CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING GAS
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WEBSTER, of Basford, in the County of Nottingham, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty, by Her Letters Patent under
the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing
date at Westminster, the Eighth day of February, in the twelfth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Webster, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her especial license, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James Webster, my exors,
adiñors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said James Webster, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times hereafter during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, and Her
Majesty's Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also
within the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and
all Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING GAS;" in which Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso requiring that I, the said James Webster,
shall particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner. the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the now reciting Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Webster, hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by this present instrument in writing under my hand
and seal in the words herein-after written, and by reference to the Drawing
hereto annexed and herein-after referred to.
Now the object of this apparatus is to produce a gas which is at once
cheaper and less dangerous in its manufacture than any other, and at tho
same time is free from those deleterious compounds arising from gas manu-
factured from coal. These advantages are gained by using only one retort
with a flat bottom, which is divided into three compartments, so that less fire
is required to obtain a proper heat, though the surface on which it acts is
capable of generating gas very rapidly. Again, rosin being the foundation
from which both the gas and the naptha are derived, no evil effects from the
light produced can result to the consumer, and the deposited naptha is valuable
for many purposes, as well as for increasing the briliancy of the gas produced
from-the rosin. So great is its purity that it can be burnt immediately it is
manufactured, without using the ordinary and expensive means of purifying it,
as is requisite in coal gas works. The principal features of novelty in this
apparatus are the production of the naptha, its adaptation for increasing the
briliancy and expelling the gas formed by the rosin from the third division of
the retort, the form thereof, and the method of. conducting the naptha to the
bottom of its first division.