AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR EFFECTING THE CONSOLIDATION OF DUST OR SMALL FRAGMENTS OF COAL, COKE, OR PEAT CHARCOAL INTO MASSES SUITABLE FOR FUEL
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Alexander Lyttle, of the Grove,
Hammersmith, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the In-
vention of "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR EFFECTING THE CONSOLIDATION OF
DUST OR SMALL FRAGMENTS OF COAL, COKE, OR PEAT CHARCOAL INTO MASSES
SUITABLE FOR FUEL."
Sealed the 13th February 1874, and dated the 16th December 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Alexander
Lyttle at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 16th December 1873.
I, WILLIAM ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of the Grove, Hammersmith, in
the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR EFFECTING THE CONSOLIDATION
OF DUST OR SMALL FRAGMENTS OF COAL, COKE, OR PEAT CHARCOAL INTO MASSES
SUITABLE FOR FUEL," to be as follows:-
I incorporate the dust or broken fragments of the fuel requiring
consolidation with any convenient hydraulic lime or cement, such
-

page_text: incorporation being effected as well as completed by means of water
in precisely the same way as is pursued in making concrete, the only
difference being that the sand and gravel of the latter are wholly replaced
by the dust and small fragments of fuel..
.
The relative proportions of hydraulic lime or cement and the broken
fuel may be varied for greater or less degrees of hardness in the same
way as are the proportions of hydraulic cement and gravel in the
preparation of builder's concrete. This mixture of cement and broken
fuel can be allowed to undergo the process of "setting" or becoming
consolidated in moulds of any desired shape, but where large quantities
of material have to be dealt with I prefer to cause it to set in strata
superimposed upon each other with planes of cleavage so provided' that
the artificial rock thus produced can be broken up into more convenient
masses when hard.
In order to accomplish this object the concrete made as above.
described is laid in a layer of any desired thickness on a suitable floor,
and when it has become solid a thin layer of the dust of any desired
fuel, such as coal, is spread over the top. Upon this layer. of dust
another stratum of concrete is laid, and then when this in its turn has
hardened there follows another thin layer of the dry dust of fuel and so
on for any desired number of successive strata. These thin layers of
the dust of fuel create the required planes of cleavage, but such planes
can also be created by the use of any other dust whether combustible or
not, or by means of sheets of metal or paper or by means of wooden
boards placed in the same way as the above mentioned layers of dust
between the successive strata of concrete. This concrete I shall
designate by the "trade mark name of "combustible concrete," and
also, according to the nature of the fuel thus consolidated, by the trade;
mark names of "coal consols," "coke consols," or "peat consols."
"
If a small proportion of finely powdered pitch is thoroughly mixed
with the materials of this concrete, it will fuse if the concrete is dried or
stoved,, and will thus increase the cohesiveness of the mass as well as its,
combustible character..
"
*
Instead of using one kind only of fuel in making this "combustible
concrete various kinds of combustible matters in a powdered form,
including sawdust and spent tan; may be incorporated together, and the
hydraulic cement may be tempered in quality by the admixture. of,

page_text: common lime, as is done in making concrete or mortar with sand or
gravel instead of powdered fuel. An admixture of a "slip" of plastic
clay may also be added to the water used in mixing the concrete with or
without the addition of a boiled mucilage or paste of starch, flour, or
other matter containing starchy fecula, or the latter alone may be added
to the water without the clay.