AN IMPROVED COMPOSITION an MAimBDII TO BE SED IN LIEU OF COAL FOR FUEL
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Lowe, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Coal Dealer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED COMPOSITION
an MAimBDII TO BE SED IN LIEU OF COAL FOR FUEL."
Scaled the 3rd July 1874, and dated the 26th January 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Lowe at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th January 1874.
.
I, EDWIN LOWE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Coal
Dealer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED COMPOSITION OR MATERIAL TO BE USED IN LIEU OF COAL FOR FUEL," to
be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is, as explained in the title, to provide a
composition or material which may be used in lieu of coal for fuel, the
said composition being produced at a cheaper rate, and thus providing
fuel at a much less cost than would be the caso if coal were used, and
consisting for the most part of refuse matter, which is by my Invention
successfully utilised. I propose then to collect the dry sewage of the

page_text: streets or ash-pits or other equivalent accumulations of dry matter, and
having driven out any remaining moisture therein to grind it in a mill
or by other suitable means to a proper degree of fineness. I then mix
with the said dry matter a proper proportion of (1) gas tar, (2) charcoal,
(3) coal slack, (4) clay washings, and the whole being well mixed
together is then compressed into moulds of a suitable size, and then
dried and allowed to acquire a hard consistency, when it is ready for use
as fuel. The improved fuel as thus produced can be used for any purpose
where fuel is required. Thus it may be employed either for blast
furnaces or for domestic use, being equally serviceable in either case,
but the relative proportions of the ingredients to be mixed with the dry
sewage matter is altered as required to suit the draught or fire where the
material is destined to be employed; so that I do not propose to confine
myself to any exactly defined proportions of the said different ingre-
dients, but I may say that generally the component parts of the whole
will be about 2/3rds of the dry sewage matter to the remaining 3rd of
the other ingredients I have specified.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edwin Lowe in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 25th July 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN
Lowe, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Coal Dealer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Edwin Lowe, Her
special licence that I, the said Edwin Lowe, my exccutors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edwin Lowe, my
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,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN

page_text: "
IMPROVED COMPOSITION OR MATERIAL TO BE USED IN LIEU OF COAL FOR FUEL,'
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edwin Lowe, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edwin Lowe, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say) :—
The object of this Invention is, as explained in the title, to provide a
composition or material which may be used in lieu of coal for fuel, the
said composition being produced at a cheaper rate, and thus providing
fuel at a much less cost than would be the case if coal were used, and
consisting for the most part of refuse matter, which is by my Invention
successfully utilised. I propose then to collect the dry sewage of the
streets or ash-pits or other equivalent accumulations of dry matter, and
having driven out any remaining moisture therein to grind it in a mill
or by other suitable means to bring it to a proper degree of fineness.
I then mix with the said dry matter a proper proportion of gas tar,
charcoal, coal slack, and clay washings, and the whole being well mixed
together is then compressed into moulds of suitable size, and then dried
and allowed to acquire a hard consistency, when it is ready for use as
fuel.
My Invention is equally applicable to the utilisation of wet sewage, or
sewage from which all moisture has not been compressed. In this case
the sewage is taken to the receiving tank and there mixed with the ingre-
dients before specified, the gas tar being by preference in a hot or boiling
state.
The relative proportions of the ingredients to be mixed with the wet,
as in the case of the dry sewage matter, will be of course necessarily
altered or varied to suit the draught of the fire where the material is
destined to be employed, so that I do not confine myself to any exactly
defined proportions of the said different ingredients of which my improved
composition or material shall consist, but I may say that generally in

page_text: the treatment of dry sewage the component parts of the whole will be
about two-thirds of the sewage matter to the remaining one-third of the
other ingredients I have specified.
In the case of wet sewage, and where the material is intended to be
used for house fuel, I mix in about the following proportions :-
:-Suppose
the whole to consist of one hundred and twelve parts, I mix with
seventy-one and a half parts of sewage, six parts of clay, twenty-six
parts of fine slack, and eight parts of gas tar, the remaining half part
being of charcoal to promote combustion. Where the material is
intended to be used for engine fuel, and suppose similarly, the whole to
consist of one hundred and twelve parts, I take the same proportions of
component parts, except that in this case I leave out the half part of
charcoal, and add this half part to the sewage, which will thus consist
of seventy-two parts; and these component parts being in each case
well mixed together are compressed into suitable moulds, and allowed to
dry and acquire a hard consistency, when the material is ready to be
employed as fuel.
Having now fully described my Invention and the manner in which
it is to be carried into effect, I desire it to be understood that without
limiting myself to the precise details or proportions herein-before de-
scribed (as these may be varied or modified without departing from the
nature of my said Invention) I claim as the Invention to be protected
by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, the improved compo-
sition or material to be used in lieu of coal for fuel, as herein-before
described, and which shall consist substantially of about two-thirds of
sewage matter to the remaining one-third part of the other ingredients
herein-before specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Lowe, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year