxious in and unfavorable to the production and manipulation of pure
metal, particularly iron and steel,

page_text: Third. Capable in its manufacture of being adapted to any specific
purpose in any department of metallurgy.
Fourth. Of readier ignition and greater compactness for storage, by
containing within a given space a greater amount of calorific power.
Fifth. The ingredients are found all over the world, in nearly all
countries, and have little or no commercial value, thus saving cost
of material and of transportation.
to
Sixth. Applicable to any apparatus now in use for any metallurgic
purposes whether in reducing ores or melting or manipulating metals.
--In accomplishing these purposes it has been found-necessary
produce a proximately pure hydrocarbon in a solid form, from which
should be evolved in combustion those gases which would secure the
results so much demanded in the wide range of metallurgy.
Carbon as a simple element, whether in the form of coke or
anthracite (even if desulphurized), or animal or vegetable charcoal is
found to be too feeble an agent, and generally too expensive and bulky.
Substances rich in hydrogen are therefore resorted to, which united
with carbon and furnished with the requisite supply of oxygen, produce
the intensest heat. Hence in the solid hydrocarbon the heat of the
compound blowpipe is imitated by combining hydrogenous and car
bonaceous substances in such proportions as will, with a sufficient draught,
produce a perfect or nearly perfect combustion. Such a combination-
enables the compound in combustion to receive and appropriate a much
larger amount of oxygen from the air than any other solid fuel known.
+
Hydrogen has many times the heating power of carbon, owing chiefly.
it is believed to its capacity to receive and absorb and chemically
combine, in combustion with a much greater amount of oxygen, the
chief promoter of combustion. Hence the more fixed hydrogen any
-fuel contains, provided it is mixed in proper proportions with carbon
and oxygen, thereby evolving carbonic acid gas instead of carbonic a
oxide, the casier are its ignition and combustion, the greater the
quantity of pure flame, and the intenser the heat.
Hydrogen, as a pure gas, being too difficult and expensive to generate,
control, and apply with a proper draught, oxygen being obtainablo in
any desirable quantity from the atmosphero, the cheapest, most

page_text: manageable, and universally diffused materials are resorted to in which
hydrogen is found, in union with carbon, chiefly to obtain it.
Desirous of procuring only carbonaceous and hydrogeneous substances
in the purest practicable shape, those materials which aro richest in
these qualities, freest from all other ingredients, most accessible, the
easiest to manipulate, and the lowest in cost are sought for :
1. The first, and in all cases the largest ingredient is peat, which
constitutes the base of the fuel, and never less than fifty per cent. of
the entire mass. It is recommended that the peat be used in a crude
state, taken from deep deposits after they have been thoroughly drained
and free from surface water, since it is found that the liquor held in
solution by such peat contains a large proportion of hydrogeneous
matter, which if combined with the other materials before it has
cvoporated, remains permanently in the fuel, adding greatly to its
flame, and of necessity to its calorific intensity. Thus most of the
volatile hydrogeneous matter which escapes from peat when allowed to
become much or thoroughly dried, is saved. It is also found that has
hydrogen has more affinity for carbon than for the atmosphere the
oxygen in the water contained in the crudo peat is mostly expelled by
tho manipulation and pressure in manufacturing, and the rest escapes
by subsequent drying in an ordinary atmosphere, whether sheltered or
not. Peat as rich as possible in carbonaceous and hydrogeneous matter
is selected, particularly the latter, e.g., bituminous peat, as very often
found, especially in large or deep deposits, as in the Dismal Swamp,
and asphaltic peat, as found abundantly on the Pacific coast, such peats
shewing on analysis from fifty to seventy-two per cent. of bitumen.
2. The next largest ingredients chosen from any of the following
substances, the choice being determined by their freedom from uscless
or deleterious elements, their richness in carbonaceous and hydrogenous
qualities, and their cost at the place of manufacture, viz., desulphurized,
and if necessary dephosphorized mineral coal or its refuse, whether
anthracite, bituminous, or semi-bituminous, or charcoal or its refuse,
brown or stone coal, so called, or lignite, or marl, or limestone, whether
the two latter bo bituminous or not. Of these substances about one
quarter is used, the same quantity, by weight, of common salt as the
amount, by weight, of sulphur and phosphorus is mixed with the coal;

page_text: if any
is found to bo contained in it (the coal) after they aro ground
together, pass the compound into an upright stationary cylinder of
iron or any substantial material, through which a vertical shaft with
numerous arms revolves; a constant supply of steam of high tempera-
turo is introduced through pipes or orifices at the bottom, and this
steam escapes through fluc orifices in the cover at the top. Tho
oxact form is not essential, provided the mass of coal dust and salt are
thoroughly acted upon by the steam. In a cylinder holding one
thousand pounds, the length of the cylinder being six times greater than
the diameter, twenty-five thousands revolutions of the shaft completes
the process. The vapor of salt thus volatilized decomposes the obnoxious
ingredients in the coal dust, and the fuel evolves no sulphurous acid in
combustion, and tho heat generated by my fuel is powerful enough to
destroy sulphur, phosphorous, and other hurtful ingredients in any oro
or metal.
3. Other substances which are more particularly hydrogeneous in
their nature are resorted to, viz., asphaltum, resin, pitch, petroleum,.
tar, or any mineral, vegetable, or animal oil, or oleaginous, fatty, or
greasy, materials, whether purc, mixed, or refuse, the object being.
morc particularly to draw hydrogenous matter from those substances
furnishing it most abundantly and economically. From theso materials
from ten to thirty per cent. is drawn; the exact proportions of these
different ingredients cannot be given because most of them vary so
widely in the relative amounts of carbon and hydrogen as found in
different forms, places, and conditions.
When the materials are on
hand the rule of proportions is fixed by ascertaining from analysis or
experiments, or both, the amount of the clements desired to be con-
tained in cach, and so regulate the quantity of cach as to secure the
object, viz, a solid hydrocarbon which, with a sufficient and well
regulated draught, will produce complete combustion with great flame
and superlative heating power.
First. The materials are equally and thoroughly mixed by grinding
them all together, or any of them separately first, if found best,
so completely pulverizing and disintegrating them that when mixed 3

page_text: they constitute a homogeneous compound mass. This has been dono
satisfactorily with Bogardus's eccentric mill.
Second. This compound is then passed through a press, as dry clay
brick are pressed, of sufficient power to shape it into any desired form,
3 or of any degree of compactness and solidity required; or by a suitable
apparatus; the two before-mentioned processes may be done with ono
machino..