CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL AND FIRE LIGHTERS, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1873

page_text: "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Peter Trumble at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th April
1873.
I, PETER TRUMBLE, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL AND FIRE
LIGHTERS, AND IN THE APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
The Invention is designed for the purpose of preparing peat to be
subsequently used in the manner following:-
First, for manufacturing out of peat an inflammable compound that
will offer great facility in lighting domestic or other fires.
Secondly, in the construction of a conically formed block of peat and
bitumen the size and bulk of which will whilst burning emit sufficient
caloric to boil a kettle of the ordinary household capacity.

page_text: And, thirdly, in mechanism or apparatus to be employed for drying
peat and subsequently compressing the same into blocks for artificial
fuel.
The preparing of the peat is accomplished by means of passing the
same through a hopper into a fixed diagonal hollow cylinder provided
with internally projecting knives which are placed at a slight pitch, and
will allow an arrangement of rapidly revolving knives secured to the
central axis to pass between them. The action of these knives cuts into
small pieces the peat fed into the cylinder at its highest elevation. The
delivery end of this cylinder is provided with an archimedean screw,
which propels the peat as cut into a taper or conical tube which forms
the termination of the cylinder, the apex or delivery end of which is
about three quarters of an inch in diameter, so that the cut peat as it
issues therefrom is ready to be operated upon in manner following:
-
•
The first portion of this Invention consists in making a fire lighter by
first cutting peat into blocks of a suitable size and then dipping them
into an inflammable liquid, by preference creosote oil, after which they
are compressed into blocks by means of compressing slides or plungers
actuated to slide in and out of moulds placed around a circular table
through the medium of rods connecting such blocks with a strap
encircling an eccentric block secured to or forming part of the central
shaft or axis of the table in which the moulds are formed. At that
portion of the table where the compressing blocks are withdrawn and in
which there is the greatest capacity inside the mould, a hopper is placed
for feeding the mould with peat, the amount of which so fed as
the table revolves gradually becomes until it arrives at the opposite
side of the table where the compressed blocks are ejected from the
mould ready for use, or an apparatus for compressing the saturated
blocks may be employed constructed for the purpose herein-after
described.
Secondly. The Invention consists in forming a compound conical
block of bitumen and peat of a certain given size through the vertical
centre of which from the base to the apex a hole or thoroughfare is
formed. The lower portion of this block is dipped in an imflammable
liquid, by preference creosote oil, after which the blocks are ready to be
used as a temporary substitute for coal for boiling a kettle or for other

page_text: Cooking purposes where the heat of the fire is only required during the
time such boiling or cooking is going on.
And lastly the Invention consists in making artificial fuel from peat
by first drying and then compressing it into suitably sized blocks for
burning.
The drying of the peat I accomplish by placing it when cut up as
previously described upon travelling endless webs of wire mesh or
perforated metal confined in a closed chamber in which an arrangement
of strong metal pipes is placed, through which water converted by a
furnace into hydrous steam circulates, the position of the pipes being
such that the radiation of the heat emitted from their surfaces will dry
the peat sufficiently for the subsequent process of pressing into blocks,
which whilst in the drying chamber is carried and transferred from one
endless travelling wire mesh to another from the point where it is fed
through a hopper at the top of the chamber to the point of discharge at
the bottom. After being thus dried the peat still retaining a small
portion of moisture is fed by a hopper into moulds placed in a circular
table under a cylindrical receiver, the arrangement and action of which
consists in forming in a circular table supported on suitable bearings two
or more recesses or moulds. The table containing these moulds is
driven intermittently and has placed above it a steam cylinder and
piston, the rod of which terminates in a plunger directly over the
circular line in which the moulds move. The action of this piston and
rod has a variable motion given to it through the medium of its slide
valve, that is, at the time the stationary cylinder into which the peat is
fed, which is directly over the moulds, allows the plunger of the piston
rod when descending with its first blow to sink into such cylinder a
greater distance than when repeating the blow immediately after it, both
actions taking place at the time the circular table is stationary, and the
cylinder containing the peat directly over one of the moulds. The rapid
double action of the plunger thus given produces a compression and
solidity to the peat that could not be obtained by a single blow. There
being much more peat in the ordinary cylinder than is required for
feeding the moulds, it necessarily gets a certain amount of compression
before being finally forced into the moulds as they successively pass
under the action of the rammer, the movement of the table after its
stoppage for the purpose of having the moulds filled with peat passes

page_text: from under the stationary feed cylinder, the lower edge of which fitting
close to the table top necessarily causes with such movement the peat
contained in the mould to be cut off clear with the upper surface of the
table from the rest of the peat contained in the feed cylinder. The
mould thus filled with compressed peat in its passage before arriving
under the feed cylinder and rammer is discharged of its load by an under
pusher, the action of which takes place simultaneously with one of the
intermittent stoppages of the table.