IMPROVEMENTS IN CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS AND THE PRODUCTION OF CHARCOAL AND COKE, AND IN APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jonathan Ireland, junior, of Edward Street,
Broughton Lane, Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, for the
Invention of " IMPROVEMENTS IN
CARBONACEOUS
MATERIALS AND THE PRODUCTION OF CHARCOAL AND COKE, AND IN APPARATUS
FOR THAT PURPOSE."
•
THE DISTILLATION OF
Sealed the 29th January 1875, and dated the 8th December 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jonathan Ireland at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on-
the 8th December 1874.
I, JONATHAN IRELAND, junior, of Edward Street, Broughton Lane,
Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DISTILLATION OF CAR-
BONACEOUS MATERIALS AND THE PRODUCTION OF CHARCOAL AND COKE, AND
APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE," to be as follows:-
IN
In the Specification of a Patent granted to John Imray on the
14th June, 1872, No. 1795, a communication from T. S. Blair, was
described a retort or apparatus for the reduction of oxide ores of iron."

page_text: My Invention relates to a mode of applying apparatus of this kind to
the distillation of carbonaceous materials and the production of charcoal
from wood, peat, and other vegetable substances, or of coke from coal
and other bituminous substances, and to the necessary modifications of
the apparatus for that purpose.
The apparatus described in the Specification referred to consisted of a
vertical retort into which the material to be treated was fed at the top
by a tube or passage of small diameter, becoming heated as it passed
into the upper part of the retort, where it was fartlier heated by flame
applied externally to the walls of the retort. The lower part of the
retort was kept cool by water jacketting or otherwise, and the feeding
passage at the top and discharge passage at the bottom were so arranged
as to make the material operated on serve as a packing to exclude air
from the interior of the retort. In applying apparatus of this kind to
distil carbonaceous matter or to produce charcoal or coke I close the
upper part of the retort and lead therefrom a pipe to a gas holder or
other receptacle so that the inflammable gases resulting from the
distillation of the carbonaceous matter can be collected and used for
heating and illuminating purposes, and the oleaginous vapours can be
separated by condensation so as to produce oils. The gases so collected
may be used as fuel for heating the retorts themselves. I also provide
in the lower or cooling zone of each retort a pipe by which a jet of steam
can be from time to time introduced into the interior in order to
extinguish fire in the descending mass of materials operated on. At the
top of each retort I fit feeding hoppers provided with duplicate flaps or
slides so arranged that the material to be operated on can be fed into the
retort from time to time without allowing the gases or vapours to escape
therefrom or access of air thereto.
Certain ores of iron contain a considerable proportion of carbon and
mineral oil mingled with iron oxide. The apparatus modified as I have
described above is conveniently applicable to the distillation of the oils
from such ores, and the reduction at the same time of the oxide so as to
render the solid product removed from the retort fit for being at once
converted into iron or steel. Such ores I feed to the retorts at the top,
in their descent, subject to the heat; they give off their oleaginous
ingredients in the form of vapour, which can be condensed into the
liquid form by any convenient metliod of cooling, and the solid. residue
having its oxide reduced by the presence of the carbon into a metallic

page_text: state, and being cooled before air can get access to it, issues from the
retort as a mixture chiefly of nietallic iron with carbon. This product
may be at once charged into a furnace and melted therein, producing
cast iron or steel, according to the proportion of carbonaceous matter
contained in the mixture, or added thereto.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Jonathan Ireland in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 8th June 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JONATHAN
IRELAND, junior, of Edward Street, Broughton Lane, Manchester, in
the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Jonathan Ireland,
junior, Her special license that I, the said Jonathan Ireland,
junior, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Jonathan Ireland, junior, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DISTILLATION
OF CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS AND THE PRODUCTION OF CHARCOAL AND COKE, AND IN
APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Johnathan Ireland, junior, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Jonathan Ireland junior, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say-
In the Specification of a Patent granted to John Imray on the
14th June, 1872, No. 1795, a communication from T. S. Blair, was
described a retort or apparatus for the reduction of oxide ores of iron.
My Invention relates to a mode of applying apparatus of this kind to
the distillation of carbonaceous materials and the production of charcoal
from wood, peat, and other vegetable substances, or of coke from coal
and other bituminous substances, and to the necessary modifications of
the apparatus for that purpose.
The apparatus described in the Specification referred to consisted of a
vertical retort into which the material to be treated was fed at the top by
a tube or passage of small diameter, becoming heated as it passed into
the upper part of the retort, where it was farther heated by flame applied
externally to the walls of the retort. The lower part of the retort was
kept cool by water jacketting or otherwise, and the feeding passage at
the top and discharge passage at the bottom were so arranged as to make
the material operated on serve as a packing to exclude air from the
interior of the retort. In applying apparatus of this kind to distil
carbonaceous matter or to produce charcoal or coke I close the upper
part of the retort and lead therefrom a pipe to a gas holder or other
receptacle so that the inflammable gases resulting from the distillation
of the carbonaceous matter can be collected and used for heating and
illuminating purposes, and the oleaginous vapours can be separated by
condensation so as to produce oils. The gases so collected may be used
as fuel for heating the retorts themselves. I also provide in the lower
or cooling zone of each retort a pipe by which a jet of steam can be from
time to time introduced into the interior in order to extinguish fire in
the descending mass of materials operated on. At the top of each retort
I fit feeding hoppers provided with duplicate flaps or slides so arranged
that the material to be operated on can be fed into the retort from time
to time without allowing the gases or vapours to escape therefrom or
access of air thereto.

page_text: Certain ores of iron contain a considerable proportion of carbon and
mineral oil mingled with iron oxide. The apparatus modified as I have
described above is conveniently applicable to the distillation of the oils
from such ores and the reduction at the same time of the oxide so as to
render the solid product removed from the retort fit for being at once
converted into iron or steel. Such ores I feed to the retorts at the top,
in their descent, subject to the heat; they give off their oleaginous
ingredients in the form of vapour, which can be condensed into the
liquid form by any convenient method of cooling, and the solid residue
having its oxide reduced by the presence of the carbon into a metallic
state, and being cooled before air can get access to it, issues from the
retort as a mixture chiefly of metallic iron with carbon.
This product
may be at once charged into a furnace and melted. therein, producing
cast iron or steel, according to the proportion of carbonaceous matter
contained in the mixture, or added thereto.
Figs. 3 and 4 represent an elevation of the gasometer and a front view
partly in vertical longitudinal section of the three retorts.
Fig. 5 is a plan of the top of the retorts, and Fig. 6 is a vertical
transverse section of one of them.
A, A, are the feeding hoppers (of which three are shewn for each
retort) provided with removeable covers and with flaps a. When the
flap is closed, as shewn in Fig. 6, the cover is removed and the hopper is
charged with the material to be treated. The cover being then replaced
the flap a is opened downwards so that the contents of the hopper fall
into the retort. Feeding hoppers of other forms might be employed, as
for example, boxes fitted with a pair of slides like those of a shot belt,
the one slide being opened when the other is closed, so that there is no
escape of gas from the retort when it is fed.
The material fed by the hoppers descends through the body of the
retort, which is of cylindrical form, having a refractory lining made in
lengths B, B, dowelled into one another. Around this lining is an
annular space C, C, in which is maintained the combustion of gas

page_text: introduced by numerous nozzles D, D, along with the air necessary to
support the combustion. Eye holes E, E, are provided at various parts
of the outer casing for inspecting the condition of the retort in respect of
temperature, and these eye holes are made in slides or valves which can
be opened to admit air when it is desired to cool the lining.
The upper
part of the lining B is perforated with numerous holes at 6 through
which pass to pipes G portions of the gases and vapours evolved from
the material in the retort.
In order to heat the interior as well as the exterior of the material at
the upper part of the retort, gas and air pipes F are carried down some
distance within a casing of so as to produce a flame within the casing,
the products of combustion escaping by flues f¹. The pipes F and G
all communicate with a main pipe H which has branches K provided
with valves leading to the nozzles D, and which has also a branch k
leading to the gasometer L. In the course of the branch is situated a
heater M. The material in the retorts as it receives the heat gives off
combustible gases and vapours which pass by the pipes F and G into the
main pipe H, and thence by the branches K to the nozzles D, D. Should
the supply of these gases and vapours from the retorts exceed that which
is necessary for combustion in the spaces C, C, then the surplus is
received in the gasometer L, passing on its way through the heater M,
which being kept hot by a furnace has the effect of increasing the
illuminating power of the gas. The lower part of the annular space
surrounding the retort at N is separated from the part above and has
openings n, n¹, through its casing so that air can freely circulate through
it, cooling the lower part of the retort lining. The upper orifices n³,
instead of opening to the atmosphere, may lead into flues whereby warm
air can be conducted to the nozzles D, D. Below this the retort is made
of metal surrounded by a water jacket O, so that the material descending
within this part of the retort is cooled before it reaches the bottom. At
the bottom the retort tapers to an oblique mouth-piece provided with a
cover which is from time to time opened to discharge a portion of the
cooled contents of the retort, whereupon the portions above descend, and
an additional supply can be fed by the hoppers A at the top. Several
nozzles P, P, are provided near the mouth of the retort by which jets of
steam can be admitted for the purpose of extinguishing the incan-
descence of any portions of the contents before they reach the mouth-
piece for discharge.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim,-
.
—
First. The method substantially as herein described of distilling
carbonaceous materials and producing charcoal and coke in a continuous
manner by causing the materials to descend within a vertical retort
heated in its upper part and cooled in its lower part, the materials to be
treated being fed in portions at the top and removed at the bottom
without access of air to the interior of the retort.
Second. The use for the distillation of carbonaceous materials and the
production of coke and charcoal in the manner referred to above, of
vertical retorts in combination with gasometers, pipes, and nozzles so
arranged that the gaseous products of distillation are utilised for the
purpose of effecting it, substantially as herein described.
Third. The use of steam jets in the lower or cooling portions of retorts
such as are above referred to for the purpose of extinguishing incan-
descence in the contents of the retort before their discharge.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jonathan Ireland, junior, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of June, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
JONATHAN IRELAND, JUN. (L.S.)