IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING ANIMAL CHARCOAL AND OTHER FILTERING MATERIALS FOR USE AS PURIFIERS OF LIQUIDS AND GASES, AND FOR REVIVING OR RESTORING THE SAME WHEN EXHAUSTED BY USE
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Alexander Lyttle at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 3rd July 1875.
I, WILLIAM ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of Woodstock Lodge, The Grove,
Hammersmith, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, and Fellow
of the Chemical Society, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING
ANIMAL CHARCOAL AND OTHER FILTERING MATERIALS FOR USE AS PURIFIERS OF
LIQUIDS AND GASES, AND FOR REVIVING OR RESTORING THE SAME WHEN EXHAUSTED
BY USE," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in a further useful application of the new
method of deoxidation and direct application of heat without the use of
retorts, described in relation to the manufacture of steel, malleable iron,
copper, other metals and alkali, described in the Specifications of my
several Letters Patent as follows, Patent numbered 2984, dated 1st
September 1874, and entitled "Improvements in the Manufacture of
Iron and Steel; Patent numbered 105, dated 12 January 1875, and
entitled "Improvements in the Means and Apparatus for Producing or
Manufacturing Iron, Steel, and other Metals;" and Patent numbered

page_text: 627, dated 20 February 1875, entitled "Improvements in the Means
and Apparatus for Manufacturing Alkali, which Improvements are
partly Applicable to other Purposes."
In the following statement it will be seen that almost the whole of
the apparatus described in the Specification of my aforesaid Patent,
numbered 105, will answer for the purposes of the Invention which I am
now about to describe, and all the following references to the Figures of
Drawings, relate to the Drawings filed by me with the Final Specification
of that Patent, No. 105.
.
The production of all kinds of charcoal and coke to which this Speci-
fication refers, is effected by means of the direct impact of a non-
oxidizing flame upon the substance under treatment, and such charring
or coking is effected in a vertical blast furnace exactly as described in
reference to Figure 4 of the said Patent numbered 105. The loss of
carbonaceous matter by this direct action of the flame is prevented by
observing the precautions prescribed in that Patent for securing either a
reducing or non-oxidizing flame. The material to be charred or coked is
charged into the top of that reducing furnace A, B, Figure 4, and
withdrawn when sufficiently cooled at the door Z, in the bottom of the
receiver R, K.
C
In some cases, such as when coal or peat is used no such cooler is
needed, because a sprinkling with water will suffice to prevent loss by
the combustion of the escaping red hot coke. This arrangement is
peculiarly well suited to the manufacture of animal or bone charcoal,
and for its revival or reburning when clogged or exhausted by use in
filtration. When making such charcoal in the first instance the
reducing shaft A, B, is filled with bones, which are charred by the
ascending non-oxidizing or reducing flame. The ammoniacal or bonc
liquor with the hydrocarbon gases from the bones, and the other gases
of the heating flame go over from the top of the furnace into any con-
venient cooling chamber or hydraulic main" in which the valuable
liquors can be arrested, whilst the gases are available for the purposes
of yielding light or heat.
68
When exhausted charcoal has to be reburned it is either worked into
lumps by means of its own agglutinating impurities, or by the addition
and incorporation of any of the various agglutinating materials specified
in the well known Barker Patents, now worked by the Diamond Fuel

page_text: making fump ruer oUT OF boc aus OT
coal. I do not however claim the mucilages or aluminous salts.
prescribed by Mr. Barker in his Patents for any use in the manufacture
of fuel, but only for the new and exceptional purpose of holding.
together the powdered charcoal in lumps, whilst exposed to the flame
in the reducing furnace A, B, and no longer. All such consolidated
lumps of charcoal powder are crushed when the reburning is completed.
A small admixture of plastic clay will have the same effect, and if the
clay is pure it will not diminish the filtering value of the 'reburned
charcoal.
In order to augment the filtering efficiency of all charcoal or coke, as
a deodorizer and purifier of noxious gases and coal gas, I impregnate the
charcoal powder with ferric sulphate and recharдit, by which means ferric
oxide in a finely divided state is presented with the charcoal to the noxious
gas for the decomposition of its sulphuretted compounds, which are
broken up by the formation of ferric sulphide. A cheap and good ferru-
ginous preparation for this purpose is made by thoroughly incorporating
and compounding into lumps a mixture of ferric oxide or iron ore and
carbonaceous matter, by the same means and apparatus as are specified
for use in reducing iron to a pulverulent state in my said Patent, No. 105,
the carbon and iron of the compound being in any desired proportions
with relation to each other in the finished product. This compound is
subjected to reduction as directed in the said Patent, and the result is
powdered or spongy metallic iron diffused throughout the clay or other
consolidating material, and any redundant carbon if such redundancy,
which is not always necessary, is provided. It is useful however, in
some cases to mix in the compound an excess of coarsely powdered coke
or charcoal beyond the quantity required for the deoxidation of the
ferric oxide, in order to render the reduced product more porous. This
preparation of powdered metallic iron is of great value as the means of
perfectly and cheaply removing the whole of the sulphur from coal gas.
A compound of reduced iron and charcoal thus made possesses highly
absorbent and decomposing power over sulphuretted hydrogen, as well
as over all those noxious gases evolved by decaying animal matter, of
which sulphur is a constituent. Such compound or ferruginous charcoal,
whether consisting of reduced or powdered metallic iron and charcoal,
or of charcoal intermixed with ferric oxide, as herein-before described, is
peculiarly suitable for surrounding dead human bodies, so as to make it

page_text: possible to retain them unburied for long periods at a very small cost,
and without danger to the living.
In the first burning, or in the subsequent reburning or "revival" of
bone charcoal it is most essentially important that a well regulated heat
should be employed, because any excess causes the fusion of the
phosphates which the bone charcoal contains, and the consequent
destruction of its filtering property.
•
Under the new charring process now described this loss can be
perfectly prevented by passing a pyrometer bar through the reducing
shaft A, B, at its hottest zone, and making the elongation or contraction
of this bar by changes of heat the means of moving a conspicuous
indicator on a dial, or of actuating through a suitable clockwork or other
well known form of escapement gearing an automatic regulating valve
arrangement for letting in more freely or cutting off the air blast, which
supplies the flame from the side chambers or gas producers H, J, and
F, G, shewn in Figure 4 of the said Patent No. 105. Similar automatic
arrangements are in use, and well known for using the expansion or
contraction of metals by changes of temperature, as the means of opening
or closing the ventilators of conservatories.