IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIRE LIGHTERS
Year: 1884

page_text: We, HETHERINGTON NIXON of 42 Walker Terrace Gateshead in the County of
Durham, Printer and WILLIAM DIXON of 42 Walker Terrace Gateshead in the
County of Durham, Engineer do hereby declare the nature of our invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIRE LIGHTERS to be as follows:-
Fire Lighters have hitherto been made from such materials as.saw dust and rosin,
or saw dust and pitch or wood coated with rosin or pitch, and held together in
various ways until ignited which fire lighters however easily fall to pieces when
ignited. Our improvement consists in the use of fibrous peat and fibrous vegetable.
matter of analogous character, which we dry and then soak in a light hydro-carbon
oil such as that produced in what is called the Jameson Coking Process described
in the Specification of Patent No 1947 April 25th 1882.-We prefer to cut the peat
by means of a Gulliotine, Lever, or other cutting Machine, either in its natural state
or consolidated by disintegration and settlement from water into such blocks as
shall each form a seperate fire lighter when complete and which may be of any
convenient shape and then having thoroughly dried these blocks we soak them for a
short time in heated coal oil, and then fish them out, and allow the extraneous oil
to drain away, or soak into the substance of the peat when they are ready for use.
We prefer to wrap them for sale in oiled paper.
The fire lighter so prepared ignites easily from a match, burns with a large flame
for a long time by the slow distillation of its contained oil, and when the oil is gone
the body of the lighter still compact and adherent in itself passes into ash with a
steady glow so as still further to assist the object in view, and enable the supply
of lighters to be smaller and cheaper than if made of other materials, or else to be
more efficient,

page_text: We, HETHERINGTON NIXON of 42 Walker Terrace Gateshead, in the County of
Durham, Printer, and WILLIAM DIXON of 42 Walker Terrace Gateshead, in the
County of Durham, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of our invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FIRE LIGHTERS, and in what manner
the same is to be performed; to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
Fire lighters have hitherto been made from such materials as saw dust and rosin,
or saw dust and pitch, or wood coated with rosin or pitch, and held together in
various ways until ignited, which fire lighters however easily fall to pieces when
ignited. Our improvement consists in the use of fibrous peat and fibrous vegetable
matter of analogous character which we dry and then soak in a light hydro carbon
oil such as that produced in what is called the Jameson Coking Process described
in the Specification of Patent N° 1947 April 25th 1882.-We prefer to cut the peat
by means of a gulliotine lever, or other cutting machine, either in its natural
state or consolidated by disintegration and settlement from water into such blocks
as shall each form a seperate fire lighter when complete and which may be of any
convenient shape, and then having thoroughly dried these blocks we soak them for
a short time in heated coal oil, and then fish them out, and allow the extraneous oil
to drain away or soak into the substance of the peat when they are ready for use.
We prefer to wrap them for sale in oiled paper.
The fire lighter so prepared ignites easily from a match, burns with a large flame
for a long time by the slow distillation of its contained oil, and when the oil is gone
the body of the lighter still compact and adherent in itself passes into ash with a
steady glow so as still further to assist the object in view, and enable the supply
of lighters to be smaller. and cheaper, than if made of other materials, or else to be
more efficient.
We may facilitate the introduction of oil into the peat by means of vacuum and
pressure, or either of them as is well understood, and we may facilitate the draining
of the peat by centrifugal machine or we may dry the outside of it by a current of
heated air or smoke.-We may also instead of using oiled paper immerse the fire
lighters after draining in a solution of pitch in hot hydrocarbon oil, or rosin in
rosin oil,, or other similar material of such consistency as that it shall form a
covering more or less impervious, and hard when cooled, and we may so shape the
pieces of peat by indentations or projections by pressure or otherwise as that
fracture is easy so that each fire lighter may be broken into several pieces when it
is to be used.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that
what we claim is
The manufacture of domestic firelighters from peat or other similar material
soaked in hydro-carbon oil for fire lighters substantially as described.
Dated the 10th February 1885.
J. HENRY JOHNSON,
Agent for the said Hetherington Nixon
and William Dixon.