IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED:
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Buchanan, of Liverpool, in the County.
'
of Lancaster, Engineer, and Samuel Vickess, of the same Place,:
Sugar Refiner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Buchanan and
Samuel Vickess at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 14th March 1874.
We, JAMES BUCHANAN, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,.
Engineer, and SAMUEL VICKESS, of the same Place, Sugar Refiner, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
AND CONNECTED WITH RETORTS EMPLOYED IN THE REBURNING OF ANIMAL CHARCOAL,"
to be as follows:-
Our improvements have reference to those retorts which are placed
in a vertical or nearly vertical position in a kiln, and consist;-
First. As means mainly for freely carrying off the humid gases elimi-
nated during reburning, for ensuring efficient reburning, and causing

page_text: turning of the charcoal during descent, in placing within or forming
with each retort a perforated pipe, such pipe having over each ring or
line of perforations deflecting hoods, louvres, flanges, or a continuous
flange or projection. The said hoods, louvres, flanges or flange, serve
or serves to prevent the charcoal which is fed into the annular space
at the top from passing through the perforations into the internal
space in the perforated tube during its progression downwards.
Second. As means for carrying off the humid gases and ensuring
proper reburning, in placing within or forming with each retort a
perforated internal tube, the perforations therein being formed or cast in
a diagonal line upwards and inwards to the free space in the interior of
the said perforated tube.
Third. As means for carrying off the humid gases in using an internal
perforated tube shorter than the retort, such tube being open at its
lower end, so that any charcoal which may pass through the perforations
shall be drawn off through the coolers.
Fourth. As means for preventing any water of condensation from.
reaching the reburned charcoal at the bottom of the retort, in using an
internal tube perforated from the top downwards about three-fourths of
its length and making the remaining portion solid. If desired a
transverse stop picce is placed at the bottom of the perforated portion of
the tube.
Fifth. As means for preventing the charcoal during descent from
sticking between the retort and its perforated tube, we so shape the
retort and tube that the space for charcoal increases in transverse section
from the top downwards.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
"
filed by the said James Buchanan and Samuel Vickess in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 14th September 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES 30
BUCHANAN, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, and
SAMUEL VICKESS, of the same Place, Sugar Refiner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Fourteenth day of March, in the year

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said James Buchanan and Samuel
Vickess, Her special licence that we, the said James Buchanan and
Samuel Vickess, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said James Buchanan and Samuel Vickess, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
excrcise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH RETORTS EMPLOYED IN THE REBURNING
OF ANIMAL CHARCOAL," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said James Buchanan and Samuel Vickess, our executors or admini-
strators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediatly after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Buchanan and Samuel
Vickess, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described, and,
ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had to.
the accompanying of illustrative Drawings, and to the figures and letters,
marked thereon, that is to say:-
Our improvements have reference to those retorts. which are placed.
in a vertical or nearly vertical position in a kiln, and consist,—
First. As means mainly for freely carrying off the humid gases
eliminated during reburning, for ensuring efficient reburning, and causing.
turning of the charcoal during descent, in placing within or forming
with each retort a perforated pipe; such pipe having over each ring or
line of perforations deflecting hoods, louvres, flanges, or a continuous,
flange or projection. The said hoods, louvres, flanges, or flange serve or
serves to prevent the charcoal which is fed into the annular space at the
top from passing through the perforations into the internal space in the
perforated tube during its progression downwards.

page_text: Second. As means for carrying off the humid gases and ensuring
proper reburning, in placing within or forming with each retort a
perforated internal tube, the perforations therein being formed or cast in
a diagonal line upwards and inwards to the free space in the interior of
the said perforated tube.
+
Third. As means for carrying off the humid gases in using an internal
perforated tube shorter than the retort, such tube being open at its
lower end, so that any charcoal which may pass through the perforations
shall be drawn off through the coolers.
"
Fourth. As means for preventing any water of condensation from
reaching the reburned charcoal at the bottom of the retort in using an
internal tube perforated from the top downwards about three-fourths of
its length and making the remaining portion solid. If desired a
transverse stop picce is placed at the bottom of the perforated portion of
the tube.
Fifth. As means for preventing the charcoal during descent from
sticking between the retort and its perforated tube, we so shape the
retort and tube that the space for charcoal increases in transverse section
from the top downwards.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 is a view partly in section and partly in. elevation of two
retorts, coolers, and accessories; Fig. 2, a plan view; and Fig. 3 is an
enlarged sectional view of the internal pipe illustrative of the first head
of our Invention.
a, internal hollow pipe with diagonal holes for carrying off the
humid gases formed during the reburning of animal charcoal; c, hoods
serving to turn the charcoal during descent, to collect the humid gases
eliminated, and to keep the holes or perforations 6 free for the passage of
such gases into the hollow pipe a; d, pipe for conveying the humid gases
from the pipe a to the flue or chimney, The charcoal is fed through the
opening e, and after being burned whilst descending through the
retort e¹ is received by the coolers f, and delivered to the measuring.
boxes g; h, steadying pieces.
Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 are views showing modifications of
the internal pipe, also illustrative of the first head of our Invention. In
Figs. 4 and 5, horizontal holes and projections are combined'; in Fig. 6,

page_text: .
diagonal holes and projections are combined; in Figs. 7 and 8, diagonal
holes and flanges are combined; in Fig. 9, horizontal holes and flanges
are combined; in Figs. 10 and 11, diagonal holes and louvres are
combined; i, horizontal holes; b, diagonal holes;, projections;
1, flanges; m, louvres.
Fig. 12 illustrates the second head of my Invention; here the pipe a
has holes cast or formed in a diagonal line upward and inwards which
serve to carry off the humid gases eliminated during the reburning of
the charcoal in the retort e¹.
Fig. 13 is a plan view, and Fig. 14, a sectional view illustrative of
the third head of our Invention. e¹, retort; a, internal pipe here formed
shorter than the retort; i, holes or perforations; h, steadying pieces.
The humid gases are carried off through the holes or perforations i, and
also through the lower end n of the pipe a; any charcoal which finds its
way through the holes or perforations i will fall down and be drawn off
through the coolers.
Fig. 15 shows a modification of pipe to replace a in Figs. 13 and 14;
b, diagonal holes.
Figs. 16, 17, and 18 are views partly in section and partly in elevation
illustrative of the first, third, and fourth heads of our Invention..
a, internal pipes; b, diagonal holes; 'c, hoods; e¹, retorts; h, steadying
pieces; o, stop piece to prevent any water of condensation formed in
the internal pipe reaching the reburned charcoal at the bottom of the
retort. The internal pipe below o might be solid; in Fig. 16, the
internal pipe decreases in diameter downwards; in Fig. 17, the internal
pipe decreases and the retort increases in diameter downwards; and
in Fig. 18, the retort increases in diameter downwards, all for the
purpose of preventing the charcoal during its descent sticking between
the retort and its perforated tube.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention and par-
ticularized the same in such manner that others will be enabled to
understand the same, we claim,-
First. The construction of the internal perforated pipes a with louvres
or their equivalents, substantially as described and illustrated under
head one, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, and 18, for the
purposes set forth.

page_text: Second. The internal pipe a with holes diagonally inclined upwards
and inwards, substantially as described and illustrated und head two,
Fig. 12, for the purposes set forth.
Third. The internal pipe a constructed and arranged, substantially as
described and illustrated under head three, Figs. 13, 14, and 15, for the
purposes set forth.
Fourth. Constructing an internal perforated pipe and retort in such
manner that the space for charcoal increases in transverse section from
the top downwards, substantially as described and illustrated under head
four, Figs. 16, 17, and 18, for the purposes set forth.
i
In witness whereof, I, the said James Buchanan, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Eleventh day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
Witness.
JAMES JOHNSON,
Patent Office,
Clayton Square,
L'pool.
JAMES BUCHANAN. (L.S.)