AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR EFFECTING THE CONSOLI- DATION OF THE DUST OR SMALL FRAGMENTS OF COAL OR COKE INTO MASSES SUITABLE FOR FUEL
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Alexander Lyttle at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 24th November 1873.
I, WILLIAM ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of the Grove, Hammersmith, in
the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR EFFECTING THE CONSOLI-
DATION OF THE DUST OR SMALL FRAGMENTS OF COAL OR COKE INTO MASSES SUITABLE
FOR FUEL," to be as follows:-
or coke dust the requisite
In order to impart to "small coal "
consolidation into masses of any desired size for use as fuel, I mix
this broken coal or coke into a condition like that of mortar, by
incorporating therewith the mud or creamy "slip" of plastic clay,
with which clay slip has been thoroughly blended a boiled paste: made
of starch, flour, or any other vegetable production, such as seaweed
or linseed yielding a gelatinous or gummy liquor when boiled with
.
water..
I also use the clay slip for such purpose in conjunction with any
hydraulic cement, and in that case the starchy paste may or may not

page_text: c
The use of clay and also of starch separately for the consolidation
of small coal or coke is well known, but I believe the combination
of clay with starch, or with hydraulic cement, or with the two latter
materials together, to be both a new and useful process for attaining
the desired consolidation, because by their use the adhesive and binding
character of the plastic clay is so much increased that the proportion
of clay required may be correspondingly reduced. At the same time
by the use of the clay slip advantage can be taken of the valuable
consolidating properties of the starchy paste, or the hydraulic cement
whilst employing a much smaller proportion of those more costly
materials than would suffice, if they were not used in combination,
as herein-before described. The combustible concrete thus formed can
either be allowed to "set" into solid slabs or floors, and then be
broken into lumps and fragments like coal, or it can be allowed to
solidify in shapes or frames of any required size. It can also be moulded
into solid or perforated bricks or cylinders by any machine for moulding
bricks or tiles.
If the small coal or coke is thoroughly incorporated with the clay
slip and other material, as herein-before described, in a condition as
free from wetness as possible, the mixture can be moulded and con-
solidated with great speed by any of the machines now used for making
compressed bricks or tiles with clay in a powdered state. This, con-
solidated fuel, which. I shall designate by the trade mark or designation
of combustible concrete," may. when dry be dipped in or otherwise
superficially treated with tar, melted pitch, or any heavy oil of tar or
petroleum.
The admixture of a small proportion of powdered pitch; or bitumen
with the coal or coke dust in making this concrete adds to its solidity
if it is dried by artificial heat at a temperature sufficient to melt the
pitch.
The coke made from peat answers peculiarly well for fuel when con-