A METHOD OF APPLYING CERTAIN APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING THE FUEL USED FOR HEATING THE RETORTS OF A GASLIGHT APPARATUS INTO COKE OR CHARCOAL
Year: 1817

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
BOUND, of Ray Street, in the Parish of Clerkenwell and County of Middle-
sex, Iron Founder, and WILLIAM STONE, of Berkley Street, in the said Parish
and County, Brass Founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of May,
in the fifty-seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto us, the said William
Bound and William Stone, our exors, adññors, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, the said William Bound
and William Stone, our exors, adiňors, and assigns, should and lawfully might,
during the term of years therein mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention
of "A METHOD OF APPLYING CERTAIN APPARATUS FOR CONVERTING THE FUEL USED
FOR HEATING THE RETORTS OF A GASLIGHT APPARATUS INTO COKE OR CHARCOAL;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if we, the said
William Bound and William Stone, or one of us, shall not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then
the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby

page_text: granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the
same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
William Bound and William Stone, do hereby declare that the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner in which the same are to be performed, are
particularly described and ascertained by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and
by the following description thereof, that is to say:—
We do not claim any right to the invention of retorts or the coke oven, but
we claim a right to the invention of the method of so. combining together a
coke oven and retorts, and of directing and applying the heat from the coke
oven to the retots by means of flues, that the heat produced during the
process of making coke acts upon the retorts with sufficient intensity to
desengage and separate a large portion or quantity of gas from the coals
contained within the retorts; which combination of a coke oven with retorts,
and mode of applying the heat from the coke oven, has never heretofore been
used, practised, or exercised by any other person or persons, to the best of our
knowledge and belief.
The method of constructing a coke oven with the proper flues for conducting
and applying the heat generated in it, and of placing the retorts so as 'to
concentrate the heat sufficiently to disengage the gas from the coals in the
retort, and also the method of using the same, are as follow:
The oven to be used is in the shape described, Figure 4; the materials
such as are in general use in the construction of coke ovens, and also the
manner of erecting it. The dimensions inside, eight feet in the widest pärt
(from a to b, in Fig. 4), and 2 feet 6 inches high in the centre of the crown;
the retorts of cast iron, one inch and thick, six feet six inches in length,
including the mouthpiece; and two feet wide and one foot deep, in the form
of a paralellogram. There is nothing new in the oven or in the retorts.
Four retorts, as above described, are placed side by side; touching each other
on the crown of the oven; and to prevent their pressing too heavily on the
crown, are supported each by a röd fastened to the extremity of each retort,
which rods are bolted through a cast-iron arch, which is placed over the
extremities of the retorts (described C, Fig. 3, and M, N, Figs. 1 & 2).
Over these four retorts are placed three other retorts, in the same manner,
resting on the flues, which conduct the heat from chamber D, Fig. 2, as herein-
after described, and which three retorts are also supported in the same
manner by rods from the iron arch, as described by C, in Fig. 3, and M, N,
Figs. 1 and 2). The heat from the coke oven is conducted to the retorts by
flues; the retorts are protected from the effect of the excessive heat by being
....
:

page_text: cased with fire tiles. One flue for the purpose of conducting the beat (of 12
inches in height and six inches in width) passes out of the crown of the coke
oven near its mouth, at the extremity of the lower row of retorts (Z, in Fig. 1),
along the side of the outer retort of the lower row of retorts, described by the
red line C, in Fig. 1, the passing through (a) Fig. 1, under the front of the
lower row of retorts, enters through (6) Fig. 2, and conducts the heat into the
chamber D, Fig. 2, from whence the heat described by the red lines in Fig. 2 is
conducted by five flues of equal dimensions c, c, c, c, c, Fig. 2, over the tops of
the lower row of retorts, and from thence through d, d, d, d, d, Fig. 1, into the
chamber E, Fig. 1, along the side of the upper row of retorts into the main
chimney G, in Fig. 1. There is also another flue of 12 inches in height and
six inches in width, which passes out on the opposite side through the crown
near the mouth of the oven at the extremity of the lower row of retorts,
F, F, Fig. 2, and rises in an inclined direction, as in Fig. 2, conducting the
heat from the oven direct to the chamber H, Fig. 2, from whence it is
conducted by five flues of equal dimensions e, e, e, e, e, Fig. 2, over the upper
row of retorts, and from thence it passes through f.ff.f.f, Fig. 1, into the
chimney G, Fig. 1.
When the apparatus is to be set at work, the oven is first heated by kind-
ling a fire, which is kept up until the bricks which form the inside of the oven
are perfectly red hot. The combustible matter may then be withdrawn, and
the oven filled with fresh coals, leaving a space of about 8 or 10 inches deep
between the top of the coals and the crown or upper part of the oven, so that
a free passage be left for the atmospheric air to pass in at the door of the
oven and over the surface of the coals to the flues. The coals are presently
ignited in consequence of the oven being already heated red hot, and after
they have remained in this situation about 30 hours they are converted into
coke. The oven is then again filled with coals as before, and the heat
contained in the oven is sufficient to ignite them, and thus the process is
kept up from time to time. But during the process of making coke, as
herein-before described, a considerable quantity of heat is liberated from the
coals within the oven, a large portion of which passing through the flues
constructed as above, is conducted as described to the retorts, which, with the
heat communicated through the crown of the oven, will be found sufficient
to disengage and separaté a large quantity of gas from the coals contained.
within the retorts, and which gas is conveyed off from the retorts and purified
in the usual way. This method of combining the coke oven with the retorts,
and of applying the heat generated during the process of making coke in the
manner and by the means above described, so as to produce gas without the

page_text: direct application of fire to the retorts, and thereby saving all the fuel when
has heretofore been consumed or destroyed in heating the retorts for producing
gas, we, to the best of our knowledge and belief, do declare has never before
been used, practised or exercised.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
A, A, Fig. 1, 2, two sections of the coke oven.
B, B, Figs. 1, 2, the mouths of ditto.
C, Fig. 1, one of the flues passing along the side of the lower row of retorts.
Z, Fig. 1, the mouth of the same flue in the crown of the oven.
a, Fig. 1,
the entrance of that part of the flue which passes under the front of the lower
retorts through b, Fig. 2, its extremity, into the apartment D, Fig. 2, and then
is divided into five flues of equal dimensions c, c, c, c, c, Fig. 2, which pass over
the top of the same retorts and enter through d, d, d, d, d, Fig. 1, the extremi-
ties of the flucs, into the apartment E, Fig. 1, and from thence into the main
flue G, Fig. 1.
F, Fig. 2, is the other flue, whose entrance is at F, F, Fig. 2; it rises in an
inclined direction into the apartment H, Fig. 2, and then is divided into five
equal flues e, e, e, e, e, Fig. 2, which pass over the top of the upper row of
retorts and enter through ff.ff.f, Fig. 1, the extremities of the flues, into the
main flue G.
I, I, I, I, I, Fig. 1, 2, the ends of the apartments, built with Welch lumps,
and faced on the front side with bricks g, g, Fig. 1, 2. K, K, Fig. 1, 2, the
divisions between the upper and under flues, made of fire tiles. I, L, L, L,
mouths of retorts in a side view. m, m, Fig. 1, 2, & C, Fig. 8, a cast-iron
arch placed over the ends of the retorts. n, n, rods from the arch fastened to
the ends of the retorts to support them from the crown of the oven.
Fig. 3, front elevation of the retorts. a, a, a, a, a, a, a, mouths of do. B, a
blank door to clear the flue out. D, an arch to support the bottom of
oven. The red line shews the direction the flues take.
Fig. 4, a ground plan of the oven.
Fig. 5, ground plan of the flue which passes along the side and under the
lower row of retorts.
Fig. 6, ground plan of the flue passing over the said retorts.
Fig. 7, ground plan of the flue passing over the upper row of retorts.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Stone, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventeen.
WILLIAM
(L.S.) STONE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1817, the aforesaid William Stone came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventeen.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventeen.