IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OLD OR WASTE RAILWAY WOOD SLEEPERS, AND BEARERS. AND IN PREPARING OR PRESERVING WOOD FOR RAILWAY SLEEPERS AND BEARERS AND OTHER WORKS."
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Richardson and Edmund John Jasper
Browell, of the Laboratory, Neville Hall, Newcastle-on-Tyne, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OLD OR WASTE RAILWAY WOOD
SLEEPERS, AND BEARERS. AND IN PREPARING OR PRESERVING WOOD FOR
RAILWAY SLEEPERS AND BEARERS AND OTHER WORKS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Richardson and
Edmund John Jasper Browell at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 13th April 1857. .
We, THOMAS RICHARDSON and ЕDMUND JOHN JASPER BROWELL, of the
Laboratory. Neville Hall, Newcastle-on-Tyne, do hereby declare the nature
of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TREATING OLD OR WASTE RAILWAY
WOOD SLEEPERS AND BEARERS, AND IN PREPARING OR PRESERVING WOOD FOR
RAILWAY SLEEPERS AND BEARERS AND OTHER WORKS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating old or waste
railway wood sleepers and bearers, and in preparing or preserving wood for
railway sleepers and bearers and other works.
In the construction of railways much wood is employed for sleepers and
bearers of the rails, such wood being in a large proportion of cases prepared
by tar, or products obtained by distillation from tar. Now, part of the
Invention consists in subjecting the old or waste sleepers or bearers to the
process of dry distillation to obtain tar or products therefrom, suitable for
Price 1

page_text: preparing other wood for railway sleepers and bearers and other works.
And the improvements also consist in combining with tar, used for preparing
or preserving wood for railway sleepers, and bearers and. other works. a
chemical solvent, such as caustic soda solution.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Richardson and Edmund John Jasper Browell, in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th October 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME. we, THOMAS
RICHARDSON and EDMUND JOHN JASPER BROWELL, of the Laboratory. Neville
Hall, Newcastle-on-Tyne, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of April. in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us.
the said Thomas Richardson and Edmund John Jasper Browell, Her special
licence that we, the said Thomas Richardson and Edmund John Jasper
Browell, our executors. administrators, and assigns. or such others as we,
the said Thomas Richardson and Edmund John Jasper Browell, 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 TREATING
OLD OR WASTE RAILWAY WOOD SLEEPERS AND BEARERS, AND IN PREPARING OR
PRESERVING WOOD FOR RAILWAY SLEEPERS AND BEARERS AND OTHER WORKS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas Richardson
and Edmund John Jasper Browell, our executors or administrators. by an
instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the
hand and scal of one of us or them, 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 Thomas Richardson, on behalf of myself
and the said Edmund John Jasper Browell, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to performed, to be

page_text: thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in treating old or waste
railway wood sleepers and bearers, and in preparing or preserving wood for
railway sleepers and bearers and other works.
In the construction of railways much wood is employed for sleepers and
bearers of the rails, such wood being in a large proportion of cases prepared
by tar, or products obtained by distillation from lar. Now. part of the
Invention consists in subjecting the old or waste sleepers or bearers to the
process of dry distillation to obtain tar or products therefrom, suitable for
preparing other wood for railway sleepers and bearers and other works.
And the improvements also consist in combining with tar. used for preparing
or preserving wood for railway sleepers and bearers and other works. a
chemical solvent, such as caustic soda solution.
And in order that our said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the method in which we
prefer to conduct the processes.
In order to obtain tar and other products from old or waste railway sleepers
or bearers we proceed as follows:-We remove all adhering dirt or other
foreign matters from the old or waste railway wood sleepers or bearers before
subjecting them to distillation. This waste timber may be used whole, or it
may be first cut into small faggots, and we prefer that it should be air dried
for some time previous to distillation. The clean and dry old and waste
timber, either whole or cut into smaller blocks, we submit to dry distillation,
and for this purpose we prefer to employ the arrangements and apparatus
now in common use for making coal gas, merely washing the gas with a weak
solution of soda before passing it into the lime purifiers. This gas, which is
obtained in addition to the tar and other products. is suitable for use for
illuminating purposes.
We
The retorts are heated up to a cherry or bright red heat, and we find the
higher the temperature the better for our general purposes. We charge cach
retort with about 1 cwt. of the timber prepared as above described.
drive the distillation as rapidly as possible, and we work off the charge in from
2 to 3 hours, according to the kind and state of the timber. The charcoal is
withdrawn and the fire extinguished by water or charcoal powder. The
gaseous products require more lime for purification than coal gas, but they
possess the great advantage of being free from sulphur compounds, and may
be used either alone or mixed. with ordinary coal gas. The liquid products of
the distillation which are arrested in the hydraulic main principally consist

page_text: of the tar and acetic acid, and these may be separated and treated in the usual
manner, in which case the tar when distilled will furnish the compound known
under the name of dead oil, which may be employed at once for the preser-
vation of new sleepers and bearers in the ordinary manner. But instead of
distilling the tar for the purposes of obtaining the dead oil, we prefer, accord-
ing to the second part of our Invention. to mix one of the following saline
solutions with it in about equal volumes, viz., a solution of caustic soda of
about 113 specific gravity, or the liquor known in the alkali trade under the
term of red liquor, with a specific gravity of about 1'30. We heat these
mixed fluids to a temperature of from 90° to 100° Fahrenheit, and we force
this warm solution into the cylinder containing the timber with the usual
precautions.
By mixing the tar with these solvents we render it perfectly fluid and
suitable for use in preserving timber, whereas heretofore in order to obtain a
preserving liquid of sufficient fluidity to be successfully employed for this
purpose it has been necessary to distil the tar and so separate it from its
bodies, which, although they have considerable preservative properties, render
the far too thick for use. Or, instead of separating the acetic acid portion of
the liquid products when the acetic acid is present in comparatively small
quantities, we neutralize the acid by means of carbonate of soda, or otherwise,
and we dissolve in 1 gallon of the liquid about 1 lb. of caustic soda, or 2 lbs.
of red liquor salt, and mix it gallon for gallon with the lar, warming up
the mixed liquids to about 90° to 100° Fahrenheit, and proceeding as before.
In this way we render useful the proportion of preserving material, which
would otherwise be lost in the acetic acid liquid.
In all these different methods the temperature may be varied considerably
without effecting the result, and when it is not an object to collect the gas in
distilling the waste timber, a lower heat and slower distillation will increase
the production of the liquid products.
We would remark, that when sleepers or. bearers are distilled which have
originally been submitted to the creosoting process, that we obtain, in addition
to and mixed with the tar formed by the distillation of the wood, the dead oil
originally used in its preparation.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not confine
ourselves to the exact details described; but what we claim is,-
First, the distilling old or waste railway sleepers or bearers to obtain tar
or products therefrom suitable for preparing other wood for railway sleepers
or bearers and other works.
:

page_text: And, second, the combining with tar used for preparing or preserving wood
for railway sleepers and bearers and other works a chemical solvent, so as to
render it sufficiently fluid to be used without separating some of the substances
which it contains by distillation.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Richardson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
THOMAS RICHARDS
(L.S.)