AN IMPROVED MODE OF USING CERTAIN MATERIALS AS FUEL; ALSO AN APPARATUS OR METHOD FOR COL- LECTING THE SMOKE OR SOOT ARISING FROM THE COMBUSTION OF SUCH FUEL," WHICH APPARATUS OR METHOD IS APPLICABLE TO OR FROM THEARY OF; AND ALSO THE APPTION OF THE PRODUCTS ARISING FROM THE COMBUSTION OF THE FIRST-MENTIONED MATERIALS AS A MANURE, AND FOR OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
THOMAS HOLCOMBE, of Valentines, near Ilford, in the County of Essex, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Thirteenth day of October, in the
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Charles Thomas Holcombe, Her especial license, that
I, the said Charles Thomas Holcombe, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Thomas Holcombe, my executors,
administrators, and, assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF
USING CERTAIN MATERIALS AS FUEL; ALSO AN APPARATUS OR METHOD FOR COL-
LECTING THE SMOKE OR SOOT ARISING FROM THE COMBUSTION OF SUCH FUEL," WHICH
APPARATUS OR METHOD IS APPLICABLE TO COLLECTING THE SMOKE OR SOOT ARISING
FROM THE ORDINARY COMBUSTION OF FUEL; AND ALSO THE APPLICATION OF THE PRODUCTS
ARISING FROM THE COMBUSTION OF THE FIRST-MENTIONED MATERIALS AS A MANURE, AND
FOR OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a

page_text: proviso obliging me, the said Charles Thomas Holcombe, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Thomas Holcombe, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,. are described
and ascertained by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the words following,
that is to say:-
For the purpose of making the description of my Invention more simple, I
divide it into three parts. The first part whereof (being for "An Improved
Mode of Using certain Materials as Fuel ") consists in the application of chalk,
lime, soft stone, broken bricks, or any earthy substances, which in their nature
are capable of retaining or being saturated with the materials herein-after
mentioned as fuel for and as a means of heating retort furnaces and furnaces
generally. Of the substances mentioned above I prefer and generally use chalk
or lime, as being. better for the immediate purpose of combustion, and more
valuable in respect of their products (such products constituting the third part
of my said Invention herein-after mentioned); but where chalk or lime cannot
conveniently be procured, soft stone, broken bricks, or any earthy substances
which in their nature are capable of so retaining or being saturated as aforesaid
with the materials herein-after mentioned will answer the purpose usefully.
These materials are coal tar, or any other mineral tar, the oil of which is pro-
duced in the distillation of coal tar which is commonly known by the name of
dead oil, either in its liquid or solid state, wood tar, or any other resinous or
oily or fatty matter, such as fish oil, seal oil, or animal fat, and the-manner in
which I make these materials available as fuel is as follows:-I take chalk,
lime, soft stone, broken bricks, or any other earthy substances, which in their
nature are capable of retaining or being saturated as aforesaid, and break them
into pieces of such a size as not to fall through the bars of the furnaces.
These pieces I place in any vessel and saturate with coal tar, or any other
mineral tar, the dead oil herein-before mentioned, wood tar, or any other
resinous or oily or fatty matter, and when so saturated, I charge the furnace
in the same manner as with coals or coke. I prefer, however, and commonly
use for the purpose of saturation coal tar and the dead oil before mentioned, on

page_text: account of their cheapness; the other materials herein-before mentioned would
answer equally well were it not that at present they are more expensive. I
then cause a fine stream of any of the above-mentioned materials, either mixed,
to suit the convenience of the parties or the temperature of the weather, or by
themselves, to run upon the chalk, lime, soft stone, broken bricks, or other such
earthy substances as aforesaid, by means of a reservoir placed in any convenient
part of the works where such fuel may be used, and a pipe or tube communi-
cating from each reservoir with and over the mouth of the furnace, such pipe
or tube being regulated by a stop cock or valve. As the chalk, lime, soft
stone, broken bricks, or other such earthy substances as aforesaid may
become calcined or burnt, and so fall through the bars, I continue to
charge the furnace with the same substances so saturated in the same way
as with coals or coke. The second part of my Invention being for "An
Apparatus or Method for Collecting the Smoke or Soot arising from the
Combustion of such Fucl," which apparatus or method is applicable to collect-
ing the smoke or soot arising from the ordinary combustion of fuel, consists in
a series of ascending and descending flues or chambers communicating with the
outlet flue of the furnace or furnaces at one end, and with any shaft or chimney
at the other end, by which flues the smoke as it passes from the furnace or
furnaces is impeded, and the soot black or carbon collected by a number of
plates or slides; and the portion so collected is in its progress partially,
and on removal of the plates or slides wholly, deposited in the receivers
or reservoirs at the bottom of such ascending and descending flues or
chambers, I have annexed to my Specification two Drawings, shewing the
forms of the ascending and descending flues I have at present in use. The
one marked with the letter A represents the flues or chambers made of
brick work, stone, tile, slate, or earth, with slides to pull out similar to a
common damper. The one marked with the letter B represents the flues or
chambers made of cast or wrought iron, with moveable plates, which are let
down and drawn up by means of chains and pullies, as represented in the
Drawing. The receivers or reservoirs at the bottom of the flues are formed
upon the same plan in both Drawings. For cheapness, and where space is of
no object, I use the flues or chambers made of brick, stone, tile, slate, or earth,
which the Drawing marked A is intended to represent; but I do not in
this my Invention confine myself to the shape or form of such Drawings, as
want of room in works, or a particular scite which may be more convenient
than another, may require the flues to be made of various shapes; nor do I
confine myself to the nature of the materials of which such flues or chambers

page_text: are to be constructed. The third part of my Invention being for "The Application
of the Products arising from the Combustion of the first-mentioned Materials
as a Manure and for other useful Purposes," consists in the collecting the soot
black or carbon produced by the combustion of the materials mentioned in the
first part of my Patent; and in the mixing of such soot black or carbon with
the refuse or calcined matter from the furnaces in the progress of such com-
bustion. I apply this soot black or carbon, either mixed with such refuse or
calcined matter, or mixed with other known manures where lime or chalk is
used in preference to the other materials enumerated in the first part of my
Patent. My Invention also consists in the collecting of the refuse or calcined
matter from the furnace, and this is applicable to be used as a mortar in the
building or stopping of garden walls or other buildings where fruit trees are
trained, or where insects are destructive, as I find mortar made of the last-men-
tioned refuse a great obstacle to insects or vermin generally. I claim as my In-
vention the application of chalk, lime, soft stone, broken bricks, or any earthy.
substances which in their nature are capable of retaining or being saturated with
coal or other mineral tar, or with the oil which is produced in the distillation
of coal tar, and which is commonly known by the name of dead oil, either in its
liquid or solid state, or with wood, tar, or any other resinous or oily or fatty
matter when mixed or saturated with such material as aforesaid, as a fuel, and
for the purpose of heating retort furnaces and furnaces generally. I also claim
as my Invention the flues or chambers described herein-before as ascending
and descending flues, and shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed as appli-
cable to any fuel. I do not, as before mentioned, confine myself to the forms
of the Drawings herein-before alluded to, or the scale upon which they are
drawn, nor to the materials with which they are to be made; and I also claim
as part of my Invention the collecting together in manner above mentioned the
soot black or carbon arising from the combustion of fuel before mentioned when
mixed up with the materials which become calcined or burnt in the furnaces
as herein-before mentioned as a manure. And I also claim the chalk,
lime, or stone, when calcined or burnt, as a mortar for the purposes herein-
before mentioned.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Thomas Holcombe, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Eleventh day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
C. T. (L.S.) HOLCOMBE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eleventh day of April, in the
sixth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Charles Thomas
Holcombe, came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and everything therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Eleventh day of April, One thousand eight hundred and
forty-three.