THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN HYDROCARBONS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Francis Puls, of Haverstock Hill, in the County of
Middlesex, Chemist, for the Invention of "THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN
HYDROCARBONS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis Puls at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd
February 1858..
I, FRANCIS PULS, of Haverstock Hill, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "THE MANUFACTURE OF
CERTAIN HYDROCARBONS," to be as follows (that is to say):
My Invention, which has reference to the manufacture of certain hydro-
carbons, for the general purposes for which they are at present. employed;
consists in distilling gas pitch (the residue of the 'distillation of gas tar, dead
oil, or otherwise,) in combination with earthy, alkaline, or metallic oxides, sub-
oxides, or carbonates, by which means a mixture of fluid and solid hydrocarbons
are obtained, which may be separated and subsequently purified for use; the
gaseous products evolved during the process being also collected and employed
in any suitable manner.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Francis Puls in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd August 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANCIS
PULS, of Haverstock Hill, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, send
greeting.
4
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me
the said Francis Puls, Her special licence that I, the said Francis Puls,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Francis
Puls, 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 "THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN
HYDROCARBONS," upon the condition. (amongst others) that I, the said Francis
Puls, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain 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 Francis Puls, 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 (that is to say):-
My Invention, which has reference to the manufacture of certain hydro-
carbons for the general purposes for which they are at présent employed,
consists in distilling gas pitch (the residue of the distillation of gas tar, dead
oil, or otherwise,) in combination with earthy, alkaline, or metallic oxides, sub-
oxides, or carbonates, by which means a mixture of fluid and solid hydrocarbons
are obtained, which may be separated and subsequently purified for use:
But in order that my said Invention may be more fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I now proceed to describe in detail the manner in
which the same is to be performed (that is to say):-In order to obtain certain
bydrocarbons of an oily and greasy nature from gas pitch, I take powdered

page_text: Jime, chalk or oxides, sub-oxides, per-oxides, or sesqui-oxides of iron, or any other
earthy, alkaline or metallic oxides, their carbonates or hydrates, or any mixture
of the said substances, by preference moistened with water; and I mix either
any or all of them in the proportion by weight in their dry state of from one to
three parts or more of either any or all of the said substances as aforesaid to
three parts of gas pitch, which I employ in pieces or powdered, but not molten
or rendered fluid by heat, and I mix them in such manner with the gas pitch
that the gas pitch may be well covered and surrounded with either any or all
of the above-mentioned substances when placed in the retort or other suitable
vessel in which the gas pitch is to be distilled, which said retort or vessel is
then heated to the degree at which the oily and greasy matter distils over,
which I thus obtain superior in quality and quantity to that obtained without
the use of one or more of the above-mentioned substances.
The above-mentioned substances so mixed' with the gas pitch may be
recovered after distillation and used over and over again.
Having now fully described the nature of this my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed and carried into effect, I would
have it clearly understood that I do not intend to confine myself to the precise
details herein-before set forth and described, as the same might be varied
without departing from the general principle of this my said Invention, but
that which I do claim as new and of my said Invention, is,―
Firstly, the use of earthy, alkaline, and metallic oxides, sub-oxides, per-oxides,
sesqui-oxides, their carbonates, hydrates or mixtures thereof (either any or all
of the said substances) with gas pitch in pieces or powdered, for the purpose
of obtaining by distillation a mixture of solid and fluid bydrocarbons by heating
the same together in a retort or other suitable vessel, as above described.
And, secondly, the repeated use of the above-mentioned substances after they
have been used as aforesaid in distillation with gas pitch..
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Puls, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-third day of August, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty sight
Witness,
F. R. DARKIN CAMPBELL,
Clerk to Messrs. Weatherdon & Co.,
77, Chancery Lane.
FRANCIS PULS. (L.S.)