IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Upward, of the Chartered Gas Company,
No. 146, Goswell Road, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
and The Honble. Arthur Auckland Cochrane, of Westminster, for the
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Upward and Arthur
Auckland Cochrane at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 25th April 1866.
We, ALFRED UPWARD, of the Chartered Gas Company, No. 146, Goswell
Road, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, and The Honble. ARTHUR
AUCKLAND COCHRANE, of Westminster, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GAS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of gas.
Heretofore in the manufacture of gas when working with coal, which yields a
gas of comparatively low illuminating power, it has been common to mix bog-
head, mineral, or rich cannel coal with the other coal, and charge the gas
retorts with the mixture, in this way the illuminating power of the gas was
much improved. Boghead, mineral, and rich cannel coals have, however,
risen to so bigh a price that this is hardly practicable at the present time.
Now we have discovered that efficient substitutes for boghead, mineral,
and rich cannel for use in this manner are the natural bitumens, such as

page_text: are found in Trinidad; in Trinidad they appear to rise from the earth in a
semi-fluid state, and afterwards on exposure to the air to become solid; they
melt without decomposition on the application of a moderate heat. Similar
bitumens to those found in Trinidad are also found native in other places.
We mix the Trinidad or such like bitumen with the coal, say, in the propor-
tion of four parts of coal to one part of bitumen, and we charge the gas retorts
with the mixture and distil it as is usual in the manufacture of gas.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Upward and Arthur Auckland Cochrane in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 25th October 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALFRED
UPWARD, of the Chartered Gas Company, No. 146, Goswell Road, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, and the Honble. ARTHUR AUCKLAND
COCHRANE, of Westminster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Alfred Upward and Arthur Auckland Cochrane, Her special licence
that we, the said Alfred Upward and Arthur Auckland Cochrane, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Alfred Upward and
Arthur Auckland Cochrane, our 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 GAS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said Alfred Upward and Arthur Auckland Cochrane, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said Alfred Upward and Arthur Auckland
Cochrane, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
Heretofore in the manufacture of gas when working with coal, which yields
a gas of comparatively low illuminating power, it has been common to mix
boghead, mineral, or rich cannel coal with the other coal, and charge the gas
retorts with the mixture, in this way the illuminating power of the gas was
much improved. Boghead, mineral, and rich cannel coals have, however, risen
to so high a price that this is hardly practicable at the present time.
Now we have discovered that efficient substitutes for boghead, mineral, and
rich cannel coal for use in this manner are the natural bitumens, such as are
found in Trinidad; in Trinidad they appear to rise from the earth in a semi-
fluid state, and afterwards on exposure to the air to become solid; they for the
most part melt with little or no decomposition on the application of a
moderate heat, except when they are contaminated with a large proportion of
earthy matter. Similar bitumens to those found in Trinidad are also found
native in other places. We mix the Trinidad or such like bitumen with the
coal, say, in the proportion of four parts of coal to one part of bitumen, and we
charge the gas retorts with the mixture and distil it as is usual in the
manufacture of gas.
We would remark that the natural bitumens which we employ differ
essentially from cannel coal and other such like materials, which have hereto-
fore been used with ordinary coal in gas making. Natural bitumens, such as
we employ when immersed in a solvent, say benzole, lose their form and for
the most part dissolve, which is not the case with cannel coal and such like
material.
In witness whereof, we, the said Alfred Upward and Arthur Auckland
Cochrane, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-fifth
day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-six.
A. UPWARD.
(L.S.).
ARTHUR A. COCHRANE. (L.S.)
(L.S.).
A. UPWARD.
ARTHUR A. COCHRANE. (L.S.)