IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Jameson, of Akenside Hill in the Town and County
of Newcastle on Tyne, Consulting Engineer, for an invention of IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Jameson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th April 1882.
JOHN JAMESON of Akenside Hill in the Town and County of Newcastle-on-
Tyne, Consulting Engineer.-IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE.
My Invention consists of a method whereby what is called hard coke can be
manufactured without the loss of all the products of distillation as is usual in the
ordinary processes of the manufacture of hard coke.-I construct the coke oven
with one or more passages in the floor or lower part but otherwise of the ordinary
construction. The passages are connected to a range of pipes and an exhauster
with condensing pipes and other appliances to seperate the various products
obtained. The oven is charged as usual and when well ignited on the top I apply
gentle exhaustion at the bottom through the passages and pipes referred to so as to
remove a part of the nascent products of distillation instead of allowing them to
pass up through the ignited portion of the charge. As this has the effect of
impoverishing the coke and making it more soft I use part or the whole of the gas
so extracted and part or the whole of the rich hydro carbon of the tar in a similar
oven at a inore advanced stage of ignition so as that the carbon of the hydro carbon
gas or vapour shall be deposited on and within the interstices of the coke so
treated and the hydrogen shall be burned at the surface or passed away to burn in
the chimney. The difference between my process and the usual method of
manufacturing coke being this instead of allowing the products of slow distillation
liberated by the descending heat to pass direct into the upper part of the same
oven, I remove them from the oven generating them and seperating the more
valuable parts as the ammonia and certain of the products of tar which are more
or less useless for the enrichment of the coke and absolutely wasted, I pass the gas
and other hydro carbons or a part of them into an oven in an advanced condition
as regards ignition so as more effectually to deposit the carbon contained and to
give great density and compactness to the coke produced.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John Jameson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 25th October
1882.
JOHN JAMESON of Akenside Hill in the City and County of Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, Consulting Engineer.-IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE of coke
My Invention consists of a method whereby what is called hard coke can be
manufactured without the loss of all the products of distillation as is usual in the
ordinary processes of the manufacture of hard coke.-I construct the coke oven
with one or more passages in the floor or lower part but otherwise of the ordinary
construction. The passages are connected to a range of pipes and an exhauster
with condensing pipes and other appliances to separate the various products
obtained The oven is charged as usual and when well ignited on the top I apply
gentle exhaustion at the bottom through the passages and pipes referred to so us
to remove a part of the nascent products of distillation instead of allowing them to..
pass up through the ignited. portion of the charge-As this has the effect of
impoverishing the coke and making it more soft 1 use part or the whole of the gas
50 extracted and part or the whole of the rich hydrocarbon of the tar in a similar
oven at a more advanced stage of ignition so as that the carbon of the hydro-carbon
gas or vapour shall be deposited on and within the interstices of the coke so
|_ treated and the hydrogen-shall-be-burned-at-the-surface or passed away to burn in
the chimney. The difference between ny process and the usual method of
manufacturing coke being this, instead of allowing the products of slow distillation
liberated by the descending heat to pass direct into the upper_part_of_the_samo
oven remove them from the oven generating them and, separating the more
valuable parts as the ammonia and certain of the products of tar which aro more
or less useless for the enrichment of the coke and absolutely wasted, I pass the gas
and other hydrocarbons or a part of them into an oven in an advanced condition as
regards ignition, so as more effectually to deposit the carbon contained and to give
great density and compactness to the coke produced.
Having thus described the nature of my invention I will proceed more
particularly to describe a mode of performing the same in and by the following
statement and by aid of the accompanying sheet of drawings which represents a
simple apparatus adapted for use in the process and before describing the process
and apparatus I wish it to be clearly understood that I do not necessarily limit
myself to this precise form of apparatus and my said Invention or parts of my said
Invention may be used together or separately that is to say I may extract more or
less the products of the slow distillation of coal in a coke oven ignited and burned
in the usual way and use these products in whole or in part for any other purpose
than that already described or I may employ hydrocarbons obtained in any other
way for the enrichment of coke by the process described or I may store in a
gasometer the gas obtained froin a certain coke oven to be returned in whole or
in part at a later stage to the same or another oven I may in certain cases where
there is considerable depth of very rich coal, simply provide a means of exit for
the nascent gas otherwise than through the fire, but I prefer as a matter of
convenience of arrangement to use the invention as a whole substantially in the
manner herein set forth.-1 have described the oven as of the ordinary construction
by which I do not mean of necessity the most ordinary construction but of any
ordinary construction wherein the charge is ignited and burned in the ordinary
way regard being had to the fact that it is desirable so to proportion the depth
of coal operated upon and the position of the suction orifices and supply pipes as
that air shall not (unless in small quantities) be liable to be drawn through the

page_text: ignited coke and that on the return of the gas it shall not have so small a surface
to deposit upon as that (unless in small quantities) it escapes from the ignited mass
before being sufficiently decomposed. I wish further to draw attention to the
following point-namely, whereas in the gradual coking of the coal there is
ordinarily formed a species of more or less air-tight diaphragm due to the caking
of good coking coal just at the point at which the heat becomes adequate to
produce this agglomeration of particles and therefore suction may be applied
almost exclusively at any one point below this diaphragm without much risk of
cutting an air passage in or near the shortest line towards it yet after the mass of
coke has become entirely ignited the protection of this diaphragm is gone and I
therefore prefer to use a more diffused system for the supply of gas by means of a
more extended series of pipes, than is necessary for the extraction of the gas and I
may use an entirely different set of pipes and differently arranged so as to give a
large number of passages for the supply of gas and so as to be able to regulato
froin the appearance of the oven more or less supply to certain parts. I may also
combining the distillation of tar with the other process supply through the supply
pipes I have referred to or any of them a certain quantity of pitch or more or less
distilled tar or common raw tar so as to produce more dense deposit. I desire also
to draw attention to the fact that in certain places where the value of the products
of distillation of coal may bear a more than usual proportion to the value of
the coke I may apply such suction to the oven as to extract as much of
the products of distillation as possible but when the products of distillation are
of less value I prefer to diminish the quantity extracted so as to avoid risk
of passing air from inattention. In order to diminish the risk of passing too
large a quantity of air into the ignited coke and so consuming more than is
desired I may also supply the upper part of the oven chamber with a portion
of the waste gases of the chimney at or about atmospheric pressure, so as that
if air or gas beyond that generated by the heating of the coal should pass
through the mass of ignited cinder by micans of the suction it may be an air or
gas which is comparatively inert in the consumption of the coke from having
been in whole or in part already burned. In order more clearly to illustrate the
nature of my invention and the inanner of performing the same I will now proceed
to describe a form of apparatus adapted for the working of the same reference
being had to the accompanying drawing-A. B. and C represent 3 coke ovens
each with its charge of coal. These charges are represented by shaded and cross
shaded lines. By tho singly shaded lines I represent raw coal and by the cross
shaded lines I represent coal after its ignition, the oven C being supposed to be
that first charged then B and A respectively as more lately charged, the position of
the shaded lines representing the progress made towards ignition-The dividing
lines between the singly and doubly shaded lines in the charge represents the
imaginary position of a stratum of coal which has become more or less agglomerated
by heat and which forms a diaphragın more or less tenaceous and resistent to the
passage of gas or air as herein before mentioned-D is a pipe a branch from which
passes into and terminates in the bottom of each oven the orifice of which branch
within the oven is covered with a fire clay quarl so as to keep coal or cinder out
of the pipe. I shew in the drawing one pipe and one oritice only to each oven
for the sake of clearness but one or more may be used. The pipe D communicates
with a range of cooling pipes shown at E-similar to those used in gas works and
thence with an exhauster at G of any convenient form That which I have
shewn at G is an air pump: For the sake of clearness I shew the connection
through the exhauster direct to a second pipe H communicating with each oven.
There are provisions represented as sections of stop cocks near the Junction of each
pipe and oven so as to enable me to open or close communication at will. These
stop cocks are shewn at I and J those marked I being closed and those marked J
open-
If in these circumstances the exhauster be not operated and thereby the passage D
be practically closed the nascent gas liberated in the heated coal under the most

page_text: tenaceaus part of the diaphragm I have described will force its way up through
this diaphragm and altho' part of its hydrocarbon may be decomposed by contact
with the incandescent coke above it a considerable part will and does usually
arrive at the surface of the charge and this portion burns with a more or less
white flame and is practically wasted but if the exhauster be operated so as that
the pneumatic pressure below the diaphragm herein before mentioned is less than
the pressure above the said diaphragm the gas formed will pass by the course of
least pressure and escape decomposition and in the range of cooling pipes the water
ammonia tar and other merely volatile products may be condensed-mutatis
mutandis and having regard to the considerations before referred to the supply of
gas is like to the exhaustion-It may be effected by suction at the top of the oven
as for instance by connection to a good chimney while the door is well closed or
by pressure from the pressure side of the exhauster as shewn in the drawing or
from a gasometer or otherwise The quantity of gas supplied being regulated by
consideration of the relative values at the place where the process is carried on, of
the gas and the coke produced respectively.
Various processes have been devised whereby the volatile products of coal given
off in the manufacture of coke are more or less effectually recovered, the most
ordinary process for this purpose being so far as I am aware the more or less
closing of the oven and the application of heat other than that arising-in-the-usual.
form of open oven from the direct combustion of the coal being coked.
Some of these processes involve a considerable amount of complication in the
apparatus employed, some from application of heat at what I consider the wrong
part of the oven produce a spongy coke in some I believe the heat possible to be
economically-applied is not adequate to produce the high density desirable in hard
coke.
By my Invention I employ the heat generated by the direct combustion of a part
of the coal being coked and I am enabled to employ an extremely simple form of
apparatus and to recover more or less perfectly as desired-the-volatile-products.and..
I can utilize in a simple way for the enrichment of the coke produced more or less
of the gases and volatile products obtained.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and original
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the hereinbefore in part
recited Letters Patent is:
First-The improvements in the manufacture of Coke consisting in extracting
the gaseous products or part of the gaseous products of distillation at the bottom
of the oven wherein the charge is ignited and burned in the ordinary manner as
herein before described:
Second: The improvements in the manufacture of Coke consisting in passing
hydro Carbon gas, vapour, or fluid, through the incandescent charge as hereinbefore
described
In witness whereof I the said John Jameson have hereunto set my hand
and seal this twenty third day of October One thousand eight hundred and