IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING COKE
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bethell, of 8, Parliament Street, Westminster,
Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING COKE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bethell at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th January
1854.
I, JOHN BETHELL, of No. 8, Parliament Street, Westminster, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MANUFACTURING COKE" to be as follows:-
My improvements.consist in making a very good coke suitable for smelting
metals, locomotive engines, &c. &c., by burning pitch or pitch mixed with coal
in coke ovens, which may be of the usual form. The mixture I find the best
and cheapest is one ton of coal tar pitch, nixed with three or four tons of coal
burnt the usual time in a coke oven, or the, coal tar pitch may be burnt by
itself in, the ovens into good coke, but I prefer using the mixture of pitch and
coal rather than the pitch only!

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Bethell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th July 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BETHELL, of 8, Parliament Street, Westminster, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Bethell, Her special licence that I, the said John Bethell, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Bethell, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING COKE,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Bethell, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, 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 John Bethell, 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 state-
ment:-
My Invention of ") Improvements in Manufacturing Coke," consist in
making coke by mixing with coals or small pieces of coke the pitch obtained
from coal tar, and then burning the mixture into coke in the well known
coke ovens or in heaps, and also by making coke from burning pitch only in a
coke oven.
The pitch is broken into small pieces and well mixed with the coals, and
then this mixture of coal and pitch is burnt in the same manner as coals are
now burnt in making coke; and when pitch only is used, the lumps of pitch
are thrown into the hot coke oven and burnt into coke in the same manner as
coals are now burnt to make coke; many coals that will not (alone) produce
a good coke, will, when mixed with pitch as above directed, make a very good

page_text: coke, and all the small pieces of coke, which are too small to use, will, when
mixed with pitch and burnt again, produce a good coke.
The proportion I generally use is one ton of pitch mixed with four tons of
coals, but this proportion may be varied at pleasure, and according to the
quality of the coals used.
I claim as my Invention, the making of coke from pitch alone, or from a
mixture of coals and pitch burnt as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bethell, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord 1854.