IMPROVE- MENTS IN ECONOMIZING FUEL USED IN HABITATIONS OR BUILDINGS, AND FOR FURNACES GENERALLY, AND IN APparatus to BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Mickle, of Tynemouth, in the County
of Northumberland, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ECONOMIZING FUEL USED IN HABITATIONS OR BUILDINGS, AND FOR
FURNACES GENERALLY, AND IN APparatus to BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE."
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Mickle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 7th May 1873, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MICKLE, of Tynemouth, in the County of Northumberland, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ECONOMIZING FUEL USED IN HABITATIONS OR BUILDINGS, AND FOR FURNACES
GENERALLY, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR THIS PURPOSE," and have
petitioned Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, to grant unto
me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters

page_text: Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that I am the
first and true Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Mickle, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, to be as follows :-
:-
from
In the present treatment or use of coal required for or used as fuel in
dwelling houses or other buildings and furnaces generally, the volatile or
gaseous combustible elements or constituents of the coal pass away
the fires only partially consumed or burnt, a large or the larger pro-
portion of them being thus utterly wasted and lost, and in the aggregate
of the fuel used in this country the weight of fuel thus wasted is
enormous, and this is the more to be deplored because it in reality is the
waste of a portion of the finest and hottest combustible which the coal
contains; there is also the emission of smoke which is and is felt to be
very great nuisance, and this smoke consists principally or nearly
altogether of black unburnt particles of carbon, and these besides the
nuisance are really valuable fuel wasted, the loss or waste of heat, and as
result further, of fuel, is also most enormous in houses and other buildings;
also, there is much and dirty labour and dirt from making on or lighting
the fires, conveyance of coals to the fires, tending the fires, removing the
ashes and cleaning away the dirt or dust spread through the chambers or
rooms, and it is the more so as to labour in reference to upper chambers,
and from soot collecting in chimneys; and there is frequently the dis-
comfort and dirt and injury to licalth, more especially as to invalids, from
smoky rooms; there is also as to habitations the discomfort and the
injury to health, especially in regard to persons in delicate or infirm
health, from the fires not being kept regularly up, and when gone down
inability to raise the heat again with rapidity, and the consequent
transitions in temperature and the difference in temperature between
room and room and passages and rooms; in the furnaces of manufactories
and other furnaces there is also more dirty labour in the conveyance of
coal, especially duff or small coal, to the fires and charging it into the
furnace than in the use of gas and coko as herein-after named, and
when the coal is coked in the usual or ordinary coke ovens or sow or
open kilns previously to use for manufacturing or other purposes, such
for instance as iron or brass founding, all the volatile or gaseous com-
bustible constituents of the coal and which are the best and most
commandable fuel of the coal are burnt or altogether wasted in such
coking, and besides this a considerable portion of the fixed carbon of the

page_text: coal is also wasted in such coking generally at once on being drawn out
of the mine, the coal being taken from the shaft to contiguous ovens or
kilns where on the average about one half or nearly one half, taking the
heating value into the reckoning, is dissipated and destroyed; in gas
works too as at present there is much of the coke or fuel used in heating
the retort furnaces. It is also of very great public importance and from
the rapid increase of consumption it is becoming of vastly increasing
public importance to economize fucl.
In order to prevent or greatly diminish the above named waste of
the volatile or gaseous combustible elements or constituents of the coal
used as fuel in dwelling houses or other buildings, and furnaces
generally, and the abovo named emission of smoke and consequent
nuisance and waste of fuel; and further the above named waste of heat
and consequent further loss or waste of fuel; and the above named
labour and dirt in houses and other buildings from making on or lighting
the fires, tending the fires, removing the ashes, and cleaning away tho
dirt or dust spread through the chambers or rooms, and soot in
chimneys, and the discomfort and injury to health, more especially as
to invalids, arising from smoky rooms; and the further above named
discomfort and injury to health, especially in reference to persons in
delicate or infirm health, in houses or buildings, from the inequality in
temperature in rooms or chambers and passages; and the above named
dirty labour in the conveyance of coal, especially duff or small coal at
the furnaces of manufactories and other furnaces, to the fires and
charging it into the furnace; and the above named waste of the
combustible gaseous constituents of the coal and fixed or solid carbon
fuel of the coal when coked in coko ovens, or sow or open kilns, for
manufacturing or other purposes; and further, the above named use in
gas works of solid fuel for the retort fires, and to effect a very great
economization of coal and other fuel in use. I, in the first place divide
or convert the coal into two parts, namely, gas usually known as or
named coal gas, and coke usually known as or named gas coke, by
close or dry distillation in retorts similarly or in like manner, as it is
done in the usual or ordinary gas works in use for lighting purposes, or
with any convenient modification of or in close distillation; and then
use these elements, or constituents, or products of the coal, in houses or
other habitations or buildings, and the furnaces of manufactories, and
furnaces generally, as or for fuel, or for firing to obtain the requisite
heat
2

page_text: I convey the coal gas from the place where it is manufactured, or
where the distillation of the coal in retorts, as above named, is carried
on, or from the gas holder or gas reservoir, there in pipes or tubes
similarly to the way that it is done from the usual gas works for
lighting purposes, to houses, manufactories, or other buildings or places
' where there are furnaces or fires, or to any furnaces or fires for which
fuel is required for firing, and in pipes or tubes to such furnaces or fires;
in the case of houses or buildings in pipes or tubes through such houses
or buildings to the fire-place or furnace, and allow, or cause, or have it
to flow or pass through pipes, or tubes, or orifices, or tuyeres, from the
pipes or tuyeres into the fire-place or furnace as low down when coke
is also. used in such fire-place or furnace as may be convenient, or as
nearly to the level of the fire-bars or lowest part of the fire as
convenient, so low that in combustion with the oxygen of the air it may
pass though the coke or part of the coke in the fire-place or furnace
and that heat from such combustion may be intercepted by such coke
and may be checked or prevented passing quickly away and heat the
coke for combustion, and so heating the coke is the more desirable in
the fire-places of houses so that the coke may burn, or burn in a
lively or comfortable manner.
. I recommend that on the pipe or tube or pipes or tubes being carried
to the fire-place or furnace, and into contiguity to outlet and the fire
that the jets, orifices, tuyeres, or openings be several or sufficiently small
and numerous, so that the gas on emission may mingle well with the air
to ensure or obtain more thorough combustion. I insert or have taps in
the pipes at any convenient points or places in the rooms of houses or
buildings, or at or contiguous to furnaces so as to regulate and stop or
open the supply of the gas.
In houses or buildings the pipe or tube may be carried in the same
way or manner that gas pipes for lighting are carried, that is neatly and
so as not to be in the way from the outside to the fire-place.
I recommend that the pipes or tubes be of iron, and it is needful at
or contiguous to the fire-place to have them of refractory material,
valves opening to the fire-place or furnace may be inserted or joined
into the pipes or tubes contiguously to the fire-place or furnace, to
prevent air passing into the gas pipes and causing explosive mixture;
but as the pressure on the gas holder when this is the pressure used
requires to be very light on account of the retorts, the valves would

page_text: require to be proportionately light so as not to check or hinder the
passage of gas to the fire, and where the fires are open if the orifices be
sufficiently numerous and small as above named, I do not think that they
would be deemed more requisite than as to gas lighting in houses or
buildings, in which anything of the kind is not generally used.
I recommend that the gas be well purified or similarly to what is
ordinarily done in gas lighting works, for the purpose of taking from it
sulphur or other impurity or extraneous substance, and checking or
preventing sulphurous acid or other noxious or injurious impurity. The
gas so conveyed into houses or buildings may also as adjunct be used
for ordinary lighting purposes in the ordinary way as well as for firing
or fuel.
The coke can be conveyed from the gas retorts or where it is manu-
factured or made to the houses, manufactories, or places where it is
required for firing in carts or other suitable carriages, or if tramways be
used in tip waggons or other convenient trucks or waggons, and then
used in fire-places, furnaces, or fires for fuel or heating purposes.
The coke may be used alone or the gas and coke may be used together,
or the gas may be used alone, as convenient, in the more elaborately
furnished or upper rooms of houses, for instance it may be sometimes
considered preferable to use the gas without the coke in the fire-places
as fuel to save labour or dirt.
The above named mode may be used, or partly used, and the pressure
for the gas may either be obtained by pumping as below named or by
pressure on the gas holder, or as at present in gas lighting works,
especially for houses or places previously built, to avoid alteration of
rooms or chambers or passages or where it may be thought or felt
especially as to gloomy rooms, that the sight of fire makes the room
more cheerful, or especially where there is sickness, to assist in removing
air containing impurities or infection, but I much prefor that the air
and gas should be principally or mostly pumped and supplied and used
for heating purposes in mode below named as being so much more
thoroughly effective, namely,-
I pump the gas required for fuel from where it is distilled, or
manufactured, or made, or the gas holder as above named, and also the
air required for combustion, and it will generally be more convenient
and more calculated to obtain equality of pressure to pump the air and

page_text: gas at the same place or by the same or connected blowing apparatus
by engines worked by steam or other sufficient power and pumps or
blowing cylinders, similarly to the blowing apparatus or apparatus used
for supplying or pumping air at iron smelting furnaces through pipes or
tubes, similarly as coal gas is carried or passed at present for lighting
purposes, made of iron or cast iron as ordinarily made, or of material of
sufficient strength to bear well pressure or usage and wear well to the
houses or buildings or manufactories or places, and thence by ordinary
elbow pipes or branches, and otherwise through pipes or tubes to and
from the pipes or tubes through the openings or orifices of or from
pipes or tubes or tuyeres to and into the stove or furnace or fire-place,
or where fire and heat are required, and there use the gas in combustion
with the air as fuel.
I recommend that the jets, orifices, tuyeres or openings from the
pipes or tubes of air and gas be sufficiently small and numerous, so that
the gas and air on entering or passing into the stove or furnace or fire-
place, may be well mingled to obtain more thorough combustion. I
pump the air and gas through the pipes or tubes and the tuyeres to such
pipes or tubes, or the orifices or outlets of such pipes or tubes as above
named into stoves or furnaces or fire-places, closed or not, having or
using open grates or fire-bars with open spaces for the supply of air,
and having the doors well and closely fitting, and they may be fitted
with screws or levers similarly to the doors of gas retorts, so as more
hermetically to close them and to prevent stithe or furnace gas coming
out into rooms or chambers or passages of houses or buildings, or
wherever it would be obnoxious or offensive, and where the coke is used
or partly used in such close stove, furnace, or fire-place the door can be
opened and the coke charged or put into the stove, furnace, or fire-place,
or the ashes drawn out, and these may be drawn out by means of a
loose tray or plate of sheet iron, or raked out or otherwise, as convenient,
and the door closed again.
Where the coke is used or partly used the air required for combustion
with it may be pumped in partly at a low level, so as to come well in
contact with the coke for burning it, but may be above the bottom
where the ash may mostly lodge, and below the top of the coke, so that
as well as for purposes of burning the coke lying above may inter-
cept or tend to prevent the ashes from the coke being blown into the
pipes, but in the close stove, furnace, or fire-place at the bottom there

page_text: may be a grate or fire-bars with open spaces for the ashes to fall through
into a chamber below, closed or with a door closed and opened when the
ashes require to be removed, similarly to the furnace door as above
named, or the door of the latter may be used for both divisions or com-
partments of the furnace; and the air or the remaining part of the air
for burning the coke may be pumped over the coke, or just above it, for
the purpose of burning combustibles or carbonic oxide yielded by the
burning of the coke or gas in the lower part of the stove, furnace, or
fire-place.
Where coal gas is used a portion of the air may also be pumped in
similarly to what is above named as to the coke at a higher level for the
purpose of burning carbonic oxide or other combustibles from the com-
bustion; in the lower part of the furnace there may be a double of such
close stove, furnace, or fire-place, or a second one or more so that when
coke is required to be charged into or the ashes withdrawn from the
stove, furnace, or fire-place the blasts of air and gas or blast of air may
be turned or shut off by a tap or taps placed adjacently to the furnace,
so that such charging or withdrawing may be with more comfort to the
stoker or person doing it, and lessen or tend to prevent emission of
stithe or furnace gases whilst the blast or blasts and fire and temperature
are being kept up in the auxiliary or other stove, besides the tap or
taps in the pipes or tubes of air and gas or of air used for so shutting off
the air and gas there may be a tap or taps in the pipe or tube or pipes
or tubes for the waste gases from the stove, furnace, or fire-place, and
contiguously to it, so that such tap may be shut when charging coke or
withdrawing ashes, as above named, to prevent the return of stithe or
furnace gas from the further pipes used for the waste gases; or valves
(ball valves are perhaps most to be recommended for reliability) may be
inserted in or joined into the furnace or waste gas pipes, such valves
opening from the furnace to prevent the return of stithe or furnace
gases, as above named. Besides such second or assistant close stove,
furnace, or fire-place for relief in charging coke or withdrawing ashes,
as is above named, I have an assistant or adjunctive close stove, furnace,
or fire-place, or a separate divided compartment of the principal stove,
furnace, or fire-place; and on the combustion of the air and gas or coke
instead of allowing the products or substances resulting from such com-
bustion to pass away at once in the waste pipes I pass them through
pipes or by other convenient opening, but I consider pipes preferable,

page_text: into such further or adjunctive furnace or separate compartment of the
furnace; and into this furnace or compartment of furnace I pump air in
a similar way to that named as to the principal furnace in sufficient
quantity to consume or further burn the carbonic oxide or other com-
bustibles contained in the said products or resulting substances of the
first or prior combustion, so as further to utilize and save the combustible
of the coal; or if such furnace for the furnace gases be not used the
latter may be passed away in the pipes for the waste gases, and used
in firing for the retorts or for other heating purposes, as herein-after
named.
I recommend that valves be inserted or joined into the pipes or tubes
of air and gas leading into the close stove, furnace, or fire-place, such
valves opening to the latter, and placed close or contiguously to the
latter so as to prevent passage of air into the gas pipes, or gas into the
air pipes, causing explosive mixture.
I also recommend that valves opening from the furnace be inserted or
joined into the pipe or pipes for the waste or furnace gases leading from
the furnace and contiguously to it, so as to check or prevent air passing
into such pipes, and tending to cause explosive mixture.
The stove, furnace, or fire-place may be placed in regard to habitations
or buildings, or where heat is required for personal warmth, or domes-
tically where it may be considered desirable, or in any convenient place
in them. As to houses it might be placed in the hall, passage, or
kitchen, and it may be either of, or covered with, baked or burnt fire-
clay material, or covered or outer lined with some slowly heat-conducting
material, so as to avoid or check too great heat locally, or in such
passage, hall, or kitchen, or where placed causing discomfort. In such
stove, furnace, or fire-place the coal gas may be used without the gas
coke, or the coke may be used without the gas, or gas and coke may be
both used together as fuel, but whichever way it is I recommend that
care be taken substantially to proportion the quantity of air forced in
which the quantity of coke or gas requires, or both require in or for
combustion. In superior dwelling houses, or hotels, or town halls, &c.,
it may be more convenient and less trouble to use the gas alone for the
stove, and the coke or surplus of coke appropriated to foundries, glass a
making, or other manufacturing purposes, or the steam boilers of steam
ships or manufactories.

page_text: I insert taps in the pipes of air and gas leading to the stove, furnace,
or fire-place, and near or contiguously to the latter, so as to regulate, or
open, or stop, or shut off the supply of air or gas, or air and gas, and
such taps may be marked so as to graduate them to proportion, or duly
proportion the supplies of air and gas; and I also insert or have taps in
such pipes at any convenient place in them, or wherever it may be
deemed requisite or convenient for the same or similar purpose, and also
in the furnace gas pipes wherever it may be requisite for regulation of
the furnace waste gases I recommend that the gas be well purified as
before named.
On the tap or main tap being turned so as to open the supply of
air and gas, or air if coke alone be used, and if so the requisite supply of
the latter, and the fire being duly lighted in the close stovo, furnace, or
fire-place I close the door as hermetically as possible, so as to prevent
stithe or furnace gases being emitted, as before named, and on com-
bustion, or as the combustion proceeds, I pass the products or resulting
substances of the combustion to a second compartment of the furnace,
or another or adjunctivo close furnace, as and in the mode before named
for combustion of the carbonic oxide or other combustibles contained in
the products of the said prior combustion, and thence, or if this latter
named or adjunctive furnace be not used, directly from the said close
stove, furnace, or fire-place, I convey through pipes or tubes opening
into and leading or passing from the furnace the products or resulting
substances with the resulting heat through the rooms or passages, or
where the heat is required in habitations, or buildings, or otherwise
where heat is required.
As to houses or buildings where the heat is required for warmth to
persons, such pipes or tubes leading immediately from the stove, furnace,
or fire-place may go or pass directly to the top and to the bottom of the
house or building, or whereever heat is intended to be, and from such
pipes or tubes I convey the said products or resulting substances of
combustion and the heat through elbow pipes, and in smaller elbow or
branch pipes, and pipes or tubes around the room or chamber, or
whereever the heat is required, so that the heat may evolve or pass out
in such room or chamber or placo where required, and thus be obtained
the requisite or sufficiently high temperature or requisite warmth. Taps
may be inserted, or joined into, or placed in the pipes or tubes at or
near to the entrance of them into the room or place, so as to open or

page_text: gases from a house or building, to which such places may be attached
or pertain, the pipes having the requisite regulating taps inserted in
them.
As to the interiors of large buildings, such as cathedrals, town halls,
hotel coffee rooms, factories, &c., having requisitely large stoves or
furnaces, and large heating pipes passing round them they may have, or
any room or place may have where considered desirable either pipes of
large size or double or treble or more rows of heating pipes of smaller
size passing round them.
In houses or buildings after the heat in the furnace gases is effectively
or sufficiently exhausted I convey such furnace gases in the pipes after
passing through and yielding the required heat in the rooms, chambers,
or passages either to out buildings as above named for further heating
purposes, or through pipes or tubes by convenient passages to the
outside or boundary of the premises into pipes or main pipes or tubes
for the waste or furnace gases for disposal and further utilization of heat
and fuel, as herein-after named.
The air and gas pumped as above named may be used for fuel either
in furnaces, stoves, or fire-places close or with confinement of the furnace
gases in pipes as above named, or as fuel in stoves, furnaces, or fire-
places open or with the waste or furnace gases not so confined, and also
adjunctively for lighting purposes, and pressures may be modified or
adjusted by duplicate and graduated taps or main taps or otherwise, and
if the gas be pumped and the air be supplied by open draught as it is
ordinarily, they may be used in open stoves, furnaces, or fire-places for
combustion and heat, and also adjunctively for lighting purposes.
As to houses, or shops, offices, or other buildings, where required or
desired for cooking or to make rooms or chambers more cheerful or light-
some, or for other purposes, when the air and gas are pumped into a close.
stove, furnace, or fire-place as above-named for fuel previously to the air
and gas being injected into the stove or furnace, or before the junction or
entry of the air and gas pipes with or into the stove or furnace a portion
of the gas and air, or of the gas, or of the air may be carried in pipes to
the fire-place of the kitchen, or of the chamber or place where required,
and pumped and used in it in combustion for heating purposes in open
fire or similarly to what is named before as to the gas when supplied by
pressure on the gasometer or holder.

page_text: The gas or gas and air may also be similarly diverted or conveyed
from the main pipes in a house, building, or place, in pipes or tubes and
adjunctively used in the building or place wherever desired for lighting
purposes.
Where the gas is or the gas and air are pumped as above-named for
combustion in houses, shops, offices, hotels, public buildings, &c., as fuel
for personal warmth or heating purposes, or also adjunctively for lighting
purposes, as above-named, I recommend that the pressure be not
unnecessarily heavy but kept at a fair medium. It will to some extent
depend on the size of the main pipes from the gas or air or gas and air
pumps, and on the extent of buildings or places for which the supply is
required, or other local relations; but it will require to be sufficient for
firing purposes and for propelling the air, or gas, or gas and air, to where
it or they are required; and for propelling waste or furnace gases where
close furnaces are used for further utilization in the retort fires, or
otherwise, as after named. And perhaps on the average pressure
of about one-quarter pound avoirdupois on the square inch at the
pumps may do; but I recommend it to be kept fully up to the require-
ment, or slightly in excess of it, so as not to cause inconvenience to the
public, as the pressure can be lessened in any building or place by
regulating taps, and by branches from principal ranges of pipes to
buildings or places with such taps or graduated taps, and by having
more sets than one of main pipes.
For public bakeries, brick making, lime burning, reverberatory
furnaces, boiler furnaces, or manufacturing fires, or other furnacos, the
pressure will I believe require to be higher, and I recommend that it be
kept at the pumps at the maximum pressure required in use, or of
general requirement as it can be bessened where too great by taps in
the pipes or regulating taps. The pressure will depend partly on size
of main pipes or other locales, but I think pressure of one to two pounds a
or thereabouts avoirdupois on the square inch at the pumps generally
may be adequate or adequate working pressure for the above-named
purposes.
I recommend that there be separate sets of pumps or pumping
apparatus and pipes for these latter named purposes, and for the former a
named purposes or for domestic purposes, so that pressures may be
worked conveniently and amply for manufacturing purposes, and not too
heavily for convenient private use.

page_text: I recommend that wherever heat is not required for heating purposes
to pass out from or externally at the pipes or tubes containing furnace
gases, or tho pipes or tubes, or the main pipes or tubes containing the
coal gas or air heated as herein-after named, they be covered with felt or
slowly heat-conducting material, or encased or enveloped in picces or
mouldings; and this may be by a piece or mould below the pipe encasing
half or a portion of the outer circumference, and a covering piece
encasing the remainder of the outside of the pipe and the upper and
under covers may be luted together of burnt clay or slowly heat-con-
ducting material, or with other convenient covering of slowly heat-
conducting material so that the heat may be retained as much as
possible in the pipes and economized for effective use, and not be
dissipated nor wasted.
As to cast-iron foundries the gas may be used in the cupola, or the
gas coke may be used; but I recommend if the latter, for superior
castings, that the coal gas purified be pumped and partly used as fuel
for melting the metal, and if the air required for combustion be supplied
by pumping as before-named when the cupola is required to be heated
and the metal is required to be melted, the blast of air or blasts of air
and gas may be opened by turning on the regulating tap or taps, and
the air or air, and gas supplied at sufficient pressure through pipes or
tubes and tuyeres, or orifices into the cupola for combustion for melting
the metal; and when the casting of metal is done or combustion is no
longer required the taps can be turned off and the supply ceased.
If the air be pumped as above-named the engine power driving the
fan and the fan can be dispensed with, and thus the expense of the
engine and fan and the labour and fuel saved.
As to steam boiler furnaces, or as to common or general bakeries I
recommend that the air or air and gas, when gas is used, be supplied by
pumping into a close furnace or furnace without open bars, and when
gas coke is charged that the furnace door be completely closed, as it will
be cooler for the baker or fireman whose work is so hot than to work
with open furnaces as at present, and the flues or pipes with the furnace
or waste gases from the combustion in the furnace can go round the
boiler or oven so as to supply part of the requisite heat to the boiler or
oven, and to save fuel where the coal gas is, or furnace gases are used
altogether for fuel, with air in the close furnace of the steam boiler or

page_text: bakery, it would tend to the relief of the baker or fireman from some of
his successively hot labour..
As to reverberatory furnaces the coal gas and air may be pumped in
pipes or tubes to the furnace, and through orifices of the pipe or tuycres
emerged and propelled jets of the gas and air, where they are required
in the furnace for combustion in metallurgical or other operation, and I
recommend that the orifices be as numerous as convenient so as moro
thoroughly to burn the gas; and I believe that the gas purified as before
named will be very superior fuel to the gases from the burning of raw
coal at present in use, and supplied in much more commandible and
effective mode. The blasts can be regulated or turned off or on by taps
in the pipes, and besides the saving of coal consumed in firing will
nearly save the hot labour and drudgery of firing.
As to the puddling of iron I have already made it the subject of a
Patent, and therefore do not include the puddling of iron in this Patent, 1
but I include in this Patent and apply it to or use it for any other
metal.
•
As to smelting metals from ores, the coal gas and air may be pumped
into the smelting furnace through pipes and tuyeres, or orifices of the
pipes in the part of the furnace where desired, and used in combination 2
or as fuel to smelt the ore; or gas coke may be used partly with the
gas, or the coke may be used altogether instead of gas and charged as
solid fuel is as at present, but generally I believe the use partly of gas
will be of great advantage, and be more effective in smelting.
As to iron smelting I have already made it the subject of a Patent, 2
and therefore do not include iron smelting in this Patent, but excepting
the smelting of iron I include in this Patent and apply it to or use it for
the smelting of any other metal. As to the melting or remelting of any
metal, I treat and use the fuel similarly to what is named above as to
the smelting of metals.
As to brass foundries the gas and air may be similarly pumped
through pipes and tuyeres, and used as fuel for making or melting brass,
or the gas coke may be used or partly used instead of gas, as fuel, and
charged as coke is at present.
As to maltings either the coal gas or gas coke may be used as fuel for 3
the heat required, and the air supplied as at present or pumped for the

page_text: combustion; and as to breweries for the copper or other furnace the fuel
and heat may be also so supplied.
For adjunctively the laboratories at smelting works or of analytical
chymists or others, or for plumbers or goldsmiths or others who require
or use the blow pipe in experiment, or art, or work, the air and gas
pumped as before-named through pipes or tubes to where they are
required, will be or constitute a most ready and powerful blow pipe, and
the blasts can be regulated or turned off or on by taps in the pipes.
For potteries, glass making, terra cotta works, soap boiling, sugar
boiling, distilleries, the soda manufacture or other manufactorics, or for
ventilating furnaces of coal or other mines, the coal gas and air may
be supplied by pumping through pipes or tubes in mode. previously
herein-before described, to and into the furnace wherever required or
convenient, and used as fuel for obtaining the requisito heat, and the
supply may be regulated or turned off or on by taps in the pipes; or
the gas coke can be used for fuel; or the coal gas and coke may be used
together for fuel.
In the manufacture of soda gas coke made from the finer or purer
varieties of coal, and ground or powdered, may be found to be well adapted
for mixing with the sulphate of soda and chalk or limestone in the ball
furnace for conversion into carbonate of soda.
1
As to the boiler furnaces of steam ships where or if convenient the
coal may be distilled on board, and the coal gas and coke similarly
supplied and used in the furnace for fuel; and some of the gas ad-
junctively may be appropriated if desired to lighting purposes.
As to brick or lime burning the kilns may be fired by the coal gas,
and air supplied through the pipes or by the coal gas, the air for com-
bustion being supplied by open draught as at present; or the waste or
furnace gases as herein-after named may be supplied through pipes and
used in the kilns where convenient or available for fuel instead of the
coal gas; or gas coke may be used for fuel.
In pumping or supplying the coal gas and air, or the gas or air
through pipes into a furnace, stove, or fire-place, I recommend that the
openings, orifices, jcts, or tuycres, from the pipesin to the furnace should
5 be as small and numerous as convenient, so that the gas and air or coke

page_text: and air may be well mingled or come well in contact with each other, so
as to obtain more thorough combustion.
Where or when convenient I recommend that the gas coke when
drawn from the retorts hot or red hot be not cooled with water, but be
conveyed at once in carts, trucks, or carriages made of iron, to the
furnace or fire-place where required for fuel, and immediately used so as
to obtain heat more rapidly in the furnace, and to economize heat and as
result fuel.
Where the coal gas is pumped for consumption as fuel as before-
named, and the pipes containing the gas pass through the waste or ]
furnace gas pipes as after named, I recommend that the coal gas on
leaving the retorts be cooled as little as may be, or the purifying and
storing in the holder (perhaps telescopic gas holders may be the most
suitable for this) allow so as to economize heat as far as this may apply.
Spigott and faucett or flanged pipes or tubes made of cast iron or other
material of sufficient strength or suitability, or malleable iron tubing
with screwed ends may be used to convey the coal gas, or furnace gases,
or air in main pipes through streets, where connections or branches are
frequent, flanged metal pipes may be best; in roads, where the pipcs
pass some distance without branches, perhaps spigott and faucett pipes a
may do, and will be cheaper.
In reference to the size of the coal gas pipes into houses for fuel, the
main pipes in or through a house of moderate dimensions (say eight or
ten rooms), say to close stove half of inch to one inch inside diameter,
and in the lower or main part of the house say ths of an inch to one,
and three quarters inches inside diameter to open fire, or adjunctively gas
lights with a little or slight diminution, if any, in diameter in the upper
may be adequate, and from one to two inches inside diameter for the
heated gases through the rooms, but it will greatly depend on the size of
a building and rooms, the pressure and the amount of heat required; and g
where gas is used without coke and the air is pumped, if so dependent
however on the specific weight and proportions of hydrogen and carbon,
five cubic feet of air be supplied to one of coal gas, when the latter is
pumped, if the gas pipe be two inches diameter it will require the
diameter of the air pipe to be about four and a half inches, if rather g
larger in diameter, the supplies can be regulated by the taps in the
pipes.

page_text: I recommend that the pipes of furnace gases when leaving the stove,
furnace, or fire-place be of extra size or have a receiver, so as to allow for
expansion in the heated gases resulting from combustion. A ton of
coke will require allowing part to be burnt into carbonic oxide, about
two tons of oxygen on about eight tons of air or about two hundred and
forty thousand cubic feet of the latter for combustion, and the air
required for combustion may be supplied through pipes by pumping or
through open grates as at present and as before named.
The sizes of pipes and proportions of air to gas or coke can readily be
determined in practice by the ordinary or usual laws and practical rules
of pressures and supply, duc allowance being made from the general for
local modifications or modifications in detail in applying such laws
or rules.
or
To further utilize or economize the heat emitted or evolved
disengaged in or by the combustion of coal with air, and also the
carbonic oxide or other combustibles contained in the products or
resulting substances of such combustion where the coal gas and air are
confined, and pumped through pipes or tubes into close stoves, furnaces,
or fire-places as before named, and used as fuel and the resulting
substances of combustion thence passed in pipes or tubes through or
round houses or buildings or places for heating purposes as before
named, after heating such houses, buildings or places I take or pass or
continue the pipes or tubes containing the waste or furnace gases to and
opening into pipes or tubes or main pipes, and through the latter take or
convey such furnace or wasto gases to the retort furnaces of the gas
works where the coal is being distilled or carbonized or coked, and at or
in such furnaces use or burn the carbonic oxide or other combustibles in
or contained in such waste or furnace gases with air for fuel to heat the
retorts to distil the coal, and also to the boiler furnaces of the blowing
or pumping engines for fuel for raising the steam required, the air may
be supplied either by open draught or by branch pipes from the air
pipes; the latter I prefer as it will enable the furnaces to be close or
without open grates and thus the furnace men to be kept cooler and
work with more comfort.
The initial propelling force of the furnace gases to the retort furnaces
being as is obvious the force or pressure supplied by the pumping or
blowing apparatus for the air and gas herein-before named, surplus of

page_text: the said furnace gases, or where preferred, any portion of them, may be
similarly conveyed to brick kilns, lime kilns, boiler furnaces, or other
places where desired, and used as fuel for inferior or common purposes.
If more than the surplus be taken for the latter instead of the coal gas
or gas coke, the latter would require to be used or partly used to heat 5
the retorts, but I prefer that only the surplus should be so used for other
furnaces than the retort furnaces, so that the heat remaining in the
furnace gases may be used for heating the air or air and gas, as herein-
after named.
I recommend that the main pipes for furnace gases be of full 1
and adequate size, so as to keep the pressures as low as desired, or at
command for convenience, and also that the openings, orifices, jets, or
tuyeres for the emerging of the furnace gases into the furnace, and also
for the air, if the air be pumped, be as numerous as convenient, so that
the air and furnace gases may be well mingled for the purpose of
obtaining more thorough combustion of the carbonic oxide or other
combustibles contained in such furnace gases.
Taps to regulate or open or close supply may be inserted or joined
into or placed in the pipes of furnace gases or air or furnace gases, and
air where requisite or convenient. Escape or safety valves will require !
to be connected with or joined into the main pipes for the waste furnace
gases, so as to allow the escape of the latter if the pipes be closed, or to
prevent undue pressure, or wherever there is hazard of undue pressure,
either in the pipes containing the furnace gases or those containing gas
or air.
I recommend that valves opening to the retort or other furnace where
the waste gases are burnt or consumed, as above named, be inserted in
the pipes contiguously to the furnace, so as to prevent air passing into
them and causing explosive mixture, and also similar valves in the air
pipes where the air required is pumped so as to prevent the furnace
gases passing into the air pipes, and causing explosive mixture.
I recommend that the pipes or main pipes containing the waste or
furnace gas be covered with felt, or be fixed or placed in moulds or
pieces before named of burnt clay or slowly heating conducting
material, so as to check, or prevent, or diminish the escape, or waste, or
useless evolution or emission of heat. I also pass, or carry, or convey
the pipes or tubes containing the air and coal gas, or air from the

page_text: pumping or blowing apparatus through the pipes, or tubes, or main
pipes containing the waste furnace gases to the places where the air and
gas are required for combustion, the furnace gases passing or moving
along in the inside of the furnace gas pipes, and on the outer side of the
air and coal gas pipes; and I recommend that the main pipes for the
furnace gases be sufficiently large to allow this to be done, or insertion
or involution of the air and gas pipes in them to be effectuated. On the
air and gas arriving at or contiguously to or reaching the houses,
buildings, or places where they are required for combustion, branches or
branch pipes from the air and gas pipes may pass through openings or
apertures in the sides of the furnace gas pipes, such openings being then
made perfectly tight, or as joints are made tight or close, so as to prevent
the emission of furnace gases, but I recommend that such branches from
main pipes be as few as possible, so as to avoid unnecessary complication
or extra expence as to the pipes or main pipes, as, for instance, where
gas and air are required for two or three adjoining houses, one set of
branches through the main of furnace gases may likely be found
practically sufficient, and have the pipes conveniently arranged and with
convenient joints or connexions, so that they may be easily taken out
for repair, or changed and replaced, or for branches and parallel pipes to
be laid and used when repair or alteration is required, so as to heat the
air and gas previously to being used as fuel, and utilize and use the heat
remaining in the furnace gases after, as before-named, the requisito heat
from the combustion of the fuel and air has been obtained in the house,
building, or place where required.
I recommend that the retorts be of the largest size and of the length
and shape that is found most suitable for practical, cheap, and effective
work in the dry distillation of coal; perhaps long retorts opening at
both ends may be found most suitable for this, and also that the retorts
be arranged in the setting as to level and otherwise, so that the coke may
be drawn conveniently out of tho retort and without unnecessary labour
to or stress on the drawer, and that as many retorts, say perhaps seven,
as can be conveniently and effectively heated by one furnace, be arranged
in one setting or to one flue where coke is used or partly used as fuel.
Where, however, the waste or furnace gases, as before named, are used
as fuel, this may not be so material as these gases, and the air may be
forced or pumped in wherever required or most effective for heating the
retorts without particular divisions as to settings, and it may answer for

page_text: the whole range of retorts to be worked without being partitioned into
settings, the flues being properly arranged to suit the setting of the
retort so as to duly direct to it or surround it with heat, and I recom-
mend that the retort furnaces be in distillation kept regularly up to the
temperature that is found most available in gas making for obtaining the
largest portion of the volatile combustible elements or constituents of
coal in a permanently or fixedly usual gaseous form, that is, not to have
more tar than can be avoided where it is not sufficiently profitable or
desired. To further economize heat, and also that it may be cooler for
the retort furnace men or workmen about the retorts, I also pass or carry
the pipes or tubes containing the coal gas and air, but more especially
the latter, as it is practically of more consequence to heat the air than
the gas, besides that the bulk and weight is so much more to be heated
in coils round the retort furnaces, the coils may pass round the end and
along the top or bottom round the end and along the bottom or top of
the furnace, and they may so pass either previously to entering or on or
after leaving the pumps of air and gas, but as to the gas I prefer, if so
heated, that it should pass round the retort furnaces after or on leaving
the pump instead of before entering the pump, so as not to store the gas
after being so heated in the holder, nor have the tendency by storing
after so heating to diminish the heat thus acquired to it, and I recom-
mend that the pipes of air or gas, or gas and air, when passing round or
along the retort furnaces, be well covered by pieces or mouldings of
burnt clay or brick or stone work for the retention of heat; and I heat
the air or gas, or air and gas thus, and also by passing them in pipes or
tubes as before named through the pipes of furnace gases for the purpose
of economizing heat and to avoid or diminish waste or loss of heat evolved
or emitted in the combustion or use for fuel of coal.
The air for the blast may be pumped from the atmosphere through
open ends to the air pipes, or similarly to the way it is donc or obtained
from the atmosphere at the blowing or pumping apparatus at iron
smelting works.
The coal tar obtained or made in the distillation of the coal may
either be sold or used for the usual purposes to which it is applied, or

page_text: or for boiler furnaces, that is, not in open furnaces nor perhaps in the
stoves of houses or habitations or superior public buildings.
Surplus air may adjunctively be used where convenient for being
pumped through pipes into mines for purposes of ventilation or supply-
ing the miners with air, but for this purpose it would be needful to be
supplied cold from the air pump or blowing apparatus, or may adjunc-
tively be used where the pressure is sufficient and the air sufficiently
heated for iron smelting, or in puddling iron, or for any other adjunctive
useful purpose.
Surplus coal gas may be used for any useful purpose, such as adjunc-
tively in iron smelting or puddling, or adjunctively for lights in street
lamps, or for lighting up mines (for pits the pressure which would be
derived from pumping the gas would be a facility), manufactories, &c.
The temperature of rooms or other places, where desired, can be
ascertained by thermometers hung or placed in them, and regulated by
the taps where the heat is supplied from pipes as before named.
For convenience and to avoid unnecessary outlay, and for retention or
saving of heat if the fuel or air be used heated, I recommend that
the gas or carbonizing works be placed as nearly as convenient to where
the fuel from them may be chiefly required for consumption, and also as
nearly to railway as convenient, and that sidings or branch railway may
be carried or extend to the gas works so that coals from the mines and
lime for purifying may be conveyed by railway to or into the gas works,
and where towns or manufactories are at some distance from railway or
public railway, these branches may adjunctively be utilized also for
conveyance of passengers, goods, or minerals, and the said coals may be
then allowed to fall at depôts (similarly to or as in depôts at railway
stations) into spaces below, ready for filling into tubs or carriages, or to
fall into coal store boxes with slides similarly to those at coking
collieries or coke oven establishments, the slide being drawn when the
tub is to be filled, and after the tub being so filled the slide being
redrawn or closed so as to save the manual labour of filling the tub by
shovel, and when so filled the tub moved on tramway to the retort
furnace or doors or mouths of retorts, and that such depôts or main
branch rail or tramway be carried sufficiently above the surface or
ground level of the gas works for the store or extent of store of coal
required, and the tramway for coals to the retorts about or at the ground

page_text: level of the gas works so as to lessen labour done by man power, or as
most convenient or locally convenient, and also where convenient or the
traffic is deemed sufficient or commensurate to the outlay that tramways
pass or be carried from the gas works along the roads or streets to where
the gas coke may be required for consumption as fuel, and the coke 5
conveyed in tip or other tubs, waggons, trucks, or carriages to or
contiguously to the houses, buildings, or other places where required,
and there tipped over or discharged from the truck or carriage, and
these tramways may perhaps also adjunctively be utilized for the
conveyance of merchandize or to some extent of passengers.
When the coke is being drawn from the retort it may be, to save
labour, at once raked into iron tubs, carts, or carriages, and if wanted
for immediate use to save heat conveyed away hot, or otherwise conveyed
away to the store or depôt, or heap of coke at the gas works.
1
I also recommend that wherever steam or engine power as to drawing 1
the retorts, working the purifiers, or otherwise, can be more cheaply
or advantageously practically used than hand labour at the gas works,
especially where the latter are on very large scale it be so.
Where deemed desirable the gas or carbonizing works and adjuncts
may be erected or constructed, and the distillation of the coal and the 2
supply of fuel undertaken or effectuated by the ratepayers, or parishes,
or townships, or corporations, where situate, and the fuel is required,
and the supply of gas or air, or gas and air may be assessed by the
rateable value of houses or buildings, and the number and size of rooms
or places to be heated, and as to manufactories, or others, by the 2
general average consumption, or by ascertaining the average con-
sumption, or by the size of the pipes of gas, or where pumped of gas
or air, or gas and air passing from the main supply pipes into or on to
the private premises, and the pressure or general pressure, or by any
practical mode, avoiding detail or complication (such as metres or the
measures now used as to gas lighting) as much as may be, as restriction
also to unnecessary or excessive nocturnal use, where the air is pumped,
the blast as to habitations or buildings or otherwise may if deemed
desirable or requisite be shut off or cease, say at 12 p.m. till 5 a.m.,
and if firing be required the supply be of the coal gas, or gas coke burnt
with open draught of air, or moderate fines on unfair consumption or
on excessive or unusual consumption, if not declared or paid for, may

page_text: be levied; or any practical mode of preventing use manifestly un-
reasonable or unfair to the other ratepayers or payers may be adopted,
so that it be not too finically or onerously done, and the adjunct
convenience of gas lighting, as before named, may also be included.
The gas coke may be paid for by weight or otherwise, as deemed fair
and convenient.
Wherever the air required for combustion is supplied and pumped
in pipes, it, or a portion of it, may be passed where convenient, or of
such heating value or benefit, or moment, to compensate the outlay in
pipes or tubes around steam cylinders, or any furnace or place from
which wasting or wasted heat is evolved or emerged, so as to economize
heat and keep rooms or places subjected to such heat cooler and more
healthy for the enginemen or workmen.
Where coke is burnt on a somewhat extended or large scale by open
distillation, in ovens, at colleries, or coke oven manufactories, the cost
of coke burning at the present rate of wages will be from fifteen
pence to eighteen pence per ton paid on the coko produced, this
including the conveyance of the coal in tubs from the shaft, or coal
boxes, or receivers, on rails along the range of ovens to the oven to
be loaded or charged, which is very hot and dirty labour, charging the
coal at the top or eye, levelling the coal in the oven, regulating the
air at the eye and doorway, cooling with water and drawing the coke
to the exterior of the oven, which drawing is very hot and heavy
labour, throwing the coke on to benches, the coke filling into and
setting in waggons or trucks, which is heavy manual labour, especially.
when the bench is low and the waggon or truck filled by grape
several feet high from the ground, filling up or clearing away the breeze
or refuse small coke from the oven doorways or front of ovens, and
superintendence, and where the coal is charged at the mouth or door,
about threepence per ton more for labour of charging on the coke made
or produced, and I believe that on a similarly somewhat extended or
large scale the cost on equal weights of coke produced or manufactured
for labour of coking by close distillation or in retorts will not be more
or much more than the cost by open distillation, or in coke ovens, or
that there is real labour to necessitate it being more or much more,
and supposing that the average produce of coke by close distillation in
retorts be nearly two-thirds of the weight of coal, coked or carbonized,

page_text: and that the work of conveying the coal from the store to the oven
may be rendered lighter and more comfortable than conveying the tubs
of coal, as above named, to the oven, that the levelling and drawing be
somewhat less heavy in labour, that the labour of regulating for air be
not required, and that the labour of relifting the coke on to quay or
bench and filling it into high trucks or waggons be replaced by much
lighter labour of raking, or filling, or charging the coke into tubs or
carriages, as before named, and after allowing for extra labour in
charging the coal at the mouth or doorway, I consider that the labour
for carbonizing or coking coal by close distillation or in retorts, where
it is done on somewhat large or extended scale, at present rates of wage
may be about one shilling to one shilling and threepence per ton
estimated on the coal carbonized, less or more, and allowing cighteen
pence per ton for attending to the purifiers, gas holders, tar discharge
or tar pumps, blowing engines, repairs of the pipes, and taps or
apparatus pertaining to the works, and superintendence, one shilling
per ton for maintainance or replace of the retorts, eighteen pence per
ton for maintainance or replace of engines or other apparatus, &c.,
and one shilling for other contingencies, I believe that the expense of
carbonizing a ton of coal may be thus on the average six shillings to
six shillings and sixpence per ton, and assuming that the produce from
the retort on the ton of coal on the average be of coke including the
ash twelve and a half to thirteen hundredweights, with about two
hundredweights of tar, and the heating value of the gas coke and tar
to be equal to about seventeen hundredweights of the coal as raw coal,
and that the average yield of coal gas be, say about nine thousand
⚫ cubic feet per ton of coal. If adjunctively a portion of the coal gas be
used, as before named, for lighting purposes the cost to the consumer
may probably be about a shilling or from one shilling to eighteen pence
per thousand cubic feet, I state this as being only adjunctively to this
patent; but I believe that the public benefit in this respect may be
very great, as to lime, where lime is used for purifying, I believe that
the ammonia yielded by the coal on distillation and the used lime are
of approximate value, or intrinsically of value for agricultural and other
purposes, to compensate for the lime or cost of the lime expended in:
purifying; I do not bind myself to this estimate but believe it practically
correct or approximately so, and that it will be found so.

page_text: quality of the coal formation of this country I believe consists or may
be judged in practice to consist in one hundred parts of about,-
78 carbon,
"
5 hydrogen,
6.25 oxygen,
1.25 nitrogen,
1.25 sulphur,
3.25 ash,
5 moisture or water.
100
and of the seventy-eight per cent. of carbon about sixty per cent. of
fixed carbon or coke, and about eighteen per cent. of volatile carbon,
which when combined with hydrogen forms hydrocarbons or liquid or
gaseous fuels.
Or as there is no waste, or there is minute waste in
treatment of coal by close distillation or in retorts, it may in other form
than the above be stated as the approximate practical result of treatment
of the coal by close or dry distillation, or in retorts for fuel, from the ton
of coal about of,—
The proportion of tar depends greatly on the temperature of dis-
tillation, and porhaps if found undesirable by the attention and
observation it may have attracted to it can or may be reduced; the tar
consists however of carbon and hydrogen combined, and is very valuable
fuel, and is also of value for other purposes. The ammonia also formed
from nitrogen and hydrogen is valuable, and coal also being of vegetable
origin the ash contains bases of the animal and vegetable organisms, and
when the carbon is thoroughly burned from it furnishes solid nutriment
or food for plants, and is therefore of value in agriculture. The
ammonia consists of about nine parts in weight of nitrogen, and or
combined with two parts in weight of hydrogen sulphuretted hydrogen,
consists of sulphur sixteen parts and hydrogen one part in weight.
Some of the sulphur of the coal in distillation combines with some of the

page_text: oxygen forming sulphurous and sulphuric acids, and some of the
nitrogen with some of the oxygen forming the nitrous oxide or nitric acid
or oxides of nitrogen. In distillation very little of the hydrogen (perhaps
one quarter to one-half per cent. or 25 to 5 in 100 parts), and also of the
carbon (perhaps 1 to 2 per cent.) are diverted by other chymical com-
binations than those for fuel from purposes of fuel or from the
constituents of fuel. Sulphuretted hydrogen and sulphurious acid aro
very deleterious to human or animal life, and it is very desirable to have
coal in form or previously prepared, so that it may be purified or partly
purified from these noxious gases in domestic or other use.
In the present treatment and use of coal as fuel a portion of the
carbon of the volatile combustible constituent or hydrocarbons of the
coal passes off unburnt as soot, the hydrogen only being burnt. A
portion passes off altogether unburnt as or in the form of hydrogen,
carburetted hydrogen, &c. A portion of the carbon volatile and solid
also passes off partially burned as carbonic oxide, and these unburnt or
partially burnt substances not only represent lost or wasted or partially
lost or wasted fuel, but they carry off with them, and thus waste heat.
I believe besides heat thus wasted in the use of raw coal as at present,
from twenty to twenty-five per cent. in weight of the coal, that is of the
volatile and solid fuel of the coal, is thus altogether lost, and taking the
heating value of hydrogen into account in proportion of heating value
it may be equal to twenty-five to thirty per cent., and when the coal is
coked for use in ovens or by open distillation I believe the average yield
after allowing for water absorbed in cooling and ash of coke from the
coal may not or does not exceed fifty per cent. In some cases from
sow kilns I suppose the yield to be not forty per cent., the rest of
the fuel of the coal being altogether and the heat evolved generally
altogether or wholly dissipated, wasted, or lost. There is also a large
portion, probably on the average fifteen to twenty per cent. of the fuel
consumed or used in heating the nitrogen of the air as it divides from
the oxygen mechanically mixed with it in the air when the oxygen
combines with the hydrogen or carbon or fuel. There is also an
enormous proportion of the heat evolved or emitted in the combustion of
coal with the oxygen of the air which passes away in the nitrogen smoke
or soot, carbonic oxide, carbonic acid, unburnt hydrogen, or carburetted
hydrogen or other products of or resulting substances from the combustion
of the coal with the oxygen of the air.

page_text: I believe that the treatment of coal by dry or close distillation, and
use of the coal gas and coke as fuel in open stoves, furnaces, or fire-
places, in manner herein-before named will, after allowing for the gas,
coke, or fuel requisite and judiciously and economically applied for
heating the retorts from the heating value of the coal gas and economy
of heat result in considerable saving of fuel, as well as prevent or
greatly diminish smoke, and sulphurous or other noxious fume or
vapour thrown off from the burning of coal, labor in lighting, and the
use of sticks or wood for lighting domestic or other fires, and tending
fires so far as keeping the fire in effective existence applies, and dirt and
smoke in the rooms of houses or habitations. And I believe that if the
gas and air be pumped from the retorts, or holder, or where stored in
pipes or tubes to where they are required for fuel and burnt in close
stoves, furnaces, or fire-places, and the heat from the furnace gases
evolved or emerged from the pipes where it is required, and the air and
gas be heated and the furnace gases further used for purposes of com-
bustion, in manner herein-before described, and this Invention be
thoroughly and fully and in all its bearances adopted and used after
allowing for furnace gases or a portion of the fuel to be required for
heating the coal being carbonized in the retorts and for raising steam
for the blowing engines as before named, the result may be saving of
about twenty-five per cont., or estimating the high heating value of the
hydrogen at present wasted, about thirty per cent. in heating value of
the weight of about eighty-five per cent. or thereabouts of the com-
bustible or fuel which the coal contains or on the coal now consumed,
that is, in this respect about two-thirds or thereabouts of the coal at
present consumed will be sufficient; but there is also the enormous loss
or waste of heat which occurs at present, and as incident necessarily
further of coal, and I believe in this respect that the result may be, if
the means stated herein for retention and utilization of lcat be judici-
ously, effectively, and thoroughly adopted and used, further saving of
thirty per cent. on the coal at present used, or may be more; that is, I
believe that one-third of the coal at present used or thereabouts will be
found adequate, and as corollary two-thirds saved. And further that the
work of heat will be done with more of ease, command, comfort, and
regularity of and command over tempertures. I do not bind myself to
the statistics or extents of saving of fuel named in this paragraph, but
I thoroughly believe in the correctness or approximate correctness of
them.

page_text: I believe further that the use of this Invention will diminish very
greatly the hard, dirty, and dangerous labor and drudgery of coal
mining, and free many men and boys now working in collieries for more
wholesome, lightsome, less laborious, more cleanly, and more intellectual
or other work, or give opportunity or leisure to more individuals for
the more educated, and consequently more refined and higher forms of
life.
And further I believe that the application and use of this process
or Invention as before-named for heat to vitality in vegetables and
horses, cows, beasts, fowls, or domestic or inferior animals will afford 1
facilities for supplying them abundantly with warmth or heat at suitable
and regulated temperatures, and tend to improvement in their health
and condition and the produce from them, and may also foster and
extend the growth of exotics, vineries, the breeding of exotic animals, or
animals needing warmth of temperature, artificial mushroom beds, 1
cucumbers, artificial hatching and rearing of poultry, and the produce
generally from heated houses or places, or forcing or hot-houses for
vegetable or zoological purposes.
And I believe that this Invention will afford facilities for regularity
of temperature in house or habitations and thus minister to the health a
and comfort of persons, especially as regards invalids or persons in
delicate health, and that it will tend to economize the coal beds or
strata of this country, and to render the supply of fucl abundant and
afford conveniences and facilities in use, and thus foster the staple manu-
factures or industries of the country, and be a boon to the poor, and to a
the poorer of the poor of this country, to whom, scantily fed and clothed,
cheap and abundant fuel, especially in inclement or wintry weather is so
essential to supply heat externally, and to the country generally.
When peat is intended to be used it may in like manner be
subjected to a process of dry or close distillation and the solid and com-
bustible gaseous products of the distillations used in the same way as
herein-before mentioned with respect to the coke and gas obtained by
the distillation of coal. So also wood or other fuel yielding upon
distillation both solid and gaseous combustible products economically
and in sufficient quantity may be subjected to dry or close distillation, a
and the solid and gaseous products used in like manner as herein-before
described

page_text: I claim, firstly, for the economization of or so as to economize or to
save waste in fuel, and for the prevention or diminution of or to prevent
or diminish smoke as herein-before named or expressed, the heating of
houses or other habitations or buildings or places, and the furnaces of
manufactories and furnaces (except iron smelting furnaces and furnaces
for puddling iron as herein-before named in reference to this Patent),
generally as herein-before named by means of fuel consisting of the gas
and coke obtained from coal, or as before named the gaseous and solid
parts of other fuel or raw fuel in manner herein-before described or
expressed, and the gaseous fuel being propelled by pressure from the
gas holder or by pumping or other convenient pressure and used as fuel
in open or close stoves, furnaces, or fire-places, as and done or performed
in manner herein-before named or described.
And I claim, secondly, for the economization or saving of, or so as to
economize or save fuel, or so as further to economize or save fuel, and to
prevent or diminish smoke or circulation of fumes from combustion, and
for the other considerations for or purposes of this Patent as herein-
before named bearing on this claim, the pumping or forcing of the
combustible gas obtained by dry or close distillation from coal or other
fuel, or raw fuel, as before named, from the retort or where it is produced,
or manufactured, or stored, and of the air of which the oxygen is
required for the combustion of the fuel, through pipes or tubes into
stoves, furnaces, or firc-places close, or without open grates or bars, as
herein-before named or described (except iron smelting or iron puddling
furnaces, as herein-before named in reference to this Patent) for fuel, or
combustion, or heating purposes, and thence of the furnace gases, or
products of or resulting substances from combustion, through pipes or
tubes to, or, and emerge, and use the heat resulting from such com-
bustion in or contained in such furnace gases, or products of or resulting,
substances from combustion for heating purposes, as herein-before named
or described; and of the said furnace gases or resulting substances from
or products of combustion through pipes or tubes to and into the retort
furnaces or other stoves, furnaces, or fire-places, so as to utilize and use
in combustion with oxygen of the air, or burn carbonic oxide or other
combustibles contained in or mixed with the above named products of
or resulting substances from combustion or furnace gases for heating pur-
poses, as before described; and the passing through, inserting, or evolving
the pipes containing the air or gas, or air and gas required for fuel or

page_text: combustion (but more especially those containing the air) in the pipes
or tubes containing the said furnace gases or products of or resulting
substances from combustion, as before described, to heat such air or gas,
or air and gas, and thus to utilize heat remaining in the said furnace
gases, and the passing or conveying of the pipes or tubes containing the
air or gas, or air and gas (but more especially those contained in the air)
required as fuel or in combustion round the retort furnaces to heat or assist
in heating the said air or gas required for combustion, and intercept and
utilize heat emerging from the retort furnaces, and render the retort,
furnace, room, or place cooler, and thus more comfortable for men in or
labouring at the retorts or retort furnaces, as before described; and this
may be also done in respect to other heated places where there is
sufficient waste heat, as before named, to compensate the outlay to
economize heat, and administer to the comfort and health of the work-
men engaged or at work in them.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Mickle, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Fifth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-threc.