IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CHARGING AND DRAWING GAS RETORTS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Rowcroft Macfarlane, of the City of
Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Gas Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CHARGING AND DRAWING
GAS RETORTS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Rowcroft
Macfarlane at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 14th October 1871.
I, JOHN ROWCROFT MACFARLANE, of the City of Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Gas Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CHARGING AND
DRAWING GAS RETORTS, AED FOR OTHER PURPOSES,” to be as follows:—
This Invention has for its object the substitution of mechanism for
hand labor in charging gas retorts with coal or cannel, and in withdraw-
ing the products therefrom after distillation.

page_text: For this purpose I employ a frame, running on wheels, capable of
traversing the length of the retort house. To slides fixed to a moveable
licadstock, attached to the framework, I attach the scoop or scoops filled
with coal or cannel, according to the number and position of retorts
employed. By this method of attaching the scoops to slides fixed to the
moveable headstock I am enabled to traverso them to any positions
required by the setting of the retorts. The machine being brought
opposite the openings to the retorts, the scoops are pushed or traversed
by means of a screw or screws working in corresponding nuts into the
retorts, and, when in proper position, a catch or catches on each scoop
come in contact with a fixed rod or rods attached to the framework, and
cause the bottom of the scoop, which is hinged, to open and drop its
contents into the retort, and when withdrawn the same rod or rods act
on the catches and cause the bottom of the scoop to be raised and again
closed.
For withdrawing the coke after distillation I hinge to the back end of
the scoop or scoops a plate of iron, nearly the width of the retort, in
such a position that when entering it it shall be in a horizontal position
or nearly so, but when acted upon by a lever or handle worked from the
outside of the machine, it shall descend, become fixed, and on with-
drawing the scoop scrape the coke out of the retort.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Rowcroft Macfarlane in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 13th April 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN 2
ROWCROFT MACFARLANE, of the City of Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Gas Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the 3
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Rowcroft Macfarlane, Her
special licence that I, the said John Rowcroft Macfarlane, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said

page_text: .
John Rowcroft Macfarlane, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CHARGING AND
DRAWING GAS RETORTS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Rowcroft Macfarlane, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describo and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner tho
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Séal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Rowcroft Macfarlane, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the samo is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, that is to say :—
This Invention has for its object the substitution of mechanism for
hand labor in charging gas retorts with coal or cannel, and in with-
drawing the coke after distillation.
For this purpose I employ a frame mounted on wheels and capable of
traversing the length of the retort house on lines of rails. To a cross-
frame and slides connected to a moveable headstock on a bed fixed to
the frame I attach scoops filled with coal or cannel, according to the
number and positions of the retorts employed, and by this method of
attaching the scoops to slides on the moveable headstock I am enabled ·
to traverse them to any positions required by the setting of the retorts.
The machine being brought opposite the openings of the retorts the
scoops filled with coal or cannel are pushed or traversed by micans of a
screw and nut into the retorts, and when in proper position hinged
plates, forming the bottom of each scoop, are opened by levers so that
the coal or cannel can fall into the retort.
For withdrawing the coke after distillation I hinge a hoc or rake to
the front end of each scoop in such a manner that when entering the
retort it shall be in a horizontal position or nearly so, but when it is
acted upon by a lever or handle it shall descend, so that when the scoop

page_text: is withdrawn from the retort the hoe or rake shall scrape and pull the
coko out of the retort.
These improvements will be clearly understood by the following
particular description thereof, referenco being had to the figures and
letters on the accompanying two Sheets of Drawings in which Fig. 1 is a t
longitudinal elevation; Fig. 2, a plan; and Fig. 3, an end clevation
representing my improved apparatus for charging and drawing gas
retorts, and also one mode of working it. Figs. 4, 5, and 6, are side
views of parts of one of the scoops, and Fig. 7 is a transverse section of
a scoop at the line A, B, Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrow; ]
Figs. 1, 2, and 3, being drawn to a scale of one inch to the foot and
Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7, about quarter size.
In Figs. 1, 2, and 3, a represents the frame which, by means of the
wheels on the rails c, can traverse to and fro the length of the retort
house, and to the frame a is fixed the bed d carrying the moveable 1
headstock e, to which are fixed the cross frames f, g, h, the frames g
and h having slides i fitted to them, and to the frame fand slides i aro
fixed the scoops k, l, which are also supported by rollers m working on
standards n on both sides of the scoops, and the slides and scoops are
regulated to the positions required by the setting of the retorts o by 2
screws fitting nuts in the slides, and worked by hand wheels p, Fig 3.
Each scoop is formed of two metal sides k, each having holes or bearings
carrying shafts 9, to which are fixed bosses and arms r and to these arms
are rivetted plates 7, which can move up and down freely between the
sides k, and it is the platos 2 which form the bottom of the scoop and
hold the coal or cannel when they are in a horizontal position, and
the sides of the scoops where they are not bolted to the cross frame
and slides are held together by tio bars or plates t, Figs. 1 and 7;
to the shafts g are fixed levers u, cach linked at the top to a bar v,
fitted in staples or guides, and one end of the bar is jointed to the a
lever or handle w working on the fulcrum x, and each hoc or rake y,
Figs. 1 and 2, is fixed to a shaft z, having on it a lever a¹ connected by a
bar to a lever c³ worked by the rod c² and handle c³. To move the
frame a from one part of the retort house to another and place the scoops
opposite the retorts, I employ a double cylinder steam engine, having its
cylinders a fixed to a steam boiler e', fixed to the frame a, and the piston
rods are connected by the connecting rods to cranks g' on the shaft h',
carrying at one end the worm i' with which the worm wheel j' can be
geared or ungeared by the clutch k¹, Figs. 1 and 2, and on the shaft h¹

page_text: there are two bevil wheels ', m', which are geared as required by the
clutch n' so as to turn the bevil wheel p' fixed to the screwed shaft q',
the screw fitting a nut in the lower part of the moveable headstock.
When the frame a has to be moved to any required part of the retort
house, the bevil wheels &, m³, are out of gear with the clutch ', and the
worm wheel is put into gear with the worm and the engine is set to
work to turn the shaft h' in the direction required to give forward or back-
ward motion to the frame, and when the scoops are opposite the retorts
intended to be either charged or drawn, and charged, the worm wheel j¹
is thrown out of gear of the worm by the clutch ', and the frame stops,
and then the scoops are adjusted when required opposite the open retorts
by turning the hand wheels p, Fig. 3. If the retorts are to be charged,
the scoops which have been previously filled with coal or cannel aro
moved forwards into the retorts by clutching, say, the bevil wheel l' so
as to turn the bevil wheel p' and the screw q' and move forward the
moveable headstock by the movement of the screw in the nut, and when
the scoops are sufficiently advanced, the bovil wheel is thrown out of
gear, and as soon as the scoops become stationary the handle or lever wo,
Figs. 4 and 5, for each scoop is moved backwards to place the plates 2
forming the bottom of the scoops in inclined positions, as shewn in
Fig. 5, thereby making spaces through which the coal or cannel falls to
charge the retorts, and when this is accomplished the plates are
returned to their horizontal positions by reversing the movement of the
levers or handles w. The scoops have now to be brought back, and for
this purpose the other bevil wheel m³ is clutched by the clutch n' in
order to reverse the motion of the screw q', and when the fore ends
of the scoops have arrived near the rollers m their backward motions
are stopped. When, after the distillation of the coal or cannel, the
coke has to be withdrawn, the scoops are again advanced into the
retorts and the hoes or rakes let down by the movements of the
handle the rod c³, the levers c', the bars 6', and the levers a',
Fig. 1, and then backward movement is given to the scoops for enabling
the hoes or rakes to scrape and pull the coke out of the retorts, and when
the operation is completed the hoes or rakes are raised to their upward
position by reversing the movements of the handle, rod, bars, and levers,
and then the scoops filled with coal or cannel are advanced into the
retorts to charge in a similar manner to that before described, and the
levers to for working the plates of the scoops may also be moved
conjointly instead of separately.

page_text: JOHN R. MACFARLANE. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within-named John Rowcroft Mac.
farlane, in the presence of
G. SEPTIMUS Hugues,
Patent Agent,
Manchester.