CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS POB PRODUCING GAS FROM VARIOUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PHILIP
TAYLOR, of the City Road, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster the Fifteenth day of June, in the fifth year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Philip
Taylor, His especial licence that I, the said Philip Taylor, my exors, admors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Philip Taylor, my exors, admors,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
POB PRODUCING GAS FROM VARIOUS SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Philip Taylor, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said

page_text: Philip Taylor, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):-
My improvement consists in the invention of retorts and apparatus, or a
combination of retorts and apparatus, for the purpose of more effectually than
heretofore decomposing, by the application of heat, fluids or substances that
can be rendered fluid, acrisom, or vaporous, and which are capable of yielding,
producing, or of being converted into gas suitable for the purposes of illumina-
tion; and also by the use of the said retorts and apparatus of employing with
facility and advantage substances not readily or economically convertible into
gas by the means at present in use.
A, Figure 1, represents a single vertical retort, which is so placed in a
furnace that the heat passes around it in the cavity B, B, the draught being
produced, and the smoke passing off by a vent or Blue, the same being
provided with a damper to regulate the heat in the usual manner.
C is a
flange or rim, which not only serves to suspend the retort in the furnace,
but also bolt or screw the neck to, which receives the cover or bonnet.
D is the neck of the retort which stands above the furnace, and is not
exposed to the direct action of the fire. E is a pipe or opening in
the neck of the retort, sufficiently large to allow the gas which is produced
in the retort to pass off to the gasometer or gasholder. F is the cover
. or lid of the retort, which is so made as to be easily luted on the neck in
the usual way, the same being held down by a wedge screw, or other well-
known mode of fastening. G is a pipe of iron, copper, or other suitable
material which admits the substance to be decomposed. This pipe passes
through the cover or lid and extends to within a few inches of the bottom of
the retort. The proper quantity of the substance operated upon is to be
admitted into the retort by this pipe, and which is regulated by a cock valve,
force pump, column of fluid, or other mode by which a stream of fluid can be
regulated or stopped; and if the substance operated upon is not naturally fluid,
it must be rendered so, either wholly or partially, by heat or otherwise. H
(more particularly shewn in Fig. 2) is a lining or vessel made of sheet iron
or other suitable material, which will drop into and fit the interior of the
retort, and which is provided with riugs, lugs, or holes, by which it can be
easily lifted into and out of the retort. I is a pipe of iron or other suitable
material, which is placed in the centre of the lining when it is put into the
retort. This pipe must be sufficiently large to allow the smaller pipe G to
pass through it, and it must be perforated laterally with holes half an inch in

page_text: diameter, and extending upwards six inches from the lower end which rests on
the lining, as shewn in the Drawing Fig. 1. The lining H being placed in
the interior of the retorts A, and the pipe I being set upright in the centre of
the lining H, the space around, with pipe I, must be filled with fragments of
brick, coke, charcoal, cinders, metal, stone, or other substance which will
become red hot without fusion, and care must be taken to place large frag-
ments at the bottom of the lining and smaller at the upper part. The cover or
lid F may then be luted on the neck D, and the pipe G fixed in the hole or
opening in the cover or lid by means of a screw, ground joint, flanch, or other
mode of fastening; a smaller quantity of the substance to be operated upon,
being suffered to flow through the pipe G, will descend to the bottom of the
retort, when it will be partially or wholly converted into gas and vapour, and
such gas and vapour, being compelled to pass through the fragments of
red hot matter placed in the lining H in order to make its escape at the pipe
or opening E, will be freed from the grosser parts by a kind of filtration, which
may be rendered very effectual if the fragments are sufficiently small in the
upper part of the lining, and the decomposition of the substance operated upon
will be more perfect by this mode of filtration through red hot fragments than
by any other mode at present in use.
When substances are operated upon which are difficult of decomposition,
or which contain a considerable quantity of gross matter, two or more
retorts may be used jointly on the principle above described, an example
of the mode of doing which is shewn by Fig. 8. L, M, are two
retorts placed in and heated by a furnace or furnaces, as already described.
N is the pipe which admits the substance to be operated upon, and which
may either be inserted into a hole in the cover or lid, as above described
in Fig. 1, or into the neck O of the retort, as shewn in Fig. 8. These
retorts may also be provided with linings H, Fig. 2, to contain the fragments of
brick, coke, cinder, charcoal, metal, or stone, and which are only required to faci-
litate the removal of such fragments when they require to be renewed. They
may likewise be provided with pipes similar to that described by I, Fig. 1.;
but these may be omitted if an opening is left in the pover to introduce
the fragments, after the cover or lid is luted on the retort. P is an
opening or pipe to allow the gas to pass off into the gasometer or gas-
holder from the retort M, but the retort L is without such an opening or
pipe. R is a pipe passing through the cover or lid on each retort, and
descending to within a few inches of the bottom of each retort, or it
may be inserted in the side or neck of each retort, but in either case it must
be so secured as to be air-tight. The interior of the retorts L, M, being filled

page_text: with fragments of matter suited to form a filter, as before described, and to
decompose the substance operated upon, and the covers being luted on, a
small quantity of the substance to be operated upon is to be admitted by the
pipo N, Fig. 8, which, falling on the upper part of the fragments which occupy
the interior of the retorts, will filter through them, leaving the grosser parts
behind, while the gas and vapour produced will ascend the pipe R in the
retort L, and descend by the same to the bottom of the retort M, when it will
again ascend through the red-hot fragments in the interior of the retort M,
and pass off to the gasometer or gasholder through the opening or pipe P. In
employing combined retorts on this plan, I have found it desirable to fill the
retort L with a filter, formed of large fragments, as before described, and the
retort M with smaller fragments. The form and size of the retorts con-
structed on this principle may be varied according to the quantity of gas
required to be produced, and the nature of the substance to be operated upon.
The mode of connecting and arranging the pipes may also be varied; they
may also be used with or without the linings above described; the retorts
may also be made of various materials, such as iron, either cast or wrought,
fire clay, fire brick, plumbago, or any other substance which will endure a
strong heat without cracking; and they may either be made with a separato
neck or in one piece. One or more retorts or pair of retorts may also be heated
by one fire; but I have found cast-iron retorts of the dimensions shewn by
the annexed Drawings, Fig. No. 1 and 3 (the same being on a scale of one
inch to a foot) are both convenient and economical for the purpose; and I have
also found that eight or ten of such retorts can be conveniently placed in one
furnace and heated effectually by one fireplace.
I do not claim as my Invention any mode of setting the retorts in the furnace,
nor do I claim the Invention of vertical retorts. But I claim as my Invention
the particular mode of admitting the substance to be operated upon into the retort,
and of passing off the gas from the same (as specified in the Drawing), by which
means the substance operated upon, after it has been converted into vapour at
either the bottom or upper part of the retort, is made to pass upwards or
downwards through a filter of red hot matter suitable for the purpose (and
more particularly described above), by which operation the vapour is converted
into gas, and the grosser particles arrested in the interstices of the filter.
In witness whereof, I, the said Philip Taylor, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.
PHILIP (L.s.) TAYLOR.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day December,
in the year of our Lord 1824, the aforesaid Philip Taylor came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord One