IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE FROM COAL AND PETROLEUM OF HYDROCARBON GAS, OR GAS FOR ILLUMINATING AND HEATING
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Frederick Parker, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Chemist, and Arthur Wade, of Birmingham,
aforesaid, Stock Broker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE FROM COAL AND PETROLEUM OF HYDROCARBON GAS, OR GAS FOR
ILLUMINATING AND HEATING."
Sealed the 7th February 1873, and dated the 26th August 1872.
* PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Frederick Parker
⚫ and Arthur Wade at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 26th August 1872.
We, JOHN FREDERICK PARKER, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Chemist, and ARTHUR WADE, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Stock
Broker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for “I■-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE FROM COAL AND PETROLEUM OF HYDROCARBON
GAS, OR GAS FOR Illuminating and HEATING," to be as follows:-
-
Our Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described
in treating coal and petroleum for the purpose of obtaining therefrom
hydrocarbon gas or gas for illuminating and heating.

page_text: In treating coal according to our Invention we proceed as follows: —
We take coal dust or slack and reduce it to powder and intimately mix
therewith one half its weight of caustic or quicklime also reduced to
powder. We place the mixture in a close retort, furnace, or oven,
previously heated to redness, and we maintain the said retort, furnace, t
or oven at a red heat so long as gas is evolved. The gas thus obtained
is dealt with in the usual manner to free it from impurities,. and is
collected and stored in a gas holder or gasometer.
By treating coal in the manner described gas having a high illu-
minating and heating value is obtained in larger quantity than when
the same quantity of coal is treated in the ordinary way, nearly the
whole of the coal being converted into gas.
In treating petroleum according to our Invention we take caustic or
quicklime in small pieces or lumps, and we sprinkle petroleum upon
the said lime until the lime is saturated therewith; or the lime may
be saturated with petroleum by the lumps of lime being immersed for
a time in the petroleum. The lime absorbs petrolcum in about the same
ratio as it does water in the formation of hydrate of lime. We place
this compound of caustic or quicklime and petroleum in a cold close
retort, furnace, or oven, which is then heated to redness. We
conduct the gas or vapour evolved into another retort or cylinder
previously heated to a bright red heat, by which any existing vapour
is rendered gaseous, and the gas is then passed into a gas holder or

page_text: The two processes described may be combined into one, that is to
say, the compound or mixture of quicklime and petroleum may be
mixed with powdered coal, and this mixture heated in a retort or
distillatory apparatus for the production of hydrocarbon gas.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Frederick Parker and Arthur Wade in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th February 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JOHN
FREDERICK PARKER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Chemist, and ARTHUR WADE, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Stock Broker,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said John Frederick Parker and Arthur
Wade, Her special license, that we, the said John Frederick Parker and
Arthur Wade, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said John Frederick Parker and Arthur Wade, 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, usc, excrcise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE FROM COAL AND PETROLEUM OF HYDROCARBON GAS, OR GAS FOR ILLUMI-
NATING AND HEATING," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said John Frederick Parker and Arthur Wade, our exccutors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals,
or under the hand and scal 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
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Frederick Parker and
Arthur Wade, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and

page_text: in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to
say:
Our Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in
treating coal and petroleum for the purpose of obtaining therefrom 5
hydrocarbon gas or gas for illuminating and heating.
In treating coal according to our Invention we proceed as follows:-
We take coal dust or slack and reduce it to powder, and intimately
mix therewith one half its weight of caustic or quicklime also reduced
to powder. We place the mixture in a close retort, furnace, or oven 1
previously heated to redness, and we maintain the said retort, furnace,
or oven at a red heat so long as gas is evolved. The gas thus obtained
is dealt with in the usual manner. to free it from impurities, and is
collected and stored in a gas holder or gasometer.
By treating coal in the manner described gas having a high illuminating 1
and heating value is obtained in larger quantity than when the same
quantity of coal is treated in the ordinary way, nearly the whole of the
coal being converted into gas.
In treating petroleum according to our Invention we take caustic or
quicklime in small picces or lumps, and we sprinkle petroleum upon 2
the said lime until the lime is saturated therewith. Or the lime may
be saturated with petroleum by the lumps of lime being immersed for
à time in the petroleum. The lime absorbs petrolcum in about the
same ratio as it does water in the formation of hydrate of lime. We
place this compound of caustic or quicklime and petroleum in a cold 2
close retort, furnace, or oven, which is then licated to redness. We
conduct the gas or vapour evolved into another retort or cylinder
previously heated to a bright red heat, by which any existing vapour
is rendered gascous, and the gas is then passed into a gas holder or
gasometer.
When refined petroleum is used the gas does not need purifying,
but when crude petroleum is used we purify the gas obtained by the
ordinary purifying processes.
3
After the mixture or compound of petroleum and quicklime has been
exposed to heat as described and the retort discharged, there will only a
remain caustic or quicklime as a residuum, which lime can be treated
again with petroleum, and the mixture or compound be treated in the
manner described.

page_text: Although our Invention may be successfully carried into effect by
the use of the ordinary gas retorts heated to redness, into which retorts
the mixture of coal and quicklime or petroleum and quicklime may
be charged in the ordinary way, yet owing to the rapidity with which
the divided.coal dust is decomposed and the volatility of the petroleum,
we prefer to employ the following method of charging the retorts:—Wo
put the mixture of coal dust and quicklime or the mixture of petroleum
and quicklime in a cold sheet-iron tray or hollow cylinder, or other
holder or vessel, and introduce the tray or holder charged with the
materials into the heated retort, and afterwards close the said retort as
quickly as possible: In this way the greater or less loss of gas or
vapour which by the ordinary method of charging is unavoidablo is'
prevented:
:
Where the mixture of petroleum and quicklime is introduced as last
described into a heated retort instead of into a cold one, as in the
herein-before first-described method of treating the mixture of petro- .
leum and quicklime, we prefer, in order still more effectually to prevent
waste, to cover the material with a layer of sand or dried clay or other
inert substanco capable of bearing a high temperature without change.
The said layer of sand or other substance arrests for a time the action.
of the heat, and thus prevents decomposition of the gas producing
materials until ample time for closing the retorts has elapsed.
The
gas made according to our Invention may be mixed with gas
made in the ordinary way in order to improve the illuminating property.
of the ordinary gas. Or where coal known to yield gas of low illumi-
nating power is employed for the manufacture of gas the following
process will be found convenient:-Luinps of lime are saturated with
petroleum, and are coated with coal dust by being placed in coal dust,
ând turned or moved about therein till they are coated on all sides
therewith. These lumps of lime saturated with petroleum and coated
with coal dust can then be charged in the ordinary way into retorts in
conjunction with the ordinary coal. The coating of coal dust protects
the petrolcum for a time from the heat, and thus diminishes or prevents
loss by its volatilization. Or the retort may first be charged with a
layer of coal, then with a layer of the coated lumps of lime impregnated
with petroleum; and finally with a layer of coal.
.
'
The use of five parts by weight of petroleum, mixed with sufficient
lime to absorb it, to one hundred parts by weight of coal, which by
-

page_text: itself yields gas of very inferior quality, will produce an illuminating
gas of excellent quality.
When caking coal is employed in conjunction with the mixture of
quicklime and petroleum the agglutination of the particles of coal
produces large masses of dense coke of great value in many metal-
lurgical processes in which a flux in addition to carbon is required.
In blast furnaces and cupolas for smelting and melting iron the coke
combined with the lime obtained as a residual in the practice of our
Invention has a high commercial value.
When we use petroleum in conjunction with coal we prefer to use
crude petroleum, as the use of coal necessitates the purifying of the
gas, and the impurities yielded by the crude petroleum are removed at
the same time as those produced by the coal. But when we use a
mixture of quicklime and petroleum without admixture with coal we
prefer to use pure or rectified petroleum. The gas produced in that
case does not require purifying. The non-necessity for a purifying
apparatus is important where gas is manufactured on a small scale, as,
for example, in villages and mansions. For such manufacture the use
of the mixture of quicklime and pure or rectified petroleum presents
great advantages.
We do not limit ourselves to the use of any particular proportions, as
the proportions may be varied according to the quality of the coal or
petroleum operated upon. But we find in practice that two parts by
weight of coal dust mixed with one part by weight of quicklime answer
very well, and when petroleum is used that as much of the said
petroleum as the quicklime will absorb by sprinkling or immersion
may be employed.
The two processes described may be combined into one, that is to
say, the compound or mixture of quicklime and petroleum may be
mixed with powdered coal, and this mixture heated in a retort or
distillatory apparatus for the production of hydrocarbon gas.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that
we do not limit ourselves to the precise details herein described, as
the same may be varied without departing from the nature of our
Invention; but we claim as our Invention the improvements in the
manufacture from coal and petroleum of hydrocarbon gas, or gas for

page_text: illuminating and heating herein-before described, that is to say, manu-
facturing the said gas from mixtures of coal and quicklime both in
powder and intimately mixed, or from mixtures of quicklime and
petroleum, or from the said materials mixed or in conjunction with coal
as ordinarily used in the manufacture of gas, substantially as herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Frederick Parker and Arthur
Wade, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fourteenth day
of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-three.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
JOHN FREDERICK PARKER. (L.S.)
ARTHUR WADE.
Clerk to George Shaw,
Birmingham.
(L.S.)