A NEW MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL IN BLOCKS OR LUMPS
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
EDWARD HOLLANDS, of Regents Quadrant, in the County of Middlesex,
Dentist, and NICHOLAS WHITAKER GREENE, of Walton Place,, Chelsea, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth day of Sep-
tember, One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in the twelfth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Willian Edward Hollands and Nicholas Whitaker Greene, our exors,
adiñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that we, the said William Edward Hollands and Nicholas Whitaker
Greene, our exors, adñors, and assigns, and such others as we, the said William
Edward Hollands and Nicholas Whitaker Greene, our exors, adññiors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Ber-
wick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "A NEW MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL
IN BLOCKS OR LUMPS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that
we, the said William Edward Hollands and Nicholas Whitaker Greene, or

page_text: one of us, should cause a particular description of the nature of our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and sea!
of one of us, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within four calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
William Edward Hollands and Nicholas Whitaker Greene, do hereby declare
that the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same
is to be performed, are fully described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists of employing plaster of Paris and caustic cements
with water to combine small coal, with or without other materials, into blocks
or lumps, thus producing a new manufacture of artificial fuel.
And our
Invention also consists of causing artificial fuel, which is liable to become
friable or decrepitate when exposed to the atmosphere, to be coated with oil.
And in order that, our Invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the means pursued by us; and
we would state that the cementing matters we prefer to employ are gypsum
and calcined lime with water, in such quantity that the caustic cementing
matter of the lime, and the well-known hardening character of the gypsum,
will when combined with the water set and crystallize, and hold the small
coal into concrete blocks or lumps. We would, however, remark that Roman
cement or calcined river or sea mud may be used with water, but not, we
believe, with such advantage as when using gypsum and caustic lime. The
manner in which we combine the small coal with or without other materials
is to mix the small coal with the gypsum and lime, and then apply the water
in like manner to making concrete for building purposes, the difference
being that small coal is used in place of sand and gravel, and having well mixed
these matters, we put the same into moulds and subject the same to
pressure, and then drying, as has heretofore been practised when making
artificial fuel, and although the simple combining of small coal or slack with
the cementing matter or matters makes most useful fuel, we have found
that for special purposes, and to produce an artificial fuel according to our
Invention, it is desirable to mix with them other ingredients. Thus supposing
we wish to obtain a very quickly lighting fuel, a small quantity of nitrate
of soda or potash, or other similar salts containing large quantities of oxygen,
such as the chlorate and chromate of potash, being added, causes this effect;
·

page_text: to get blocks or lumps of fuel to burn comparatively slow, we have found it
desirable to add a small quantity of alum, which also has other advantages
in the fuel; and we have found that the use of small quantities of common
or rock salt is also advantageous in obtaining fuel which burns clear and
bright. We have found that a fuel composed of one hundred and forty parts
by weight of calcined gypsum ground fine, seventeen parts of caustic lime,
seventeen parts of ground alum, seventeen parts common or rock salt,
twenty-eight parts of aluminous clay, two thousand two hundred and forty
parts of small coal, makes an admirable fuel for steam boiler purposes, the
blocks or lumps when burning not being liable to become broken or friable.
The clay may be left out, but in such cases we prefer to increase the
cements above mentioned, and when for a quick lighting fuel, we leave out the
alum and apply nitrate of potash or soda.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be performed, we would remark that we are aware that
gypsum and lime have before been employed with small coal in the manu-
facture of artificial fuel, and such is the case with the other matters herein
mentioned. We therefore wish it to be understood that we make no claim
generally to the application of either of the above-mentioned ingredients,
separately or combined, in the manufacture of artificial fuel.
And we
would also state that when gypsum or lime has heretofore been used with
small coal, the same has not been employed in the state and with such a
quantity of water as would cause it to crystallize, and with the small coal
make a concrete mass. Heretofore when using lime or gypsum with small
coal, persons have had recourse to the employment of considerable quantities
of resinous or bituminous matters as the cementing materials. Some artificial
fuels, particularly such as are composed of small coal, with clay and other
matters not offering strong holding or cementing properties are liable to
decrepitate and become friable when exposed for a time to moisture and air.
And we have found that by coating lumps or blocks of such fuel with oil,
that the moisture will be excluded and the lumps or blocks will retain
their substance and figure; for this purpose we prefer to use boiled linseed
oil, though other oils may be used, preferring those which are rendered drying,
and the lumps or blocks of fuel may be coated therewith, either by simply
immersing in and removing them from the oil, or by applying the oil by a
brush. We would wish it to be understood that it is the using of gypsum,
caustic lime, or the other cements mentioned with water, to produce concrete
blocks or lumps of small coal, with or without other matters, as an artificial
fuel, as above described, which constitutes the peculiar character of our

page_text: Invention. And we also claim the coating of artificial fuel with oil as above
described.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Edward Hollands and Nicholas
Whitaker Greene, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fourth
day of January, One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
WILLIAM EDWARD (L.s.) HOLLANDS.
NICHOLAS WHITAKER(L.S.) _GREENE.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of January, in the
year of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid William Edward Hollands and Nicholas
Whitaker Greene, came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery,
and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that
purpose.
Enrolled the Fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord One