IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF ILLUMINATING GAS, AND IN THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OR USE OF NEW OR IMPROVED MATERIALS OR FUELS FOR THE SAME, AND IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Patison at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd January
1867.
I, JOHN PATISON, of the Town of Airdrie, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Manufacturing Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF ILLUMINATING GAS, AND
IN THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OR USE OF NEW OR IMPROVED MATERIALS
OR FUELS FOR THE SAME, AND IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOR,"
to be as follows, that is to say :-
This said Invention consists essentially in a new or improved application
or use of hydrocarbon, rock, or mineral oils, or such substances as are
commercially know as shale or coal oils, and petroleum, for the production
of illuminating gas of a better quality and at a cheaper price or cost for the
general lighting of cities, houses, and public works than has heretofore been
produced.
The first part of the said Invention consists in saturating dried peat or bog,
by preference in the form of blocks or pieces, with the said oils; these oil's
may either be used for saturating the blocks in a refined or in a "crude"
state, or the heavier portions of the oils only may be so used after distilling
off the light oils or spirits. It is preferred to have these oils used in a heated

page_text: state in a boiler or other vessel, and to place or immerse the dried blocks
of peat or bog in the hot oil for some time until they are fully saturated with
it, after which they are then removed, and either immediately or after cooling
they are dipped in a pan or boiler containing hot bitumen or pitch, and while
the coating of pitch imparted to the blocks is yet soft and warm they are
lifted out and rolled or otherwise covered over with sawdust or coal dust.
The main object of dipping them into the hot bitumen being to give the
blocks a coating or skin to protect them and prevent the too free or excessive
escape of the volatile oils in warm places, and the principal object in rolling
them in sawdust or coal dust is to prevent them from sticking together in
their transit for use, especially in hot places or hot weather; these new or
improved composite substances, blocks, or fuel so made are then used or
treated in the same manner as cannel and other coal in the retorts and other
apparatus usually employed for the production of illuminating gas, which
gas in this way can be produced from these composite blocks better and
cheaper for general lighting purposes than such gas has been produced
heretofore. The berein so far provisionally specified process of combining
or working up hydrocarbon substances and mineral or rock oils along with
dried peat or bog so as to form blocks of new or improved combinations of
substances or fuel for the manufacture of illuminating gas may be varied
to this extent that a proportion of small coal or small coal and saw dust
may be added to the oils, and the dried peat or bog, particularly when the
latter is used in a loose state and not in blocks, and small portions of other
resinous and carbon substances may be added without essentially varying
from the main features of this first part of the Invention; and other mechanical
appliances, either worked by hand or steam power, may be resorted to than
those which have been described, for the purpose of saturating and mixing
the bog and oils and for coating and solidifying the said composite peat or
bog blocks when desired to be compressed (which they may or may not
be as desired) either before or after the blocks are cooled or dried.
The second part of this Invention consists essentially in the direct application
or introduction of the said hydrocarbon, mineral, or rock oils into retorts
when at a great heat, by preference at what is termed in gasworks a white
heat, or at as great a heat as the retorts will stand with safety. The mode
of doing this is as follows:-Any of the ordinary forms of cast-iron or fire
clay retorts may be employed, placed either vertically or horizontally or in
an angular or oblique line, but the usual horizontal D-shaped retort is
preferred heated in the usual manner, also either used empty or partially

page_text: filled with materials such as broken pieces of iron, fire brick, coal, coke,
peat, or sawdust; or otherwise in some cases a large piece of iron, by
preference malleable iron, may be placed inside and along the bottom of
the retort of a saucer or tray shape, which plate or saucer may, however, be
dispensed with when preferred, all for the purpose of containing and giving
off a great amount or body of beat to the oil spread over them from the pipe
at a uniform temperature capable of converting the oil into gas in a constant
manner without requiring to open the retorts so as to cool them. A cistern
holding the oil is placed in an elevated position above the retorts with a
communicating pipe leading to each retort; and when the oil is too thick to
run from the cistern it is heated so as to flow along the pipes into the
retorts; each pipe leading into the retorts is furnished with a stop cock,
for the purpose of regulating the quantity of oil allowed to flow into the
retorts, and at the part where the pipe enters the retorts it is made of a
suitable shape, with a short straight part fitted with a plug or cover, for
easy access with an iron rod to clean off all carbon which may gather in the
pipe tending to close up the entrance into the retort. When the retorts
are raised to a suitable heat the stop cocks are opened to allow the mineral
or hydrocarbon oils to flow from the cistern into the inside of the retorts in
a constant stream of such quantity as may be found suitable for each retort
to convert into gas properly, and the gas so produced in subsequently treated
in the usual manner that gas from cannel coal is treated for general illuminating
purposes. These hydrocarbon oils, before named and so far provisionally
specified as used in this new or improved manner direct into the retort, may
either be so used in a "crude or semi-crude state, or the refined oils only
may be used in some cases. Although only one pipe has been described
for conducting the oils into each retort two or more may also be employed.
The first and second parts of the said Invention may be worked so as to
produce illuminating gas in the same gas works in separate retorts, and tho
gases from both sets of retorts led into or mixed in the same gasometer for
general use in illuminating purposes; and either method may also in a similar
manner be worked in conjunction with any of the general modes of producing
gas from cannel and other coal at present in use by conducting or mixing the
gases from their respective retorts in various proportions in the same gasometer
and be conducted therefrom for general illuminating purposes in the ordinary
It may be found advisable or necessary slightly to modify or vary
the herein described modes of applying mineral, shale, coal, rock, or hydro-
carbon oils for the purpose of producing illuminating gas without departing
manner.

page_text: from the main or essential feature of the said Invention, and therefore the
petitioner does not bind himself to the precise details or arrangements herein
provisionally specified; but what he considers and claims as his Invention
is the new or improved methods of applying and bringing into use practically
and commercially (that is, usefully and economically) the said oil substantially
in the manner herein described for the production of illuminating gas for
general lighting purposes.