IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE PRODUCTION AND APPLICATION OF HEAT AND IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE
Year: 1847

page_text: MICHAUT'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
AMBROISE MICHAUT, of Epieds, in France, late residing at New Bond Street,
in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her Majesty Queen Victoria, by Letters Patent under the
Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, dated
the Fifteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and forty-seven, gave and granted unto me, the said George
Ambroise Michaut, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her special licence, full
power, sole privilege, and authority, that I, the said George Ambroise
Michaut, my exors, admors, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and
themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or
such others as I, the said George Ambroise Michaut, my exors, admors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, a certain Invention called "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE PRODUCTION AND APPLICATION OF HEAT AND IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF COKE," within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and also in all Her Colonies and Plantations abroad, in such
manner as to me, the said George Ambroise Michaut, my exors, admors, and
assigns, or any of them, should in my or their discretion seem meet, to have,

page_text: hold, receive, and enjoy the said license, powers, privileges, and advantages
therein granted or mentioned to be granted unto me, the said George
Ambroise Michaut, my exors, adñiors. and assigns, for and during and unto
the full end and term of fourteen years from the date of the now reciting
Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be complete and
ended according to the Statute in such case made and provided; subject
among other things to a condition or proviso that if I, the said George
Ambroise Michaut, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to
be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said now reciting Letters
Patent, the said Letters Patent, and all liberties, and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, should cease, determine, and become void, as, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Ambroise Michaut, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being
had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of a mode of constructing and combining a series of
furnaces or ovens suitable for the manufacture of coke, and for the more
advantageous production and application of heat evolved from coal in the
manufacture of coke.
And in order that the Invention may be fully understood and readily
carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shows a plan in section; Figure 2, a front view in elevation;
Figure 3, a plan of the roof or top; Figure 4 a vertical section of a series of
furnaces or ovens constructed and combined according to my Invention. The
Drawing shows three furnaces or ovens combined, which is the number I
believe will be found most convenient and advantageous; but I do not confine
myself to that number, so long as a series of furnaces or ovens are constructed
and combined together, so as to be worked in the manner herein-after described.
a, b, c, are three furnaces or ovens, each provided with fire-bars d, d, which
occupy only comparatively a small part of the area of the bottom of each
furnace or oven.
Under each of the sets of fire-bars d is an ash-pit e. In

page_text: front, at the mouth of each furnace or oven, is applied a door f, by which the
furnace or oven can be closed, each of the doors having a hole, in order that
the workman may look through to see the state of the coal within the furnace
or oven; these holes, however, are to be kept closed at other times. Each
ash-pit is also to be closed with a door g. The furnaces or ovens a, b, c, are
divided from each other by partitions h, h; at the upper parts of the partitions
are openings, so as to admit of a ready interchange of heat between the fur-
naces or ovens so communicating with each other. Openings i, i, are also left
at the top or roof of each furnace or oven, for the purpose of applying bene-
ficially the heat evolved during the manufacture of coke. The Drawing only
shows the arrangement and construction of furnaces or ovens for the manu-
facture of coke according to my Invention, but it will be evident that the
heat evolved from the coal passing up through the roof, either through the
openings or otherwise, may be employed for heating gas retorts, lime kilns, steam
or other boilers, or other apparatus requiring heat; and such apparatus will be
set or fixed so as to be operated on by the heat passing away from the furnaces
or ovens a, b, c; but I would observe that the heating of gas retorts, lime
kilns, boilers, or other apparatus by heat passing from coke ovens, is not
separately new, various means of employing the heat of coke ovens having
before been used and proposed; but according to my Invention such heat may
be more advantageously obtained and applied. I do not therefore claim
the use of heat of coke ovens for such purposes, but only the peculiar mode of
producing and applying heat evolved in furnaces or ovens constructed and
arranged as herein described, and suitable for the manufacture of coke. In
working with a series of furnaces or ovens constructed and combined accord-
ing to my Invention, supposing them to have been at work and to be con-
sequently in a heated state, the charges in the series are made in sucession in
such manner that the charge in two out of three may be in a high state of
heat when fresh coal is placed into the other. The workman will know when
to withdraw a charge, by the flame ceasing on the surface, as in the ordinary
process of coke making; and so soon as such is the case, he will open the door
of the furnace and withdraw the charge therefrom, and cool it with water, and
he will again charge that furnace or oven with coal; and so soon as the charge
is introduced the door is to be closed and ignition will soon take place by the
heat of the furnace or oven and the flame from the others; and it should be
understood that the ash-pit doors are to be kept closed at all times, except it
be found that the combustion does not go on to the extent desired, when by
opening or partially opening a door the air will rush up through the fuel on
the bars of that furnace or oven, and excite the combustion. By this con-

page_text: struction and combination of furnaces or ovens not only will coke of excellent
quality be made, but I believe it will be found in most cases that an encreased
yield from any given class of coal will result to what is produced from like coal
by the ordinary means of working, and at the same time the heat evolved may
be more advantageously applied (owing to the comparative uniformity of pro-
duction) to heating gas retorts, lime kilns, steam and other boilers, and other
apparatus requiring heat, than can be accomplished by other arrangements of
furnaces or ovens heretofore employed for like purposes.
Having thus explained the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, I would state, that I do not confine myself to tho
precise details herein shewn and described, so long as the peculiar character
of my Invention be retained; but what I claim is the mode herein described
of constructing and combining a series of furnaces or ovens for the manu-
facture of coke, and for producing and applying heat evolved in furnaces or
ovens constructed and arranged as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Ambroise Michaut, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
Taken and acknowledged by George
Ambroise Michaut (party hereto),
at Paris, in the Republic of France,
this Fifth day of April 1848, before
me.
G. A. (L.s.) MICHAUT.
This is the Specification referred to in the affidavit of William Henry
Ritchie, sworn before me this 14th day of April, 1848.
S. ANDERSON.
William Henry Ritchie, of Old Square, Lincoln's Inn, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, maketh oath and saith, that he is acquainted with
the manner and character of the handwriting of Thomas Pickford, Her
Britannic Majesty's Consul at Paris, in the Republic of France; and this
deponent further saith that the signature "Thomas Pickford" set, subscribed,
or written in the margin of the Specification hereunto annexed, markod A.
and dated the Fifth day of April instant, and purporting to be executed by
George Ambroise Michaut, of Epieds, in France, late residing at New Bond
Street, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, whereby it is stated that the

page_text: said Specification was acknowledged by him, the said George Ambroise
Michaut, before the said Thomas Pickford, on the said Fifth day of April
instant, at Paris aforesaid, is of the proper handwriting of the said Thomas
Pickford.