IMPROVEMENTS IN ARRANGEMENTS AND APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Johnson and Matthew Hilton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd October 1878.
JAMES JOHNSON, of Sandywood, Pendleton, in the County of Lancaster,
Manufacturer, and MATTHEW HILTON, of Parkside, Prestwich, in the said County,
Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ARRANGEMENTS AND APPARATUS FOR THE
MANUFACTURE OF GAS."
Our Invention relates to improvements upon that mode of making gas described
in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to the said Matthew Hilton, and
numbered 4576, and dated the 3rd day of December, A.D. 1877, and our present
Invention consists in employing stationary instead of revolving retorts described in
the Specification of the said Patent, which stationary retorts are formed of any
But the retorts are constructed so as to
ordinary or suitable section and material.
enlarge from the end at which the small coal or cannel is fed to the opposite end at
which the coke is discharged. The coal or cannel in small lumps is placed in an
hopper which is or can be closed by a lid and sealed by a water joint, and descends
from the hopper to a chamber communicating with the small end of the retort.
In this chamber there is a screw arranged which propels the coal or cannel into
and through the retort, or there is a reciprocating piston or other suitable arrange-
ment which acts to propel the coal or cannel into and through the retort.
Dampers or valves are or may be used to close the passage between the retort and
hopper when required, and a rotary or other valve is or may be used between the
hopper and chamber for the reciprocating pusher to supply to such chamber for each
reciprocation with a given quantity of coal or cannel for each revolution or complete
movement of the valve, which alternately opens and closes to the hopper and
chamber for the pusher, and thus keeps the passage between the retort and hopper
closed and dispenses with the lid and water seal if desired.
The coke discharged at the large end of the retort falls into a chamber from which
the gas generated ascends by a suitable pipe; the lower end of the chamber cones
or contracts into a hopper or shoot, and descends into a well having water in it to
act as a seal to prevent the escape of gas, the hot coke drops into this shoot and
accumulates to a given height in it so that the upper surface is hot coke. At the

page_text: lower part of the shoot in the well there is a screw or other suitable arrangement
which propels the coke from the well up an incline discharging it above the surface
of the water in the well into a waggon or other suitable receptacle.
When several of these retorts up to, say, seven are combined together each retort
has a separate feeding apparatus as described, but they are all arranged to discharge
_the.coke.into.one.common chamber and shoot.
_ Instead of the coke being discharged into the well it is or may be discharged
-into-a-moveable box or waggon connected with the shoot by a "water seal," and the
shoot has or may have a damper or valve arrangement to close the communication
-between the moveable chamber or waggon and the shoot if desired.