IMPROVEMENTS IN BURNING ANIMAL CHARCOAL
Year: 1845

page_text: CHAMPION, OT
City London, Merenant,
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of March, in the eighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Constant Champion, Her especial license, full power, sole privi-
lege and authority, that I, the said Constant Champion, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Constant Champion,
my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all
Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BURNING ANIMAL CHARCOAL," being a communication from a Foreigner residing
abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me,
the said Constant Champion, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same

page_text: to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Constant Champion, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
:-
In order to burn or revivify animal charcoal after its bleaching properties
have been exhausted by operating upon unclarified syrups, it has generally
been the course to place the charcoal that requires burning or revivifying in
large iron retorts, and then expose it to the heat of a furnace until the char-
coal is sufficiently burned or its bleaching properties revivified, when it is
withdrawn, and allowed to cool in close vessels, and a fresh charge substituted
in place of the one just operated upon. It has also been proposed to withdraw
the charge gradually, or in small quantities at a time, from the lower end of
the retort, keeping the retort filled by adding fresh charcoal at the, upper end,
as that operated upon is withdrawn from the lower. Experience, however,
having proved that it is impossible to burn or revivify animal charcoal in a
perfect manner. by operating, upon large quantities at a time, the Inventor has
applied himself to find out some simple and economical means of operating
upon small quantities of not more than one hundredweight at once, or rather
upon large quantities. so subdivided in the apparatus that every particle may be
duly and properly operated upon by the heat, and also of acting upon them
with the greatest possible heat; and to effect these objects he has invented the
apparatus hereafter. described.
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of the improved apparatus taken in
the line I, K, of Fig. 2, which. Figure represents a horizontal section of the
apparatus taken in the lines A, B.. C, D, of Fig. 1; Figs. 3 and 4 are transverse
vertical sections taken respectively in the lines E, F, and G, H, of Fig. 2.
a, a, are tubes or pipes of very small diameters, and made of refractory earth
or fire-clay, or some other substance capable of resisting any degree of heat,
and may be composed. of several sections. luted together. These tubes are
mounted. vertically in a chamber or oven, o, o, in which they are acted upon by
the heat and flames of a. furnace or fireplace i, i. b, b, are, cast iron shoes,
sockets, or vessels which receive the ends of the pipes a. These vessels are

page_text: closed at bottom by valves c, c, which are opened and closed by means of the
rods d, d; and the cranks e, e, e. f is a cast iron plate serving to support the
pipes; and the shoes, sockets, or vessels b; and f' is a similar cast iron plate
which supports the upper ends of the pipes or tubes a, a, and is also intended
to receive the charcoal before it enters the pipes a, a; g, g, are large fire tiles
made of refractory earth or fire clay, which serve to close the chamber or oven
0, 0, and preserve the cast iron plates from the action of the fire; h is a flue or
passage for the admission of flame and heat to the chamber or oven which
contains the tubes a, a, and is the exit passage from the same to the hori-
zontal flue underneatli the drying floor, and conducts the products of
combustion from thence to the chimney; i is the fireplace or furnace; k, k; is
the drying floor; is an inclined plane upon which the burned charcoal falls
when discharged from the tubes, and down which it slides or is removed into
the receptacle m, from whence it is carried to some place to cool in the open
air; n is the open chimney at the other end of the apparatus. The process
of burning or revivification is effected as follows:-If the charcoal is to be revivi-
fied or reburned, it is, after being washed, placed in a damp state at the end of
the drying floor furthest from the furnace, and is gradually moved towards the
furnace. By this means it becomes quite dried by the heat in the flue beneath
the floor; and when the pipes are filled they are thereby charged with well-
dried charcoal; and in order to keep them well filled the charcoal is
piled up in a large heap above the pipes on the cast-iron floor fi.
After the charcoal has been operated upon by a strong heat for from
twelve to fifteen minutes, a quantity of it is to be discharged from the pipes
into the atmosphere, care being taken to stir it well to prevent it whitening.
It is afterwards carried away to cool, without the employment of water, and
for this purpose it must not be heaped up too high. The fire must be kept at
its greatest heat, and at an equal temperature, and a part of the charge drawn
every twelve or fifteen ininutes. When it is required to withdraw a portion
of the charge, the lower end of the pipes a, a, are opened by turning down the
valves c, c, by means of the handles or cranks e, e, and when the proper
quantity has escaped from the pipes the valves are closed again; and as there is
always a supply of charcoal heaped up above, as before mentioned, the pipes are
always kept filled. With the apparatus represented in the Drawing about ten
tons of charcoal may be burned or revivified in about twenty-four hours. An
apparatus of a similar construction is employed for burning bones or manu-
facturing new charcoal; but it will be necessary to make the following modi-
fications in the apparatus (viz.)-The number of pipes employed in an
apparatus of the same dimensions is less, and the diameter of such pipes is

page_text: increased. The other portions of the apparatus remain the same as if employed
for revivifying; but I adapt to the top of the pipes or tubes funnel-mouthed
pipes, for the purpose of allowing the escape of the gases and smoke arising
from the charcoal, and conducting them away either into the open air or into
some apparatus where the ammonia may be extracted therefrom. These
funnel-mouthed conducting tubes are constructed and arranged in such a
manner that they may with facility be removed from the upper end of the
vertical tubes for the purpose of charging the tubes, and may with equal
facility be reapplied.
Having now described the Invention that has been communicated to
me by my Foreign Correspondent, and also the means of carrying the same
into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not intend to confine myself
to the precise construction of parts herein shewn, nor to the number of
pipes or tubes a, a, to be used in one apparatus; nor do I mean or intend
to claim the broad principle of reburning animal charcoal for the purpose
of revivifying or reviving the bleaching properties thereof that have been
exhausted by operating upon unclarified syrups; nor do I claim the use of
retorts generally for the purpose of effecting this object. But what I claim
as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is,
First, the general construction and arrangement of the apparatus as herein
shewn.
Secondly, the use of pipes or tubes made of fire-clay, or other analogous
material capable of sustaining a high degree of heat, such pipes or tubes being
of small diameter placed vertically in a chamber or oven, and closed at their
lower extremities, as shown.
Thirdly, the manner shewn and described of heating the pipes or tubes on
all sides equally by surrounding them with flame from one fire.
Fourthly, the arrangement, construction, and mode of working the valves
c, c, for discharging the charcoal, one rod and handle being sufficient for four
or five pipes.
Fifthly, and lastly, I claim allowing the charcoal in a red hot state to fall
into the open air, where it is cooled without water by being kept stirred whilst
cooling, so as to prevent it from whitening.
In witness whereof, I, the said Constant Champion, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
CONSTANT (L.s.) CHAMPION.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Sixteenth day of Septem-
ber, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Constant Champion came
before our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and everything therein contained, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of September, in the year above written.