IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS MAKING
Year: 1854

page_text: Sealed the 16th May 1854, and dated the 10th February 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Young at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th
February 1854.
1, JAMES YOUNG, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, Merchant, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GAS MAKING " to be
as follows:-
I employ such number of retorts as may be requisite for generating the
quantity of gas to be supplied, but instead of placing them horizontally in the
oven as heretofore, I range them vertically with the fires nearly at the lower
ends of the retorts.
The upper end of each retort is covered by a lid securely fitted and luted in its
place, but provided with a suitable door for admitting the coal or other matters
to be distilled. The lower end of the retort is without bottom, but dips into a
vessel of water or other suitable liquid, by which the escape of gas from the
interior of the retort is prevented.
The coal gradually descends in the retort as the process of distillation pro-
ceeds, and exhausted by the time it passes the level of the fire-bars, and it
finally descends into the vessel containing the liquid employed for closing the
lower end of the retort, whence it is removed by manual labor or otherwise.

page_text: By this arrangement, the volatile products are made to pass downwards in
the retort through the incandescent matters contained in it, and the gas pro-
duced is conveyed away by a pipe which communicates with the retort below
the level of the fire-bars. The oil, tar, and other liquid products of the coal,
are thereby mainly converted into gas.
For the better securing the uniform distillation of the coal or other matters
employed in the process, a stirrer descends within the retort nearly to the lower
end, and is armed with radial spikes, so that when turned round it prevents
packing of the materials in the retort, and exposes them more regularly to the
action of the heat. The axis of this stirrer projects through a stuffing box in
the cover of the retort, and has a wheel or pulley fixed on it by which motion
is communicated to it by steam or other power.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Young in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th.
August 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
YOUNG, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Young, Her special licence that I, the said James Young, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Young, 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 GAS MAKING,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Young, by an instru-
iment in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Young, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof (that is to say):-
In making illuminating gas from coal, as commonly practised, the process is
intermittent in consequence of the charging and discharging of the retorts, and
besides a notable part of the volatile matter of the coal is deposited as tar and
other liquid compounds. These condensed products are known to consist
mainly of the same elements as the illuminating gas itself, and in as far as they
are less valuable than the volume of gas they are known to represent, their
formation in the process of gas making is not desirable. My Invention has
for its object, accordingly, to render the process more economical by making the
working nearly continuous, and by preventing waste of the gas-producing con-
stituents of the coal in the formation of tar and the like; and consists essentially
in so conducting the distillation of the coal as to convert nearly the entire
available hydro-carbon products gradually and continuously into permanent
For that purpose, I proceed as follows:-I set the retorts vertically in
the oven with their lower ends nearly on a level with the furnace bars, and I
cause the coal with which they are charged to descend slowly and continuously
from the upper to the lower end of each retort, and be there discharged regularly
in the state of coke in any suitable manner, such as that to be herein-after
described. I also place the passage for the exit of the gas at or near the
lower end of the retort, in order that the hydro-carbon vapours formed in the
upper parts of the retort may be exposed in passing to the outlet to the higher
temperature of the lower parts containing the nearly exhausted coal, and be
thereby converted into permanent gas before they finally pass off from the
retort in which they are generated.
gas.
These are the true nature and objects of my Invention; and in order that
it may be fully and clearly understood, I proceed to describe, in connection
with the Drawings hereunto annexed, the technical arrangement which I con-
sider the best and most suitable for carrying it into practical effect. The
Drawings represent the disposition of a set of four retorts of such capacity as I
have used and found to answer satisfactorily.
Figure 1 is a general plan, in relation to which Figure 2 is a vertical section
on the line A, B; Figure 3, a like section on the line C, D; and Figure 4, a
side elevation; Figures 5 and 6 are cross sections through the lines E, F, and
G, H, on Figures 2 & 3. The same parts are indicated by the same letters

page_text: in all the Figures. a, a, are the retorts, which I prefer to be made of fire clay,
but which may be of cast iron. They are made wider towards their lower
ends, and are placed two and two on the opposite sides of the furnace, so that
each pair occupies a separate chamber b, in the brickwork casing c, which
surrounds the whole set. The flame and gases from the furnace pass into the
retort chambers through the side openings d, d, and thence return downwards
over the partition walls e, e, into the space f, from which they escape into the
flue h. The brickwork casing and retorts are supported on two cast iron
cisterns i, i, containing each two separate and air-tight chambers j, j, for
receiving the hot coke discharged from the retorts placed immediately over
them. For the purpose of keeping the temperature of these chambers as low
as practicable, and cooling the coke before it is withdrawn, the cisterns in
which they are formed are kept filled with water to the level indicated in
Figure 2. The retorts are surmounted by close hoppers k, k, capable of con-
taining cach about ten or twelve cwts. of coal broken into small pieces in the
usual manner. They are formed of sheet iron and suitably fixed gas-tight by
bolts to snugs made on the retorts as shewn at 1, in, Figure 2, and provided
each with a luted door m, for the admission of the coal. In the upper apex
of each hopper is fixed a cast iron bush, for the support of a stirring bar o,
which bar is armed throughout its length with iron spikes, all set radially on
it, except that at its lower end, which is bent spirally, and sweeps the surface
of the disc or table p, fixed under the retort for the purpose of supporting the
coal therein. These radial spikes serve to agitate the contents of the retort
when put in motion by means of the system of gearing shewn (most fully) in
the plan (Figure 1); and the spiral arm q, at the same time throws a portion
of the coke over the edge of the table p into the chamber, and thus promotes
the gradual descent of the contents of the retort. The system of gearing for
giving motion to the stirrers consists of a worm wheel 7 fixed on the top of
each, and so sized that each two adjacent wheels of the set gear pair and pair
with the right and left handed worms s, s, keyed on the shaft t. This shaft is
carried on bearings supported by the columns u, u, resting on the brickwork
and is driven at such a rate of speed in relation to the wheels 1, r, r, r, as to
cause the stirrers to make a turn every twelve or fifteen minutes.
This rate
of speed also determines mainly the rate of discharge of the coke from the
bottom of the retort; but the quantity discharged in a revolution of the stirrer
is to some extent regulated by the distance of the table below the end of the
retort; the greater this distance within limits, the greater is the quantity thrown
off in a revolution of the discharging arm. For the purpose of obtaining the

page_text: power of making this adjustment, the table is supported by a screwed rod v,
which passes through and is maintained by a nut at w, in the bottom of the
water cistern, and projecting upwards, fits into a hollow boss on the under side
of the table, which boss descends through the bottom of the coke chamber into
the water space without, and allows the water to ascend within it to keep its
temperature as low as practicable, but is rendered water-tight or very nearly
so outside, so that'no water is admitted into the coke chamber. By means of
this arrangement the table can be elevated and depressed at pleasure, by
turning the supporting rod v in its nut, and the rate of discharge of the coke
thereby regulate to any required degree of exactness. For the purpose of dis-
tributing the coke evenly in the chambers when becoming nearly full, the
extremities of the discharging arms q, are made to project downwards obliquely
over the edges of the tables p, and, rake it off at any points where it happens to
accumulate unduly. When the coke chambers are filled to the height of the
discharging tables or thereby, they are emptied of their contents by the doors
a, a, which are fitted tightly and luted in any usual manner.
As the gas is formed in the retorts it passes into the coke chambers, and
thence by the recesses y, y, into the branch pipes z, z, leading to the hydraulic
main.
The method above described of removing the coke from the retorts as it is
formed, and discharging it into air-tight chambers is generally applicable, and
the best with which I am acquainted, when the coke is considered valuable,
and it is desirable to keep it dry; but when the coke is of small value, it may
be discharged upon an endless band formed of articulated iron bars carried by
drums or rollers in a water cistern placed under and luting the retorts, or it
may be discharged upon a plate in the water cistern, and raked off regularly
either by hand or by self-acting mechanism. Provision is made when the
retorts are thus luted for taking off the gas above the level of the water in the
cistern.
Having thus described the best means I am acquainted with for carrying
my Invention into practice, I would have it understood that I do not confine
myself to the details shown, so long as the peculiar character of my Invention
is retained, nor do I claim any of those details separately and specially; but
what I do claim is the arrangement, as herein-before set forth, for causing the
coal in each retort to descend and be exhausted, and discharged gradually and
continuously, in such a way as to keep up a nearly uniform rate of production
gas in the retort, and causing the products of the distillation to pass down-
wards within the retort through the hot coke therein for the purpose of con-
of

page_text: verting the hydro-carbon vapours given off in the higher parts of the retort to
the condition or state of permanent gas before finally escaping therefrom.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Young, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
WALTER MALCOM BUCHANAN,
37, Paterson Street,
Glasgow.
JAMES YOUNG. (L.S.)