IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DISTILLING HYDROCARBONS PROM COALS, SCHISTS, AND OTHER MINERALS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Dougan, of Coed Talon, near Mold, North
Wales, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DISTILLING
HYDROCARBONS PROM COALS, SCHISTS, AND OTHER MINERALS."
Sealed the 13th October 1865, and dated the 17th April 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Dougan at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
April 1865.
I, JOSEPH DOUGAN, of Coed Talon, near Mold, North Wales, do hereby
5 déclare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR DISTILLING HYDROCARBONS FROM COALS, SCHISTS, AND OTHER MINERALS," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for distilling
hydrocarbons from coals, schists, and other minerals. For these purposes a
long retort is employed, which is by preference made of iron and clothed
externally with fire-clay, or fire-tiles, but other materials may be used in the
construction and setting of the retort. The two ends of the retort are closed.
The coals or other minerals capable of yielding hydrocarbons are fed in at
the upper part and near one end of the retort by means of a revolving cylinder,
into which the coals or minerals are received at one part of its revolution,

page_text: and they are discharged therefrom into the retort at another part of the
revolution of the cylinder, hence the products distilled off from the coals or
minerals are prevented passing away out of the retort where the feed takes
place. The spent matters are delivered from the retort at the other end by
means of a similar rotating cylinder. The coals or other minerals fed into
the retort at one end are progressively moved towards the other end of the
retort by means of a screw extending from the end of the retort where the
feeding takes place to nearly the other end where the discharge of the spent
matters is effected. The shaft, or axis of the screw is hollow in order to
allow of the heat and products of combustion passing through the same in
their way to a chimney or chimneys after heating the retort. At intervals
along the upper parts of the retort are outlet pipes to convey the distilled
products to condensers; at intervals along the lower parts of the retorts
furnaces or fire-places are constructed transversely to the axis of the retort,
and the heat and products of combustion from the fires pass around the retort
and thence away to the chimney or chimneys, heating the interior of the
retort by being caused to pass through the hollow shaft or axis of the screw.
A slow rotatory motion is given to the shaft of the screw by means of a screw
or worm working into a screw or worm wheel fixed on the shaft or axis of
the screw, or such motion may be otherwise given to the shaft of the screw;
rotatory motion is communicated to the feeding and discharging cylinders by
means of suitable gearing from the screw shaft or otherwise.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Dougan in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th
October 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
DOUGAN, of Coed Talon, near Mold, North Wales, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters.
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Joseph Dougan, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph
Dougan, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Joseph Dougan, 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,

page_text: exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR DISTILLING HYDROCARBONS FROM COAL, SCHISTS, AND OTHER MINERALS,"
upon the condition"' (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Dougan, 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 Joseph Dougan, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to 'be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
and clothed
used in the
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for distilling
hydrocarbons from coals, schists, and other minerals.
For these purposes' a
long retort is employed, which is by preference made of iron
externally with fire-clay or fire-tiles; but other materials may be
construction and setting of the retort. The two ends of the retort are
closed. The coals or other minerals capable of yielding hydrocarbons are fed
in at the upper part and near one end of the retort by means of a revolving
cylinder, into which the coals or minerals are received at one part of its
revolution, and they are discharged therefrom into the retort at another part
of the revolution of the cylinder, hence the products distilled off from the
coals or minerals are prevented passing away out of the retort where the feed
takes place. The spent matters are delivered from the retort at the other
end by means of a similar rotating cylinder. The coals or other minerals
fed into the retort at one end are progressively moved towards the other end
of the retort by means of a screw extending from the end of the retort where
the feeding takes place, to nearly the other end where the discharge of the
spent matters is effected. The shaft or axis of the screw is hollow in order to
allow of the heat and products of combustion passing through the same in
their way to a chimney or chimneys after heating the retort. At intervals
along the upper parts of the retort are outlet pipes to convey the distilled pro-
ducts to condensers; at intervals along the lower parts of the retorts furnaces
or fire-places are constructed transversely to the axis of the retort, and the
heat and products of combustion from the fires pass around the retort and
thence away to the chimney or chimneys, heating the interior of the retort by
being caused to pass through the hollow shaft or axis of the screw. A slow

page_text: rotatory motion is given to the shaft of the screw by means of a screw or worm
working into a screw or worm wheel fixed on the shaft or axis of the screw,.
or such motion may be otherwise given to the shaft of the screw. Rotatory
motion is communicated to the feeding and discharging cylinders by means of
suitable gearing from the screw shaft or otherwise.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention I will proceed, more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a longitudinal section of apparatus constructed and com-
bined according to my Invention; Figure 2 shows a transverse section thereof;
Figure 3 shows one end view; and Figure 4 shows the other; end view
thereof, partly in section. A is a long iron cylindrical retort clothed externally
with fire-bricks or tiles; this retort is set in a suitable chamber enclosed by
brickwork. The space between the interior of the brickwork and the exterior
of the retort is divided by fire-bricks or lumps F, into flues, running round
the retort, so that the heat and products of combustion coming from the
transverse fire-places pass all round the retort, and are received into other
flues G, one of which leads to the end of the hollow shaft of the screw and
thence to the chimney, whilst the other communicates with the chimney. On
the interior of the retort A is a hollow axis or shaft, on which is formed a
screw, B, by means of which the coal or mineral fed in at one end of the
retort is progressively moved towards the other end of the retort, from whence
the spent matters are delivered as hereafter described. Motion is communi-
cated to the hollow shaft of the screw B by a screw wheel C, which is driven
by a screw shaft C', or motion may be communicated to the screw shaft by
any convenient means. Above one end of the retort A is a feeding apparatus
consisting of a cylinder D, which rotates within a portion of another cylinder
D!. In the outer or fixed portion of a cylinder D¹ there is an opening at
In the inner
the bottom where the cylinder is connected to the retort.
cylinder there is an opening corresponding in dimensions with the opening in
the outer cylinder. The inner cylinder is caused to rotate slowly by suitable
gearing E. When the opening in the inner cylinder is upwards, coal or
mineral is fed into such cylinder from a hopper or otherwise, at which time
the opening into the retort will be closed; when the opening in the inner
cylinder is downwards the coal or mineral will be delivered from the inner
cylinder into the retort, whilst the opening at the upper part of outer
cylinder D will be closed. At the under part of the other end of the retort
there is similar apparatus consisting of an inner and outer cylinder D & D

page_text: for delivering the spent matters from the retort into a truck or receiver H.
The axes of this apparatus are supported by and turn in bearings in the ends
of two weighted levers, by which when desired the inner cylinder D can be
lowered; this inner cylinder is caused to rotate slowly by any suitable
gearing E. At the upper parts of the retort A are outlets I, I, by which the
hydrocarbons are conveyed to a suitable condenser or condensers.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim is, the
combined arrangement of parts herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Dougan, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventh day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
JOSEPH DOUGAN. (LS.)