IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PREPARATION OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL
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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PREPARATION OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL."―
A communication from abroad by Charles de Lin and Auguste
Combe Dalma, both of 5, Ruc Blondel, Paris, France.
Sealed the 6th April 1869, and dated the 15th October 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Gedge
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 15th October 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PREPARATION OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL," a communi-
cation to me from abroad by Charles de Lin and Auguste Combe Dalma,
both of 5, Rue Blondel, Paris, France, to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the agglomeration of the slack and dust of
coal, or of charcoal, peat, and other vegetable fuel, by resinous vegetable

page_text: products generally, and especially by resin extracted from the "maritime
pine."
The slack and dust is mixed in a heated state with five per cent. of
vegetable resin and formed into cakes or lumps of various shapes; these
cakes lightly heaped up acquire in drying a remarkable hardness due to
the crystallization of the resin. By submitting these conglomerates to a
pressure more or less great the proportion of resin may be diminished by
one or even two per cent.
The fuel thus prepared has a heating power or caloric exceeding that
of coal and derived from the resin, which, as is well known, is very rich
in hydrogen and carbon.
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 13th April 1869.
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,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date tho Fifteenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PREPARATION OF
ARTIFICIAL FUEL," a communication to me from abroad by Charles de
Lin and Auguste Combe, Dalmia, both of 5, Rue Blondel, Paris, France,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward

page_text: 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 :-
It is well known that in coal mines the coal dust is of no raluc; it
has been sought to reap advantage from it by giving it bulk in order to
be able to burn it upon grates or fire-bars like large coal; thence the
idea of agglomerated or compressed fuel. The process generally consists
in mixing in a heated state slack and dust with from 7 to 8 per cent. of
coal tar, or even with the residues of the distillation of tar, and to shape
them into bricks or cakes of various forms, which are subsequently
submitted to a very powerful pressure.. These conglomerates liave
serious defects; they crumble in burning and offer little resistance to the
rough handling to which they are necessarily exposed in carriage from
place to place. The most various agglomerating materials have been
used to give them the requisite solidity, but without success.
After many fruitless essays the authors of this Invention conceived
the idea of using as agglomerating mátter pure vegetable resin produced
by the germinating of the maratime pine, natural culture or extracted
from these trees by other means, and without any combination or
addition of other matter, agglomerating or not, the effects produced
and herein-after described having for sole cause the absolute and unique
identification of the vegetable resin with the materials to be agglome-
rated; the single reservation is the addition of the quantity of cold or
boiling water or of steam useful for preparing the materials which we
bring together, that is to say, the aforesaid slack and dust and the pure
vegetable resin.
The processes of manufacture of this fuel nearly resemble those which
I have summarily set forth. The slack and dust is mixed in a heated:
state with the pure vegetable resin, and they are slaped into bricks.or
cakes of every form; these cakes lightly pressed or simply heaped. up
acquire in drying a remarkable hardness due to the crystallization of the

page_text: resin. By submitting these conglomerates to a more powerful com
pression the proportion of resin may be sensibly decreased.
I reserve the right of coating of coating such bricks or cakes by
dipping them in a bath of clay or of lampblack, or in any other known
manner, to prevent their sticking together under the influence of heat.
Conglomerates thus manufactured have a heating power or caloric
superior to that of coal and derived from the resin, which, as is well
known, is very rich in hydrogen and carbon, and consequently powerfully
encourages the combustion of tho gases of the coal, mainly carbonic
acid gas.
The use of pure vegetable resin is above all excellent for agglomerating
anthracite, prevented from burning by reason of its great density and the
ábsence of bitumen, and for dry coal and coke which burn without
flame and with difficulty.
The effects produced by the presence of pure vegetable resin in 1
conglomerates or artificial fuel are numerous; I will cite,-
1. For fuel intended for household purposes, combustion easier and of
longer duration; disinfection; purification.
2. For fuel intended for manufacturing purposes, rapid lighting; closc
fire (the cakes harden in exact ratio to their combustion); production of
coke from certain anthracites thus agglomerated.
3: The agglomeration of coke dust, of pulverized coke, and other
combustible material by pure vegetable resin produces the most
favorable effects in the fusion of ores.
4. The slack and dust of certain coal thus agglomerated or even large
coal with a dose of resin produce a lighting gas more abundant and
purer than that produced by these same coals used in their natural state;
the coke resulting therefrom is excellent.
The proportions of pure vegetable resin are varied according to the
nature of the coal and the use for which it is intended; for example, as
follows: For domestic purposes an average of five to six per cent., and
for industrial or manufacturing purposes from seven to eight per cent.,
and for the production of gas from ten to fifteen per cent. I do not give
the quantity of water, cold, boiling, or in steam, as it is simply an
auxiliary and not a direct agent.
Claim is made to the manufacture of conglomerates or artificial fucl
from the slack and dust of all mineral and vegetable coal, coke, lignite,

page_text: peat, wood, or other fuel, by the simple and sole addition, with the
exception of water, of pure vegetable resin derived from the maratime
pine or other trees of the same kind, and the application of this artificial
fuel to the various purposes above cited.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Gedge, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of April, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
ninc.