CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS IN PREPARING ANIMAL CHARCOAL
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
PARKER, of Albany Street, Regent's Park, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of January
in the first year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors,
grant unto me, the said William Parker, His especial licence that I, the said
William Parker, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Parker, my exors, adiñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also within all His
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PREPARING ANIMAL CHARCOAL;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Parker, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within four calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Parker, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascertained
as follows, that is to say:-
My said improvement consists in the revivification of the black or material
called animal charcoal, which has been already used in the process of refining
sugars, or in any of the processes to which such aforesaid material is or may be
applied after its deterioration by having been already used in such process or
processes, and which aforesaid substance or material so used and deteriorated
has been hitherto considered as being thereby rendered unfit for further
application to such process or processes (that is to say), in restoring to that
substance or material its original property, as regards its application to and its
efficacy in tho process of refining sugars, or as aforesaid, in any of the
processes to which such aforesaid material is or may be applied. I say that
the improvement, which constitutes the object of my Patent, is the production
of a revivified or restored material called animal charcoal, which is or may be
used for the purposes of sugar refining, or for any of those purposes or
processes to which the substance or material called animal charcoal is or may
be applied.
My improvement further consists in the production of the aforesaid substanco
or material as a manufacture from the aforesaid materials, or with the
admixture of other substances herein-after stated, and in the process by which
it is so produced, and in the arrangements by which the restoring or
revivification of the deteriorated substance, as aforesaid, is effected. The
arrangements by which such restoring or revivification is effected include the
construction of certain vessels or crucibles which I apply and use in such my
process; and also the aforesaid arrangements include the disposition of the
aforesaid vessels or crucibles as respects cach other, and also their disposition
in the furnace or furnaces in which I carry on the said 'process. I further
declare the following statement to contain a full description of my process:-
The animal charcoal or material, after it has been used in the process of
refining sugar, is found mixed with impurities arising from the operation. To
remove these impurities the entire mass of the material is first washed to
extract the saccharine matter, and it is then dried by exposure to the atmosphere
or to a higher temperature until so much evaporation has taken place as that
the material will readily divide into portions sufficiently small to pass through
a sieve of two and a half holes in each inch, a little more or less. The
operation of drying and sifting is also intended, and will effectually remove
a great portion of the mechanical and grosser impurities, as pieces of sugar
cane, wood, and similar substances; I then charge my iron crucibles (herein-
after described) with the material as aforesaid, taking care that it is closely

page_text: packed and rammed, and until the crucible be completely filled. The crucibles
being so filled or charged, I then place them in the furnace (also herein-after
described), one standing over and upon the other in succession, covering the
upper cruciblo of each set or column with a close-fitting cover, .which I
confine tightly to its place with a cross piece or bridle, and I carefully, apply a
luting of loom or clay to the fitting parts of the crucibles. The cover of the
upper crucibles and its centre opening is also to be well
hole pierced in the luting of the centre opening to allow the escape of the gas
evolved during the process.
luted, and a small
The figure and construction of the crucibles is shewn in Figure 3, and the
mode in which I arrange them upon each other and in the furnaces is shewn
in Figure 1 and 2. I also use fresh bones, or any animal matter, or fatty or
oily matter, or any resinous or bituminous substances in admixture with the
deteriorated material aforesaid, any of which matters or substances produco
the herein-before-stated effects; but in practice I prefer the former on account
of greater economy. When the crucibles are arranged and luted, as aforesaid,
I close the oven with bricks, and having carefully luted them, I make the fire
in the fire-room beneath; I then maintain the fire at a sufficient heat to bring
the crucibles to a bright red color. Before the crucibles attain this degree of
heat and color, the materials with which they are charged will evolve a con-
siderable quantity of gas, which will escape through the lutings between them.
The gas so escaping will be ignited by the heat of the furnace, and its com-
bustion will materially assist the operation by giving heat to the upper
crucibles which are furthest from the action of the fires. I continue this
operation of baking or burning until the flame from the tops of the crucibles
is nearly extinct; I then cease all further supply of fuel, and prevent all
admission of air to the furnace by closing the doors of the ashi; pits. I let the
furnace and the crucibles remain in this state until the crucibles are so far
reduced in heat as to be, of a dull red color. The operation of restoring and
revivifying is now completed, and I then throw the furnace open in order to
cool the crucibles sufficiently to allow of their being removed, when their
contents are taken out and ground, sifted, and prepared for use in the usual or
most convenient way suitable to its intended use. The form and dimensions
and the arrangement of the crucibles which I employ in my said manufacture,
and which I have already referred to in Figure 3 of my explanatory Drawing,
are such as to allow the crucibles to be easily placed in the chamber of the
furnace or to be removed from it, and also to afford an equal carbonization of
their contents; and further, that the gas given out by each of the lower
crucibles may serve as fuel for heating those above. And these ends I obtain

page_text: by making my crucibles of cast iron, of the form and dimensions indicated in
the Drawing at Figure 3. I place the aforesaid crucibles in the chamber of
the furnace in such manner that the openings from the fire-rooms through the
floor of the chamber allow the flame of the fire to enter the chamber and
occupy all the space not filled by the crucibles, and to circulate amongst them.
Other forms of crucibles, and other modifications of furnaces may be employed
to obtain the same objects, but this is the arrangement of furnace, and this
the size and the form of the crucibles that I prefer.
I also claim the form and arrangement of.the furnaces and crucibles, herein
described, for the manufacture of charcoal.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Parker, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fourteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of May, in tho
year of our Lord 1831, the aforesaid William Parker came before our said
Lord the King in Ilis Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
T