IMPROVEMENTS IN COKING, AND IN APPARATUS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ebenezer Rogers, of Abercarn, in the County of
Monmouth, and Herbert Mackworth, of Clifton, in the County of Glou-
cester, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN COKING, AND IN APPARATUS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ebenezer Rogers and
Herbert Mackworth at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 30th June 1856.
We, EBENEZER ROGERS and HERBERT. MACKWORTH, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COKING, AND IN APPARATUS
FOR THAT PURPOSE," to be as follows:-
Our improvements consist in inclosing the coal, or other material to be
coked, wholly or partially within walls or sides, provided or connected with
horizontal and vertical or inclined flues or chimnies, opening into the side or
bottom of the mass of material, in which the draft is so directed or regulated
as to impede the escape of the carburetted gases from the surface of the material
operated upon, and to produce a downward action of the air on to or through
it, in co-operation with currents of air or gaseous matter, which are also made
to pass alternately from side to side of the mass, so as to prolong or render

page_text: more perfect the operation of coking; and to render large quantities of coal
capable of being coked in the same apparatus, we provide dampers or other
means for changing the direction of the supply of air in such a manner as to
remedy imperfections or inequality in the coking process. We employ a
moveable railway and other convenient means for filling in the coal and for
separating and removing the coke.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Ebenezer Rogers and Herbert Mackworth in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 13th December 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EBENEZER
ROGERS, of Abercarn, in the County of Monmouth, and HERBERT MACKWORTH,
of Clifton, in the County of Gloucester, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Ebenezer Rogers and Herbert Mackworth, Her special licence that we, the
said Ebenezer Rogers and Herbert Mackworth, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Ebenezer Rogers and Herbert
Mackworth, 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 COKING, AND IN
APPARATUS FOR THAT PURPOSE," (which Invention has been partly communicated
to us from abroad, and is partly our own Invention,) upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Ebenezer Rogers and Herbert Mackworth,
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 im-
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Ebenezer Rogers and Herbert
Mackworth, 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 ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawing, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that
is to say:
Our Invention relates to improvements in the process of coking coal or
other suitable material, and also to improvements in apparatus or kilns for
that purpose.
The accompanying Drawing represents one of our improved kilns or appa-
ratus. Figure 1 is a plan, Figure 2 is an elevation, and Figure 3. is a trans-
verse section of the kiln; A, A, are the walls of the kiln, which are provided.
with horizontal flues B1, B2, which open into the side or bottom of the mass of
coal or other suitable material. Connected with each of these flues is a ver-
tical chimney C', C²; the flues and chimneys need not necessarily be horizontal
and vertical, and more than one flue may be connected with the same ehimney.
or stack, but we prefer the arrangement first described.
The dotted lines D, D, represent a moveable railway by which the coal may
be brought into and the coke removed from the kilu. In filling the kiln with
coal, care must be taken to preserve passages or flues for the air and gases
between the corresponding flues in the opposite walls; this may be effected by
building or constructing the passages with the larger pieces of coal, or by means.
of channels or flues in the bed of the kiln, or by other suitable means; when
the coal is of different sizes, it is also advantageous to let the size of the pieces
of coal diminish towards the top of the mass. The surface of the coal when
filled in, as shown at E, E, is covered with small coal, or it may be covered with
ashes or other suitable material. When the kiln is filled, the walls F, F, are
built up, or the openings may be closed by doors, made of iron frames, filled
with fire-brick; the kiln is not covered by an arch, but left open at the top.
The apertures of the flues B2 and chimuies C¹, Figure 3, are closed, and the
coal is ignited through the flues B₁, B'; the air then enters the flues B¹ and
passes through the coal and then ascends the chimnies C2, C3, as shown by the
arrows. When the current of air has proceeded in this direction for some hours,
the flues and chimnies B and C are closed and B² and C¹ are opened, which
reverses the direction of the current of air through the mass; this alternation of
the current may be repeated as often as, is required; at the same time air
descends through the upper surface of the mass of coal. When the mass. is
well ignited, the external apertures of the flues B1 and B2 may be closed and
the chimnics C¹ and C2 opened; the air now enters from the upper surface
only and descends through the mass of the coal, and the products of com-
bustion pass up the chimnies... The coking gradually ascends from the bottom

page_text: of the mass to the top, and can be regulated or equalized by opening or closing,.
wholly or partially, the apertures of the flues or chimnies. The gases and:
tarry vapours produced by the distillation or combustion descend through the:
interstices in the incandescent mass below, and deposit a portion of the carbon
contained in them while the remaining gases pass up the chimnies. The coke
at the lower part of the kiln is protected in a great degree from the action of
the air by being surrounded and enveloped in the gases and vapours which
descend through it. The flues B2, B3, may enter at the bottom of the kiln or
the side above the bottom; when they enter above the bottom, the space:
below them may be filled with small coal, which becomes coked by the radiant
heat from the incandescent mass. The passages through the mass are con-
structed upon this bed of small coal with the larger lumps of coal, as herein->
before mentioned. When the mass of coal has been coked up to the top, it
is quenched with water, and the walls F, F, are taken down and the coke is:
<removed. When a portion has been removed, a moveable railway is laid into
the kiln so as to facilitate the removal of the remainder. The surface E, E,
of the coal being kept cool by the descending current of air, the workman is
enabled to walk over it during the operation; he inserts an iron bar from time
to time at different parts of the surface; the bar is easily pushed down until
it reaches the mass of coke, which prevents its further descent. In this
way the workman guages the depth at which the coking process is taking
place, and if he finds it to have progressed higher at one part than at
another, he closes the chimnies communicating with that part, and thus retards
the process at that part. This guaging of the surface may be carried on
until the coking process has arrived within a very short distance of the surface.
In lieu of connecting a chimney with each transverse flue, flues may be
constructed longitudinally in the wall, so as to connect two or more of such
transverse flues (which are then regulated by dampers), and to convey the
gaseous products from them into chimnies of any convenient height; or the
gaseous products may be collected, and tar and ammonia and other chemical
compounds may be manufactured therefrom by the usual mode. The kilns
may be advantageously made from five feet to twenty feet, and even more, in
width, and from twenty feet to one hundred feet, or more, length, more or
less, as may be found convenient; very large quantities of coal can thus be
coked at the same time. The coking or charring of peat and wood may be
effected in a similar manner to that herein-before described with regard to
coal.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that we do not con-

page_text: fine ourselves to the precise construction of apparatus herein-before described,
as the same may be varied, provided the peculiar character of our Invention
be retained; but what we claim is,-
First, the coking of coal or other suitable material in open kilns, by igniting
the mass at the lower part and causing the coking process to ascend gradually
from the bottom to the top, while at the same time the air or the gases pro-
duced by the combustion or distillation are caused to descend into or through
the interstices of the incandescent mass and thence into flues or chimnies,
as herein-before described.
Second, the coking of coal or other suitable material in open kilns, by causing
currents of air or gass to pass alternately from side to side of the mass and
through the same, in manner herein-before described.
Third, the constructing open kilns or apparatus for coking with flues and
chimnies arranged in manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Ebenezer Rogers and Herbert Mack-
worth, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth day of
December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-six.