CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS UPON MY FORMER PATENT OVEN, STOVE, OR APPARATUS FOR CARBONIZING ALL SORTS OF RAW FUEL AND COMBUSTIBLES AND REDUCING THEM INTO SUPERIOR FUEL OF COKE AND CHARCOAL, AS WELL AS FOR EXTRACTING AND SAVING DURING THE SAME PROCESS THE OIL, TAR, PYROLIGNEOUS VEGETABLE ACID, AND AMMORICAL COAL LIQUORS, AND FOR EXTRACTING AND REFINING ALL THE INFLAMMABLE AIR ORGAS, SO AS TO DEPRIVE IT OF ALL DISAGREEABLE ODOUR DURING COMBUSTION, AND RENDER- ING THE GAS ITSELF SALUTARY FOR HUMAN RESPIRATION WHEN PROPERLY DILUTED WITH ATMOSPHERIC AIR, AND VARIOUS METHODS OF APPLYING THE ABOVE SEVERAL PRODUCTS TO USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1809

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
ALBERT WINSOR, of Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of February, in tho
forty-ninth year of His reign, givo and grant unto me, the said Frederick Albert
Winsor, my exors, adiňors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, solo
privilege and authority, that I, the said Frederick Albert Winsor, my exors,
adiors, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years
therein expressed, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
UPON MY FORMER PATENT OVEN, STOVE, OR APPARATUS FOR CARBONIZING ALL
SORTS OF RAW FUEL AND COMBUSTIBLES AND REDUCING THEM INTO SUPERIOR FUEL
OF COKE AND CHARCOAL, AS WELL AS FOR EXTRACTING AND SAVING DURING THE SAME
PROCESS THE OIL, TAR, PYROLIGNEOUS VEGETABLE ACID, AND AMMORICAL COAL
LIQUORS, AND FOR EXTRACTING AND REFINING ALL THE INFLAMMABLE AIR OR GAS,
SO AS TO DEPRIVE IT OF ALL DISAGREEABLE ODOUR DURING COMBUSTION, AND RENDER-
ING THE GAS ITSELF SALUTARY FOR HUMAN RESPIRATION WHEN PROPERLY DILUTED
WITH ATMOSPHERIC AIR, AND VARIOUS METHODS OF APPLYING THE ABOVE SEVERAL
PRODUCTS TO USEFUL PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent thero is contained
a proviso, obliging me, the said Frederick Albert Winsor, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of tho

page_text: nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar
months after the conclusion of the last Session of Parliament, as in and by the
same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Frederick Albert Winsor, do hereby declare that my said Invention is
described and ascertained in manner following, that is to say:-
The gas light apparatus consists of two principal parts, the one to carbonizo
coals, &c., and extract the smoke by heat, and the other part serves to cool,
decompose, and refine the smoak. Both vessels must be made air-tight to
obtain a perfect analysis of coal or other fuel and combustibles. Philosophers
have long since contrived to analyse fuel, &c. in very small quantities by the
well-known chemical apparatus of retorts and glass receivers; but the trouble,
expence, and difficulty attending this operation, even on a small scale, has
hitherto prevented any contrivance on a large scale for the useful application
of the several component parts of coal and other fuel.
Since my first Patent, in One thousand eight hundred and four, and my
publicly recommending the introduction of coke and gas lights by numerous
advertisements, enlarged iron retorts and huge gasometers have been and are
now made use of in some manufacturing towns, as appears by the "Philosophical
Transactions,"
," those of the Society of Arts, &c., and also from the evidence in
opposition to the Gas Light Bill in the last Session of Parliament. But such
unwieldy, costly, and dangerous apparatus, can never be used in private houses,
nor for lighting streets, &c. Hence, the following apparatus is entirely new in
its construction and application, for it operates diametrically contrary to all the
known chemical apparatus hitherto used, as well as to those enlarged charcoal
ovens and gasometers employed by Messieurs Murdock, Boulton, Watt, and
Company, of Soho, near Birmingham; those of Messieurs Philips, Lee, and
Company, of Manchester, as described in the "Philosophical Transactions," and
in their evidence before a Committee of the Honorable the House of Commons,
in opposition to the Gas Light Bill. Those of Mr. Cooke, of Birmingham, in
Nicholson's "Philosophical Journal;" those of Mr. Clegg, of Manchester, as
published by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c.; those of
Mr. J. W. Davis, of Tanley Moor, in Tillock's "Philosophical Magazine;" and,
lastly, of those of Mr. Parkes's, in his celebrated "Chemical Catechism." All
these apparatus's are on the principle of an enlarged charcoal furnace (such as
there are plenty about London), connected with large gasometers. These ovens
will contain iron retorts full of wood or coal in the centre. A fire of raw coal
is made to play around them, by which contrivance above half of the heat is

page_text: necessarily lost in the brickwork, from the natural expansion and rarifaction
of caloric always flying from the centre; whereas my fires and flues are always
contrived in the midst of the raw fuel to be carbonized; the gasometer or gas
holders contain large reservoirs, where the gas is suffered to accumulate to
a one thousand cubic feet in bulk, which, besides the danger, prevents its
being thoroughly decomposed and refined in such masses; whereas in my
condensors the gas is so infinitely subdivided into minute particles, that all
its tar, oil, bitumen, and ammonical liquor must needs be decomposed and
precipitated before combustion.
First, house and chamber stoves may be constructed of iron or other metal;
of earthen or stone ware, made fire-proof; of pipe-clay, or any other fire-proof
composition. Their form in general is that of the German draft stoves, but
they may be made round, square, angular, cylindrical, conical, oval, or any
other fancy shape; and the cylinder which separates the fire from the coal
inside may be made equally different in shape, provided that its bulk occupies
from one-third to one-half of area within the stove, so that the heat may
more equally be distributed among the surrounding coal or fuel; for instead
of surrounding any iron or other retorts (filled with coal or other fuel to be
analysed) by a large coal or charcoal fire, I place my fires into the midst.or
centre of the vessels charged with raw fuel, and I employ the refuse 'cokė
and coal only to burn in those cylinders or iron cones surrounded by said raw
fuel. Hence the fire and heat generated in the centre expands by the laws
of nature in all directions, but chiefly sidewards and upwards, and a much
greater quantity of caloric is thus generated by means of a good draft, and
is more equally distributed among the coal, so as to cause a spedier and
more perfect carbonization. By this mode the fires never come into
contact with the fuel to be coked and decomposed, and no calcination
whatever can take place; a very great saving is produced in the expenditure
of raw fuel commonly burnt under and around those iron. retorts, copper
pots, and digesters employed in a like process, where above half the caloric
generated expands from but never towards a centre; hence it is sooner
lost in the iron or brickwork inclosing it than heat or carbonize the raw
fuel placed in the center of the fire or surrounded by its flames. These
principles and effects have often been demonstrated, exemplified, and approved
of in my numerous public lectures. By this method one-third of a bushel of
refuse coke may generate sufficient caloric to carbonize a whole bushel of
coal, so as to produce one bushel and a half of good coke again, besides from
five to six pounds oil tar, from seven to eight pounds of strong ammonical
liquor, and from two hundred and twenty to two. hundred.and sixty cubic feet

page_text: of pure gas, all which proportions will be obtained, more or less agreeable
to tlio nature and qualities of the coal or other fuel. The said oil tar may
be converted again into several qualities and properties of essential oil, pitch,
and asphaltum, and the amoniacal liquor may be beneficially applied by
agriculturists, dyers, chemists, manufacturers of sal-armoniac, carbonate of
ammonia, and other more costly salts by chemical combinations. The said
coko may be beneficially applied to family, culinary, and chemical purposes,
as well as for smelting iron, &c., on a large scale, all which facts have already
been proved before a Committee of the Honorable House of Commons, and
which were ordered by the House to be printed. The cylinders or cones,
containing the fires, may be só constructed as to give a horizontal, perpen-
dicular, oblique, serpentine, or reverberating direction to the fire, heat, or flamo
in its passage through the raw fuel or other combustibles to be analysed; tho
heat and flame may be led up and downwards to the right and left and in
all possible directions through the carbonizing fuel, for the longer the fire
draft is detained in its passage, and the greater the circuit it makes through
the fuel, the sooner and better will be the process of carbonization, as well as
the quality of products precipitated in the condensers.
Second, in my large succession stovės, principally made of fire and other
bricks, divided into several compartments, and closed with iron covers, the
fires run from one, two three, four, or more grates through a number of
flues, in the midst of coal, and meet in the centre at one chimney. These
compartments are either larger or smaller, to hold from one peck to ono sack
and more of coal, or other fuel are charged and discharged in succession
without in the least interrupting the process of the other compartments, so
that the operation of the furnace goes on day and night without any hindrance.
From each compartment a separate flue or conductor carries the raw smoko
to the great main connected with the condenser, so that when one of them
is discharging of coke to be recharged with coal, &c. the communicating flue
or tube to the main is shut by a cock or valve or otherwise, in order to
prevent the access of air to the great main; but as soon as charged and covered
in, the communication to the main is restored, that the raw smoke may freely
pass to the condensor. In this manner furnaces of any dimensions or
capacities may be constructed, and good coke may be made even of the refuse
or siftings of coal. If forms of iron, clay, or wire, like a framework,
are filled with small coal and be placed within these compartments, this coal
will make good coke cakes of any size or shape, by which means the breakage
and its waste is avoided. The coudensor, which is the next principal part
of the machine, serves to cool and decompuce the hot smoke and gas, for,

page_text: when suddenly and properly cooled, it will then precipitate its component
oil, alkaline, and bituminous particles much speedier and more perfect than in
gazometers, where it is retained in large volumes, whereas to perform a
complete analysis it should be as minutely subdivided as possible. For this
purpose my chamber stoves have metal, earthen, or stone vessels made in
form of a pedestal, or any other convenient figure, to support them. These
vessels have several subdivisions or partitions, filled with lime water, or cream
of lime, or lime diffused through them so far as to leave only from half an
inch to two or three inches space (agreeable to the size and charge of the
stoves) above the surface of the water. The lower chambers where the tar
and ammoniacal liquor collects are without water. The hot smoke from the
stove is led by a strong pipe either through or beside the fire-place and ash-
hole into the lower chamber of the condensor, where it is minutely subdivided,
in winding round and passing through several side partitions perforated
with small holes, from hence the smoke and gas strikes upwards through a
fixed tube on the first surface of water saturated with lime, which, by its
chemical affinity to sulphur, &c., attracts those offensive particles that other-
wise accompanies more or less the hydro-carbonic gas from different sorts of
coal and some other combustibles, from hence the smoke is made again to
ascend by a tube, and to serpentine again, as it were, in minute subdivisions
through several side partitions with perforated holes over three, four, and
more surfaces of lime water, which all serve to cool, decompose, and refine it
into pure gas, when it is examined by proper trying pipes, and when found
quite transparent it is then suffered to force its way through the main and
side tubes towards the spots where the burners are fixed to give light. (It is
obvious that proper vent must be given in time for the smoke to displace the
different columns of air contained in the condensors, main tube, and side
branches; first, by the trying pipes near the condensor; and, secondly, by those
of the main; and, lastly, by the cocks or valves near the burners, otherwise tho
elastic pressure of the gas will force its way through some soft, thin, or porous
spots in the stoves, condensors, or pipes, where water and air cannot easily
perforate. The gas may be used in ornamental, moveable, and flexible
branches issuing from the condensing pedestals, such as has been shown in a
great variety at the Lyceum, in One thousand eight hundred and four, in
Green Street, One thousand eight hundred and five, and in Pall Mall, since
One thousand eight hundred and six, to the present time. In Green Street,
by means of two small stoves placed on each side of the kitchen fire, mado
with coke, and one separate condensor, the gas was conducted into the parlour
and second floor above it. The tops of the stoves may be made in form

page_text: of a kettle, pan, or other vessel, to make water boil by the hot smoke before it
passes into the condensor, or be made serviceable for other culinary and
chemical purposes. Large iron stoves and succession furnaces have separate
condensors placed at a few feet distance from them, so that they are not in the
way of charging and discharging the stoves, nor be injured by the heat. The
tops of these stoves have upright ledges or shoulders, with alembic covers, to
serve for evaporating or distilling tar, &c. &c. by the same heat, and also to
form a sand bath for the purpose of any other evaporation, distillation, &c.
These condensors may be made of brick or stonework, lined with lead, &c., or
wholly of iron, tin plate, or other metal, and even stone or carthenwares; but
the cheapest and simplest are made with large wine or other casks cut in
halves, with several bottoms, made of wood or metal, in the manner above
described, to hold several surfaces of lime water. Should the coal be of a
strong quality, it will be proper to throw a small quantity of slaked lime
at the bottom of the stove, sprinkled over with a little water, the steam of
which will rise through the coal, and impregnate itself with the smoke, to
purify it the better from the disagrecable odour. Formerly I used to mix a
small quantity of lime with the coal, but this affects the coke more or less;
and I find that throwing lime into the bottom of the stove answers still better,
and the lime is not intermixed with the coke. Persons using reservoirs,
gasometers, or gasholders are ignorant of the effect the pressure of air has
on the main tubes and side branches when left open in the beginning and
towards the close of the process.
It is well known that the atmosphere presses with a force of fourteen pounds
on every square inch surface; hence, if an aperture of only the fourteenth
part, the pressure is one pound. Now, at the beginning of the process, when
the gas has not yet obtained sufficient elastic force to displace the air within
the tubes, although the reservoir or gasholders may be quite filled, if you
attempt lighting too soon the blue flame will frequently be forced inwards by
the superior weight of the atmosphere, when it rushes with the rapidity of
lightening through any length of tube into the reservoir, and explodes it with
a force equal to gunpowder; hence, the larger the reservoir or gasholder the
greater the danger. The same effect must take place towards the close, when
the elastic pressure of the gas must become inferior to that of the atmosphere;
and wheresoever there is a flame left burning accidents are likely to happen,
as the cause of danger still exists, the same as in gunpowder mills, which may
No human ingenuity can pre-
stand safe for years and be blown up at last.
vent the explosion of gas where it is suffered to accumulate in any quantity,
for it is impossible to guard against it with any safety valves or other con-

page_text: trivances, as is done with steam engines, the bursting of which, however, rests
on different principles. The principle of placing a fire in the centre may be
applied to heat, or boil, distil, or evaporate water or other liquids in wooden
casks or other vessels much sooner than can be done in the common mode of
applying the heat under and around kettles, coppers, pots, pans, &c. It may
also be applied for airing, drying, baking, stewing, &c. In any of the fire-
places in my stoves and furnaces a strong metal or fire-proof composition. tube
may be led through the middle, supplied with fresh air by a tube connected
from the outside through a wall or otherwise; by this means a great quantity
of fresh air may be speedily rarified, heated, and be conducted by other tubes
fixed and flexible to warm rooms, and even whole houses, in a far superior
and safer manner than can be done by steam or fire flues now in use.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Albert Winsor, have hereunto
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of August, in the year of
set my
thousand right hundred and ning