AN IMPROVED PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING GAS POR ILLUMINATION
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sidney Hopton Hadley, of the City Mills, Upper
Thames Street, in the City of London, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING GAS POR ILLUMINATION"
Sealed the 3rd March 1863, and dated the 5th September 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sidney Hopton Hadley at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th September 1862.
I, SIDNEY HOPTON HADLEY, of the City Mills, Upper Thames Street, in the
City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A
IMPROVED PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING GAS FOR ILLUMINATION," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to obtain illuminating gas in an economical
manner from peat, shale, coals, and other hydrocarbonaceous substances. To
this end I propose, first, to subject the gas-yielding substance to distillation by
causing superheated steam to impinge upon and circulate through a mass of
the peat, coal, or other material charged into, say, a vertical still. The heat
thereby imparted to the peat or coal causes a rapid evolution of gas, which, as
it is generated, I conduct into a retort set in a furnace, and charged with
coke. Into this retort I may find it desirable also to discharge liquid hydro-
carbou, which being vaporized by the heat of the retort, will combine with the
gas generated in the still, and raise its illuminating power. The carburetted
hydrogen gas thus obtained may then be treated in the usual way for preparing
it for consumption, and then conducted to a gasometer ready for delivery to
the consumer. When liquid hydrocarbon is used it may be obtained from the
still in which it is formed during the gas-distilling operation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Sidney Hopton Hadley in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 4th March 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SIDNEY
HOPTON HADLEY, of the City Mills, Upper Thames Street, in the City of
London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Sidney Hopton Hadley, Her special license that I, the said Sidney
Hopton Hadley, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
1, the said Sidney Hopton Hadley, 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 "AN
IMPROVED PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING GAS FOR ILLUMINATION," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Sidney Hopton Hadley, by an instru-
ment 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 Sidney Hopton Hadley, do hereby declare
the nature of my 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 (that is to say) :-
My Invention consists in producing illuminative gas by first distilling in a
retort of convenient size and form by the action of superheated steam, peat,
schale, coals, or other carbonaceous or bituminous substances, and afterwards
conducting the products of such distillation together with the steam employed
into a retort charged with coke or charcoal, and heated up to a sufficiently
high temperature to effect the decomposition of the mixture of steam and
bydrocarbon vapor into permanent gas.
In carrying out my Invention I charge my first retort with a convenient
quantity of the carbonaceous or bituminous material which I propose to
employ, and I cause the retort either previously to or after the introduction of

page_text: such material to be heated to a temperature not exceeding a dull red heat; so
soon as the retort is charged I introduce the superheated steam, which
necessarily impinges upon and penetrates the mass of the material to be
distilled, assisting the distillation by the manner in which it conveys the heat
through the contents of the retort, and also sweeping out the volatile hydro-
carbons as they risc in the retort, carrying them on to the second or
decomposing retort, in which they and the steam are to be converted into
permanent gas. My second retort, which may be of any convenient shape,
but which is much smaller in size than the first or distillatory retort, I charge
with fragments of coke or wood, or other charcoal, and this retort I heat to a
strong or bright red heat. This retort is connected by a proper arrangement
of pipes with the first retort, and the steam and volatile hydrocarbons as they
commingle in the first retort pass on to the second retort by the pipe or pipes
mentioned, and there coming in contact with the surface of heated charcoal
are decomposed, the volatile hydrocarbons into rich permanent gas, and the
steam principally into hydrogen and carbonic oxide, with some carbonic acid.
The whole mixture resulting from the decomposition effected in the second
retort is good commercial gas, but if from any circumstance I find it necessary
to increase the lighting power of such gas, I do so by introducing some liquid
bydrocarbon into the second or decomposing retort, suffering it to pass in a
small stream, and I do this in addition to and without changing the arrange-
ments already described.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved Process
for Manufacturing Gas for Illumination," and explained the manner of carrying
the samo into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part
recited Letters Patent I claim, the production of permanent illuminating gas
by the decomposition of steam and volatile hydrocarbon in the state of vapor
(the steam and hydrocarbon vapor being mixed while the hydrocarbon is in
the nascent state), by subjecting such mixture to the action of red-hot carbon,
as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sidney Hopton Hadley, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Fourth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-throo
S. H. HADLEY. (LS.)