ROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS FROM COAL, GAS TAR, GAS PITCH. COAL TAR. ASPHALTE. RESIN, AND OTHER BITUMINOUS AND RESINOUS SUBSTANCES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Francis Puls. of No. 25. Francis Terrace, Hackney
Wick, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist, for the Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS FROM COAL, GAS TAR, GAS PITCH.
COAL TAR. ASPHALTE. RESIN, AND OTHER BITUMINOUS AND RESINOUS
SUBSTANCES."
Scaled the 21st June 1861. and dated the 26th December 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis Puls at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th
December 1860.
I, FRANCIS PULS, of No. 25, Francis Terrace, Hackney Wick, in the
County of Middlesex, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING PRODUCTS FROM COAL. GAS TAR. GAS
PITCH, COAL TAR. ASPHALTE. RESIN. AND OTHER BITUMINOUS AND KESINOUS SUB.
STANCES." to be as follows:-
For the purpose of obtaining products from these materials, I mix them
with a mineral acid or mineral acids, or other oxydizing chemical agent, and
I then subject the mixture to distillation in the usual or in any convenient
manner. The materials treated in this manner being heated to a high tem-
perature with the acid or other oxydizing agent, an effect which I deem to be
oxydation is produced, and the volatile products are distilled. By the use of
this mode of treating the materials above mentioned I am enabled to obtain
distilled products from them with greater facility and in larger quantities
without performing any separate process for oxydizing or purifying those
materials or their products, and at the same time I dispense with the process
of washing the oxydized or purified materials previous to distilling them.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Leiters Patent, filed
by the said Francis Puls in the Great Seal Patent Oflice on the 26th
June 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, FRANCIS
PULS, of No. 25, Francis Terrace, Hackney Wick, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, Chemist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom. bearing date the
Twenty-sixth day of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand cight
hundred and sixty, and in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign. did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Francis
Puls, my executors, administrators, and assigns, the sole privilege to make,
use, exercise, and vend my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING PRO.
DUCTS FROM COAL, GAS TAR. GAS PITCH. COAL TAR. ASPHALTE, RESIN, AND OTHER
BITUMINOUS AND RESINOUS SUBSTANCES," within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, during the term
of fourteen years thence next ensuing, upon the condition (amongst others)
that the said Francis Puls, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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, as reference
being thereunto had will more fully and at large appear.
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 Speci-
fication thereof (that is to say):-
My said Invention consists of a mode of obtaining products from coal, gas
tar, gas pitch, coal tar, asphalte, resin, and other bituminous and resinous
substances. For the purpose of obtaining products from these materials, I
mix them with a mineral acid or mineral acids, or other oxydizing chemical
agent, and I then subject the mixture to distillation in the usual or any
convenient manner. If the material to be operated upon is solid (such, for
example, as pitch, coal, or asphalte), it may be first broken into powder or
small pieces. I prefer to use sulphuric acid as the oxydizing agent, by reason
of its cheapness. but any agent which is sufficiently cheap and will impart
sufficient oxygen to the material to be operated upon during the process of
distillation may be used. If the oxydizing agent be a fluid, such as sulphuric

page_text: acid, I prefer to mix it with powdered charcoal, or some other powder which
will not neutralise its effects, before adding it to the bituminous or resinous
substance to be operated upon, and I mix a fluid oxydizing agent with powder
for the purpose of insuring a more even distribution or mixture of it amongst
the particles of the bituminous or resinous material. The quantity or pro-
portion of the oxydizing agent to be employed must depend to a considerable
extent upon the nature of the material to be operated upon, and the description
of the product or products which the operator may desire to obtain; thus, the
larger the proportion of the carbon io the hydrogen in the hydrocarbons con-
tained in the material, the greater must be the quantity of the sulphuric acid
or other oxydizing agent employed in the operation, and if the material to be
operated upon shall happen to contain any element or elements which will
neutralise or render inoperate any portion of the sulphuric acid or other
oxydizing agent, the quantity of the acid or other agent employed must be
proportionably increased. or the obnoxious elements, must be got rid of, or
their effects prevented. The lighter the quality of the products which
may be desired, the larger must be the quantity of sulphuric acid or other
oxydizing agent employed, and when products of a heavier description shall be
desired, the quantity of acid or other oxydizing agent must be proportionably
diminished.
In order to give the best information in my power. I will state the pro-
portions of acid which I have employed in operating upon materials to
produce the products herein-after mentioned.
In operating upon gas pitch in order to obtain a product which shall contain
a heavy hydrocarbon or mixture of hydrocarbons about the consistence of
lard. but heavier, I mix the pitch with two per cent. of sulphuric acid of the
ordinary commercial strength (say, about 18). If a larger quantity of acid
be used, oils or products of lighter description will be obtained, and the
quantity of the acid may be increased for altering the nature of the products
in this way, up to about six per cent., above which quantity the effect of the
acid would be injurious. The quantity of acid to be used in operating upon
gas tar for obtaining products in the same way varies from about two to
about eight or nine per cent.; and if the tar contains much napthaline, the
quantity of acid may be increased up to about twelve per cent. if the object
be to obtain products of a light description. In operating upon cannel coal,
from about three to six per cent. of acid may be used. Asphalte and Tri-
nidad pitch contain varying proportions of earthy matters, and in operating
upon them from three to twelve per cent., or even more of the acid may be
ised. From three to four per cent. of acid may be used in operating upon

page_text: coal tar, and from one and a half to two per cent. in operating upon resin.
I have mentioned these various proportions of acid, in order to give the best
information in my power, subject in the general observations above made
respecting the quantity of acid or other oxydizing agent to be used, and this
further observation, that the quality of the several materials which I have
above mentioned will be found to vary considerably, and therefore it is neces-
sary to attend to the observations which I have above made respecting the
quantity or proportion of the oxydizing agent to be employed in operating
upon any material.
I introduce the mixture of materials to be operated upon
with the intended quantity of sulphuric acid or other oxydizing agent into an
earthenware retort, or into a convenient retort of any description which will
sufficiently resist the action of the fire, and the materials to be subjected io
distillation, and proceed to apply heat until all the products which can bc
distilled or driven out of the mixture in the state of vapour shall have been
driven out of it. into and condensed and obtained in some convenient con-
denser or condensers connected with the retort. Heat may be applied to the
relori externally by means of a fire below it, or in any convenient way, and
the temperature may be raised gradually up to about a low red heat. But I
prefer to effect the distillation by means of superheated steam introduced into
the retort by pipes or other apparatus, by means of which the steam, and
consequently the heat, can be equably distributed and applied throughout the
whole of the mass to be subjected to the process of distillation.
'The apparatus for effecting distillation by means of steam is well known.
and as therefore the apparatus to be employed forms no part of my Invention
it need not be here described. The steam must, however, be heated or super-
heated to the extent which may be necessary to effect the distillation, gradually
raising the temperature, as before mentioned. The materials treated in this
manner, being heated in the retort with the acid or other oxydizing agent, in
manner above mentioned, an effect which I deem to be oxydation is produced,
and the volatile products are evolved and distilled. The nature or quality of
the volatile products thus obtained will vary as the distillation progresses, and
therefore it may be convenient to change the receiver from time to time
during the process, when the nature of the products condensed in the receiver
shall be found to be changed. By the use of this mode of treating the
materials above mentioned I am enabled to obtain distilled products from
them with greater facility, and in larger quantities. without performing any
separate process for oxydizing or purifying those products, and at the same
time dispense with the process of treating with acid, and washing the
products after distilling them.

page_text: Having described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which it is to be performed, I declare that I claim as my said Invention, the
mode of obtaining products from bituminous and resinous substances by
subjecting them to the action of an acid or other oxydizing agent, and at the
same time to the process of distillation, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Puls, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Signed, sealed, and delivered in the
presence of
ALEXANDER FORSYTH,
10, Lombard Street, London,
Solicitor.
FRANCIS PULS. (L.S.)