IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Wilson Stevenson and Edmund
Herbert Stevenson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
23rd June 1882.
GEORGE WILSON STEVENSON and EDMUND HERBERT STEVENSON both of
Parliament Street in the City of Westminster, Engineers. “IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS."
This invention has reference to the construction of apparatus whereby the
carbonization of coal, cannel or other suitable material. for the production of gas
may be carried on continuously and without the necessity for so frequently opening
the retort for the introduction of the coal or withdrawal of the coke, and has for
its object, among other advantages, the reduction of the manual labour commonly
employed in retort houses.
The invention consists of a cylindrical retort about nine feet long by about
eighteen inches in diameter, but is not confined to any particular size. The retort
is made of fire clay, or iron, is of equal internal diameter throughout, and is set
vertically. To the upper part of the retort there is attached a cast iron mouthpiece
which is connected also with a hopper or reservoir for containing coal, the said
hopper being fitted with a cover or lid. The hopper, or the connection between
the hopper and the mouthpiece may be in part surrounded by a water jacket. The
lower end of the retort is connected to a chamber for the reception and withdrawal
of the coke, and is provided with an opening fitted with a lid. This coke chamber
has also an opening which serves as an outlet for the gas produced. Within the
retort there is a shaft, the lower end of which rests in a step, or bearing attached
to the coke chamber, and has its upper part extended so as to pass through the
cover of the mouthpiece, fitted with a stuffing box or otherwise, and project some
"distance above it. Within the retort also and attached to the shaft is-a-worm-or-
screw made in about eight, or more, or less, pieces, with leaves inclined at an angle
from the horizontal, and of a diameter nearly equal to that of the interior of the
retort. Immediately over the cover of the mouthpiece there is a worm wheel
connected by a suitable clutch to the retort shaft, the said worm wheel being driven
by a worm in connection with some source of motive power. There is a second
1

page_text: shaft joined to that already described, and to its top there is fixed a pulley which
by means of a band or chain drives another pulley fastened to a spindle that
passes through the top of the coal reservoir, and terminates in a screw which
revolves in the hopper. The retort is sot in brick-work and is in communication
with a furnace from which heat is generated and distributed round it by means of
suitable flues or passages, so as to maintain the whole at a proper temperature.
The furnace may be so arranged as to heat one, two, or more retorts.
The action of the apparatus is as follows. After the retort has been heated,
coal is introduced into the reservoir and motion imparted to the shafts and spindle,
when the coal is screwed from the hopper into the mouthpiece, where by means of
As the screw
a directing plate it falls upon the top leaf of the screw in the retort.
in the retort revolves, the coal descends and in the course of its transit from top
to bottom it becomes completely carbonized, the resulting coke falling into the
coke chamber, while the gas produced passes off through the outlet before
mentioned.