AN IMPROVED COMPOUND OR COMBINATION OF MATERIALS TO BE USED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ILLUMINATING GAS
Year: 1867

page_text: Sealed the 14th May 1867, and dated the 29th January 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Greenshields at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition on the
29th January 1867.
I, JAMES GREENSHIELDS, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "AN IMPROVED
COMPOUND OR COMBINATION OF MATERIALS TO BE USED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF
ILLUMINATING GAS," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention, which has for its object the combination of certain mineral,
vegetable, and animal substances for the production of illuminating gas,

page_text: consists as follows:-The substances are compounded together by any well-
known means, and the solid materials which enter into the composition or
combination of the ultimate compound are pulverized or ground to powder
or dust.
In carrying out one modification of this Invention, that in which all the
substances hereafter named are included, the pulverized coal and bituminous.
shale are mixed with a proportion of tar and pitch, together with a proportion
of rosin in the heated or fluid state, which on being cooled hardens the rest of
the mass with which it is combined, and thus enables the compound to be
readily formed into solid permanently shaped lumps, at once. convenient for
packing, storage, and shipment, at the same time specially adapted for being
placed in the retorts in which the gas is distilled off.
Under a second modification the use of the mineral oils, pitch, and tar is
dispensed with, and the compound is composed of proportions which may be
varied, of coal dust and rosin, or shale dust and rosin, or coal dust and shale
dust and rosin.
A very convenient mode of effecting the admixture of the rosin with the
other materials is to pour or place the materials to be compounded into
what is known as a "pan mill," the pan being heated to the requisite tem-
perature for melting the rosin by steam, hot air, hot water, or the direct
application of fire, or. by other means, the rosin being melted and the materials
being compounded by the commingling action of the rollers, the resulting
compound is led off to a moulding machine alongside, wherein the compound
being in a plastic state is moulded into any suitable form, and being allowed
to cool assumes and maintains until placed in the retort the solid form then
imparted to it.
Independently of manufacturing the compound in the manner herein-before
described, the coal and shale and rosin or pitch may be ground in any con-
venient manner, and the materials themselves may be mixed together and used
in the pulverized state without being formed into blocks.
In using rosin in the production of the afore-mentioned compound it is
preferred to employ it in the proportion of 2 hundredweight to the ton, or
thereabouts, but the Invention is not limited to that proportion.
It is to be understood that under this Invention the materials may be
combined in the following variety of ways, for instance, 1st, coal shale, pitch,
tar, and rosin are so combined; 2nd, coal pitch, tar, and rosin; 3rd, shale
pitch, tar, and rosin; 4th, coal shale, tar, and rosin; 5th, coal shale, pitch,
and rosin; and one or more of any of the substances, except rosin, may be

page_text: omitted or included in the production of the compound; the combination of
rosin with any one or all of the substances herein-before mentioned for the
production of a compound from which illuminating gas may be obtained
being the essential feature of this Invention.