AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING COAL AND OTHER BITUMINOUS MINERALS AND PEAT IN ORDER TO OBTAIN SOLID AND LIQUID HYDRO-CARBONS THEREFROM, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Mattieu Williams, of Handsworth, in the
County of Stafford, Teacher, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR
IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING COAL AND OTHER BITUMINOUS MINERALS AND
PEAT IN ORDER TO OBTAIN SOLID AND LIQUID HYDRO-CARBONS THEREFROM, AND
IN APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE."
Sealed the 11th March 1862, and dated the 21st December 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Mattieu Williams
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st December 1861.
I, WILLIAM MATTIED WILLIAMS, of Handsworth, in the County of Stafford,
Teacher, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVE-
MENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING COAL AND OTHER BITUMINOUS MINERALS AND
PEAT IN ORDER TO OBTAIN SOLID AND LIQUID HYDRO-CARBONS THEREFROM, AND IN
APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE," to be as follows:-
In the distillation of coal and other bituminous minerals and peat there are
produced the vapours of solid and liquid hydro-carbons, together with uncon-
densible or permanent gases. The solid. and liquid products are valuable,
while the gases have little value.
The object of my Invention is so to treat coal and other bituminous minerals

page_text: and peat by the distillatory process as to increase the solid and liquid or more
valuable products in proportion to the gaseous or less valuable products. For
convenience of description, I will describe my Invention with reference to the
distillation of coal. I have found that the gaseous products of the distillation
are mainly or largely produced by the decomposition of the vapours of the
solid and liquid products, the said decomposition being effected by the said
vapours coming in contact with portions of the retort or its contents,
heated to a higher temperature than that at which the said vapours are
liberated from the coal. By conducting the distillation in the manner and by
means of the apparatus herein-after described, I prevent the overheating of
the condensible products first volatilized from the coal, and thereby secure a
larger yield or produce of the said condensible products. I conduct the
distillation in a furnace, through the bottom or bed of which the lower part of
the retort or distillatory vessel descends, and on the said furnace bed I build a
jacket or casing, open at top and at bottom, within which casing the retort is
situated. The body of the retort is of the same shape as and a little less in
size than the said jacket or casing. The lower part of the retort, which
projects below the bed of the furnace is funnel shaped, that is to say, bas the
figure of an inverted cone or pyramid, and terminates with a pipe. The top
of the retort is open, and is provided with a lid, which is luted tightly and
secured firmly in its place during the distillation. The fire of the furnace plays
upon the said lid and around the before-mentioned jacket, and the heat
communicated to the sides of the retort by the said jacket is very steady and
uniformly diffused. The products of distillation descend to the lower part of
the retort, and rapidly pass from the heated part and the solid contents of the
retort. The cooling and condensation of the vapour is promoted by the use of
jets of water, which are made to play upon the lower end of the retort which
projects below the bed of the furnace, or the lower part of the retort may be
immersed in water. The distillation may either be conducted at atmospheric
pressure, or at a greater or less pressure than that of the atmosphere. In the
first case the terminal pipe of the retort is open, and the condensed products
run therefrom. In the second case I close the bottom of the said pipe by a
valve weighted so as to give the required pressure, as described in the
Specification of Letters Patent granted to me, bearing date the Fifth day of
January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one,
No. 36. In the last case I connect with the terminal pipe of the retort an
exhausting pump or other exhausting apparatus, worked by steam or other
power. The retorts may either be removed from the furnace for charging and
discharging, or they may be charged and discharged without removal from

page_text: the furnace. Each retort is provided with a false perforated bottom or grating
at about the level of the bed of the furnace. The coal is supported in the
heated part of the retort by means of the said false bottom or grating.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Mattieu Williams in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 18th June 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MATTIEU WILLIAMS, of Handsworth, in the County of Stafford, Teacher, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Mattieu Williams, Her special licence that I, the said William
Mattieu Williams, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Mattieu Williams, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING COAL AND OTHER BITUMINOUS
MINERALS AND PEAT IN ORDER TO OBTAIN SOLID AND LIQUID HYDRO-CARBONS THERE-
FROM, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THAT PURPOSE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Mattieu Williams, my execu-
tors 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 per-
formed, 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 William Mattieu Williams, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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, that is to say :-
In treating coal and other bituminous minerals and peat by distillation in
order to obtain solid and liquid hydro-carbons therefrom, there are produced

page_text: the vapours of solid and liquid hydro-carbons, the principal of which are the
compounds known in commerce as paraffin and paraffin oil, together with
uncondensible or permanent gases. The solid and liquid products are valuable,
while the gases have little value.
The object of my Invention is so to treat coal and other bituminous minerals
and peat by the distillatory process as to increase the solid and liquid or more
valuable products in proportion to the gaseous or less valuable products. For
convenience of description, I will describe my Invention with reference to the
distillation of coal. I have found that the gaseous products of the distillation
are mainly or largely produced by the decomposition of the vapours of the solid
and liquid products, the said decomposition being effected by the said vapours
coming in contact with portions of the retort or its contents heated to a higher
temperature than that at which the said vapours are liberated from the coal.
By conducting the distillation in the manner and by means of the apparatus
herein-after described, I prevent the overheating of the condensible products,
first volatilized from the coal, and thereby secure a larger yield or produce of
the said condensible products.
The apparatus which I use for treating coal and other bituminous minerals
and peat in order to obtain solid and liquid hydro-carbons therefrom is
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
Figure 1 represents in vertical longitudinal section a retort or distillatory
-vessel constructed and set in a reverberatory furnace, according to my
Invention, and Figure 2 represents the retort or vessel in cross vertical
section. The flame and products of combustion from the fire in the fire-place a
pass along the reverberatory arch into the chimney or flue c. The heat is
-reverberated downwards upon the bed d of the furnace, which said bed d
constitutes the top of the retort or distillatory vessel e, or a casing immediately
above the top. of the said retort or vessel. The lower part of the distillatory
vessel e tapers or contracts as seen in Figure 2. Where the said vessel is
short, I make it taper on all sides, that is, I make it of the figure of an
inverted cone or pyramid, but when the said vessel is much longer than it is
broad (as I prefer to make it) then the tapering is confined to the inclination
of the two longer sides, as represented in Figures 1 and 2.
The coal or other matter to be treated is placed in the cage or tray f, of the
form which will be understood by an examination of Figure 2, which said
tray rests or slides upon the projections g. The sides of the said tray fare per-
forated or are made of bars. The said trays may be introduced into and with-
drawn out of the distillatory vessel e in a horizontal direction at an opening in the
side of the said vessel at h, which said opening is closed after the introduction

page_text: of the charge by means of a lid i. When the vessel e is of the form of an
inverted cone or pyramid it may be charged and emptied at top instead of at
the side, that is, the plate d, which constitutes the top of the distillatory vessel
and the bed of the furnace instead of being fixed, may be in part moveable,
the moveable part constituting a lid, which may be lifted from the top of the
distillatory vessel through a hole in the arch of the furnace, and the distillatory
vessel charged and discharged through the said hole. This arrangement is, how-
ever, much less convenient than the arrangements represented in the Drawings,
and I prefer in all cases to make the top of the distillatory vessel fixed, and to
make the charging and discharging hole in the side of the distillatory vessel. The
plate d, which constitutes the bed of the furnace and the top of the distillatory
vessel may be protected from injury by the fire by a layer of thin fire-tiles or
powdered clay, or sand, or a mixture of clay and sand. The fire of the
furnace a plays upon and heats the top d of the distillatory vessel e, and the
heat from the heated top radiates downwards upon the contents of the cage or
tray f, and liberates volatile bydro-carbons therefrom. The vapours produced
pass out between the bars constituting the sides of the cage or tray f, or
through perforations in its sides and bottom; and descend to the lower part of
the distillatory vessel, from which the condensed and uncondensed portions
pass by a pipe k, fixed nearly at the bottom of the vessel e.
A small quaritity
of water, which is formed or volatilized with the hydro-carbons condenses and
occupies the bottom of the vessel e, and may be let off by a stop-cock fixed
at the lowest point of the vessel e. In carrying my Invention into effect on
a large scale I employ several retorts or distillatory vessels arranged side by
side in the same furnace. In this case the said retorts or distillatory vessels
are placed across the reverberatory arch of the furnace as represented in
Figure 3, which represents this arrangement in vertical section, the section
being taken along the middle of the reverberatory arch 1, and showing the
retorts or distillatory vessels in cross section. Each of the retorts or distil-
latory vessels consists of a chamber m, the sides and bottom of which may be
made of iron or of brickwork. The top of the said chambers consists of a
plate or series of plates of cast or wrought iron n, on which the heat of the
furnace is reverberated by the reverberatory arch or flue 1: The plate or
plates n may be protected from injury by the fire by means of a layer of thin
fire-tiles, or a stratum of powdered clay, or sand,, or mixture of clay and sand.
In the middle of each retort or distillatory vessel is a. wall or support of
brickwork o running from end to end of the vessel. The said walls or
supports o in each vessel support the cages or trays p, in which cages or trays.
the coal or other material to be operated upon is placed. The cages or tray's

page_text: are introduced into the retorts or distillatory vessels m at openings at the end
of the vessels similar to the openings herein-before described and represented
in Figure 1, or those employed in ordinary gas retorts. Pipes at q conduct
the condensed and uncondensed products of distillation away from the distil-
latory vessels into a receptacle where the condensation of the condensible
products may be completed. The permanent gas formed may be used for
heating or illuminating purposes. The distillatory vessels may be made of
iron, as represented in Figures 1 and 2, or mainly of brickwork, as repre-.
sented in Figure 3. When they are made of iron the condensation of the
vapours may be promoted by jets of water made to play on the lower part of
the outside of the said vessels, or the lower part of the said vessels may be
immersed in water. Although I prefer to make the cages or trays, in which
the material to be heated is placed, moveable from the retorts or distillatory
vessels, yet the said cages or trays may be fixed in the said retorts or vessels..
and the material charged into the said cages through the open ends or sides
of the retorts or vessels. The distillation may either be conducted at atmo-
spheric pressure, or at a greater or less pressure than that of the atmosphere.
In the first case, the terminal pipe of the retort is open, and the condensed
products run therefrom. In the second case I close bottom of the said pipe
by a valve weighted, so as to give the required pressure, as described in the
Specification of Letters Patent granted to me, bearing date. the Fifth day of
January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one,
No. 36. In the last case I connect with the terminal pipe of the retort an
exhausting pump or other exhausting apparatus worked by steam or other
power. For convenience of description I have described my Invention with
reference to coal in general, as I have not thought it necessary to describe the
well-known distinctions between those kinds of coal, which may be econo-
mically used for the manufacture of the hydro-carbons known in commerce as
paraffin and paraffin oils, and the kinds of coal from which paraffin and
paraffin oils cannot be economically produced.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described and illustrated in the Drawing,
as the same may be varied without departing from the nature of my Inven-
tion; but I claim as my Invention,―
Firstly, the improvement herein-before described in treating coal and other
Bituminous minerals and peat in order to obtain solid and liquid hydro-
carbons therefrom, that is to say, subjecting these substances to a distillatory
process so conducted that the volatile products produced pass rapidly down-

page_text: wards from the heated part of the apparatus, so as not again to be exposed to
a temperature equal to that at which they were produced.
Secondly, the improvement in apparatus for treating coal and other bitumi-
nous minerals and peat, in order to obtain solid and liquid bydro-carbons
therefrom, herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing, that is to say, constructing and arranging the retorts or distillatory
vessels, so that heat is applied at the top of the said vessels, and the volatile
products conducted by a descending motion from the heated parts of the said
apparatus.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Mattieu Williams, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
WILLIAM MATTIEU WILLIAMS. (L.S.)