IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Walker, of Sunderland, in the County
of Durham, Patent Gas Coal Manufacturer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL."
Sealed the 21st April 1871, and dated the 1st November 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION. left by the said Robert Walker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st November 1870.
I, ROBERT WALKER, of Sunderland, in the County of Durham,
Patent Gas Coal Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL,"
to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in compounding or combining by pulverising
or grinding by means of edge runners in a mill somewhat like a mortar
or loam mill or by means of any such machinery, ordinary coal tar,
or the residual products of coal tar distillation, such as pitch or dead
oil, or where practicable the residuum of shale oil refining or petroleum
manufacture after the paraffin has been distilled off, such residuum being..

page_text: "
commonly known as "bottoms; " either of these materials I take and
first heat them and then mix them with small coal of any suitable kind,
but I prefer in most cases to use the small coal or duff" sifted from
such coals as those known in the market as Wallsend, or from the
Hutton seams.
Breeze or small coal may be employed with the pitch,
coal tar, or bottoms, or the breeze or small coke may be pulverized in
combination with the small coal, coal tar, pitch, or "bottoms." The
proportions I propose to use range from 40 to 65 gallons or more of the
coal tar, liquid pitch, or bottoms to one ton of small coal or breeze, or
any suitable proportion of both small coal and breeze may be mixed
with the coal tar or other equivalent material according to the nature
of the furnace and the duty to be performed by the fuel. When the
composition has been properly mixed, and before it is permitted to set or
becomes hardened it may be again intermixed with ordinary steam coal,
but where it is to be prepared as artificial fuel to be used alone or to be
stored separately from the coal, as, for instance, for use on board of
steam ships it may be made into sheets and broken up or divided into
small cakes, and when it is intended to be stowed away in coal bunkers
or for the convenience of transport, such sheets may be cut into pieces
of uniform dimensions. And where such artificial fuel is liable to be
subjected to the continued application of a high temperature, as in the
coal bunkers of steam ships, and where the draining off is likely to
be produced by the heat, and where also the volatilisation of the oil
would prove dangerous the pieces so cut or otherwise formed may be
hard coated or glazed. Heat may be applied to the materials whilst
being treated in the mill.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Walker in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th April 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT 3
WALKER, of Sunderland, in the County of Durham, Patent Gas Coal
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty- 3

page_text: fourth year of Her reign,, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Robert Walker, Her special licence
that I, the said Robert Walker, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Walker, my executors,
administrators, or 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, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FUEL," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Robert Walker, 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 Robert. Walker, 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 :-
3.
For the purpose of making artificial fuel in accordance with my.
fine
present Invention I take in certain proportions herein-after stated.
screenings of coal, or the small of coal, or what is known as coal "duff,"
5, and I pulverize or grind by means of "edge runners "in a mill somewhat
like a mortar mill or loam mill, and I mix with the dry coal or other
carbonaceous material whilst it is under such treatment either ordinary
coal tar or the residual products of coal tar distillation, such as pitch
or "dead oil," or it may be the residuum of shale oil refining, or of
petroleum manufacture after the paraffine has been distilled off, such
residuum being commonly known as "bottoms," and the treatment of
these materials for the purpose of incorporating them is effected as
herein described. I prefer in most cases to use the "small" or "duff"
screened or sifted from bituminous or free burning coals, such, for
example, as those from the "Wallsend" or Hutton seams, but other
kinds or descriptions of coals may be used or employed either alone or
in combination with "breeze" or small coke, as herein-after mentioned.
When breeze" or small coke, or the "small" and unmerchantable

page_text: stuff from coke burners or gas works is obtainable and intended to be
used or employed, either alone or with the small of coal, it must be
ground or pulverised in the manner before described, and the proportion
or quantity of coal tar, pitch, or dead oil, or other similar liquid or
semi-liquid bituminous material added thereto or to be incorporated
therewith must be varied in proportion to the nature or character of the
carbon material or body employed, thus, in some cases there may be from
40 to 55 gallons by measure to each ton weight of fine screenings, or
the "small" or "duff" of bituminous coals, whilst from 45 to 65 gallons
by measure may be mixed with each ton by weight of the "small" of
coal and coke combined, or of the combined "small" of bituminous
and non-bituminous coals, and in like mixtures wherein the "small" of
less bituminous fuel or "combustible" is employed. The materials are
in accordance with their respective characters, and in their proper
proportions either first heated and mixed together roughly and then
ground in the manner above described, or the coal or other combustible
may be first ground and the hot fluid or semi-fluid be then poured
thereupon and the process of intimately mixing effected by the continued
action of the mill, or the pan or plate of the grinding mill or edge
runners may by means of the heat from a furnace flue or hot air chamber
under it, or by means of steam heat, be kept at a suitably high tem-
perature during the grinding of the small fuel or combustible, and the
adding of the heated coal tar or other fluid, or semi-fluid, or material, so
that the whole process may be performed as a continuous operation
within the one apparatus or mill. Thus for the body of the artificial fuel
I employ either coal alone, or coke alone, or a combination of coal and
coke together, or instead of the coke of commerce I employ breeze or
the unmerchantable "small" of coke ovens or gas works, pulverizing or
grinding it fine and intimately mixing therewith in a heated state the coal
tar or " bottoms" or other similar material for the purpose of producing
the paste like mass as herein set forth, to be afterwards used or employed
as herein described. When the composition has been thus treated for
a sufficient length of time, (according to the power and speed of the mill
and the quantity of the material treated), and the combined action of
pulverising or grinding and intimately mixing has been thoroughly
effected, and before it is permitted to cool down and "set" or harden,
it may either be employed as a coating to the exterior surface of "steam
coals or lump coal intended to be stored and used for the generation
of steam, or it may be removed in masses from the apparatus and cut
"

page_text: into sheets, cakes, or slabs, of any suitable size and shape for storeage
and may be powdered over with fine coal dust to prevent their adhering
together until properly set. Such slabs, sheets, or cakes may be broken
up into smaller pieces or be cut or formed into small cakes or tiles
of regular shape suitable for stowing closely on board of ship or
elsewhere.
In witness whereof I, the said Robert Walker, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of April, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
one.
ROBERT WALKER. (L.S.)
GEORGE SCOTT, witness.