Year: 1854

page_text: 10 SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Lucas Chance in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 15th June 1855.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Robert Lucas Chance, Her special licence that I, the said Robert
Lucas Chance, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Robert Lucas Chance, 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, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GLASS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Robert Lucas Chance, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 Robert Lucas Chance, 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):-
This Invention consists in causing the fine slack used to be washed before
employing it in glass-melting furnaces, by which the process of glass making
is greatly improved.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe the manner of performing the same.
The process of washing "slack" or the small of coal, in order that the same
may be used to carry out my Invention, may be performed in any suitable
manner, the object being to remove impurities therefrom before employing the
slack or small coal in the fires of glass houses. I will, however, describe the
means of washing which I employ; and I would state that if there be con-
siderable difference or irregularity in the sizes of the broken coal, I first sift it
in order to bring the slack to a more uniform standard.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a side view of the apparatus I use for washing the slack or
small coal; Figure 2 is a section; and Figure 3, a plan. The apparatus
consists of a trough a, a, with a ridge at b, to stop the heavier matters; c is a
pipe having a stop-cock; this pipe is in communication with a head or supply

page_text: of water at a height of about twenty feet; d is a screen or perforated plate;
this plate or screen is slightly inclined. The slack or small coal is caused to
be continually supplied to, and descend down the incline e in a continued
stream, which falling on the screen d, (which is perforated with holes a quarter
of an inch diameter and an inch apart,) is met with streams of water, which
continually rise up through the screen d. The falling slack will consequently
mix with, and be carried away by the water along the trough a, and the
washed slack will be received into a suitable receiver at the end of the trough,
by which means the slack will be washed at a small cost. I do not, however,
make any claim to the washing of slack or small coal, nor the apparatus above
described. The slack or small coal after the water and the finest dust of the
coal have been separated or drained off, is then used in glass-house furnaces
in like manner to that in which the crude coal has heretofore been employed,
but by the use of washed slack the manufacture of glass will be greatly
improved. And the Invention consists of the application of washed slack or
small coal in the manufacture of glass, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Lucas Chance, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of June, in the year of our
. Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five."
0
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
R. L. CHANCE. (L.S.)