IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CRUSHING AND WASHING COAL FOR THE MANU- FACTURE OF COKE OR ARTIFICIAL FURL
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Evence Coppée, of Haine St. Pierre, in the.
Kingdom of Belgium, Coke Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CRUSHING AND WASHING COAL FOR THE MANU-
FACTURE OF COKE OR ARTIFICIAL FURL"
Sealed the 5th January 1869, and dated the 8th July 1868.

page_text: At each
water up into and through the pulverized coal. Beyond the second
mill are troughs or gutters along which the crushed and washed coal
is carried to chambers where it is finally deposited. The apparatus
may be driven by a steam engine or other motive power situate at
any convenient place. The coal to be operated upon is raised by an
endless chain of buckets into a hopper, which delivers it on to and
between fluted crushing rollers which break it up into small pieces;
on leaving these rollers the coal falls into an inclined grating fitted in
a washing vessel below communicating with a force pump.
stroke of this pump water is forced up through the grating, and the
coal is floated forward under a beater wheel, which passes it into a
second and similar washing vessel. During its passage through the
first washing vessel the greater part of the extraneous matters
contained in the coal will be separated from it and by reason of
their greater density will fall into a chamber below.
In its passage
through the second washing vessel the coal will be completely washed
and purified, the remainder of the extraneous matters which it con-
tained being deposited in like manner to the first portion into a
chamber below the inclined grating. The small washed coal will by
the action of a force pump similar to that connected with the first
washing vessel be floated over into a second crushing mill, where it
will be finally pulverized. On leaving this second crushing mill the
coal will pass together with the water into a transverse trough leading
to a series of longitudinal chambers where it will be deposited, while
the water escapes through gratings and pipes at the end through a
passage below to the pumps to be again used. The longitudinal
chambers are provided with doors at their junction with the transverse
trough, which may be opened one at a
time and the longitudinal
chambers thus successively filled with the small coal.
In order to facilitate the transport of the washed small coal from
the chambers to the coke ovens, a railway is adapted to the middle of
each chamber in connection with a railway or platform leading to the
coke ovens. The first crushing mill is provided with two pairs of
rollers, the first for coarsely breaking up the coal and the second for
grinding or pulverizing it, so that in case the coal should not require
to be washed it may pass from the mill down a shute below provided
for the purpose instead of being conducted into the washing vessels.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Evence Coppée in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 8th January 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EVENCE
COPPEE, of Hainē St. Pierre, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Coke Manu-
facturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-second
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give. and
grant unto me, the said Evence Coppée, Her special licence that I,
the said Evance Coppée, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Evence Coppée, 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 "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CRUSHING AND
WASHING COAL FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF COKE OR ARTIFICIAL FUEL," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Evence Coppée, 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 Evence Coppée, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say):-
This Invention relates to an improved arrangement of apparatus for
effecting automatically the operations of crushing and washing coal in
order to render it suitable for the manufacture of coke or artificial fuel.
The apparatus consists of two crushing mills, interposed between
which are two washing vessels connected at bottom with force pumps

page_text: for forcing water up into and through the pulverized coal.
Beyond the
second mill is a transverse trough or gutter along which the crushed
and washed coal is carried to chambers, where it is finally deposited.
The apparatus may be driven by a steam engine or other motive power
situate at any convenient place.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1, Sheet I., represents the appa-
ratus in plan view complete, shewing also the position of the steam
engine which actuates the various parts of the apparatus, serving at
once to transmit motion to the lift a, a, to the crushing mill b, the
pumps and f, the beater wheel d, and the finishing mill g. The
washing vessels are shewn at e, e¹, connected together by a gutter in
which the beater wheel d is mounted; g, is a conical mill for finishing
the crushing of the coal; h, h, is a transverse trough or channel leading
from the mill g to the depositing vessels i, i¹, 11,
2111
Fig. 2, Sheet II., is a vertical section taken in the line A, B, of Fig. 1,
it shews in sectional elevation the relative position of the various parts
of the apparatus; Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken in the line D, E,
giving the elevations of the steam engine, pumps, and washing vessels,
and of the beater wheel; Fig. 4 (Sheet I.) is a transverse sectional
elevation of the deposit chambers (taken in the line F, G).
The following is the mode of operating with this apparatus:-The coal
is fed in at the foot of the chain of buckets a, by which it is raised to the
upper part, where it is poured into a hopper, which conducts it to a pair
or it may be two pairs of fluted rollers forming the first crushing mill b,
By this mill the coal will be reduced to small pieces, which falling on to
an incline will be discharged into the first washing vessel e, where the
operation of separating from it the heterogeneous matters which it
contains will commence. The crushed coal as it leaves the crushing
mill 6 will be received upon an inclined grating with which the washing
vessel is fitted. Along this grating the coal will pass, approaching
nearer to the beater wheel & at each jerk or pulsation it receives from
the water which is forced into the vessel e at each stroke of the piston of
the pump f. During this passage the greater portion of the hetero-
geneous matters which were contained in the coal will have been
separated therefrom, and disposed upon the grating in such manner that
on arriving at the extremity of the vessel e the coal in great part purified
will be alone carried on by the current of water under the beater wheel d,
which will feed it forward (at the same time dividing or spreading it)

page_text: into the second washing vessel e¹, whilst the heterogeneous matters
remaining upon the gratings by reason of their greater density will be
discharged into the compartment p of the vessel e. The vessel e¹ will
receive the same quantity of water as the first vessel from its pump f¹.
The washing and purification of the coal is finished by passing along the
vessel e, the remainder of the heterogeneous matters still contained in
the coal being deposited upon the grating , and discharged through the
opening m¹ into the compartment p¹, whilst the coal raised and floated
by the pulsations of the pump f¹ will be carried away by the current
of water, and will fall into the finishing mill g. The washing vessels
e and e¹ are so arranged as to allow of the cleaning of the gratings
Zand, as well as the bottoms of these vessels without arresting
the progress of the washing operation. For this purpose a rectangular
Two doors
orifice from an inch to an inch and a half in height is made in
the sides c and c¹ immediately above the gratings 1, 1.
n, n', worked up and down vertically by means of screwed rods
0, 0, 0, 0, Fig. 1, serve to regulate the height of the orifices m, m³,
according to the greater or less quantity of heterogeneous matters
contained in the coal, and from which the grating must be cleared
as they are there deposited. From the compartments p, p¹, into
which the matters fall, as above explained, they are thrown out
through discharge openings q, q, which may be opened at pleasure, but
which are ordinarily closed by means of clack valves which are worked
by hand from above the washing apparatus by means of a lever and
screwed rod. Two discharge orifices r, r', which are also closed by
means of valves worked in the same manner as the preceding ones are
also provided at the bottom of the entrance water pipes of the vessels e, e¹,
in case the cleaning out of these vessels should become necessary.
passing the crushed coal to the second mill g the fine parts of the coal
which require no further grinding will not be allowed uselessly to
obstruct the passage through the mill of the larger portions, but will be
carried over by the current of water and discharged into the trough h.
The larger portions will however be retained to be crushed, and will then
be carried off by the current of water into the trough h, the contents of
which will from time to time be discharged into the deposit chambers
,,,, through communications closed by sliding valves or gates h¹.
In order to fill one of these chambers the valve or gate corresponding
to it is opened, those of the others being at the same time closed. The
water with all the fine coal which it carries in suspension flows into
In

page_text: this chamber i, and time being allowed for subsidence the coal is
deposited in a layer at the bottom, whilst the water escapes through the
orifices (the height of which may be regulated at pleasure) through the
cast-iron pipe t into one of the other chambers, which then serves as a
return and purifying channel; or the water may be allowed to filter
through the layer of coal and pass into the channel j, upon which
gratings are disposed at certain distances apart. The channel j as
well as the orifices covered by the valves (which are protected with
gratings) lead into the transverse channel k which conducts the water
direct into the reservoir under the pumps f, f', whence it is again
pumped up
to be again forced up into the washing vessels e, e¹. When
one of the chambers i is filled with coal the valve of the channel h is
closed, the grated door k¹ is left open, the valve of the orifice s is closed
in order to prevent the water from returning from the pipe t into the
chamber which has just been filled and the contents of which require to
be drained, and the supply valve h¹ of another chamber i is opened in
order to fill it (that is to say), out of the four deposit chambers there is
one which is filling, one which serves as a purifying and return channel,
one which is full and the contents of which are drying, and a fourth
which is being emptied to fill the ovens. To facilitate the transport of
the washed coal from the chamber i to the coke ovens a railway running
up the middle thereof and throughout the whole length of each chamber
may be provided. These railways should communicate with a way
leading to the ovens when the bottom of the chambers is set at a level
above these latter, or a steam lift should be employed when the bottoms
of the chambers is on a level with the ground. The trucks will in this
latter case be carried by the lift to a platform set on a level with the
top of the coke ovens, with which it communicates also by means of a
railway. If it should be required to employ the coal in an unwashed
state, but which is nevertheless required to be ground, I provide the
mill 6 with two pairs of rollers, the one pair for coarsely breaking up,
and the other pair for completing the crushing, and I so set the inclined
plane under the mill that the ground coal may fall into a shute placed
under the mill and be conducted to the trucks provided to receive it.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improved
Apparatus for Crushing and Washing Coal for the Manufacture of Coke
or Artificial Fuel," and explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited

page_text: Letters Patent I claim, the arrangement of apparatus above described
whereby the operations of crushing and washing coal and its deposit in
suitable receptacles (ready for removal when the water has drained off)
may be automatically and continuously carried on.
In witness whereof, I, the said Evence Coppée, have hereunto set
iny hand and seal, the Seventh day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
EVENCE COPPEE. (L.S.)