IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederic Dixon, of 23, Southampton Buildings, London,
Analytical Chemist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederic Dixon at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th April 1878.
FREDERIC DIXON, of 23, Southampton Buildings, London, Analytical Chemist.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL."
This Invention has for its object the treatment and utilization of coal, whether
bituminous or non-bituminous, charcoal, coke, anthracite, or lignite, or other similar
carbonaceous substances when in a disintegrated state or fine division, so as to
produce a compact, solid, and smokeless, or comparatively smokeless fuel, especially
adapted for metallurgical operations and in the arts, and where it is desirable the
fuel should bear combustion at a greatly increased temperature without being dis-
integrated.
I carry out my process in the following manner:- -When coke is employed, which
is obtained in the manner already well understood, on being reduced to a state of
granular divisions by apparatus adapted for the purpose or by any suitable means,
it is mixed in a suitable pug or mixing mill or mills in the proportion of eighteen
parts of the latter with two parts of the solution or liquid herein-after mentioned.
The mixture thus prepared is exposed to heat, and made into any desired shape or
form by apparatus adapted, for the purpose. In order to evaporate the excess of
fluid contained therein, or a sufficient part thereof, the coke fuel is placed in a retort
and submitted to the influence of heat, when it becomes solidified and ready for
use.
In the treatment of coal, whether anthracite or otherwise, used for the purpose of
this Invention, the same process is pursued as in the case of coke dust. The
materials being reduced to a granular state are mixed with the solution, as before
described, and in the same proportion. The mixture is then made into any suitable
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page_text: shape or form, and exposed to the atmosphere to evaporate a sufficient part of the
moisture contained therein.
My process for manufacturing the composition or liquid is as follows:-One part
of ground rice or other similar farinaceous substance is mixed with nine parts
of water, and 15 grains of aluminate of potash or potash alum, and 10 grains
of borax or biborate of soda. The mixture so prepared is introduced into a vessel
hented by steam. The same is submitted to the operation of boiling until solution
of the materials is effected, and from thence run off through a tap into a boiler, in
which are placed ten parts of commercial size and ninety grains of bichromate of
potash. The whole of the contents are then submitted to the process of boiling
under a moderate amount of pressure, by which operation the several constituents
are caused to unite. Steam is then turned on into the boiler, and the contents
thereof forced through pipes into a tank, whence the liquid is conveyed by suitable
mechanical arrangements into the pug or mixing mill or mills, in which it is inti-
mately mixed with the coke, or coal, or other carbonaceous substance, which is
conveyed in state of granular division, or disintegration, or broken state by suitable
machinery into the pug or mixing mill or mills.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Frederic Dixon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th October
1878.
FREDERIC DIXON, of 23, Southampton Buildings, London, Analytical Chemist.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL."
My Invention of an improved artificial fuel consists of treating and combining
coal, usually small, or that known as slack, whether of the anthracite or non-
bituminous kind, or bituminous, or lignite, brown coal, peat, charcoal, and other
allied carbonaceous substances, with farinaceous or gummy matters, and an adhesive
waterproofing material, the effect of which treatment is to fix the carbon in the fuel
produced thereby, so that little or no smoke is generated on ignition. Combustion
is so perfect as to leave little or no residuum of ashes, while among other advantages
attending the use of this artificial fuel may be claimed its freedom from liability to
spontaneous combustion, its density and coherency, its being impervious to water,
and the fact that it cokes well, qualities which render it valuable for use in ships
especially, and for exportation to the colonies and foreign countries.
And in order that iny said Invention may be well understood, I will now proceed
to describe the process I adopt for the manufacture of my said improved artificial
fuel.
In the first place a composition is to be made of ground rice, foreign gums, or
gummy or adhesive farinaceous matters, or a mixture of any two or more of such
substances, in as near as possible the following proportions:-One part of ground
rice or other gummy or adhesive matters is to be mixed with nine parts of water,
and fifteen grains of alum (potash alum), and ten grains of borax or biborate of

page_text: soda, together with two hundred and twenty grains of bichromate of potash, and
to be added to cach gallon of the aforesaid mixture. Solution is effected in a
suitable tank or other vessel heated by steam, in which the mixture is boiled, and
then conveyed through a pipe and tap into a boiler or steam cylinder, in which two
and a half parts of commercial glue (size) have been previously melted. The whole
contents of the boiler are then to be intimately mixed together by boiling under
moderate pressure.
The next process is to cause the herein-before mentioned composition to becomo
united with the small coal, coke, or other carbonaceous matters, and this is effected
by the fuel machines now employed in the manufacture of artificial fuel, or by
machines specially constructed for the purpose, so much of the aforesaid compo-
sition boing added to the small coal, coke, or other carbonaceous matter (which are
to be in a disintegrated or granular state), as will cause the particles to adhere
when pressed, and become when dry consolidated and cohesive.
Although I have herein-before given the proportions of the ingredients of the
composition which I have found to answer well, the precise quantities, more or less,
vary according to and in relation to the particular carbonaceous matters with which
they are mixed, and it must be understood that such proportions are only approxi-
mate and not definite.
After the composition has been well mixed by mechanical mixers with the afore-
said carbonaceous matters, the mass is to be run or injected into metal moulds,
which should be steam jacketed, and the bricks, blocks, balls, or other forms thus
made of the artificial fuel will become thoroughly dry without the use of artificial
heat.
I would further remark that the treatment of the small coal, slack, or other
carbonaceous substances should be while the materials are in as near as possible a
semi-dry state, and the injection of superheated steam should be so regulated as to
produce the necessary plasticity of the materials before pressing; damp or wet slack
should not be employed.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be carried into effect, I wish it to be understood that what I claim
and desire to secure by the herein-before in part recited Lotters Patent is, the
manufacture of an improved artificial fuel from a mixture of bichromate of potash
or other allied chrome salts with commercial glue, size, and borax or biborate of
soda, and alum or potash alum, these several substances forming a waterproofing
composition after being combined with the ground rice, foreign gums, or gummy or
adhesive farinaceous matters, with suitable carbonaceous material in a disintegrated
ör granular state, and in or about the proportions herein-before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederic Dixon, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twelfth day of October, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and seventy-eight.