IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF FIRE WOOD FOR LIGHTING FIRES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Johnstone, of 2, Cambridge Place, Agar
Town, St. Pancras, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF FIRE WOOD FOR LIGHTING FIRES."
Sealed the 21st July 1857, and dated the 22nd January 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Johnstone at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd January 1857.
I, ROBERT JOHNSTONE, of 2, Cambridge Place, Agar Town, St. Pancras, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF FIRE WOOD FOR LIGHTING FIRES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of fire
wood for lighting fires; and the Invention consists in dipping short lengths or
small pieces of ordinary or other fire wood in a compound of adhesive and
readily inflammable matters, hereafter explained, and in building up clusters
of the pieces of wood so dipped, and thus causing them to adhere and form an
open structure, between and amongst which flames may readily play and pass.
The compound used consists of pitch (by preference coal tar pitch), the salts
obtained from dead oil obtained in distilling coal tar, and the solid oil obtained
from pitch. It is preferred that the three should be used together, but two of
them may be employed, or, in place thereof, pitch and rosin may be used com-

page_text: bined. The short lengths or pieces of wood, whilst the composition thereon is
still in a melted state and adhesive, are piled together, and, by preference, in
the following manner:-Two pieces are laid parallel to but at a short distance
apart from each other, two other pieces are laid across them at right angles
and near their ends, then two more pieces are placed on the second pieces at
right angles to them, so that they come over the first two pieces, and so on;
any number of pieces may be built into a hollow and open structure, and the
parts will adhere by the cooling and cementing of the compound employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Johnstone in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd July 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
JOHNSTONE, of 2, Cambridge Place, Agar Town, St. Pancras, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of January, 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 me, the said
Robert Johnstone, Her special licence that I, the said Robert Johnstone, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
Johnstone, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF FIRE WOOD FOR LIGHTING FIRES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Robert Johnstone, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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 Johnstone, 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 has for its object improvements in the manufacture of fire

page_text: wood for lighting fires, and the Invention consists in dipping short lengths or
small pieces of ordinary or other fire wood in a compound of adhesive and
readily inflammable matters, hereafter explained, and in building up clusters
of the pieces of wood so dipped, and thus causing them to adhere and form an
open structure, between and amongst which flames may readily play and pass.
The compound used consists of pitch (by preference coal tar pitch), the salts
obtained from dead oil obtained in distilling coal tar, and the solid oil obtained
from pitch. It is preferred that the three should be used together, but two of
them may be employed, or, in place thereof, pitch and rosin may be used com-
bined. The short lengths or pieces of wood whilst the composition thereon is
still in a melted state and adhesive are piled together, and, by preference, in
the following manner :-Two pieces are laid parallel to but at a short distance
apart from each other, two other pieces are laid across them at right angles
and near their ends, then two more pieces are placed on the second pieces at
right angles to them, so that they come over the first two pieces, and so on;
any number of pieces may be built into a hollow and open structure, and the
parts will adhere by the cooling and cementing of the compound employed.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same; and I would remark,
that my Invention is not confined to a particular arrangement of pieces of
wood, as the arrangement of the several parts in building up a suitable structure
to serve the purpose of lighting a fire may be greatly varied.
The peculiarity of the Invention is in the use of an inflammable composition
made from products of tar, which is applied, when rendered fluid, by heat to
the surfaces of the pieces of wood as a coating, so that the pieces of wood being
piled whilst the composition is hot and fluid causes the parts to adhere together
when cold. The composition should be such as to set hard and dry when cold,
so as not to adhere to any surface which the combined fire wood may come in
contact with after the same has been manufactured and the composition has
set and become cold.
The proportions of the materials above mentioned which I prefer to use, are
at the rate of about, six parts by weight of pitch; one part by weight of the
salts obtained from dead oil; one part by weight of the solid oil obtained from
pitch. The several pieces of wood, each of which I prefer to be of about half
an inch in each direction of its cross section, and three or four inches long, are
dipped in the above compound or composition, and they are piled or laid on
each other, as above described, or in any other desired form, preferring to
introduce a small quantity of wood shaving in the interior of each structure
suitable for lighting a fire. By these means, so soon as the composition is set.

page_text: and cold the combined or adhering pieces of wood may be freely handled with-
out adhering to the fingers, and the strength of adhesion of the pieces of wood
one to the other will be such as to keep them together till the whole collection
is well ignited. By these means the pieces of wood requisite for lighting a
fire will be more cheaply combined into an open structure than when using
bindings of string or other mechanical contrivances for fixing the several pieces
together, and by reason of the peculiar composition used the requisite inflam-
mability of the whole will be obtained, together with a proper adhesion of the
several pieces of wood. It may be stated, that the wood may be first saturated
with the dead oil salts by immersion therein when heated, and after being
allowed to cool, the pieces may be then dipped in melted pitch, or pitch and
the solid oil when melted together.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Johnstone, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
GEO. PITT.
ROBERT JOHNSTONE. (L.S.)