A NEW OR IMPROVED ARTIFICIAL FUEL.
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles James Collins, of Upper Thames Street, in
the City of London, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED ARTIFICIAL
FUEL.".
Sealed the 12th December 1865, and dated the 13th June 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles James Collins
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th June 1865.
I, CHARLES JAMES COLLINS, of Upper Thames Street, in the City of London,
5 do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED
ARTIFICIAL FUEL," to be as follows:-
According to this Invention I propose to take about twenty pounds of
damaged or other grain ground into meal, about 30 gallons of water, also
rosin, pitch, or tar, about 3 pounds, alum about 2 pounds, and 1 ton of
I coal dust, to be treated in the following manner :-The meal is to be boiled
in water until it is formed into a stiff paste, then the solution of alum, rosin,
pitch, or tar, and water is to be mixed therewith and boiled, and the whole is
to be incorporated with the coal dust. It is then to be compressed by any
suitable means, and then dried in a kiln or drying oven by hot air, so as to
form a solid block or blocks. This fuel is so firmly united by compression

page_text: that it is not liable to be destroyed by water nor broken by stowage like
ordinary coal.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles James Collins in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 13th December 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
JAMES COLLINS, of Upper Thames Street, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of
Her reign did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Charles James Collins, Her special licence that I, the said
Charles James Collins, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Charles James Collins, 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED ARTIFICIAL FUEL," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Charles James Collins, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
bands and seals, 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 Charles James Collins, 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
statement, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of an improvement in manufacturing artificial fuel
by compression of coal dust or other combustible materials. What I prin-
cipally claim is compressing coal dust with other materials, by which means
the fine, coal is formed into blocks. I do not claim this as new, but, the
composition I wish to claim for uniting the particles of coal, which has the
effect of rendering the same, when compressed, less liable to be destroyed by

page_text: the action of water or change of climate; and I also claim that this com-
pressed fuel is more thoroughly united together, and consequently less liable
to become broken in stowage than ordinary coal.
I propose to take about twenty pounds of damaged or other grain ground
into meal, about thirty gallons of water, also a compound of resin, pitch, or
tar about three and a half pounds, and alum about two and a half pounds, to
be treated in the following manner:-Meal to be boiled in water into a stiff
paste separately, then add alum, resin (pitch or tar) to be mixed and boiled,
then incorporated with coal dust, then compressed by any suitable machinery,
then dried in a kiln or drying room.
In order that my said Invention may be well understood I proceed to
further describe the same. The meal is to be boiled in water or other liquor
by itself in some cases in order to produce a stiff paste, I then add alum or
other alkaline sulphate and resin, or pitch or tar, or resin, pitch, and tar
mixed. These are then to be mixed and boiled with the paste. In other
cases the paste and resin or other materials named may be boiled together.
Then the mass is to be poured into the coal dust, peat, or other combustible
material, and the whole is to be thoroughly incorporated by a pug-mill or
other mixing machine, after which process the mass is to be compressed or
moulded into blocks by any suitable pressing and moulding machine, and then
the blocks are to be dried at a proper temperature, which I prefer to be at
about two hundred and fifty degrees Fahrenheit, or up to about three hundred
degrees. The resin or resinous compound impregnates, fixes, and preserves
the paste, and diffusing itself through the mass renders it less liable to change
through damp while it also induces combustion.
The proportions which I have found most suitable are as follows:-To one
ton of coal dust about ten pounds of meal from damaged or other grain, two
and a half pounds of resin, or tar, or pitch, or the three combined, two and
a half pounds of alum or other alkaline sulphate, and twenty gallons of
water.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would remark in conclusion that I do
not limit myself to the exact proportions of materials I have specified, nor to
the degrees of temperature I have thought best to employ in the process, as
the same may be obviously varied or modified according to the nature of the
coals or materials used without in any way departing from the principles of
the Invention, but what I claim and desire to be secured to me by the herein
in part recited Letters Patent is, the combination of the meal, alum, resin,
tar, or other analogous substances herein mentioned, with coal dust, peat, or

page_text: other combustible materials in order to produce a new or improved artificial
fuel, substantially to all intents and purposes as herein specified.
set
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles James Collins, have hereunto
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
CHAB. J. COLLINS. (L.S.)