IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Ramsay, of the Town and County of New-
castle-upon-Tyne, Coal Owner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE."
Sealed the 11th April 1862, and dated the 11th January 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Ramsay at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th January 1862.
I, THOMAS RAMSAY, of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne;
Coal Owner, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of coke.
For these purposes, in place of using coal in the ordinary state as it comes
from the mine, or in the state of small or crushed coal in a comparatively
large granular condition, as has usually been done, I, according to my
Invention, employ coal ground to a powder, and the more completely it is
reduced to a fine powder the more suitable is it for producing the best quality
of coke.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed by
the said Thomas Ramsay in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th
July 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
RAMSAY, of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Coal Owner,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Ramsay, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Ramsay, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Ramsay, 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 COKE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Thomas Ramsay, 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 Thomas Ramsay, 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 :-
In the manufacture of coke, the usual custom is to employ small coals
which pass through a half-inch screen or riddle; and various Patents have
been granted for crushing large coal to be used for the manufacture of coke
in conjunction with tar, lime, and other materials, but my plan consists in
reducing large, or the small coal described above, to the finest state of powder
before converting it into coke.
I prefer to employ rich bituminous or coking coal, and I grind such coal
under edge stones, horizontal stones, or rollers to a powder almost as fine as
flour. I find horizontal stones similar to those used in grinding flour to
answer best, as all other forms of grinding machinery necessitate the use of

page_text: riddles or sieves to remove the small pieces which escape the action of the
machinery.. This finely-ground coal is then put into the coke ovens, and
burnt in the ordinary manner with the usual precautions. The coke obtained
is much more dense and hard than that obtained by any of the other pro-
cesses, and leaves, before being sent away, a smaller quantity of broken pieces
known in the trade under the name of breeze; these small pieces I reduce to
the same state of powder as the coal, with which it is mixed when necessary,
and the mixture converted into large coke in the ordinary coke ovens. I
have said I prefer to use bituminous coal, but my plan is equally applicable
to semi-bituminous coal, or coals known as steam, gas, or house coal. Those
coals which do not cake, or only imperfectly, such as anthracite, can be con-
verted into superior coke when reduced to this fine degree of powder, and
mixed with equally fine bituminous coals, in proportions varying with the
character of the coal. Any form of coke oven, long, square, or round, and
of any shape, may be employed in using my finely-divided coal. I claim
the use of coal entirely reduced to a fine powder in the manufacture of
coke.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Ramsay, have hereunto set
hand and seal, this Eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
my
THOMAS RAMSAY. (L.S.)
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
above-named Thomas Ramsay,
in the presence of
CHARLES GRIFFITH,
Solicitor,
Newcastle-on-Tyne.