IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND REVIVIFICATION OF ANIMAL CHARCOAL."
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Oxland, of Plymouth, in the County of
Devon; Sugar Refiner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE AND REVIVIFICATION OF ANIMAL CHARCOAL."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Oxland at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th January 1855.
I, ROBERT OXLAND, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Sugar Refiner,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE AND REVIVIFICATION OF ANIMAL CHARCOAL" to be as follows:-
First, I employ carbonic acid, or the products of the combustion of fuel, at
gradually increasing temperatures, for the destructive distillation of bones and
manufacture of animal charcoal.
Second, I employ carbonic acid, or the products of the combustion of fuel,
for the removal of lime, and with it other impurities from charcoal that has
been used in the refining sugar.
Third, I employ carbonic acid, or the products of the combustion of fuel, at
gradually increasing temperatures, for drying the animal charcoal after it has
been treated with the same agents for the removal of lime, as before described,
and thus completing the process of revivification.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Oxland in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th July 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
OXLAND, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Sugar Refiner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Robert Oxland, Her special licence that I, the said Robert
Oxland, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Robert Oxland, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND REVIVIFICATION OF ANIMAL CHARCOAL,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert Oxland, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Robert Oxland, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
,statement thereof (that is to say):-
--
First, I employ carbonic acid, or the products of combustion of fuel, at gra-
dually increasing temperatures, for the destructive distillation of bones and
; manufacture of animal charcoal.
Secondly, I employ carbonic acid, or the products of the combustion of fuel,
for the removal of lime, and with it other impurities from charcoal that has
been used in the refining of sugar.
Thirdly, I employ carbonic acid, or the products of the combustion of fuel,
at gradually increasing temperatures, for drying the animal charcoal after it
has been treated with the same agents for the removal of lime, as before
described, and thus completing the process of revivification.

page_text: Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe the manner of performing the same.
The first part of my Invention is applicable in the manufacture of animal
charcoal, and consists of causing carbonic acid, or products of combustion of
fuel, to pass amongst the pieces of bone whilst being heated in suitable retorts
or ovens. For this purpose, the form and arrangement of retorts used may be
greatly varied, so long as they are suitable for having passed into them and
amongst the bones therein carbonic acid, or products of combustion of fuel;
but the arrangement of retort and apparatus I prefer is as follows:-I
employ an upright cylindrical retort, of about three feet diameter and ten
feet high, set in brickwork with flues around it, so that its external surface
may be heated, and so that the lower part may be heated to a low red heat;
within this upright retort a cylinder rises from the bottom, nearly to the top of
the outer retort. The broken bones are placed in the larger retort around the
inner cylinder; the retort is covered in at the top, so as to prevent products
getting away in that direction. At the bottom of the retort is a tube or pipe
by which the liquid products may flow away, and near the bottom of the retort
is a pipe to convey away the volatile products from the retort. The interior
cylinder is charged with anthracite, or charcoal, or coke, and the same is
ignited, and at the bottom, streams of air are constantly passed or 'forced
through the ignited mass in the inner cylinder, the products from which
pass out of the open top of the cylinder, and they pass down amongst
the pieces of bone; by these means the bones will be rendered into animal
charcoal by the aid of external heat, together with the passage of the heated
carbonic acid, or products of combustion, by which the process of manufacture
and the quality of the charcoal will be improved. The animal charcoal is to
be withdrawn from the retort through openings near the bottom of the retort,
which are closed during the charring process.
I will now describe the second part of my Invention, which relates to the
process of revivifying animal charcoal after it has been used in filtering syrups
of sugar. The animal charcoal is first to be well washed, as heretofore, and
then placed in a close vessel, with water sufficient to cover it. Carbonic acid
is then to be forced into this vessel, and amongst the charcoal and water, till
the pressure within the vessel is about fifteen pounds to the square inch, which
is the extent of pressure to which I prefer to go; but it is not essential to do
So. I then let the charcoal, water, and carbonic acid stand for some hours,
say, about five or six; the water and gas are then drawn off, and the charcoal
well washed in successive waters, till the wash waters, on testing with oxalate of
ammonia, do not indicate lime, or but little lime; the charcoal is then to be

page_text: dried in a retort. By these means, the lime introduced by the sugar is sepa-
rated from the charcoal, and the charcoal, when heated, and dried in a suitable
retort, will be of a better, quality than revivified, charcoal has heretofore been.
For this process I prefer to obtain the carbonic acid from carbonate of lime
by muriatic acid, as is well, understood, or otherwise, taking care that it is as
pure as may be. When obtained from products of combustion, I cause it to be
cooled before using it; and to purify it from any sulphurous or sulphuric acid,
I
pass it amongst coke, constantly moistened with water in a suitable column,
as is well understood. In drying such prepared previously used animal charcoal
according to the third part of my Invention, I cause it to be placed in retorts
(heated externally), through which the heated carbonic acid, or products of
combustion, are passed during the drying or re-heating process of revivifi-
cation, as before described as the first part of my Invention.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself
to the arrangement of apparatus described; but what I claim is;-
. First, the passing of, heated carbonic acid, or the products of combustion of
fuel, amongst bones when manufacturing animal charcoal.
Secondly, I claim the employment of carbonic acid and water to separate
lime.in the revivification of animal charcoal.
And, third, I claim the drying or re-heating animal charcoal in retorts or
apparatus, subject to streams of heated carbonic acid, or products of combus-
tion of fuel.
In witness whereof, I; the said Robert Oxland, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
W. CARPMAEL, jun.
ROBERT OXLAND. (L.S.)