IMPROVEMENTS IN CLEANSING ANIMAL CHARCOAL, AND IN REMOVING IRON AND OTHER IMPURITIES THEREFROM
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Conrad William Finzel, of the City of Bristol, Sugar
Refiner, and James Bryant, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon,
Sugar Refiner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CLEANSING ANIMAL
Sealed the 1st January 1858, and dated the 6th October 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Conrad William Finzel
and James Bryant at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 6th October 1857.
We, CONRAD WILLIAM FINZEL, of the City of Bristol, Sugar Refiner, and
James Bryant, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Sugar Refiner, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CLEANSING
ANIMAL CHARCOAL, AND IN REMOVING IRON AND OTHER IMPURITIES THEREFROM," to
be as follows:-
Our Inventfon consists, first, in the employment of centrifugal force to
drive into and among and through animal charcoal, in order to cleanse and
purify it, water or other liquid, heated air, steam, or some such purifying
and cleansing chemical agent or agents as will have the effect of cleansing
and purifying the charcoal. The charcoal may or may not afterwards require
reburning, in order completely to revivify it.
Second, in exposing granulated animal charcoal to magnets, in order to
extract any particles of iron which may be found among the grains.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Conrad William Finzel and James Bryant in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 5th April 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CONRAD
WILLIAM FINZEL, of the City of Bristol, Sugar Refiner, and JAMES BRYANT,
of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Sugar Refiner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and. grant unto us, the said
Conrad William Finzel and James Bryant, Her special licence, that we, the
said Conrad William Finzel and James Bryant, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Conrad William Finzel
and James Bryant, 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,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CLEANSING ANIMAL CHARCOAL, AND IN REMOVING IRON AND OTHER IMPURITIES
THEREFROM," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Conrad
William Finzel and James Bryant, or one of us, our executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under our or their, or one of our or
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 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 we, the said Conrad William Finzel and James
Bryant, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
Our Invention consists in the employment of centrifugal force to drive into
among and through animal charcoal, in order to cleanse and purify it, water or
other liquid, heated air, steam, or some such purifying and cleansing chemical
agent or agents as will have the effect of cleansing and purifying the charcoal.
The charcoal may or may not afterwards require reburning, in order com-
pletely to revivify it.
In carrying our Invention into practical effect, we employ a centrifugal
machine, of any well-known construction, and with or without a hollow shaft,

page_text: with apertures or perforations for allowing of the outflow of the cleansing and
purifying agent or agents into the contents of the drum of the machine. The
sides of the drum should be composed of perforated copper, with an inner
casing of wire gauze. We charge the drum with the charcoal to be cleansed
and purified, and start it in the usual manner, and as soon as it commences to
rotate, we introduce through the hollow shaft, or otherwise, directly into the
drum hot water or steam, and we prefer the temperature of the water to be
at or about the boiling point; we continue the admission of the water or
steam for a period varying with the charge in the drum and the state of the
charcoal. We find it sometimes advantageous, after the admission of the
water or steam has been stopped, to introduce hot air into the drum, but the
hot air may be dispensed with.
Iron and many other impurities are separated and removed from the
charcoal while being operated on in the centrifugal machine, and where
deemed advisable to reburn the charcoal after our cleansing process, such
reburning will not be attended with obnoxious results, in consequence of the
impurities having been previously removed, instead of being converted into
gases and diffused through the atmosphere. The reburning will also be
effected with considerably less fuel, and in much less time, than where our
cleansing process has not been used.
Although we have found hot water or steam to answer well for the purposes
of our Invention, we do not limit ourselves to the employment of those agents
alone; but we claim the cleansing of animal charcoal, and the removing of iron
and other impurities therefrom, by driving hot water, steam, hot air, or other
cleansing and purifying agent or agents, through the same by centrifugal
force.
In witness whereof, we, the said Conrad William Finzel and James
Bryant, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this First day of
April, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
CONRAD WN FINZEL. (L.S.)
JAMES BRYANT.
(L.S.)