IMPROVED FUEL BY THE USE OF WHICH THE KINDLING OF FIRES WILL BE GREATLY FACILITATED
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Gedge, of the Firm of John
Gedge and Son, of No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVED FUEL BY THE USE OF WHICH THE KINDLING OF FIRES WILL
BE GREATLY FACILITATED."-A communication from abroad by Remy
Nicolas Legendre, of 15, Passage des Petites Ecuries, Paris,
France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Gedge
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 17th March 1868.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son,
of No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVED FUEL BY THE USE OF WHICH THE KINDLING OF FIRES WILL BE
GREATLY FACILITATED," a communication to me from abroad by Remy:
Prise 8d.1

page_text: Nicolas Legendre, of 15, Passage des Petites Ecuries, Paris, France, to
be as follows:-
The subject of this Invention is a solid combustible body impregnated
with an inflammable liquid and itself becoming inflammable, which
combustible body or fuel is termed by the Inventor "alumette de
foyer" or hearth match.
The constituent parts of this product are:-Inflammable liquids, such
as petroleum, schist, and coal oils in their natural state or purified; the
heavy oils and the essences of every degree derived from petroleum,
schist, or coal oils, and the essences derived from bitumen and from
coal tar and alcohol; solid combustible bodies capable of absorbing an
inflammable liquid of the above description, such as coke, small cakes
of lignite, peat, blocks of compressed coal, wood, charcoal, Paris coal,
slack, tan, shavings, hemp stalks, maize stalks, and cobs, waste sugar
cane, and generally every kind of combustible susceptible of impreg-
nation with an inflammable liquid.
This product prepared as herein-after described gives one or several of
the following results :-A new method of preserving and transporting
an inflammable liquid, and by its combustion a new method of
quickening the inflammability and the combustion of every kind of
fuel; greater inflammability in the saturated fuel, easier kindling, a
more rapid combustion, and the temperature of combustion higher than
that of ordinary fuel burnt un er the same conditions.
Preparation. A solid combustible body may be impregnated in every
part after desiccation in vacuo, or simply impregnated on its surface
without creating a vacuum and without previous desiccation however
large or however small and in every shape. This preparation is very
simple, as will be apparent from the following details.
Preparation without Vacuum.-The solid combustible body or fuel
being divided according to the shapes or forms in which it is desired to
obtain it is placed in a receiver of any description and impregnated by
the following means:-
First Method.-As much inflammable liquid will be poured into the
receiver as is necessary to form a bath for the fuel, and when the
fuel is soaked to the desired extent the remainder of the liquid is
drawn off.
_

page_text: Second Method.-A sufficient quantity of liquid of the desired degree
of inflammability is poured into a receiver, the fuel is placed above the
liquid, and all its surfaces are successively brought in contact with
the liquid by turning them and mixing them together, continuing this
mixture until entire absorption of the liquid by the solid combustible
body or fuel.
Third Method. A sufficient quantity of liquid will be poured into a
receiver, the fuel will be placed above the liquid, and the lid of the
receiver be put on, closing hermetically or non-hermetically.
Thus arranged the fuel will become impregnated by the spontaneous
evaporation of the liquid by placing a spirit lamp under the bottom of
the receiver or by heating it in a water bath.
Preparation in Vacuo.-The fuel being prepared and shut up in a
hermetically closed receiver a vacuum will be formed by means of a
sucking pump; this receiver is then put in free communication with
a vessel containing the inflammable liquid, which will immediately
become volatile and precipitate itself upon the free surfaces of the fuel,
with which it will incorporate all the better the more the poreз are
opened under the action of the vacuum. The preparation will be
completed by drawing off the liquid not soaked up. In this method the
volatilization of the heavy oils will be hastened by lighting a spirit lamp
under the bottom of the vessel containing the liquid or by heating the
vessel in a water bath.
Preservation and Use of the Product. - Directly the preparation is
completed the fuel is fit for burning, or it may be reserved for use
whenever required. It may be preserved in an open vessel, but a
hermetically closed vessel is much more suitable. With this fuel thus
prepared fires will be very easily lit in open grates, stoves, kitchen
fire-places, furnaces of steam engines, &c. &c.

page_text: t
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Edward Gedge in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 15th September 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son, of No. 11,
Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex
Patent Agent,
Bend greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in
the thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Edward Gedge,
Her special licence that I, the said William Edward Gedge, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Edward Gedge, 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 "IMPROVED FUEL BY THE USE OF WHICH THE KINDLING OF FIRES WILL BE
GREATLY FACILITATED," a communication to me from abroad by Remy
Nicolas Legendre, of 15, Passage des Petites Ecuries, Paris, France,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward
Gedge, 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 William Edward Gedge, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
The subject of this Invention is a solid combustible body impregnated
with an inflammable liquid and itself becoming inflammable, which
combustible body or fuel I term "allumette de foyer" or hearth
match

page_text: The constituent parts of this product are:-Inflammable liquids,
such as petroleum, schist, and coal oils in their natural state or
purified, the heavy oils and the essences of every degree derived
from petroleum, schist, or coal oils, and the essences derived from
naptha or bitumen, and from coal tar and alcohol; solid combustible
bodies capable of absorbing an inflammable liquid of the above.
description, such as coke, small cakes of lignite, peat, blocks of
compressed coal, wood, charcoal, Paris coal, slack, tan, shavings,
hemp stalks, maize stalks, and cobs, waste sugar cane, and generally
every kind of solid combustible susceptible of impregnation with an
inflammable liquid.
Result. This product, prepared as herein-after described, gives
one or several of the following results:-A new method of pre-
serving and transporting an inflammable liquid and by its combustion
a new method of quickening the inflammability and the combustion
of every kind of fuel; greater inflammability in the saturated fuel;
easier kindling, a more rapid combustion, and the temperature of
combustion higher than that of ordinary fuel burnt under the same
conditions.
Preparation. A solid combustible body may be impregnated in every
part after desiccation in vacuo; or simply impregnated on its surface
without creating a vacuum and without previous desiccation, however
large or however small and in every shape. This preparation is very
simple, as will be apparent from the following details.
Preparation without Vacuum.-The combustible body or fuel, being
divided according to the shapes or forms in which it is desired to obtain
it, is placed in a receiver of any description and impregnated by the
following methods:―
First Method. As much inflammable liquid will be poured into the
receiver, as is necessary to form a bath for the fuel, and when the
fuel is soaked to the desired extent the remainder of the liquid is
drawn off.
Second Method. A quantity of liquid sufficient to impregnate the
combustible to the desired degree and also of the requisite degree of
inflammability is poured into a receiver; the fuel is placed above the

page_text: iquid and all its surfaces are successively brought in contact therewith
by turning them and mixing them together, continuing this mixing or
shuffling until entire absorption of the liquid by the solid combustible
body or fuel
shuffling until entire absorption of the liquid by the solid combustible
body or fuel
Third Method. A sufficient quantity of liquid being poured into a
receiver the fuel is placed above the liquid aud the lid of the receiver
put on, closing hermetically or non-hermetically.
Thus arranged the fuel or solid body will become impregnated by the
spontaneous evaporation of the liquid, which evaporation may be hastened
by placing a spirit lamp under the bottom of the receiver or by heating
it in a water bath..
Preparation in Vacuo.-The fuel, that is to say, the solid combustible
body, being prepared and shut up in a hermetically-closed receiver
which I will term A, a vacuum is formed by means of a sucking pump;
this receiver is then put in free communication with a vessel A¹
containing the inflammable liquid, which will immediately become
volatile and precipitate itself upon the exposed surfaces of the fuel with
which it will incorporate all the better the more the pores are opened
under the action of the vacuum. The preparation will be completed by
drawing off the liquid not soaked up. In this method the volatilization
of the heavy oils will be hastened by lighting a spirit lamp under the
bottom of the vessel A¹ containing the liquid or by heating the vessel
in a water bath.
Preservation and Use of the Product.- Directly its preparation is
completed this fuel (otherwise "allumettes de foyer" or hearth matches)
is fit for burning, or it may be reserved for use whenever required. It
may be preserved in an open vessel, but a hermetically-closed vessel is
much more suitable. With fuel or hearth matches thus prepared fires
will be very easily lit in open grates, stoves, kitchen fire-places, furnaces
of steam engines, and wherever applied.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I desire it to be understood
that what I claim as the Invention the exclusive use of which is secured
t,o me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
impregnation of a solid combustible body with an inflammable liquid,

page_text: substantially as herein described, for the purpose of producing fuel which
will greatly facilitate the lighting of fires.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Gedge, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
eight.
W. E. GEDGE. (L.B.)