AN IMPROVED EARTHENWARE RETORT FOR GENERATING GAS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ILLUMINATION
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
SPINNEY, of Cheltenham, in the County of Gloucester, Gas Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, by
His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing.
date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-two, and in the third year of His reign, did give and.
grant unto me, the said Thomas Spinney, my exors, admors, and assigns, His
special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Thomas Spinney, my exors, admors, and assigns, by myself or such others as
I, the said Thomas Spinney, should agree with, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should lawfully make, use,
exercise, and. vend my Invention of "AN IMPROVED EARTHENWARE RETORT FOR
GENERATING GAS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ILLUMINATION," in those parts of His
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the
Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner
as I, the said Thomas. Spinney, my exors, admors, or assigns, should think fit,
and should enjoy all the profit, benefit, and emolument arising therefrom for
and during the space of fourteen years; in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso to the effect that. I, the said Thomas Spinney, should
within six calendar months from the date thereof, cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and, of the manner in which the same

page_text: is to be performed, in writing, under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery, as in and by the same Letters Patent, refer-
ence being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Spinney, do hereby declare that my said Invention of an Improved
Earthenware Retort for Generating Gas for the Purpose of Illumination con-
sists of a combination of the following materials to form the earthenware of
which the retort is composed, videlicit :-Stourbridge fire clay; burnt Stour-
bridge fire clay; pipe or potter's clay; sand; sulphate of iron, commonly called
green copperas; and potter's lead ore. Very great nicety in the proportions
in which the above materials are combined is not requisite, as I have found
that the proportions may be varied, and yet a beneficial result obtained. My
own practice, however, induces me to prefer the following, videlicit :-Stour-
bridge fire clay, one hundred pounds; burnt Stourbridge fire clay, twenty
pounds; pipe clay, twenty pounds; sand (which I should recommend to be as
free from lime as possible), twenty pounds. The Stourbridge fire clay, the
burnt Stourbridge fire clay, and the sand are to be mixed together. The pipe
or potter's clay must be well dried and broken into small pieces, and afterwards
put into a copper or furnace, containing as much boiling water as may be
requisite to dissolve or reduce it to the consistence of thick cream, which is to
be added to the other materials previously mixed, and as much more water is
to be added as will make the whole mass of such a consistence as will admit
of its being tempered in the manner generally practised by potters. The
materials thus combined may be moulded. into. retorts of any required form,
but I do not mean hereby to confine myself to any particular form or size of
retort; they may be made in one or more pieces as may be found most con-
venient. If made in one piece after being dried, it must be brushed over with
a glaze or cement composed of the following materials, in the following pro-
portions, videlicit:-Of potter's lead ore, three pounds; sand; four pounds;
sulphate of iron, one pound; pipe or potter's clay, one pound. These are to be
reduced to fine powder and mixed with as much water as will bring them to
the consistence of paint, and then applied with a brush in the same manner as
paint is used by painters. The retort must then be removed to the kiln, and
what is technically termed smoked, from twenty-four to thirty hours, then
gradually brought up to a white heat, and kept at that heat from twenty-four
to thirty hours, and afterwards cooled or let down in the usual manner of
cooling down earthenware. If the retort is made in more than one piece, the
pieces should be formed to fit each other, and joined together with the
above-mentioned cement or glaze.. The retort so formed is also to be brushed

page_text: over with the said glaze or cement in the manner explained when the retort is
made in one piece.
I do not mean or intend to limit myself to the use of Stourbridge fire clay,
but to avail myself of any other clay which may be fit for the purpose.
Neither do I limit myself to the exact proportions of any of the materials
above set forth, my Invention being essentially the combination of the above
materials to make an earthenware retort for generating gas for the purpose
of illumination.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Spinney, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three.
THOMAS (L.S.) SPINNEY.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
within-named Thomas Spinney, in
the presence of
H. J. NEILD,
Solicitor,
King Street, Cheapside.
H. ERNEST,
His Clerk.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1833, the aforesaid Thomas Spinney came before
our said Lord the King in His 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.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thou-