CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN, APPARATUS FOR MAKING AND SUPPLYING COAL GAS FOR USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1828

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
WITTY, late of the Township of Hanley, in the County of Stafford, but now of
Basford, in the Parish of Wolstanton, in the said County, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Tenth day of June, in the ninth year of His reign, did, for Him-
self, His heirs and successors, give and graut unto me, the said Richard
Witty, His especial licence that I, the said Richard Witty, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard Witty, my
executors, administrators, or 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, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN, APPARATUS FOR MAKING AND SUPPLYING
COAL GAS FOR USEFUL PURPOSES," within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick upon Tweed; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Richard Witty, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
Invention aforesaid, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
my

page_text: and to cause the same to be enrolled in His 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
Richard Witty, 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 plans drawn in the margin of these Presents, and in the
following explanation thereof, that is to say:-
For making and supplying gas from coal for the useful purposes of heat, I
construct an open-ended retort, or it may be called a carbonizing shelf, under
one end of which I place a furnace, with its grate bars either horizontal or
vertical, but I prefer the latter, as herein described. Figure 1 is a longitudinal
section of my retort or carbonizing shelf, shewing also the furnace connected
with it. A, A, is the retort or carbonizing shelf made of cast or wrought iron,
making that part in the brickwork at I, I, of fire-brick or fire-tile where the heat
is too great for iron; B, one of the grate bars of the furnice curved, and placed
a little inclined from a vertical position; C, the furnace, having an opening
below the grate at O, to clear it of slag and dust when required; D, the back
of arched fire brickwork of the said furnace; E, the bridge of fire-brick where
the flame is conveyed under and round a common steam engine or other
boiler F, in the usual manner; G, a hopper made of cast or wrought iron,
placed upon the retort or carbonizing shelf, to feed the same with coal. At
the outer end of my retort or carbonizing shelf at H, I fit a screw and cross
bar similar to those used for the lids of retorts in gas works; this screw is
fitted into a moveable presser K, so as to move it forward or backward in the
retort or upon the carbonizing shelf, by which means the coals are pushed
forward at pleasure.
Operation of the furnace and retort or carbonizing shelf:-The screw and
cross bar at H, and the presser K, being removed, ignited coke is pushed
through the retort or over the carbonizing shelf into the furnace C, the
screw cross bar and presser being replaced; the retort or carbonizing shelf
A, A, is then filled with coal through the hopper G; the flame and heated
air which pass through the ignited coke are brought by the arched back
of the furnace into the inner end of the retort or upon the carbonizing shelf,
sweeping over the surface of the fresh coal laid therein or thereon, and by the
heat thus produced the coal gives out its gas, and is immediately inflamed by
the hot air and flame from the coke fire. An accumulation of flame is, of

page_text: course, the consequence, and the whole then passes under and round any
steam engine or other boiler F, through flues to a chimney in the usual
manner, and with but little smoke from the said chimney. And in order to
keep regularity in the effect of this combination of retort or carbonizing shelf
and furnace, I cause the coal in the said retort or shelf to be moved towards
the furnace by slow gradations. I find a few turns of the screw at H move
the presser K far enough at a time to advance the coal onward when required,
and the periods at which this operation should take place will be readily
observed by the person attending the fire when the coke has fallen below the
top of the grate bars. When the presser K is screwed as far as L, it must
be brought back again to admit fresh coal from the hopper G. It will be seen
by this arrangement of my apparatus that fresh coal is first carbonized,
that is, the gas is separated from it and inflamed, leaving only coke,
which, by being slowly pushed forward, supplies the coke fire, and the com-
bustion or burning of the coke produces heat enough to carbonize the
coal, and air enough to inflame the gas; consequently coal, instead of being
burned in its usual crude state, is subjected to two distinct processes,
namely, carbonization and then combustion; for, by my contrivance, I
burn the gas and the coke together.
Figure 2 is a front view of my furnace grate, also of my retort and
carbonizing shelf and hopper, supported by an iron frame N, N, N, to which
sheet-iron doors may be hung to prevent the heat of the furnace annoying
the person who attends the fire; the same letters referring to the same parts
as Figure 1, at least to those parts which can be seen in Figure 2.
be necessary to state that the sizes of my retort or carbonizing shelf and
furnace grate vary according to the sizes of grates used at present under
boilers, kilns, &c., where my apparatus may be found useful.
It may
My next improvement is made in retorts for making and supplying gas
for the purposes of light; this consists in the construction or form of the
retorts, that is to say, instead of making them cylindrical, oval, D shaped,
or any of the common forms now in use, I make the transverse section
thereof as shewn at Figure 3, which I call the V flued retort. Figure 4
is a perspective view of one of the retorts having a V flue its whole length,
except where it is stopped at the mouth-piece end by the flange at P ;
the annexed Drawings, Figures 3 and 4, the construction will appear very
obvious. These retorts are made of cast or wrought iron, of such dimensions as
may be required at different gas establishments; they are placed horizontally
in furnaces in the usual manner, only observing to lay them with the cut or
from

page_text: V part upwards. I make no other alteration in the common mouth-piece than
that its shape and flange must be made to fit the flange a, a, Figure 4. I find
this construction of retorts to make gas much faster and with much less fuel
than any other now in use.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this First
day of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and twenty-eight