Improvements in the Manufacture of Fuél.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Apr., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 7th Jan., 1896-Accepted, 22nd Feb., 1896
Improvements in the Manufacture of Fuél.
We, WILLIAM THOMSON, Royal Institution Laboratory, Manchester, Consulting
and Analytical Chemist and HARRY SMITH 33 Withington Road Whalley
Range Manchester, Chemist do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
The object of this invention is to produce a fuel in the form of blocks of a
convenient shape and size suitable for burning in laundry irons, stoves and the
like, which will burn evenly and regularly without emitting smell, smoke, or
sparks.
We accomplish this by taking wood charcoal and grinding it to a powder which
may be done by edge runners or by any suitable mill and then mixing with it a
suitable proportion of wood tar or coal tar or a mixture of both with coal-tar-pitch.
or other variety of pitch or bitumen or of bitumenous coal which by preference we
mix after grinding to powder. Or we take a mixture of charcoal powder and coal
tar pitch with any or all of the above mentioned substances or with any of the
bitumens or pitches, with creosote oil (dead oil of tar) or any other oil, or we may
mix ground charcoal, pitch in powder, and a suitable quantity of water, or again
we may take the charcoal and pitch powders alone in suitable proportions and
simply heat the mixture on iron plates or in other ways the object being to produce
(in the first part of our process) a mixture which can be agglomerated and pressed
into blocks by suitable machinery.
The second part of the process consists in treating the blocks thus produced in a
retort or stove to which, or in which, heat is applied until all the volatile matters
are expelled and there is left in the retort or stove a fuel in comparatively hard
blocks (which consists of carbon mixed with a small quantity of mineral matter)
which is then allowed to cool out of contact with the atmosphere.
We also make blocks of fuel by taking charcoal in powder and mixing with it
a suitable proportion of china clay, grinding the two together until thoroughly
incorporated and then adding water with further grinding and subsequently n
solution of alkaline sodium silicate this is incorporated by further grinding and
pressed into blocks as before, the mixture being kept merely damp and not in a
pasty or fluid condition. We then dry these blocks on an iron plate heated by
steam, when they are ready for use.
The following are some of the mixtures we employ but we do not confine ourselves
to these proportions, other proportions of all the materials may be employed without
departing from the peculiar nature of this invention.

page_text: Pemprovements in the manufacture of Fuel.
We, WILLIAM THOMSON, Royal Institution Laboratory, Manchester, Consulting
and Analytical Chemist and HARRY SMITH, 33 Withington Road, Whalley
Range, Manchester, Chemist do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
The object of this invention is to produce a fuel in the form of blocks of a
convenient shape and size suitable for burning in laundry irons, stoves, and
the like, which will burn evenly and regularly without emitting smell, smoke, or
sparks.
We accomplish this by taking wood charcoal or charcoal made from waste
materials such as spent dyewoods and grinding it to a fine powder which may be
done by edge runners, or by a disintegrator or by any suitable mill and then
mixing with it a suitable proportion of wood tar or coal tar or a mixture of either
or both with coal tar pitch or other varieties of pitch or bitumen, or we take a
mixture of charcoal powder and coal tar pitch with any or all of the above
mentioned substances, or we take any of the bitumens or pitches together with
creosote oil, (dead oil of tar) or any other oil, or we may mix ground charcoal
with pitch in powder and a suitable quantity of water, or again we may take the
charcoal and pitch powders alone in suitable proportions and simply heat the
mixture on iron plates or in other ways the object being to produce (in the first
part of our process) a mixture which can be agglomerated and pressed into blocks
by suitable machinery.
The second part of the process consists in treating the blocks thus produced
in a retort to which heat is applied until all the volatile matters are expelled and
there is left in the retort a fuel in comparatively hard blocks (which consist of
carbon with a small quantity of mineral matter) which is then allowed to cool
out of contact with the atmosphere by being thrown or raked into iron boxes
closed by lids.
We also make blocks of fuel by taking charcoal (which has been perfectly
carbonised and is free from volatile matters) in powder, and mixing with it n
suitable proportion of china clay, grinding the two together until thoroughly
incorporated and then adding water with further grinding and subsequently a
solution of alkaline silicate of soda, this is incorporated by further grinding and
pressed into blocks as before, the mixture being kept merely damp and not in a
pasty or fluid condition. We then dry these blocks on an iron plate heated by
steam or in any other convenient way, when they are ready for use.

page_text: The following are some of the mixtures we employ, but we do not confine
ourselves to these proportions, other proportions of all the materials may be
employed without departing from the peculiar nature of our invention.
Charcoal
Coal tar pitch
Water
Charcoal
Coal tar pitch
Creosote oil
Charcoal
€ 85
100 parts by weight.
10
to 25
"
"
"
-
60
120
"1
"
"
"
100
"
"
"
10 to 25
"
"
"
140
"
"
"
100
"
"
"
Coal tar -
30 to
50
"
"
"
Wood tar
30 to
50
""
"
"
Charcoal
100
"
"
"
Wood tar
75 to 90
"
"
"
Charcoal
45
"
"
,,
China clay
6
"
"
"
Water
33
"
"
"
Alkaline sodium silicate.
16
"
"
"
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
(1.) In the manufacture of fuel from charcoal powder, the agglomeration of the
charcoal into blocks with tar of any kind either alone or in combination with
natural bitumen or manufactured pitch either separately or in combination; or,
natural bitumen or manufactured pitch in combination with creosote oil or other
oils substantially as herein described and the subsequent carbonising or distilling of
the blocks at a red-heat for the purposes set forth.
(2.) The use of a mixture of china clay and silicate of soda as a cement along
with finely powdered charcoal for making blocks which after drying are ready for
use, in this case however the charcoal must be practically free from matter which
will decompose or volatilize at a redheat.
Dated this 6th day of January 1896.
WILLIAM THOMSON.
HARRY SMITH.