Improvement in Apparatus for the Manufacture of Artificial or Patent Fuel.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Feb., 1899
Complete Specification Left, 1st Nov., 1899-Accepted, 27th Jan., 1900
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in Apparatus for the Manufacture of Artificial or
Patent Fuel.
We, FREDERICK EUGENE FINLAYSON, of Port Tennant, Swansea, in the County
of Glamorgan, Chemical Manufacturer, and COLIN CORY, of 1, St. James's
Gardens, Swansea, in the County of Glamorgan, Colliery Proprietor, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
•
Our invention has for its object to improve the plant used in the manufacture
of patent fuel, and is more especially applicable to fuel made from coal and
pitch with a certain percentage of hydrocarbons used in the form of napthaline ·
salts or liquid hydro-carbons.
It is usual in the ordinary manufacture of fuel to pass the mixture through a
pug or other suitable apparatus in which the temperature is raised by the intro-
duction of steam, superheated or otherwise, so as to cause an intimate mixture
and cohesive mass, after which it is passed into the press and formed into blocks.
Attempts have been made to pass the mixture direct through a heater or furnace,
the same being thereafter pressed it into blocks. It is found, however, that
the presence of steam in the mixture does not give such a good block as when
dry heat is used, consequently more agglomerants are required. The attempts
to use dry heat alone have not up to the present been satisfactory, and even if
they had been so, the process would have been too expensive by reason of the
wear and tear and the large quantity of heat required. Now we propose to
introduce a furnace or dryer into the manufacture after the mixture has been
submitted to steam process in the pug, or other suitable apparatus, as at present,
before the same is pressed into fuel blocks. This furnace or heater will remove
a very large percentage of the moisture present, giving a good bright block
with a smaller percentage of pitch and hydrocarbons than is found necessary in
the ordinary manufacture. By this process we have the facility of the ordinary
process with the benefit of the dry process, without the heavy expense of the
latter.
Dated this Thirtieth day of January 1899

page_text: 1, St. James's Gardens, Swansea, in the County of Glamorgan, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:--
This invention has for its object to improve the plant used in the manufacture
of patent fuel, and is more especially applicable to fuel made from coal and
pitch, with a certain percentage of hydrocarbon, used in the form either of
naphthaline salts or liquid hydrocarbons.
In the manufacture of such fuel it is common practice to pass the mixture
through a pug or other mixing apparatus in which the temperature is raised by
the introduction of steam, so as to effect an intimate mixture of the materials,
and form them into a cohesive mass, which is then passed into the press and
formed into blocks. Attempts have been made to pass the mixture direct through
a heater or furnaces, the same being thereafter pressed into blocks. It is found
that the presence of steam in the mixture does not give such a good block as
when dry heat is used, consequently more agglomerants are required. The
attempts to use dry heat alone however have not up to the present been satis-
factory, and even if they had been so, the process would have been too expensive
by reason of the wear and tear, and the large quantity of heat required.
In carrying out our invention we introduce a heater or a dryer into the
apparatus through which the mixture is passed after it has been submitted to
steam process in the pug or other suitable mixing apparatus in the usual manner,
and, before the same is pressed into fuel blocks. This heater will remove a very
large percentage of the moisture present and enables a good bright block to be
produced with the employment in the mixture of a smaller percentage of pitch
and hydrocarbons, than is found to be necessary in the ordinary manufacture.
By means of this invention we obtain the facility of manufacture of the
ordinary process with the advantages of the dry process, without the heavy
expense of the latter.
The heater is so constructed as to enable the material on passing from the
mixing mill, to be thoroughly exposed to the heating medium, which may be the
waste or combustion gases of a furnace, whilst being carried forward and delivered
to the moulds or press. Preferably the heater is so constructed as to deliver the
material to the moulds at a certain determined speed.
In the accompanying drawings;
Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side view of a heater and mixing mill, and
Figure 2 is a plan of a detail of the heater.
A is a mixing mill into which steam is introduced through the openings A¹.
It communicates through an opening A2 in its bottom with a vertical cylinder B,
which forms the heater, the size of the opening being capable of regulation
by means of a sliding door A³.
Extending centrally throughout the whole length of both the mixing mill and
heater is a shaft C, rotatable by means of the bevel wheel C', the latter being
geared in any convenient manner with a source of power.
Within the mill A, this shaft carries the mixing knives A and within the
heater a plurality of discs D are secured thereon so as to rotate therewith. These
discs are provided with openings D', as shown clearly in Figure 2, and above
each disc, is, a knife or scraper D2 secured to the side of the cylinder.
Preferably the bottom of the cylinder B is arched as shown in Figure 1, an
opening B for the exit of the material being placed in the side of the cylinder,
and this may be furnished with a trough pipe or other channel to lead the
material over the mould. Any usual form of mould may be employed and these
may be brought to the delivery point in any preferred manner.
l'ipes B B are provided for the entrance and escape respectively of hot air
furnace gases or other dry heating medium.
The discharge opening may be placed at the bottom instead of the side of
the cylinder B and provided with an automatically-operated valve for inter-
mittently opening and closing the opening.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is:-
In apparatus for the manufacture of artificial block fuel a drying chamber
arranged and operating substantially as described and illustrated in the accom-
panying drawings.