A CERTAIN COMPOSITION AND PRE- PARATION TO PROMOTE THE IGNITION AND COMBUSTION OF COKE, COAL, AND OTHER COMBUSTIBLE SUBSTANCES IN STOVES, FURNACES, AND GRATES
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ROTHWELL, of Great Bolton, in the County of Lancaster, Grocer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Fifth day of November, in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself,
Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Rothwell,
my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial license, full privilege and autho-
rity, that I, the said John Rothwell, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said John Rothwell, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A CERTAIN COMPOSITION AND PRE-
PARATION TO PROMOTE THE IGNITION AND COMBUSTION OF COKE, COAL, AND OTHER
COMBUSTIBLE SUBSTANCES IN STOVES, FURNACES, AND GRATES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said John Rothwell, par-
ticularly to describe the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of

page_text: Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
those Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that my Invention consists in combining sawdust, dried
turf, chaff, chopped straw or hay, with resin, sulphur, pitch, gas tar, or other
similar inflammable agent or material, in such a manner as to form cakes or 5
lumps; and I make the composition or preparation as follows, using in this
description sawdust as the vegetable substance, and amber resin as the inflam-
mable agent, as I find they can be more advantageously used for the purpose
than any other materials with which I am acquainted :—
I melt over a fire, in an iron copper, or other suitable vessel, a quantity of
the amber resin, with one ounce of cod oil and one ounce of gas tar, to pre-
serve the composition when made from brittleness and to colour it; and so
soon as these are thoroughly melted I remove the vessel from the fire and
immediately add sawdust, which has been previously partially dried and is
warm, and I mix these substances quickly and intimately together in the
vessel till the composition assumes a thickish consistency like scalded bran;
I then turn the composition into frames or moulds, in which I press or
knead it with the hand or a suitable instrument fitted to the moulds, till it
acquires a sufficient solidity to allow of being turned out of the moulds, which
the operator will be enabled to give it by manual pressure without other
mechanical aid.
The composition thus formed into cakes should be turned out of the moulds
immediately after having been kneaded or pressed into them, and before the
cakes grow cold, in order to prevent their setting inside of the moulds. The
proportions I use are the following:-Two pounds of amber resin; one pound
and a half of sawdust made from hard wood, or two pounds of sawdust made
from soft wood; and one ounce of cod oil, and one ounce or as much gas tar
for colouring matter as will render the composition of a cholocate colour.
The sawdust should be warm when mixed, as above, but should not be entirely
deprived of its moisture, as it agglutinates more easily if not quite dry; if per-
fectly dry it has a tendency to granulate after having been made.
may be of any size or form most convenient for sale and package; but I make
the foregoing quantities into thirty cakes, each size being three inches in
diameter and three quarters of an inch thick, with a hole one inch in diameter
through the centre to promote its combustion. And one operation, from the
time when the sawdust is thoroughly mixed with the melted resin to that of
pressing the cakes out of the moulds, occupies about three minutes.
The moulds
The proportions of other inflammable agents to the quantity of sawdust or
other vegetable matter, and the density or consistence of the cakes or lumps,

page_text: will vary according to the nature of the materials used, but may be easily
ascertained by observation of the burning of one of the cakes when made: if
there be too large a quantity of the inflammable agent it will melt and run
away when the cake is burning, and if too little, or if the cake be made too
dense and hard, it will not burn through freely.
I do not claim any particular vessel, nor application of mould, nor form of
cake, nor the use of the inflammable agents uncombined with sawdust or other
vegetable substance; but I claim the manufacture, in manner herein-before
mentioned, of cakes or lumps composed of sawdust or other vegetable sub-
stance above named and one or more inflammable agents as aforesaid, to be
used as fuel, and for the purpose of promoting ignition and combustion of coke,
coal, and other combustible substances, in stoves, furnaces, and grates. I do not
limit myself to the use of such inflammable agents only as are above named,
to mix with sawdust or other vegetable substance as aforesaid, as others not
enumerated, saltpetre or turpentine for instance, may be used for the purpose;
nor to the mixture of one of such inflammable agents only with sawdust, nor
to the use of sawdust alone, as two or more of the inflammable agents and
vegetable substances may be combined together to form the composition, as
above. These and similar variations must depend upon the will and judgment
of the operator; but I have described that mode of manufacture of my
Invention which I have found by experiment most beneficial for general
purposes, as combining efficacy and economy with cleanliness.
And I declare this to be the Specification and description of my said
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Rothwell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
Signed, sealed, and delivered (being first
duly stamped) by the within-named
John Rothwell, in the presence of
JOHN (L.B.) ROTHWELL.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-ninth day of April,
in the year of our Lord 1843, the aforesaid John Rothwell came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion 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 Second day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-three.
Enrolled the Second day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty-three.